How Building Your Brand Outside of Amazon Boosts Sales

Not only do sellers need to take advantage of all branding opportunities within Amazon — PPC campaigns, promotions, EBC, optimized listings, etc. — but they also need to take advantage of opportunities outside of Amazon.

The bottom line of sales is that the higher your visibility, the higher your sales. So why limit yourself to just Amazon?

Building your brand outside of the Amazon platform itself can take your business to a whole new level. Amazon can only take you as far as its marketplace, leaving a whole realm of uncharted territory. Let’s dive into different ways you can promote your business outside of Amazon to affect your sales.

Social Media

Many sellers believe that social media is a waste of time. But they’re wrong. While social media isn’t where you will get quick sales, it does give you the opportunity to establish your brand and build a loyal following. You can also utilize social media to collect email addresses for other marketing efforts.

Social media is a long-term strategy. So, don’t expect to set up a Facebook Business account and get new sales rolling in. It’s important to develop a social media strategy to carefully bring potential customers to your Amazon product pages.

Here are some tips on how you can utilize social media to enhance your brand:

• Be consistent: Post regularly to show that you are still engaged with your audience. Different platforms will require more attention than others, depending on your business. Respond to comments, chats, and other feedback from social media followers.
• Be authentic: Don’t try and be something you’re not. Show your personality and be real. Your brand might be funny or professional. It could be a combination of both. Whatever it is, own it! And don’t push the sales side too much; that’s one sure way to drive followers away.
• Be wary of automation: Too much automation can make you seem inauthentic. While it can save you time, it takes away the human touch that you want to provide your social media followers.

If you can master each of these tips, then you are on your way to developing a strong social media presence.

Social Media Platforms

Now you might be wondering which platforms you should be on. Well, the truth is that each business is going to be different, but the rule is to be where your audience is. If your customers are on Twitter, create a Twitter account. If they aren’t, you probably don’t need to pay much attention to it.

You will need to be on multiple platforms; we recommend at least two. Most social media users have a Facebook account, so that’s a great place to start.

Website

Another way you can drive traffic to your Amazon listings is by setting up your own website. While Amazon provides a storefront for sellers to take advantage of, it’s nothing like having your own site.

The first benefit of having your own site is that you can do anything you want with it. Amazon has a lot of restrictions that might prevent you from representing a line of products the way you would like to.

Websites also allow you to build brand equity, while Amazon does not. When a shopper buys a product on Amazon, Amazon gets all of the credit for your sale, not you. Customers tend to care more about the product they are looking for than a brand.

This concept is illustrated by the tiny link to your brand on an Amazon listing. The most visible elements on an Amazon listing are the images and the title; your brand name gets very little real estate.

On your own website, you can devote space to your brand, your products, your company, your story, and anything else you’d like to feature. It’s all about you!

And you can get a new set of analytics to help you determine who your customers are. We like Shopify sites because they are pretty user-friendly and make Google SEO easy. Through your website, you can create special promotions, gather email addresses and contact information, and really understand a specific customer’s shopping patterns.

Here are some tips for managing your website:

• You don’t have to do it yourself: Many users are tempted to just build a website themselves. While this is possible, you may want to consider hiring a professional to set up your site and ensure that everything is running smoothly.
• Follow Google’s SEO best practices: Google’s algorithm is a bit more complicated than Amazon’s. Research current best practices and implement them on your own site. If you hire a third party to design your website, make sure they are up-to-date on SEO standards.
• Create a smooth user experience: Having a website doesn’t mean much if users can’t reach your end goal. Make sure that potential buyers can find the information they are looking for easily and that your CTAs are clear. Otherwise, you might lose customers before they even see your products.

At the end of the day, your own website will give you the freedom and flexibility that Amazon simply can’t beat.

Google Ads

If you are taking advantage of Amazon PPC, then you might want to consider Google Ads as well. Google ads show up at the top of a SERP (search engine results page). These ads appear before organic results and are a great way to boost brand visibility and draw in potential customers.

Google provides shopping ads, display ads, text ads, and YouTube ads to fit your marketing goals.

However, Google Ads aren’t exactly like Amazon ads. While the structure of the platforms is relatively similar, buyer intent might not be. For example, an Amazon shopper is on Amazon because they are ready to buy. They are looking for a specific product or type of product. A Google searcher might not be at that stage yet. They may just be doing their research.

Google Ads are still a great way to drive new customers to your Amazon listings or your website and put your product in front of a new audience. Ultimately, by driving outside traffic to your Amazon listings, you are showing Amazon that your product is valuable and something people are looking for, boosting your Best Seller Rank.

And if that isn’t reason enough, only 25% of Amazon sellers use Google Ads right now. That means by implementing a Google PPC strategy, you can get ahead of the competition!  

Here are some tips for creating your Google Ads:

• Drive traffic to a landing page: You might be tempted to drive traffic straight to a product listing, but we recommend that you drive traffic to a landing page instead. This landing page can capture emails in exchange for an Amazon promo code. This landing page can be housed on your website.
• Set up conversion tracking: Google Ads gives you the ability to set up conversion tracking for website clicks, actions taken on a page, etc. Take advantage of conversion tracking from the beginning of your Google Ads campaigns. Sellers can’t track purchases through Google Ads, but you can track clicks to Amazon and clicks for when someone enters their email address for an Amazon coupon.
• Create remarketing ads: If a potential shopper gets to your website and then leaves without taking an action, that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested. Maybe they are just doing extra research. Use remarketing to stay top of mind and get those potential buyers to convert.

For more information on how to build your brand outside of Amazon, give us a call!