You’ve been on Amazon for a few years building your brand and selling your products. You’ve gotten established and have some regular numbers coming in each month. However, something on there isn’t working the way you’d expect, and you can’t seem to get your numbers to rise.
Selling on Amazon is an entirely different game from selling on your website. You have to be aware of how the Amazon ecosystem works if you have any hope of succeeding.
There are dozens of things you can do to improve your presence, and your selling performance, on Amazon. Here are the top 5 that will give you the most return for your efforts.
Treat Amazon Differently From Your Website
If you treat Amazon the same as your website, don’t expect to see the same results. The Amazon ecosystem differs drastically from that of your website. Perhaps the most significant difference is that people that come to your site are there to support you and view what you have to offer. People on Amazon are there to do some research but ultimately they are there to buy. Brand loyalty isn’t that important. They’re going to go with the best available product at the right price.
On Amazon, you have to worry about competition and outperforming other brands to get people to buy your products. That means an intrinsically different approach than getting traffic to your website. People are already coming to Amazon. Now you have to figure out how to get them interested in what you have to offer.
Amazon policies determine how you can sell products on their marketplace. There are things you can do on your website that aren’t allowed on Amazon and those things may even get you suspended.
For instance, you’re not allowed to direct traffic away from Amazon. Your business name can’t be misleading, and marketing emails to the platform’s customer base are strictly prohibited. That means you can’t have an email list. Many of these regulations are to prevent you from taking traffic away from Amazon. They’ve put significant effort into building up their customer base, and they want to maintain the high level of loyalty that they have built with customers.
Think of Amazon as the Customer
When selling a product, it’s easy to think of the person buying that product as your customer. However, on Amazon, things are a little different.
Amazon has set up its platform in such a way that you need to cater to them to sell successfully. After all, it’s their algorithms that will get your product found by people who want to buy it.
Here’s a rundown as to exactly why you need to treat Amazon as your customer. They’re the ones that have a significant market presence. People aren’t coming to the platform to look for you. They’re there because they know they can quickly get quality products, at a good price, and that Amazon will protect them if something goes wrong with the purchase.
When a customer goes online to purchase something, they often don’t even know what company they’re patronizing. All they know is they got it on Amazon. That’s because Amazon has spent over 20 years building up this powerful platform that helps brands like you sell their products. Amazon is representing your product to the customer.
Finally, if Amazon determines you are violating their policies, they have every right to remove your product or even your entire storefront.
Because of these things, Amazon is your customer. Amazon is bringing people to you to help you make sales, so you have to make sure you’re making them happy.
Use Buyer Intent Keywords
Instead of just putting in the keywords you think your customers are searching for, you’ll want to take advantage of buyer intent keywords.
Buyer intent keywords are the phrases people are typing into the Amazon search bar when they’re looking to buy products.
You can think of the buying process as a funnel. At the top, the potential buyer has an awareness of their issue. For example, let’s consider someone who’s looking for a wrist brace. They might type in something like “wrist pain when writing” into Google. The results can lead them to the conclusion that a brace can help them mitigate some of that pain after doing some research. So they head over to Amazon and type in “wrist brace for pain” or “wrist brace for carpal tunnel.”
Then they’ll look at specific wrist braces and narrow it down to a couple of options. From those options, they’ll decide to purchase.
While there are plenty of software options on the market for keyword discovery on Amazon, the easiest way is to type root keyword phrases into the Amazon search bar and see what auto-complete suggestions Amazon recommends. You then need to use those keywords in your title, bullets and product description so that your product appears to buyers for that search term.
A couple of other ways to do this include generating keywords within your industry and doing some testing to see which ones perform well. You can also capitalize on competitor keywords and try to outrank them. You don’t have to restrict your descriptions to a single keyword. Using as many keywords as organically fit within the title, bullets and description is an excellent way to ensure you are writing for both the search algorithm and the customers purchasing your products.
Repurpose Existing Content for Alternate Images
Using all of the available image carousel spots on the Amazon page helps potential customers see your items from various angles. It’s also a great place to detail the features and benefits of your product through infographics.
However, you don’t have to go to extra effort to create alternate images. If you already have good photos of your products, consider using these for your alternate images.
Creating infographics that explain different aspects of your products will help your customers understand additional characteristics of what you’re selling and how it can help them with the problem they’re searching to solve. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you need to create new content.
Advertising on Amazon Is a Must for Success
It’s not enough to put your products on Amazon and then hope someone finds them. You need to rely on advertising within Amazon for customers to discover you. However, Amazon advertising works differently than it does on other platforms.
It’s a self-contained ecosystem with algorithms tailored to consumer behavior. There are several avenues to take advantage of, and each of them will help boost your visibility.
Advertising options include Sponsored Product ads, and Sponsored Brands ads. Having relevant product pages and keyword rich content will help you rank well in searches related to your products.
Amazon advertising is a massive investment on its own. We’ll be running several blog posts on this topic, so make sure you check back for more information on how to best take advantage of it at a later date. Sponsored products, optimizing the buy-box, and indexing keywords are all helpful ways for you to get more customers.
Boosting your brands’ success on Amazon can help you take your product game to the next level. Focusing on the aspects of the platform that will bring you the most return will help you take your brand’s presence to the next level.
