Marketing

Amazon is the world’s biggest retailer and transformed the shopping industry. Anybody can start a business on Amazon, even from the comfort of their own home. However, selling on Amazon and being successful on the site are not one and the same.

Yes, Amazon’s marketplace can be very lucrative, but it is also crowded. Standing out amongst two million merchants is no easy task, even if you think your niche is small. Do you sell guides for online casino platforms? You may think there’s not a huge market for that, but on Amazon, you will have thousands of rival merchants to contend with.

But don’t worry, finding success on Amazon is possible if you follow the right steps. Like any other business venture, marketing is hugely important and the key to consumers finding your listings is visibility. Your sole purpose on Amazon should be to make it easy for buyers to find your listings and buy your products.

Here are marketing strategies to help you achieve that goal.

Listing Visibility

The core purpose of your Amazon promotion is relatively easy. You are going to be increasing awareness around your products and listings in and outside of Amazon. With your marketing campaign, you will use advertising techniques to direct traffic to your product pages or Amazon store.

You can also market within Amazon, but this is admittedly trickier. Either way, it is advised that merchants embrace both external and internal promotion to maximize their sales potential.

External Promotion

As the term suggests, external promotion of your Amazon products means using methods outside of the platform to attract consumers to your listings. You want to hook consumers who aren’t on Amazon into checking out your inventory and maybe making a purchase.

There are several techniques that can help you achieve this goal:

• SEO: In your product listing page, use keywords related to your product that consumers may be entering into Google Search.
• Social media: Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are excellent marketing tools. Create ads on these services and spread awareness of your Amazon listings. Include links to your products on social media posts.
• Backlink support: Reach out to third parties to place links to your Amazon listings on their websites. Blog posts are a good way to gain backlinks.

Internal Promotion

As mentioned, whatever you choose to sell on Amazon, you can be secure in the knowledge you won’t be the only merchant selling that same product. In fact, there will likely be thousands of other merchants selling what you sell, and some may be undercutting you on price.

This presents a large and obvious problem; how do you stay above the competition? You must find ways to make your listings more visible and internal promotion is one way to do it. Unfortunately, this situation is based more on random events than external promotion.

On Amazon, the Buy Box is the place in a product listing that is the first highlighted price option. In other words, the Buy Box provides prime visibility for products that win it. However, the only way to be placed on the Buy Box is if Amazon selects you. Getting chosen involves having a stellar reputation, products in stock, and other factors. Even then, you may still not be selected.

Another internal promotion method is to achieve a high ranking on Amazon’s in-house search results. Evidence has shown most consumers won’t move past the first page of products when searching, making a high ranking essential. While you can optimize your listings to appeal to Amazon search, thousands of other merchants will do the same.

As we move into a new decade, digital marketing is as hot as ever. It seems like any company that does not put in a lot of money into digital marketing is going to fall behind.

Of course, spending a lot of money is not always the recipe for success right away. It takes more than that to find a niche and start to excel. Using some of the top trends to keep an eye out for in 2020 is a better way to go, at least according to Erkan Kemiksizgil.

As a digital marketer himself, he knows how digital marketing will change the shape of the business industry and he has seen trends come and go throughout the years. He firmly believes that if a person sticks with these upcoming trends, they have a chance of really excelling.

Focus on all-in-one platforms

People don’t seem to care for the middleman any longer going into the new decade. It’s all about an all in one platform that a person can use to speed up the process. Expect it to become even more prevalent as time goes on, saving time, money and headaches.

They are still too many cases where digital platforms rely on each other to have success. Clicking one link after another to piece everything together is very time-consuming. Nobody wants to waste time doing all of that.

Emerging areas will dive into e-commerce

It might seem like e-commerce is everywhere these days, but there are still a lot of limitations. India is one major example of a country that is still getting its first taste of e-commerce and the digital world in general.

With these emerging markets, digital marketing will change a bit. Companies will go hard after these countries, even if they don’t have a ton of money to spend. There will also be companies that are selling products online from different parts of the world, trying to gain an international audience.

Artificial intelligence is here to stay

To make everything as automated as possible, a lot of people will start relying on artificial intelligence quite a bit. It makes sense in a lot of ways, because it speeds up the shopping process while saving money long term.

