Guest Post by: Emma Schermer Tamir, Founder of Marketing by Emma
You’ve strategically chosen your product, sourced it, and gotten everything ready to start selling. But what do you need to do to make sure it doesn’t just sit there in an Amazon warehouse collecting dust and incurring storage fees? No matter how much care, effort, time, and money you’ve invested into your product development and prep, none of that matters if you’re not getting in front of and exciting your dream customers.
Serious sellers know succeeding on Amazon requires more than wishful thinking or simply finding the “perfect” product. Instead, they focus on four powerful points that send their sales soaring past the competition.
1. Robust Keyword Research
It’s hard to sell anything if no one knows where to find you. Keywords are the link that connects a customer’s desire with your product. Customers feel a need that’s generated by a problem they have, and they type their search terms into Amazon to initiate a search to solve that problem. So a properly optimized Amazon listing is what will either lead you to credit-card-in-hand shoppers or buried on page 100.
And an effectively optimized listing starts with properly executed keyword research. It can be tempting to run a couple of top competitors through a reverse ASIN search on your favorite keyword research tool, take the top 30 phrases based on search volume, and call it a day. Smart sellers know that this is just the beginning, since sloppy keyword research not only exposes you to risks, but it also passes up significant competitive advantages.
As you conduct your keyword research, be sure to do the following:
Diversify your tool kit. Don’t put all your eggs in one tool’s basket. Compile more data, compare your results, and minimize your exposure to bugs and faulty software.
Dig into the research. Consider things like relevancy, misspellings, competitor brand names, and level of competition as you sort through and select your star search terms.
Rinse and repeat. A strong keyword strategy is one that regularly reviews the data, keeping an eye out for new opportunities, changing search trends, and more.
2. Emotionally Intelligent Keyword Integration
Resist the urge to keyword stuff. Amazon’s A9 algorithm doesn’t just automatically favor listings that use the most keywords. It’s a sophisticated system of equations meant to match potential buyers with the product most likely to make the sale. If people aren’t purchasing, no amount of keyword stuffing will satisfy Amazon’s appetite.
The right keywords enhance your chances of being found. How you use those keywords impacts your chances of making a sale AND how you’ll rank in the future. And all of that comes down to whether you’re thinking about the human on the other side of the screen. If they’re not convinced your product is the one for them, no amount of keywords will make them think otherwise.
While it’s important to incorporate keywords into your listing, they shouldn’t detract from your copy’s ability to do its job: Convert. As you consider the keywords to use and where to put them, be sure to keep the customer in mind. Do the keywords read naturally? Or are they distracting? Do they work to enhance the customer’s understanding of the product, or convolute it?
Remember, the listing the customer sees isn’t the only real estate you have to integrate keywords. If a phrase seems awkward, out of place, or forces you to make big grammatical or spelling errors, put it in the back end. Integrating keywords seamlessly takes more of a sophisticated effort than it may appear, but when done well, it makes all the difference.
3. Picture Power-Up
Every part of your listing should help facilitate a sale. And compelling images are one of the most important factors that customers consider when looking at your product page. However, many sellers are passing up a golden opportunity to make their images even stronger sales tools. Picture quality, angle, and content all have impact. But integrating text turns pristine photos into powerful sales machines. Here are some of the ways incorporating text into your photos can positively impact your bottom line:
Amplifies excitement.
Reiterates key points.
Connects with visual shoppers.
Conveys important product features and details.
Build trusts through reviews given, certifications held, and more.
Emphasizes key benefits.
Ensures you control the message—not your customers.
4. Conversion-Spiking Copy
Many sellers incorrectly assume that visual content such as photos and videos are enough for a customer to make a purchasing decision. Others assume that visual content is all a customer cares about when shopping. In reality, the written content of a listing – from the title, feature bullets, to the description – can decide whether a customer stays and learns more about your product or swiftly exits out of your listing! Similarly, error-free and crystal clear copy can encourage even the most skeptical customers to click “Add to Cart”.
EBC / A+ Content descriptions are particularly great opportunities to capitalize (literally!) off of textually compelling selling. By combining iconography, media, and enthralling text, these upgrades can make a huge difference in conversion rates – possibly by more than 400%!
Thoughtful listing copy can do more than generate immediate sales, it can also build brand awareness and create repeat customers for your business. Rather than traditional gimmicks and grabs that only turn customers off, sophisticated copy generates excitement for your product and your business.
As you create the copy for your listing (packaging, website, or any other marketing writing!), be sure to:
Make every word count. Is there a shorter way to say it? Can you be more direct? Attention spans are short, so don’t give people a chance to let their minds wander…or they just might wander to your competitor’s page!
Cater to your customers. You’re great, but customers care about themselves way more than they care about you or your brand. Rather than beating people over the head about how innovative you are, put your customers at the center.
Benefits, benefits, benefits! People purchase products to solve problems. Help your customers understand how you solve those problems, and purchasing your product becomes the obvious next step.
Perfect it. Errors impact your perceived trustworthiness, reliability, and care. Lack of attention to detail isn’t a good look for any listing.
Following these four steps can boost your conversions, but that’s just the beginning. From capturing more of the traffic you generate to lowering your return rates, putting these principles to work can have a serious impact on your bottom line. Whether you’re preparing to launch your first product or looking to optimize your fiftieth, now’s the time to secure your competitive edge.
Want to know whether your listing checks all four boxes? Get a FREE listing analysis from the Emmazon Team at Marketing by Emma!
About the Author
Emma Schermer Tamir transforms her insatiable curiosity into conversion-spiking copy. As co-founder of Marketing by Emma (www.marketingbyemma.com), she’s helped over 700 businesses from around the world boost their sales and build their brands. Create conversion-spiking Amazon listings and website copy that will excite your dream clients and make them click "Add to Cart" with the Emmazon team!
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