With the launch of Handmade at Amazon this week, we figured it’s high time we shared some insider strategies and tactics on what it takes to generate a 5-6 figure monthly income with the world’s most popular online retailer. In this exclusive 2 part series from soulpepper, our resident CRO expert Beash Kanaan, gives you his best tips, tricks and tools for building a seriously profitable business on Amazon.
HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN ON AMAZON
LISTING OPTIMIZATION
1) This should be obvious, but make sure you utilize appropriate Keywords & Phrases throughout copy to increase search results.
2) Always include multiple images. Your main image should be completely different than your competitor listings while your other images should be informative, fun, varied, etc. This is probably the most overlooked tactic yet it is second only to reviews. Images are extremely important to Amazon, and it is the only place where you can insert anything you want. So get on it!
3) Include an FAQ or sorts. You need to have customer asked questions and good solid answers.
4) Always reply to reviews whenever possible. Especially the mediocre or bad ones.
5) Make use of all spaces in full – ie: Above the fold description and bullets, product description and details, and titles, (which are often overlooked and typically only used for product names).
MARKETING CAMPAIGNS
Review Campaigns
This is the main deciding factor for customers. Enlist review groups and services to initially get a high volume of reviews and provide an 80-90% discount for guaranteed reviews. If your product does not have a large number of reviews, you need to run large campaign in the beginning, then consider running a much smaller review campaign every 2-3 months after that, just to generate some new reviews. Continue this strategy only if there are not many good reviews being left organically.
Sales Campaigns
Use your current social following and email list to broadcast a 50% discount. This will be done on a sliding scale, with a higher number in the first day or two to shoot up the listing, then a smaller amount each following day to complement organic sales to maintain higher ranking. Run a large one initially for the first month. Then use a smaller monthly campaign to kick start organic sales.
Amazon Ads
This is a great way to generate sales, but ONLY after generating a good amount of 4-5 star reviews. The ads are cheap and Amazon conversion rates are HUGE if your listing is well optimized and the (proper) reviews are there.
OTHER IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS
Pricing Strategies
When pricing, make sure your regular listing price is 30% to 50% (or even 100%) higher, but always appears on sale, marked down to the real price. This leaves room to maneuver for several reasons, and it’s easier to change the price when needed. At Christmas, people tend to pay more, which you can use to your advantage in more ways than one. For example, Amazon takes a dim view of sellers taking orders that they have to cancel due to stock issues. In fact, Amazon will slap you with a penalty if you run out of stock. If you have the “good” problem of not being able to replenish stock in time (because you are selling in such large volumes), you can quickly decrease or eliminate the discount, which will increase the price and likely slow down sales.
Maintain your account
Make sure your seller rank stays high. This is paramount. The good news is if your orders are being fulfilled by Amazon, then you don’t have to worry about shipping or customer support backlash. That being said, make sure your replies to customers are prompt, always within 1 day. Amazon tracks seller response times and will penalize you if you’re tardy. Quickly resolve any issues with customers and cheerfully issue refunds when necessary. On the other hand, if a bad review is left, but is not relevant to the product (which happens frequently) then you can contact Amazon to review and remove the post.
Check back next week when I share the exact tools I use for clients. Not only will they make your life easier, they are an absolute necessity if you are serious about implementing campaigns and generating large monthly revenues.
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Written by Bachar (Beash) Kanaan
soulpepper is a digital marketing agency on a mission. We help companies that are up to something good, increase leads, attract more customers and drive more dollars to their bottom line. Check out our newsletter for more great ideas on how to build your ecommerce empire.
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