Is your Amazon product stuck in a rut? Selling consistently can be a challenge, and with sales lower than you want them to be, you’re probably left wondering what you’re doing wrong. Your low sales volume could be due to any number of things. Maybe your listing isn’t optimized well for main keywords. Maybe people are choosing to buy a similar product with more reviews. If your stock isn’t moving as fast as you would like, we’ve got some tips to help you learn how to increase sales on Amazon.
Before we begin, it’s worth noting that there’s no one quick fix to increase your product’s sales. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a silver bullet. Amazon uses a variety of factors to determine which products appear on page one for any specific search. And just because your product is on page one, doesn’t necessarily mean it will convert well. These tips give you a range of ideas that will all work together to help boost your sales.
1. Optimize Your Listing
In order to make sales on Amazon, you have to get your product in front of shoppers. No one is going to buy a product they’ve never seen. In order to rank in Amazon’s search results across all major search terms and get your product seen, your listing needs to be optimized for relevant keywords related to your product.
This can be achieved by using a keyword research tool to help you identify high volume keywords. Be sure you are utilizing a tool that utilizes only Amazon data. When you search the main keyword that describes your product, the tool should give you the monthly search volume for that exact word as well as other suggested keywords to use and their monthly search volume.
Once you have a list of relevant keywords to your product, you can start writing your listing. Unlike Google, Amazon’s search engine focuses on unique keywords, meaning if a keyword is in the listing once, no extra weight is give if it is used again.
While using a keyword multiple times doesn’t give your listing an extra boost, the placement of keywords does matter in ranking. A keyword placed in the title will carry more weight than a keyword placed in the bullet points or backend. With that in mind, it’s usually best to place the highest volume keywords in the title to capture as many searches as possible.
To keep track of all the keywords while writing, we recommend using a listing builder tool. Many of these tools will remove a word from your “master keyword list” once you have used it in the listing.
If you don’t feel particularly confident in your writing abilities, another option is to hire a professional copywriter to create your listing for you. An experienced writer will be able to work with you to write engaging and informative copy that captures all main keywords and adheres to your brand voice. If you’ve got the money in your budget, this option could take one thing off your plate.
It’s important to remember that an optimized listing can only get you so far. Yes, it will ensure that you are indexed for all relevant terms and provide useful information, but it takes a combination of things to convert sales. Make sure your entire listing is strong from top to bottom. This includes investing in professional photography, ensuring your product is priced competitively, and getting to the top of search results.
2. Focus on Increasing Your Review Count
Over 85% of online shoppers say they trust product reviews as much as they trust a personal recommendation. This means that having a high number of reviews plus a high review rating can translate to big sales for your product. However, about 90% of Amazon shoppers never leave feedback, meaning the vast majority of shoppers are never giving their opinion.
Obviously there’s no way to ensure every person that buys your product will leave a review. But there are a few tactics you can use to help encourage past buyers to login and write their thoughts on your product.
Marketing Inserts
Many Amazon sellers find that a small insert in your product packaging can nudge buyers to visit your review page and leave their thoughts. This simple reminder can also contain information on who to contact if for some reason there are any issues with the product at the time of delivery. This allows you the chance to make things right before the buyer torches you in a bad review.
That being said, there is a risk in adding these inserts to your product packaging, since Amazon’s terms are written so loosely. While some sellers see success with marketing inserts, add them at your own risk and know that Amazon could take action.
Email Follow Up
Email follow ups are a great way to communicate with buyers. It’s usually best to send a series of emails that builds up to asking for a review. You can create an email template for each of the follow up steps and use an automated email system to send these out:
- Delivery Confirmation – Sent 1 to 5 days after delivery, this email will confirm the delivery of your product. This is also a great time to provide a contact number and let the customer know they can reach out with any issues they might have. You always want customers to contact you first with any problems in order to deter them from leaving bad reviews.
- Review Request – The third email, sent 5 to 15 days after delivery, should contain a request for a review. Explain to the customer how reviews help your business and that you would really appreciate it if they took the time to leave their opinion. You can even include a link that will take the customer directly to your review page.
It’s best to end your email sequence at 2 emails. Any more than that, and it may appear spammy to customers. While nothing will ensure every single customer leaves a review, an email follow up sequence will help to nudge customers in the right direction
Important Note: When asking customers to leave reviews of your product, be sure to not offer any incentive for a review. This is against Amazon’s terms of service. It’s crucial to not break any of these rules when it comes to asking for reviews, as Amazon has recently been cracking down and suspending accounts for review manipulation. Make sure you read the terms of service thoroughly and that you aren’t in violation of any of them when asking customers to leave feedback. For more info. concerning email follow-ups, check out our video below!
