To thrive in today’s eCommerce environment, many merchants find that it is a necessity to leverage omnichannel retail efforts. For this reason, swaths of merchants utilize Amazon’s gargantuan platform to increase sales.
However, merely being present on Amazon isn’t enough. To succeed, sellers must devise and implement an effective Amazon marketing strategy to cut through the innumerable competitors.
In many ways, Amazon is like the Google of consumer merchandise. Not only do 49 percent of all product searches begin on Amazon, but the company even has its own PPC advertising service called Amazon Marketing Services (AMS).
While the company has introduced AMS to its millions of sellers, retailers are required to go well-beyond mere PPC adverts if they wish to flourish within the marketplace.
If your brand is ready to craft or revamp its Amazon marketing strategy to maximize conversion rates, here is how you can craft a killer approach to leading your niche on Amazon.
Conduct Competitive Analysis
The first step to dominating your competition on Amazon is figuring out exactly what they are up to in the marketplace. Start by establishing how many of them (and who) have a strong presence. Which brands are currently sitting at the top for your product categories? Moreover, take the time to find out if they are utilizing AMS in their Amazon marketing strategies. If you see a product display, headline, or sponsored product adverts for their items, they are assuredly leveraging the platform’s PPC services.
However, those intent on securing the top spot should go beyond reading product reviews and headline optimization tactics. Establishing the quality of your competition’s product is imperative. By getting your hands on your rival’s merchandise, you can potentially find flaws, opportunities to improve your products or ways to highlight your item’s superiority.
Some other elements that retailers will want to take note of include the product’s presentation, packaging, any potential accessories included with the merchandise and other factors that could stand to set them apart from the competition.
With your competitor’s tactics and products adequately assessed, it’s time to start assembling your own Amazon marketing strategy.
Manage Keyword Research
The next step is to conduct keyword research to gain an understanding of which terms and phrases your competition is utilizing, which keywords customers are searching and identifying which are the most impactful for Amazon SEO.
For the uninitiated, keyword optimization is a significant factor in ruling the Amazon SERPs, much in the same way that it can impact Google results.
To begin, start by performing regular searches on Amazon to get an idea of which words you should be watching. After this, however, you will need to employ some tools to add a dimension of depth to your strategy. Given that the Keyword Tool has an Amazon-focused feature, it can be an excellent choice for getting started.
However, when conducting research, don’t merely target primary keywords. You should identify tangential terms and phrases to integrate into your product listings.
In addition to Keyword Tool, merchants can also leverage Google’s free Keyword Planner but since Google and Amazon data don’t always match up, it might be wise to utilize a platform like Merchant Words as this tool can pull Amazon-specific data.
The goal here is to compile a library of keywords and phrases (long-tail keywords are also beneficial) that will be helpful to utilize in your product listings.
With keywords in hand, start applying them to your products. Higher priority keywords should be added to product titles (as close to the beginning as possible) while lower priority phrases can integrate into product descriptions and keyword fields in the product details section.
Establish a Pricing Strategy
When establishing an Amazon marketing strategy, product pricing is one of the most influential determinants on search rankings and the ability to increase sales on the platform.
It is important to note that while having the lowest price can be a major factor in earning clicks on Amazon, it is not the only ingredient to sales success. The goal on Amazon is to own the “Buy Box” – this is the little yellow “Add to Cart” button on product pages. Holding this box is critical because between 70 and 82 percent of all Amazon sales occur through the Buy Box. This means that roughly $146 billion of Amazon’s $178 billion in sales revenue moves through this portal.
To price accordingly, many retailers have opted for third-party dynamic pricing tools to manage their prices across the various marketplaces. However, if you are only selling through Amazon, you will be fine using the “Automate Pricing” feature provided through Seller Central.
When aiming to take control of the Buy Box, there are a few strategies to consider:
Each of these strategies can help you to earn the Buy Box (or potentially get awarded it automatically in the case of product bundles), so they are certainly worthy of further exploration.
Employ Autoresponders to Obtain Reviews
Reviews are essential for owning the Buy Box and earning sales. For that reason, the use of autoresponders like Feedback Genius can be an incredibly powerful addition to a retailer’s Amazon marketing strategy.
With tools such as this, merchants can automate their review request process, thereby drastically increasing the number of product appraisals obtained. However, many merchants don’t understand the best practices for dealing with negative reviews and shy away from asking entirely.
In this instance, you can start by asking for seller rating reviews. Simply automate an email campaign asking customers if they would leave a seller review.
After compiling a fair number of seller reviews (assuming most are positive), manually email customers who left a positive review asking if they would kindly leave a product review as well.
This tactic dramatically enhances a seller’s chance of obtaining positive product reviews.
Learning to craft an epic Amazon marketing strategy is essential in today’s omnichannel eCommerce environment. Utilize these tips to establish your marketing foundation within the marketplace, and you are likely to increase your sales on Amazon in a meaningful way.
