By Kharen Minasian
Coming up with creative ways to drive customer sales on ecommerce platforms is not as complicated as everyone may think. Developing a marketing strategy early and sticking to it, can take an Amazon or Shopify store to the next level. Following are some easy tips and tricks to ensure you’re reaching not only the proper audience but also converting those initial impressions to long term repeat customers.
1. Create a Presence on Amazon
One thing is absolutely critical to the overall success and sales numbers for a modern product online, and that is brand identity. Brand identity can be a tricky thing to nail down for many marketing teams. It is important to consider which demographic you will be targeting when using social media, designing your packaging, and even the writing work used in blog posts or listings. All of the components of your brand’s identity should be cohesive and make sense from the standpoint of the consumer.
Here are some examples of brands that really let their identity shine through the work on their storefronts:
- Samsung: Samsung is one of the largest and most successful companies in the world, and it shows in both their photo assets and writing work. Everything is clean, sharp, and on brand to keep a uniform look and feel to maintain customer trust and loyalty on Amazon.
- Carhartt: Carhartt workwear supply and lifestyle clothing brand was founded 1889 in Deerborn Michigan. Carhartt’s brand identity is quickly established through an easily digestible video asset depicting work scenes. No nonsense page navigation is clearly established allowing their already loyal customer base to quickly navigate to the product they have in mind.
2. Use Data Tracking
Data tracking and analysis is an integral part of success on Amazon as data is the only reliable storyteller. A number of third-party software options exist online to manage, track, and perform simple keyword optimization. Each of these software tools are different, having varying strengths and weaknesses as tools for analytics, and none are perfect. It’s recommended to take some time researching these tools and learning their ins and outs.
As with all things these tools will be on learning curve, but technology literate people can easily learn these programs within a few weeks. Tools such as JungleScout, Helium 10 and DataHawk allow for the customer to track and understanding the profit margins and rankings of certain products to identify gaps in the marketplace.
Many of these software include extensions for Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, allowing for even more seamless use once you’re familiar with the unique functions of the individual programs. Make sure to use new software if you feel like you need more information and cross reference your data across the individual tools whenever you can.
3. Optimize Content
Optimization of content is a team effort. Your creative team should work in unison to create assets while working in tandem with the technical team to generate, edit, and upload all within a time frame. Each aspect of each team is integral to the overall performance of a page’s optimization as every action taken on an account can affect organic ranking.
It is important to understand each element of a page from images, to bullet point writing, EBC, or even template file upload. By utilizing proper techniques and following Amazon guidelines a team can optimize most any Amazon page, so long as they have an understanding of these elements.
4. Focus on Customer Relations
Having good customer rapport is essential for any company, but especially so on Amazon or other ecommerce platforms. Make sure someone on your team is anchored to customer service as a role, but additionally look at reaching out to customers in non-intrusive ways.
Social media is a great place to start. Keep in mind your brand identity when posting, and try to create new ways for you and your audience to interact. Whether by giveaways, polls, or live videos, you should cast out each post like a fisherman attempting to lure a fish, except you’ll be reeling in returning brand loyal customers.
5. Use the Early Reviewer Program
The Early Reviewer Program on Amazon is often times the spark that can transform an Amazon account from a pile of tinder into a raging pyre of sales. The program is the only Amazon sanctioned method of acquiring reviews outside of organic sales.
Navigating the many pitfalls of e-commerce sales and marketing can be tricky at best, but with some of the insights provided in article above, you’ll be a step ahead of the general curve.