As the eCommerce industry continues to grow, more and more sellers are finding success in using online platforms such as Amazon to sell their products. Some of them are earning $5,000 a day, while Amazon stated that third-party sellers earned a total of $160 billion in 2018. Due to this, businesses are taking advantage of Amazon’s platform to grow their store and gain financial success.
A product launch is an essential part of online selling. Without it, your hard work in researching for a winning product would be for nothing. Through a product launch, you can invite potential customers to check your listing and spread the word. If you want to know how to successfully launch a product, we’ve created a four-step process that you can follow.
But before we head onto the steps to a successful Amazon product launch, you must first check your product. There’s no point in launching a product if it’s not the right one.
Start by conducting product research in different markets to set realistic expectations. For example, you saw products on Amazon’s top search results that sell an average of 5,000 units per month. You can choose the products on the list, but it doesn’t mean you’ll sell 5,000 units as soon as possible. However, selling on Amazon isn’t just about listing your products. You need to do your research and prepare your product launch on Amazon to ensure your store’s success.
Try selling products under a specific niche with less competition. Picking a specific niche will help you dominate the market. However, you may generate low sales volume, so you must understand the market before entering it. Once you know what to sell, you can now head onto the steps to a successful product launch.
Step 1: Create an Outstanding Product Listing
The first step to a successful product launch is to optimize your product listing. We always remind sellers that optimizing your listing is essential because it helps you rank high on the Amazon search result, and this makes it easier for customers to look for your product. Since Amazon is a search engine, it displays products in response to search terms. Hence, you need to use keywords in your listing.
Conduct thorough keyword research and choose the most appropriate keywords for your product. Then, insert these keywords in your product listing. To help you optimize your listing, below are some steps you can follow for each part:
Product title
The product title is an important element to increase your visibility and stay relevant to the Amazon search engine. Hence, you need to put the most relevant keywords in the product title. Avoid keyword stuffing because it will affect your Amazon search ranking.
Here are some tips to optimize your Amazon product title:
- Include a clear description of what your product does
- Specify the color of your product
- State the size and quantity
- Mention a specific ingredient or essential material
Key Features and Product Description
These two elements go hand-in-hand because they both state the value a customer can receive from using the product. You want to be as persuasive and detailed as possible. For the key features, list the benefits your customer can receive from using the product. Keep in mind that this is in bullet form, so keep them short and concise. Work your relevant keywords into these bullet points in a natural way and check your competitors’ listings to make sure they’re not stating more thorough information than you.
For the product description, you can be as detailed as you can be. Make it easy-to-read and convincing. Also, don’t forget to insert your keywords.
Product Image
Use high-quality images to attract customers to your store. Since the transaction is done online, your customers won’t physically see the product before purchase. Having a clear and professional image helps them decide if they will buy the product. Also, high-quality images consistently have higher conversion rates. Even Amazon recommends bigger images. Hence, follow Amazon’s guidelines and watch your product’s ranking improve in the search results.
Step 2: Get Everyone Buzzing About Your Product through Promotions and Discounts
Marketing is the key to your product launch. You can’t launch your product without creating a buzz about it. To promote your product, write blog posts on your website to attract readers to your listing once the product is released. Set up a social media account to spread the word and use hashtags to make the listing searchable by your customers. You can also use Amazon Pay-Per-Click advertisement to increase your visibility. Below are different ways to increase brand awareness and get customers to visit your product launch.
Amazon PPC Promotions
Amazon Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is a popular paid-ads platform that helps sellers increase brand awareness.
The concept behind PPC is simple. Each seller bids for a keyword at a certain budget. The higher a seller pays for his/her ad, the greater the chances of the ad being displayed. Sellers will only be billed whenever a buyer clicks on the ad.
Social Media Ads
You can use different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube to advertise your product.
To run FB ads, you need to have a Facebook page for your brand and a Facebook Ads Manager account. Your Facebook ads must direct people to your website, which then leads to an Amazon listing. Install a Facebook tracking pixel on your website to collect customer data. A Facebook pixel is a code placed on your website to monitor the activity of visitors on your Facebook page.
The data collected can be used for another advertisement with a similar target audience. It also ensures that your ads stay relevant. Lastly, it helps you understand the behavior of people who visit your website, thereby picking an advertising strategy that works for your audience.
Another platform you can use is Instagram, with over 112.5 million users in the U.S. in 2020. Using this platform can help you increase traffic to your listing. You can also create your brand using Instagram and direct potential customers to your listing.
Aside from Facebook and Instagram, YouTube is a platform you should also be leveraging. You can create videos about your product and even earn from it when the videos become popular! Once you are able to build a large following on YouTube, you can direct your possible customers to your listing and create unboxing videos on launch day.
Influencer Marketing
You can drive a huge amount of traffic by collaborating with influencers to promote your products. Instagram and Youtube influencers have a large following that can become your potential customers. Try small influencers with 20-50k subscribers because they are more cost-effective than influencers with 100k followers. This is based on Digiday’s findings where an influencer charges $1,000 for every 100,000 followers or $10 for every 1,000 followers. Hence, an influencer with 20,000 followers is more cost-effective than an influencer with 80,000 followers.
Offer Coupons and Discount Codes
Offer your potential customers discount codes and coupons to encourage them to buy from your store. Based on a study conducted by Statista in 2014, 16 billion digital coupons were redeemed during that year. Big brands are also adding coupons to their marketing mix to boost their sales. If you want to convince buyers to shop in your store, give them coupons and discount codes.
Step 3: Gather Product Reviews from Customers
Based on Bright Local’s 2019 survey, 82% of consumers read reviews to help them decide if they will purchase a product or not. You may also notice that products with more reviews and higher ratings rank higher on the search results. Product reviews also affect your click-through rate, which can impact your product ranking.
If you want to gain more reviews, you can ask your customers who recently purchased what they thought of the product. Please do avoid cheating the algorithm by using fake reviews because Amazon can track you down. Simply send a follow-up email to your customer to subtly ask for review. If they encountered problems with their orders, address these problems to avoid negative reviews on your listing.
You may also try the Amazon Early Reviewer Program, which gives customers incentives when they leave a review for products they purchased. It benefits both the seller and customer because the customer gets something in return for their honest review. The program costs $60 per Stock Keeping Unit (SKU). However, you aren’t charged until you get one review or one year has passed, whichever comes first.
Step 4: Keep Your Inventory Full
You may overlook this step, but you shouldn’t. For one, customers leave negative reviews when you don’t have enough stock. Second, it harms your reputation. To help keep track of your inventory, use an inventory management tool. If ever you do run into the unfortunate situation of running out of stock, you can raise the price to lower your customer’s interest in buying the product. However, your priority should be to avoid running out of stock. Hence, you must carefully manage your inventory.
Conclusion
The path to a successful Amazon product launch is different for every seller. The strategies applied by another seller may not be applicable to you, and vice versa. The most important tips you should remember are: understand the market you’re getting into, be open to new ideas, and constantly update your current strategies. In an industry where change is constant, you must learn to keep up with the changing trends to rise to the top.