3. Run a Promotional Launch or Giveaway
At first thought, this may seem counterproductive in your search for how to increase sales on Amazon. How could giving away your product at a discount help make it a success? But there is a science behind this process that could help boost your ranking and improve your sales in the long run.
What is a Launch?
A product launch is a targeted giveaway meant to project your listing to page one of search results for a major keyword. The overall goal of this process is to increase organic sales, but you’ll have to giveaway your product at a deep discount in order to boost keyword ranking. To rank among your top competitors, you must match or slightly exceed their daily sales for a short period of time. Usually this discount is 90% or more so that you’re able to sell the required number of units per day.
Who Can Help Me with a Launch?
The Amazon Seller Coaches at Viral Launch are here to help you in every step of this process. First we’ll help you identify a keyword to target for your launch. Then using Amazon data for your specific market, we’ll determine the number of units you’ll need to give away in order to achieve page one status.
Typically, launches run for 7 to 10 days. This range is the sweet spot. It allows enough time for Amazon to recognize the sales, while also being short enough that it limits the number of units you’ll have to give away. This will allow you to boost ranking while also saving money.
While a large portion of our data points to 7 to 10 day launches being the most effect for sales history and velocity, Amazon’s algorithms are constantly changing. This means it’s important to keep an eye out for the latest best practices. Some Amazon sellers have recently found success giving away a larger amount of inventory within one day for a larger, sharper sales peak to boost ranking.
What Happens After a Product Launch?
Once your product is ranking, the goal is to get enough organic sales that you can maintain your page one ranking. This places a lot of importance on your listing, photos and price. Be sure your copy is optimized for your main keywords. Upload professional product photos and make sure your product is competitively priced. All these factors will help you convert and maintain your ranking.
4. Utilize PPC Ads
PPC (Pay Per Click) ads allow your listing to get more exposure for a targeted keyword. When you set up a PPC campaign, you set a daily budget and bid on a click price. Amazon will then post your listing as an ad for targeted keywords. You do not pay unless the ad is clicked. However, keep in mind that just because someone clicks, does not mean they will buy, so be sure your listing and photos are optimized to convert sales. There are two types of Sponsored ads in Amazon Seller Central:
- Manual – This allows you to pick the specific keywords you want to target. If you know which keywords your listing converts best for and you want to target them specifically, this is a great option.
- Automatic – This option allows you to set a budget and then Amazon’s algorithms will select which keywords to present your product for. These ads can be a bit unfocused or random, but can give great insight into which terms your product converts well for and can still help to get your product seen.
Use the Data
One thing people often overlook about PPC campaigns is that it gives you tons of useful data about your listing, impressions and conversions. This can help you improve your listing and increase sales. For example:
- High Clicks, Low Sales – If you’re getting a lot of clicks for a keyword, but low sales, you may be able to tweak your copy and optimize the listing in order to take advantage of the customer interest in the specific keyword.
- High Conversions – If you’re getting a high number of conversions for a specific keyword, you may want to put even more focus on and budget into that keyword, as it’s clearly paying off for you.
- High Impressions, Low Sales – If it seems that you’re getting a lot of impressions, but no one is buying your product, this may mean that your chosen keyword isn’t relevant to your product. This then causes people to click the ad, but leave the page as soon as they realize it isn’t what they want.
Bonus Tip: External Traffic
While it’s against Amazon’s guidelines to include any links or marketing language in your listing that takes shoppers away from their site, you are allowed to push visitors from other sites to your product on Amazon. You can utilize your company website, blog, etc. to bring people to your Amazon listing.
If you have a website or blog with decent traffic, start including links to your product listing. You’d be surprised of the difference this can make. The goal is to get as many eyes on your product as possible, so the more paths to your listing, the better.
Keep in mind though that for some sellers, driving external traffic isn’t always the best use of effort or money. First focus on using the tips previously mentioned in this post and take advantage of the immense traffic that Amazon already provides.
Get to Work!
Remember there’s no magic bullet for increasing your sales on Amazon. A variety of factors go into ranking, converting and staying competitive in any market. Don’t simply pick one of the tips out of this list and assume it will mysteriously solve all of your problems. Take your time, gather data, do research and create a strong overall listing with optimized text, professional photos and a competitive price. With all these factors working together, you’re sure to find the methods that make your revenue grow!
