4-Step Guide to a Successful Product Launch in Amazon That Will Get You on Top Search Results
Let’s face it! You want to be on Amazon’s top search results. Who wouldn’t be? You’ll get to have tons of people visiting your listing and a number of customers purchasing from your store. As you make more sales, this leads you to increase your net income and establish a prosperous business. But to truly hook the eyes of Amazon customers, you need to have a successful Amazon product launch.
Based on 360pi, there were over 12 million products on Amazon back in 2015 and the number of products has increased dramatically through the years. Moreover, Amazon’s net revenue from the subscription services segment amounted to over 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in the third quarter of 2020. Since more stores are now on Amazon, you need effective Amazon product SEO strategies.
These strategies will help you start your Amazon product launch. It may seem daunting to establish yourself on Amazon, but there is a way to do it. In this guide, we’ll talk about the SEO strategies and easy product launch tips.
What Is an Amazon Product Launch?
An Amazon product launch is when a seller publishes a product listing on Amazon for the first time. You may think that an Amazon product launch doesn’t need any planning. Others even launch their products without much thought. But that’s where you’re wrong. Doing so results in unoptimized listings, less traffic, and a small percentage of sales.
To successfully make a sale on Amazon, you need customers to see your product. How do customers see your product? They see it in the search results. As a customer, you don’t look at the other pages when you’re looking for an item. You mostly focus on the first page.
But when your product is at the bottom of the search results, you won’t get any traffic, which means no sales. This is why you need to run a successful product launch. You have to do it right the first time to ensure the success of your business.
How Does Amazon Rank a Listing?
Before we talk about the benefits of a successful Amazon product launch, you need to understand how Amazon ranks a listing. The answer is Amazon’s A9 Algorithm. Amazon is like Google. They are both search engines.
Amazon uses the A9 Algorithm to rank a product in search results. It utilizes keywords to decide how relevant the product is to the search. Although Google and Amazon’s algorithms have their similarities, they differ when it comes to the emphasis on sales conversion.
Amazon focuses on the sales conversion because it wants to promote product listings that are most likely to make a sale. Hence, Amazon will put your listing at the top spot if you have a strong sales history and a high conversion rate.
This means that if your product is on the first page of the search results, you’ll receive more traffic. The more traffic you have, the better your chances of making a sale. In turn, this will boost your ranking. To boost your ranking, you need to carefully plan your Amazon product launch.
Why Is Amazon Product Launch Important?
Now that you’ve understood the importance of Amazon’s A9 Algorithm, below are the benefits of a successful product launch.
- Boosts your ranking on Amazon
- Improves organic traffic
- Increases sales velocity and sales history
Having a successful product launch helps you drive more traffic to your listing. Doing so helps boost your sales, which leads to more money in your pocket. Furthermore, increasing your sales history improves your ranking on Amazon. Then, a higher ranking will lead to better visibility and sales. It’s a cycle that you have to perfect even in the beginning for you to gain success.
Moreover, an Amazon product launch helps a stagnant product gain a new audience. If you used to launch a product without a second thought, updating the listing can help you become competitive. It also gives you an edge over your competitors.
Factors That Affect Amazon Product Sales
There are several factors that can affect Amazon product sales. These factors should be carefully noted when you plan your product launch because they will affect your listing. Some of those factors are:
- Price point
- Deals
- Sales history
- Sales ranking
- Title description
- Main image
- Your key product features mentioned in bullet points
- Product description
- Secondary images
- Customer reviews and rating
- Q/A for a particular product (which also includes questions answered)
- Seller feedback
- Order processing speed
- Defect rate
- Category
- Shipping speed
- Product variations and much more
Now that you know the basics regarding Amazon product launches and the A9 algorithm, it’s time to start your product launch journey. Follow our four-step guide below.
Step 1: Create the best offers
One of the tricks to a successful product launch is to provide the best offer to your customers. Giving them the best deals encourages them to purchase your product instead of those of your competitors. These deals can be product bundles, discounts, or reduced pricing. The suggestions below will aid you in offering the best and most competitive products.
Choosing the Right Product to Sell
To truly offer the best deals, your products should be of outstanding quality. You don’t want to sell a low-quality or defective product. You’ll definitely have angry customers and a ton of returned products.
Impress them by offering them more than what they have paid for. The benefits posted on the website should stand true once the item is used. Don’t share false information about the product. Moreover, choose a product that is sellable to the target market and is related to your passion. Hence, you need to understand customer experience.
Think about the value your customers will receive from the product. Will they be satisfied with the product? Will it be able to solve a problem? These questions should be answered when choosing a product to sell.
Reduced Pricing
Reducing the price helps in increasing the demand for the product. Customers love it when they get less than the market price. They often check other stores first and choose which one offers the cheapest items. Lastly, they love getting products that are affordable and made of high-quality materials.
