Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest online shopping days of the year. For Amazon sellers, this is an opportunity to boost sales and get products in front of a plethora of potential buyers.
To help you get started, we’ve put together our best Amazon-specific holiday marketing tips to help you reach your Amazon goals and improve your bottom line this season.
Optimize Your Amazon Product Listing for the Holidays
A key part of your Amazon marketing strategy is making sure your listings have an optimized Amazon product description. This is even more important as the holiday season brings a major increase in traffic.
Your listing should be optimized so that the Amazon search engine can find it, and it should also be compelling so that consumers will buy it.
Keywords and keyword phrases are important to include in your listing. During the holiday season, add holiday-based language where it’s applicable in your listing. This includes words related to gifts, gift-giving, holiday sales, product bundles or stocking stuffers.
As you write the listing, make sure it flows naturally. Avoid keyword stuffing, as this can be a turn off for potential buyers, and don’t forget that keyword-stuffing with repetitive keywords will not strengthen your listing. For more details on how to write your Amazon product description, check out this blog post.
Perform Relevant Keyword Research and Optimize Amazon Ads
Keywords connect what people are searching for on Amazon to the product you are providing. When the right keywords are used, visibility for your products will increase and boost your business’ success. With the flood of holiday traffic, it’s important to refine your keywords and optimize your ads beforehand.
One place to begin your keyword research is Google. Start by typing a keyword or keyword phrase in the Google search bar, then look for related searches. You can also monitor keywords over time with Google Trends to see what keywords have an upward trend. This will give you an idea of what words or phrases people will use when searching for your product, and can be especially helpful during the holiday season as people begin shopping for deals and gifts.
In addition to conducting your own Keyword research, there are a variety of keyword tools, both free and paid, you can use. Check out this list of keyword research tools and tips we put together for more information.
You also need to consider your advertising budget for the season. Often times, businesses will boost their ad budget in response to the seasonal competition. Analyze the profitability of seasonal advertisements and determine how much you are willing to spend on promotional efforts. Consider placement in key competitive categories and participation in Amazon’s promotions.
Update Amazon Listing Photos and Videos With a Holiday Flair
Photos and videos are often the first thing customers will see when they click on your product on Amazon. As the holiday shopping season picks up, updating your photos and videos to match the season will help draw in holiday shoppers.
Think of ways to fit holiday themes into your content. Just as you added holiday language to your description, get creative with your holiday photo and video ideas — change up the colors to match the holiday themes, or swap out your product photos for holiday photos or videos that center around gift-giving, family gatherings or any holiday activities that match your product so that consumers can better visualize how your product fits into their life or their holiday shopping.
Ensure Inventory Quantities
If you have multiple products, look at your sales reports and prioritize your products in order of top sellers. Review what you have, and determine what products will become heroes of the season and use that guide your inventory decisions if needed. Ensuring you have enough inventory should happen well before the holiday shopping season begins.
Also be aware of Amazon warehouse deadlines and consider how much inventory you need to have ready to ship. This is especially important if you use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). FBA releases specific dates as the holidays draw closer, but in 2018 inventory for Black Friday and Cyber Monday needed to arrive at fulfillment centers by November 5, and inventory for shipping by Christmas needed to arrive by December 5.
Create a Sales and Promotions Strategy for Your Amazon Listing
Now that you’ve updated your listing and keyword research for the holidays, start thinking about your promotions strategy.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are some of the busiest shopping days on Amazon, so it is important to have a marketing strategy in place leading up to these holidays.
After Cyber Monday, Amazon offers weekly promotions, sales and events in which independent brands can participate. Do some research and take a look at what Amazon offers and determine which promotions you want to participate in, if any. There are fees to participate, so take this into consideration when determining your overall budget.
If you don’t want to participate in one of these deals, brainstorm the other types of promotions you can offer. Can you offer a discount coupon? What about product bundles? Holiday shoppers will be looking for deals, so it is important to offer something that will catch their eye.
Improve Your Product Review and Seller Feedback Scores
Positive Amazon reviews are important because they improve your listing’s rank and encourage buyers to purchase from you. The holiday season is the perfect time to get your product in front of potential customers, and reviews are a great way to convince newcomers to give your product a chance.
When creating a strategy for product reviews, keep in mind that Amazon has certain rules and regulations in place regarding reviews. However, there are a variety of ways to encourage positive reviews that comply with Amazon’s requirements. Check out these tips we put together to improve your Amazon reviews.
In some instances, you can refute negative feedback. However, you need to familiarize yourself with what Amazon deems acceptable. If a review does not meet Amazon’s standards, it can be refuted. Also, if you use Fulfillment-by-Amazon, you can refute any reviews about shipping or something that was out of your hands. Run through all of your reviews and refute any negative reviews that do not apply to your listing to ensure that your score is as high as possible.
Revisit Your Amazon Packaging and Inserts
Product packaging is a good way to resonate with the customer. If you give them a positive experience when they open the box, this increases the chances that they’ll purchase from you again.
Many Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers are looking for holiday gifts. Good product packaging is an added bonus because it relieves them of extra effort they would otherwise have to put into boxing and wrapping their gifts. If you have a Professional selling plan, you can offer gift wrapping. Consider offering this during the holiday season.
Your product packaging not only affects customer retention and experience, but it also can directly, financially influence your bottom line. Think about the size of your product and packaging and consider how much you are willing to spend, as Amazon has a pricing scale for dimension and weight for FBA Sellers.
If you need help designing your Amazon product packaging, our product development team has years of experience in the product packaging and sourcing world and can help guide through the process of finding your perfect packaging.
Are you ready to put together your Amazon holiday marketing strategy? We can help! We are experts on all things Amazon and know what our clients need to succeed, especially during the holiday season. Get in touch with our team today to find out how we can help you reach your Amazon goals this holiday season.
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