Amazon Product Launch is like being thrown into the cockpit of an airplane in mid-flight. There are dozens of flashing levers and buttons, but no clear indication of how to stay in the air.
It’s not enough to have an amazing product. And spending a lot of money on advertising doesn’t work. The truth is that rushing through what should be a detailed, incremental process quickly turns an almost guaranteed success into an expensive and disappointing cold start.
Successful product onboarding requires a step-by-step plan that leverages Amazon’s algorithm and takes into account the specific challenges new products are likely to face. With an account management approach
the bottom-up approach, brands of all types can systematically prepare their products for marketing before implementing a comprehensive strategy to drive customer traffic and optimize performance.
If you read my instructions carefully, you can land this plane and make it safely to the bank.
Step #1: Secure The Prime Badge
Always (and I mean always) start by securing the Amazon Product Launch. It’s the marker that lets a customer know that your product can be reliably and securely shipped to their doorstep in two days or less.
For more than a decade, Amazon has been investing in its Amazon Prime customer promise. So it’s no wonder that customer conversion increases dramatically when a product receives the Prime badge, leading to an average increase in sales of more than 50%. This is partly because Amazon’s search algorithm is more likely to place Prime products in front of Prime shoppers who spend more time and money on the platform.
Most direct sellers are Prime-eligible by virtue of selling wholesale to Amazon. However, third-party sellers have to take additional steps to receive the badge. One option is to enroll in FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon)
a popular fulfillment option that allows sellers to fulfill orders from Amazon’s warehouses while retaining ownership of the products.
FBA is not the only way brands can receive the all-important Prime badge, though. Those using the Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) program to ship products directly to consumers can apply for Seller Fulfilled Prime if they can demonstrate their ability to reliably and consistently meet Prime shipping standards. Seller Fulfilled Prime products appear on the platform like other Prime products, but are shipped directly by the seller.
Step 2: Product And Brand Content
Often, when new products are added, brands are eager to start attracting customer traffic with ad campaigns and promotions. But without high-quality content to communicate product value and drive conversion, their advertising budget is wasted on low sales volume. That’s why establishing optimized core and enhanced content is a crucial step to take early in the product onboarding process.
Keep in mind, however, that high-quality content is not as simple as the Prime badge. Good content can vary from product to product depending on the category and target customer base. Lifestyle images may be more important, for example, in a fashion product than in office supplies.
Too much generalization by category can lead to an overly simplistic approach, though. Instead, brands should target a clearly defined avatar that represents a psychographic conception of their ideal customer. Every subsequent creative decision should be made with that avatar in mind. And, as a general rule, the more impactful that avatar content is, the more likely customers are to convert.
Another overlooked aspect of content is mobile optimization. This means making sure your content follows Amazon’s best practices for mobile devices by literally scrolling through it on a mobile device to make sure it displays well. Sometimes images appear pixelated or oddly cropped when viewed on mobile, so taking the time to check this is imperative, especially considering that nearly 60% of customers are shopping on mobile.
Also, be sure to check your product titles on mobile, as they can often be shortened. If you don’t include your relevant keywords at the beginning of the title, Amazon shoppers might see your “Tropical, 8 by 11, handmade, fits well in your home…” as a picture frame instead of an area rug.
Finally, brands with an existing catalog should create a brand store (if they haven’t already). This is a dedicated page for your brand hosted on Amazon that includes grouped product listings, branded video and image content, product comparison charts, and more. These online storefronts are a great opportunity for brands because they allow for a personalized brand experience without the worry of competitors advertising on the page. They are also an ideal place to highlight newly launched products. By putting “What’s New” next to “Best Sellers,” you can leverage existing traffic and customer interest to launch new products.
Step 3: Customer Reviews
More than 49% of customers cite reviews as their primary influence. In other words, half of the customers want a review to verify their purchase decision. This statistic alone should encourage brands to establish a review base before driving traffic to their products. But even more so, for customers (like me) who filter their searches based on the quality of reviews, products without reviews are immediately discarded.
So it’s clear that getting even a handful of initial reviews can help a product be ready for marketing.
Reviews can help make a product ready for marketing. Unfortunately, getting reviews can be easier said than done. After all, the average organic review rate is around 2%. In other words, you have to sell 50 products to get one review.
Amazon has a program to speed up the process, Amazon Vine. However, this program requires a certain level of sales to work properly. And since reviews are necessary to drive conversion, these options are usually best suited for when a review base has already been established and a product is ready for marketing.
There are other options that have proven to reliably improve the review rate of your products. One of them is buyer-seller messaging
a free program for third-party sellers through which brands can send a personalized message to customers after a purchase. Brands can include useful information for their customers, such as product usage tips, maintenance instructions, and even creative add-ons like recipes or puns. Of course, the additional touchpoint also serves as an avenue to solicit product feedback with a simple message such as, “Tell us how we did.” While comments cannot be incentivized or solicited for positive reviews, the message is still an effective method to increase the review rate, often bringing the average up to 5 or 6%.
Step 4: Traffic
You have finally arrived. You’ve patiently followed the previous steps to ensure the highest level of conversion. Now your product is ready for marketing, which means everyone’s favorite word finally comes into play. Traffic.
New product advertising must reach both sides of the funnel. Search advertising should include spending on broad keywords, with an emphasis on driving traffic and increasing brand awareness, as well as detailed keywords to drive conversion and increase organic search rank.
But the classification and algorithms also take external traffic into account. Therefore, brands with the necessary financial bandwidth should also use Amazon DSP (Demand-Side Platform)
to deliver customizable display ads across the web to selected customers based on Amazon shopper data.
In addition to the DSP, external traffic can be generated through social media, blogs, and any other online presence controlled by the brand. The key to generating greater relevance is to leverage every possible avenue of traffic to your new product.
Step 5: Testing And Optimization
Above all else, brands want a guarantee that their new products will be successful. And while certainty is hard to come by on Amazon Product Launch, there are ways to test your work and optimize it for the best performance.
Optimizing and solving problems based on metrics is only possible when the previous four steps have been completed. Otherwise, the number of variables leads to crowded explanations for poor performance. The average conversion rate on Amazon is around 5-6% but varies based on price and category. New products may be a bit lower, but if conversion is below 1%, you should start investigating.
Is my content targeting the right customer? Do I have enough views?
Are my advertising strategies effectively reaching the top and bottom of the marketing funnel?
Organic keyword ranking is a good indicator of your new product’s overall performance. When the above steps work in tandem, you should see your rankings slowly increase over the first few weeks. Are you stuck on page 300? Or have you climbed to page 100?
Another option is to do some A/B testing. This means testing different images for your products, allocating ad spend differently, and generally testing your product’s performance after making adjustments. But remember to only change one variable at a time; otherwise, you won’t be sure what really makes a difference.
Finally, brands should take a look at their competitors and evaluate how their strategies differ. Perhaps the top 10 brands in your category are designing content for a different type of customer than you. Or maybe they are all offering promotions and discounting the price of their product. Learning from those who have already achieved success can give you an advantage when looking for ways to optimize your own strategy.
Final Thoughts
Amazon Product Launch can be one of the most difficult tasks brands face on the platform. After all, the marketplace favors products with established sales momentum. But by executing a long-term momentum-based plan, products can break through.
There is no exact timetable for Amazon Product Launches. For some products, sales momentum builds almost immediately. For others, it can take more than 90 days. The key is to pull the right levers in the right order and maintain patience while preparing the product for the influx of traffic. Once the traffic arrives, work steadily to keep it coming. And before you know it, your product will have taken flight.