Offer Free Shipping
Enroll yourself in FBA to be eligible for free shipping. Free shipping is only available to Amazon Prime members. With over 112 million U.S. Amazon Prime members, it’s only fitting to enroll in FBA. You can target this market and increase your sales.
Customers love it when they get free shipping. You often see them spend more on items than the shipping fee. As much as possible, they want to spend less on delivery charges. To do so, offer them free shipping. You can always increase the price of the item to cover shipping costs.
Amazon Giveaway
Offer your new product as part of a giveaway on Amazon. The winner receives the product for free while the runners-up get consolation prizes or a discount. The key is for the customers to watch the product video in the hopes of purchasing the product at a discounted price. The more people visit and join your giveaway, the more traffic you get. This traffic can be converted into sales since customers can always purchase the product at a discounted price despite not winning.
Offer Exclusive Discount Codes to Your Email List
If you have a website and you’ve been collecting email addresses, you can leverage the website to your advantage. Offer customers exclusive discounts. Most of them already bought from you or others showed interest in your product. By giving them discount codes, you can encourage them to make a purchase.
Building an email list, however, is a lot of work, but it’s worth it. So if you have a website, utilize it to create an email list. A weekly newsletter also helps customers get to know your product even more. You can also easily send announcements and offer discounts to them. Lastly, an email list helps you increase traffic for current and future product launches.
Step 2: Optimize Your Listing
The next step to a successful product launch is to optimize your listing. Once you have picked a product and offered a good deal, you need to entice customers with good copy. You also need to increase product visibility and awareness. The best way to do so is to optimize your listing. We divided it into three parts: keyword research, keyword optimization, and keyword tracking.
Keyword Research
Pick the most relevant and useful keywords for your listing. Use tools such as Keywordtool to aid you with your keyword research. Use these to get an idea of how customers search for products similar to yours, and how often they search for these products. It’s safe to bet that keywords with high volume on Google will also be the same with Amazon.
Another way is to type a word in the Amazon search bar. It lets you see a free snapshot of how your prospects actually use Amazon. By the end of your research, you’ll have a list of initial keywords. Lastly, you can look at a competitor’s product and see which keywords work best for them.
Keyword Optimization
Once you have a set of keywords, place these keywords in the different parts of your listing. Do remember that you are optimizing your listing for Amazon SEO and buyers’ intent. You must know your customers for the success of your store. Understand what they are looking for and showcase your product listing to encourage them to buy the product.
To ensure the success of your product launch, place your most important keyword at the beginning of your product title. The keywords that couldn’t fit in the product title shall be placed in the product description and features. Also, use high-quality images to entice buyers to check your listing. Lastly, utilize backend keywords for better optimization. Follow these SEO strategies for successful optimization.
Keyword Tracking
Once you are able to optimize your listing, track your performance. Monitor the click-through rate and conversions. In this way, you’ll be able to eliminate non-converting keywords and optimize the listings with the high-performing ones.
Step 3: Traffic, Traffic, Traffic
It is difficult to make a sale on Amazon especially if customers barely view your listing. This is why it’s best for you to run advertisements. These help potential buyers to see your listing and build an active audience. Moreover, digital marketing is the trend.
One of the few things you need to know about digital marketing for business is to utilize different social media platforms. You can also use your website or Amazon itself to run ads. Below are different methods you can employ.
Run PPC Campaigns
PPC campaigns help overcome the problem of visibility during your product launch. What you will do is to pay Amazon for every click on your ad. There are three formats available: Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Product Display Ads.
- Sponsored Products – These are keyword-targeted ads that enable you to advertise individual products.
- Sponsored Brands – These ads allow you to promote up to three products in one ad. You can customize the headline and brand logo. Then, when a customer clicks on the ad, you can send them to a custom landing page.
- Product Display Ads – These ads lead shoppers to an Amazon product detail page.
Influencers
Influencer marketing is a great way to reach a wide audience. Influencers on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have an existing audience which you can utilize. Users often believe an influencer’s reviews, so these reviews can help you gain new followers and customers. However, you have to spend a hefty amount for commission.
Use Social Media Platforms
Create social media accounts for your business. You can use these accounts to connect with new and existing customers. It’s also a way to gain social proof for your business. For example, you can utilize Facebook by joining groups to promote your business. Another way is to use Facebook ads when launching a new product.
Step 4: Create Social Proof and Get Reviews
Customers prefer to choose stores that have existing sales histories. They like hearing the thoughts of other customers. Did the product do its job? Was it effective or not? Hence, customer reviews are important. It’s also a way to prove the legitimacy of the business.
To collect your first review, you can use the Amazon Early Reviewer Program. A customer who recently purchased the product will leave an honest review. The customer will receive a reward for helping future shoppers. Another way is to ask them through email to leave a review. Remember, don’t fake your reviews.
Final Thoughts
It can be challenging to plan your launch, but if you follow our guide, it will help you have a smooth and successful product launch. Considering that the eCommerce industry is growing, it’s best to start your Amazon journey, just don’t forget to have fun and ask experts for help.