Digital marketers should look into investing in artificial intelligence as much as possible. The major companies are going to do it, but there are some inexpensive ways to count on AI as well.

Think green

Marketers will be as knowledgeable as ever about the latest trends when it comes to buying. A lot of people are very conscientious about the environment, so think green when providing new products.

It’s very easy to make headlines for all the wrong reasons in today’s world. All it takes is one misstep with marketing, and it can spread like wildfire. Think before posting, and don’t push the envelope too much. If it is a controversial topic, or terrible for the environment, it will make negative headlines.

The younger generation has more power than ever

It used to be that a lot of digital marketers did not pay much attention to the younger crowd. After all, they don’t have the same type of money to work with, and it just seems like a waste of valuable dollars.

Things are changing, and advertisers love influencing the younger generation earlier than ever. That will continue, as children become more tech-savvy and knowledgeable about new trends.

When we first heard of the terms “Search Engine Optimization”, “Pay Per Click Advertising”, and “Content Marketing” they were alien to us. It’s not that long ago actually! Now every CEO, and Marketing Director is aware of not only what these are and how they work, but are monitoring the results of these Digital Marketing campaigns every month in meetings, and looking to see improvements all the time. Those improvements are now in single digit percentages and when you zoom out and consider it, basically the campaigns are as optimized as they will ever be, and it’s just the ebb and flow of the market, and search volumes which are shifting.

So How do you Take Your Digital Marketing to the Next Level?

SEO and PPC are being employed by everyone, all of your competitors, you and everyone else. There might be small wins through changing to another Digital Marketing company who has a fresh approach, or software which analyses your keywords to the tenth degree, propelling you to the top of the results page for another few search terms, but essentially there’s not much more ground to win there.

Therefore, it’s time to look outside the box, at adding in new elements to your Digital Marketing Strategy. The best Digital Marketing companies out there are delivering transformative results for their Clients by adding Online Public Relations and Reputation Management campaigns to their overall strategy.

What are Online Reputation Management and Public Relations?

Like their traditional counterparts both are often seen as remedial, something goes wrong, a hot to your reputation, some negative press, quick employ an agency to repair it. But actually, if done proactively Online Reputation Management and Digital Public Relations campaigns can greatly affect not only your Search Engine ranks, but your Conversion Rates.

Think about it this way, Kim searches for “Whattsit Product” and is served a page of results so she browses through a few websites before making her decision based on price and features. However, imagine on the Results Page is a Media site which she trusts which is raving about a company that produce the product she wants, or a Review site which rates a company who provides that product with five stars. Kim is no longer going to base her decision on price and features, and better still she probably won’t even browse through several websites to look at alternatives. She’s going to pick the product that comes so highly recommended.

Online Reputation Management uses keyword analysis to identify where your brand is mentioned online and then building a portfolio of highly positive brand mentions which will dominate the first pages of a search. Review sites, industry bloggers, forums, all saying how great you are.

Digital PR again analyzes keywords for your brand, and sends relevant campaigns to journalists interested in those topics, at the time that there are breaking stories on that topic, citing you or your company as a leading source for advice.

Traditional marketing has always attempted to reach potential customers where they are most likely to be, either at home, driving, public transport etc… This marketing concept hasn’t changed, but the location of potential customers has.

Nowadays teaching your target audience translates to investing the majority of your marketing budget in digital marketing as it’s almost guarantee that your target audience is online. And this applies whether they are at home or using public transport for example. A company’s target audience undoubtedly will be found on the world wide web. So, it makes sense that ensuring your brand has a solid presence online, in other words, your digital marketing efforts, must be in line with this form of marketing, which is here to stay as the days of traditional marketing route only is long gone.

Never before has it been more important for the marketer responsible for an organisation’s digital marketing campaign to complete a digital marketing course to ensure that they not only fully understand the principles of digital marketing but also get a solid understanding of digital marketing techniques and tips.

Digital marketing overview

The aim of today’s marketer is not only to market to those who matter but to also make sure their brand, product and service retains a solid online presence but it’s also vital to constantly keep their digital marketing strategy up to date, in fact, you could say it’s a never-ending task.

The effective and successful promotion of your brand, products and services online is a definite skill and absolutely has to be part of an organisation’s marketing strategy. There are two main aims of all digital marketing strategies, which are increase website traffic and to monetise this traffic to increase overall revenue.

