The key to success on any online marketplace lies in two things: first, how well you are able to maximise your listings’ visibility on the marketplace, and second, how likely your prospects are to convert once they have discovered your products.
But here’s the thing: There are too many sellers while the average buyer hardly has the time or the patience to sift through all the listings to get the best bang for their buck.
The Amazon marketing platform can be challenging, but if you follow these simple strategies, you can outperform the competition. Here are 7 pieces of advice you need to follow!
1. Optimising Your Listings
Online marketplaces these days are incredibly dense. Amazon alone has more than 2.5 million sellers currently actively selling on the marketplace. A competition this high might intimidate you at first but cutting through these numbers can be really simple if you have correctly optimised your pages.
The very first step is to optimise your page for Amazon’s algorithm so that all the relevant user queries are directed to you. Make sure that your product title and information include all keywords that could be relevant to your product. Secondly, make sure that your page is optimised for access through multiple devices such as iPads or smartphones.
While titles communicate what you are selling, most buyers want to see what they are paying for before they actually do so. For this purpose, add high-quality and authentic pictures of your product on the page. Cover it from different angles and show it being used by real humans. These steps will automatically increase the traffic you’re attracting to your listings.
2. Amazon Marketing: Paid Promotions
Once you’re done optimising your product for organic traffic, the next step is to put some money into paid promotions and run advertising campaigns. These campaigns could be both on the platform or off the platform. Running ads within the platform is, however, recommended since the audience pool here is limited to only the relevant people.
Marketplaces such as Amazon offer different types of ads that you could use to advertise your products. Amazon ads allow you to select from product display ads, headline ads, and sponsored product ads. All these ads differ in the way they are displayed to the users; however, all of them are equally effective in boosting audience reach. These ads are similar to Google Ads in a way that you only have to pay for them once a user clicks on them, so don’t hesitate to invest here since it is definitely going to get you returns.
Lastly, it is always highly recommended that you find a trusted agency or an individual to tailor the advertising strategy and monitor your efforts. As much as the setup may seem easy at first, you will most likely end up paying much more if you are not a specialist.
3. Up-to-Date Information
If a user finally makes it to your product page, chances are they are on the verge of making a purchase. At this point, make sure your product description answers all the questions they might have about your product and at the same time invites them to purchase.
Address all the features and benefits of your product through the use of bullet points and expand on the unique selling point that sets you apart from your competitors. Split into paragraphs where possible and make use of Bold and Italic fonts to improve the readability. A robust and up-to-date product description can boost your conversions and pull your bounce rates down.
Be prepared that your competition will be present on your listing, either through the paid slots, or through Amazon’s similar items lists. This is why it is crucial to “occupy” as much space as possible and serve all relevant information before the first scroll.
4. Email Marketing Campaigns
Personalised emails to your old customers and new prospects can do wonders for your marketplace. For this, you’ll need to build a subscriber list through forms on your website, emails from previous invoices, or your social media pages.
The next step is to send out regular emails about any sales promotions you’re running, new products you’ve launched, or any exclusive coupons you want to give. Email marketing also has a vital role in remarketing, where it could get your previous customers who once bought from you to buy again.
Make sure to build a relationship and brand loyalty in any Amazon-approved way. Focusing on the lifetime value of an individual buyer is much cheaper and effective than spending all resources to only attract new leads.
Secrets to Making it Big on Amazon
Amazon has come a long way from its humble beginnings as an online bookstore back in 1994. In 2018 alone, the e-commerce giant generated over US$232.9 billion in revenue (CNBC.com).
Amazon Marketing
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Understand all the practical details needed before even getting on with Amazon Marketing.
5. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is essential for succeeding as an online marketplace due to two main reasons; the amount of traffic on social media, and the level of analytics it offers. With a coordinated social media marketing strategy, you can improve your brand awareness and drive even more traffic to your listings.
Create both promotional and instructional content and link it to your marketplace’s page. Also, interact with your customers by responding to their queries through private messages or comments. You could also provide exclusive discounts for your social media followers.
6. Amazon Marketing: Competitor Analysis
A significant part of marketing on a marketplace is about staying ahead of your competitors. Keep a close eye on three major aspects of your competitors’ listings: prices, content, and images. These three things play a crucial role in making the first impression of your product in the mind of the users and then converting them once they have landed on your page.
If you are weaker than your competitors on either of these three aspects, they are easily going to switch. Also, make sure you keep highlighting your unique selling points so that your customers have a clear understanding of where you stand against other sellers.
7. Review Management
Although marketplaces like Amazon (read more on Amazon Marketing) place immense values on reviews in ranking products on its search pages, they are much more than a mere ranking factor. One bad review can make the buyers remove your product from their cart and shift to another seller. Thus, you need to have a proper review management strategy in place.
Encourage user reviews whenever they make a purchase and once they leave a review, never forget to respond to it. Responding to reviews not only clears any concerns customers have about your products but also add to the ‘human’ image of your brand. Your customers realise that your brand is way more than just a name and a couple of products, and it values its customers’ concerns.
Marketing on an online marketplace is way different from conventional digital marketing, and if you’re not doing it right, your competitors are going to eat you alive. Once you get the basics right, do not hesitate to experiment and try new things out. The more you test your strategies, the more likely you are to succeed.