Indie
spotlight focusses on self-published authors and self-publishing. Here, in
the second of today’s Indie spotlight dual edition, Ilan Nass,
from Taktical Digital in New York City, gives general advice on how sellers can maximise
sales through Amazon. Indie authors can adapt this advice to suit their own aim: selling books.
Selling products on Amazon doesn’t only make it easier to reach many potential customers. While the platform does boast more than 300 million active customer accounts, its true appeal for sellers has more to do with the convenience Amazon offers. The company makes money when you sell an item, so Amazon is constantly trying to find ways to help you sell more.
However, Amazon can only drive traffic to your
listing. It’s up to you to convince a potential customer your product is worth
their money, just like when advertising on Facebook. To market more successfully on Amazon, keep the following points
in mind:
Customers Care About the Listing Title
The title of your listing tells your customer what
you’re selling. While you can go into more detail in the description, a
customer might not get that far if they don’t find the title compelling enough.
That’s why you need to be clear and concise when
describing the item. Obviously, include the name of the product, but also
highlight any distinguishing features that might make it more appealing to a
potential buyer.
For instance, if the item’s color is important, or if
it’s made with sustainable materials, emphasizing those details can help you
attract interested customers. You might even consider including the brand name
if you believe it’s relevant to shoppers.
HTML Can Enhance a Description
When writing the description for a product listing on
Amazon, you might think you don’t have many options for editing and formatting
the text. There’s no visible toolbar like you might find in a word processing
program that allows you to bold, italicize, or underline text.
However, that simply means you can employ HTML to make
text stand out. The following are some of the various HTML formatting options
Amazon lets sellers use:
- Bold
- Italics
- Quotes
- Headers
Look up the corresponding HTML code for any of these
features you wish to use. They can make the product description more engaging
to shoppers.
Images Make a Product More Attractive
You don’t have much freedom when choosing the main
image for your listing. Amazon requires featured images to simply display the
product on a white background. This makes the results of searches look more
organized.
However, in the listing itself, you can include extra
images. Depending on the nature of your product, Amazon may allow you to
include five to nine extra slides. The platform also has some technical requirements for images you should familiarize yourself with.
Don’t neglect this aspect of your listing. Experts recommend thinking about ways you can show why your product is worth a
customer’s money, rather than just telling them. Images that show it in action,
detailed infographics, and even diagrams highlighting key features can all be
useful in this respect.
Put Yourself in the Customer’s Shoes
Marketing is essentially about imagining what you
would look for when researching products as a customer. Before writing your
listing, define your target audience. What’s their age range? Are they more
likely to be a certain gender? Most importantly, how would they actually
benefit from your product?
When you know who your ideal customer is, you’ll know
how to think like them. This is key to understanding what features you need to
highlight in your description. For example, if you’re selling a product that
helps busy professionals organize their desks more efficiently, describe and
demonstrate exactly how your product helps with this task.
Again, Amazon will certainly help direct traffic to
your listing. That’s a clear benefit you get when selling on this platform.
However, it’s up to you to make sure the listing results in a sale. With these
tips, you’re much more likely to succeed in this endeavor: selling products on Amazon