Digital marketing measurements

The great thing about digital marketing is that it’s measurable, which is a key benefit for any marketer. Knowing your target audience and being able to learn from analysing your digital marketing campaigns is key to online marketing success. Being able to accurately track response to your advertising campaigns is extremely advantageous.

Types of digital marketing

Since the appearance of the internet and more and more people being online the types of digital marketing have increased and show no sign of slowing down.Digital marketing options are endless and if incorporated correctly in an overall marketing strategythis form of marketing can have massive return on investment.

Digital marketing key principles

As we’ve established being able to measure digital marketing initiatives to show return on investment is important when it comes to influencing an organisation’s overall marketing decisions and to deliver results on investment.

Here are a few digital marketing key principles which help to improve return on investment.

• Measurement priority – Make measuring your digital marketing efforts a top priority and to constantly update your measuring techniques and tracking of your advertisements.
• Experiment often – It’s important to constantly experiment with your digital marketing mix and analyse which form of digital marketing performs the best for your business.
• Tacking – There are really great tracking tools available to help you actively track your digital marketing mix success. This key digital marketing principle is an absolute must that allows you to improve your strategy.
• Relative and authentic content – This is one of the most important principles of digital marketing as consumers face a daily barrage of content and it’s vitally important for them that the content they see is relevant to them.
• Marketing goals defined – Stating that you simply want your brand to be noticed online is no longer good enough for an effective digital marketing campaign. Your online marketing objectives need to be defined. Clear and precise goals digital marketing goals must be set as this can easily be overlooked.

Benefits of keeping digital marketing principles in mind

Despite digital marketing having been around for many years now there are still many people that still don’t quite understand all the benefits of a well planned digital marketing strategy. In fact, it’s been proven that companies who make us of all forms of digital marketing are almost three times likely to increase revenue growth.

Here are a few benefits of applying sound digital marketing principles

• Cost effective
• Increase conversation rates
• Increased online presence
• Brand awareness boost

Whether you are running a thriving business venture or are just getting started, a sales surge can help improve your bottom-line and give you a better market share. Video marketing can do wonders for your business by increasing brand awareness and qualified leads that generate actual sales.

To take full advantage of video marketing, you must identify the type of content that resonates with your target audience at any given moment. This is primarily determined by the user’s informational needs and what stage your target audience is at on the buyer’s process. Here are practical tips you can employ today to diversify your video offering so you can move you towards your business goals:

Product reviews and customer testimonials

Reviewing products in your line not only creates awareness but also makes shopping easier for your customer base. Clients that already trust you can click on your review videos to find new products that may be useful to them. A well-made product review should be short and entertaining, basically showcasing the best features of the product in question along with the whole experience of using it.

Compelling product reviews will likely amass a sizable number of customer testimonials that can be used to promote your brand further. Getting testimonials on record can be tricky, so you might want to bring a content marketing and creative agency on board with this one. The pros can help you select testimonial actors that look genuine and fun. Alternatively, you could offer your customers a discount for sending in review videos and have professional help with selection and editing.

Tutorials

These are short videos that can create brand awareness by answering vital questions that potential customers may have. By using an enjoyable and engaging style on the video, you can gain more visibility and drive more traffic to your site.

The main aim of a tutorial should be to capture the attention of potential buyers by giving them relevant product info merged smartly with soft selling and subtle promotional tie-ins. This will eventually build product trust and increase sales.

Consider working with a professional tutorial producer to create content that will resonate with your potential clients based on the product or service you offer. For instance, a gym could be better suited to training videos that offer workout tips, while a tech firm could focus on how-to videos or short product tutorials.

Your tutorial videos could also include helpful FAQ sessions where you take time to address common inquiries that customers may have. This can help clear any doubts customers might have, especially on new products, leading to more closed deals and increased product trust.

Animation videos

Animated explainers and presentations are a popular and fun way to engage with your target audience. Animated videos are not only cheaper to make compared to live action, but can also create a feel-good effect and be more entertaining. These videos can be especially effective in explaining complexities or creating comical effects on your site.

Creating the right video content for your specific customer needs can help you generate a greater marketing impact. Professionals such as Liquona can help you create video content that will really wow your clients and makes them keep coming back for more.

To read more on topics like this, check out the marketing category.