Your 2020 Amazon Marketing Roadmap

Did you know that Amazon now has an audience of 310 million, and growing? By fine-tuning your Amazon marketing strategy for 2020, you can make your products stand out and resonate with customers. Today, we discuss five simple steps to achieve this.

A whopping 1,120,901 new sellers Opens a new window joined Amazon’s e-commerce marketplace in 2019! If you’re not one of them, you’re probably wondering how to get started with an Amazon marketing strategy.

There is an increased focus on Amazon advertising as it has become a real staple in the seller journey. Sellers are spending a lot of time in Amazon advertising courses to become experts, causing a major increase in the adoption of Amazon advertising tools. Sellers are increasingly using resources outside of Amazon to help drive traffic, sales, reviews and SEO for their products.

 ~ Casey Gauss, CEO, Viral Launch, exclusively to MarTech Advisor

The platform now has nearly 3 million sellers across the globe, trying to market thousands of (often similar) products, making it difficult to stand out. You need to know the workings of Amazon marketing to succeed in this competitive landscape.

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Here is a quick guide to getting started with Amazon marketing in 2020.

5 Steps to Killing It on Amazon in the New Year

In 2020 there will be an increase in transparency in response to consumers who want to be able to make informed decisions on who they’re buying from. Amazon advertising will also increase in popularity. Brands will also be focused on growing their own e-commerce channel outside of Amazon. As technology continues to improve, sellers are becoming more and more willing to branch out and increase sales beyond the Marketplace.

 ~ Casey Gauss, CEO, Viral Launch, exclusively to MarTech Advisor

You begin by signing up as a seller on Amazon, and listing your entire catalog of products – then what?

When it comes to Amazon, the wait and watch approach rarely works. Without a careful strategy, the chances are that your buyers won’t be able to find your product, even if it’s an exact fit for their needs. That’s because Amazon isn’t just an e-commerce marketplace – it also works as a search engine with its own rules for product visibility and marketing.

An eMarketer report Opens a new window found that Amazon is stealing Google’s share in search traffic (at least in the US) with its search business growing by 30% this year. While Google remains miles ahead of Amazon, the e-commerce giant seems to be catching up, with its search share in the US estimated to grow from 13% to 16% by 2021. Meanwhile, Google’s share is projected to shrink from 73% to 70.5%.

If you get your Amazon marketing strategy right, you could access a global audience of 310 millionOpens a new window , all of whom are extremely high-intent buyers. Here are some steps to ensure that your products reach this audience, make an impression, and lead to high conversions.

1. Start with a detailed image and key features list
 

For sellers with a large catalog, it can be challenging to highlight each product in the best possible way. And the problem is intensified if you are a brick-and-mortar seller, transitioning to e-commerce. Build a repository of high-quality product images, taken by a professional. Also, ensure that there’s an image from three to four different angles, giving the customer a complete picture of the product’s look and feel.

The key features section (right beside the image, in bullets) is where you can really stand out. This forms the crux of your Amazon marketing strategy, as you can populate it with relevant keywords so that it turns up on the platform’s search engine.

All the SEO best practices Opens a new window apply here — don’t try to force-fit keywords, focus on only the ones relevant to your customer, and don’t mention unwanted details such as color if they aren’t part of the decision-making process.

2. Make the product description readable and engaging
 

The product description follows the image, its features, and an Amazon-featured content carousel. If someone wants to read the description and cared enough to scroll down the page, they are seriously interested in buying your product.

Unlike the features section, Amazon gives you more flexibility in formatting the description. You can use different colors, attractive fonts, and even images. We recommend treating this as a short blog about your product, broken down into clear sections that can catch the customer’s eye.

Amazon has a feature called Enhanced Brand Content that offers product description templates for free.

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3. Try to bolster your place in the Amazon Buy Box
 

This is the hard part of any Amazon marketing strategy. The Buy Box applies when there is more than one seller for a product — this box will recommend the top seller, and customers can explore other purchase options. Being positioned as the top seller is a surefire way of getting more conversions, but how can you make this happen?

Unfortunately, there’s no clear formula, as Amazon’s marketing algorithms keep changing. You can start by getting more reviews from customers and ensuring proper product shipment policies so that they are more likely to rate you well.

Also, if you have a series of related products of the same type (for example, a shampoo, a conditioner, and a hair oil variant), your chances of being featured in the Buy Box will go up.

4. Advertise your store on Instagram
 

You don’t have to be limited to Amazon, even if that’s the only place where you are selling your products. An Instagram page for your brand can get you additional visibility, reminding customers that it’s easy to buy your products by simply visiting Amazon.

More than 8,000 shoppers Opens a new window use Instagram for product ideas every month, and this is an excellent way to start a conversation with customers. For example, they might want to know specific details using the comments section, before deciding to buy.

Remember to alter your images so they are Instagram-ready. While background-free images showing the product details clearly work better on Amazon, an attractive background to contextualize the product might be better on Instagram.

Learn More: 

Top 10 Instagram Marketing Strategy Tips for 2020Opens a new window

5. Make emails part of your Amazon marketing strategy
 

With so many sellers on Amazon, your brand could get lost in the crowd unless you initiate a one-on-one conversation with the customer. That’s where email marketing Opens a new window can come in handy.

You could send out a short thank you email after every purchase. A few days later, you can send them a request to review the products purchased, which will help with brand recall. Create an email list of all your converted customers who didn’t respond and resend them review requests, as it will add to your Amazon Buy Box rank.

It can be a good idea to get creative with your emails for your Amazon marketing. For example, you can create private sales by notifying customers beforehand or alert them when a related product is restocked on your Amazon store.

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#ProTips for Amazon Marketing in 2020

“With Nike, Birkenstock and Vibram pulling their products from Amazon, we’re seeing a new trend emerge across e-commerce: retail brands are taking control of their customer experiences. These brands understand the importance of delivering consistent and enriched customer experiences to create lasting customer loyalty and to survive in a competitive market landscape.”

~James Barlow, Country Manager UK+Ireland, at Akeneo exclusively to MarTech Advisor.

He went on to say, “This move by Nike and others should act as a wake-up call to Amazon and other distributors that brands are beginning to expect more. Like their customers, they are becoming more sophisticated and a ‘one size fits all’ approach will no longer do.”

Remember, you can use Amazon marketing strategies to acquire a customer base that’s loyal enough to come back even if you choose to leave the Amazon ecosystem. Email and social media are central to this goal.

Amazon has created an incredible platform for you to connect with a massive audience of customers. But it also has its own unique rules and features:

• Keep an eye on A9, Amazon’s search engine that will determine your SEO ranking.
• Invest in sponsored product ads, Amazon’s version of Google’s display ads.
• Use clear descriptors like “big” or “red” instead of very promotional terms like “top” or “best” in the title.
• Use Amazon’s Match Low Price feature to ensure price differentiation for your product.
• Once your Amazon marketing strategy takes off, opt for Fulfillment By Amazon, a service that will improve your shipping capabilities.
   

These are the five foundational steps to succeeding with Amazon marketing if you’re a new seller. Once you have garnered a loyal audience and the reviews start flooding in, all you need to do is monitor the results, tweak significant details like SEO, and maintain performance in the long run.

Happy selling!

Have you tried your hand at Amazon marketing? If so, how did it go? Tell us all about your experience on LinkedInOpens a new window , FacebookOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window !