What's the biggest driver of customer loyalty on Amazon? A customer-centric business.
That's largely because what goes for Amazon, goes for brands that sell on Amazon.
But you can't develop customer-centricity without customer loyalty. And you can't drive customer loyalty without sales first.
While sales may seem like they're entirely contingent on good luck (as well as a good product), you're going to need a plan and methodology in place first. You're going to need definitive goals. And you're going to need a thorough understanding of your potential customer's journey on Amazon.
In short? You're going to need an Amazon sales funnel.
But Amazon sales funnels work just a little bit differently than traditional sales funnels. And to build one effectively, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
Why Your Amazon Sales Funnel Matters
Sales. Just like any other business, you need them. Just like any other eCommerce business, you can only get them by driving traffic. And what’s one of the most consistently successful ways of turning casual browsers from curiosity to conversion on Amazon?
Sales funnels.
Yes, you may have heard from self-styled digital marketing gurus that the sales funnel is dead. And they should know. After all, they likely sent you a link to their content directly as a result of their own sales funnel.
But Amazon is its own beast altogether. If you’ve been selling on it for a while, we probably don’t have to tell you that their marketing protocol isn’t particularly seller friendly. In fact, it can seem practically Draconian.
But is that really the price you have to pay to sell on Amazon?
Not necessarily so. You can still build effective Amazon sales funnels that will not only boost traffic but will help you stay within Amazon’s guidelines. The key word is effectively.
An effective Amazon sales funnel will rely on knowing the mindset of your potential customers. That can be easier said than done, particularly for new-to-launch products. But the phases of an Amazon sales funnel aren't much different than the phases of a traditional marketing funnel: a.) awareness, b.) interest, c.) decision and d.) action.
But just how you get to point d from point a can vary dramatically.
Don’t Drive Traffic Directly to Your Listing
Not driving external traffic to your listing might seem to contradict everything you may have heard about developing an Amazon marketing funnel. But it doesn't.
That's because driving traffic directly to your Amazon listing has historically resulted in two significant drawbacks: lower sales and lower conversion rates.
There’s a million different explanations why untargeted external traffic directly to an Amazon listing tends to fail, but let’s start with simple common sense.
Nobody likes a hard sell. And no one likes blatant pandering in marketing. Not on Amazon, and not on most other online platforms.
One of the key reasons behind Amazon’s dominance as a retailer goes hand in hand with their size: people like choices.
They like to browse. They like to compare products. And the more choices they have, the more informed their purchases are going to be. And chances are, your customers who are browsing on Amazon are still in the awareness stage of your marketing funnel.
Anyone can offer a product for sale. But can your product sell itself?
Your Secret Weapon—Your Email List
It's a chief dilemma with early sales on Amazon. You know the customers are out there. But you just don’t know how to reach them.
Amazon won’t contact them directly to inform them of your new product line. You’re going to have to do it yourself. You might think an email campaign will simply wind up filling thousands of spam filters. But you’d be mistaken.
It’s been estimated that the average ROI on email marketing is roughly 3800 percent. That’s not exactly a small amount. But if you still don’t believe us? A recent survey from SaleCycle indicated that 59 percent of consumers reported that direct emails had a significant influence on their purchasing decisions.
Customers like personalization almost as much as they like choice. And they’ll almost never turn down the chance for an early sale discount.
Can I Create One Myself?
Optimizing your email marketing campaigns relies on creating a compelling campaign. But there's a drawback in doing so.
You may simply not have enough time to create one, much less know the first thing about driving internal traffic to your Amazon listings. Crafting a compelling campaign doesn't just mean announcing a new product line. It means creating a direct connection to your customers in a language that speaks to them personally.
A product that has a steady sales history is likely to retain that momentum. But for new-to-launch products, that means understanding the needs of your potential customers through competitive analysis. And competitive analysis may not be a resource you have available to you.
That's why working with an outside agency can prove invaluable in designing an active email campaign. They’re not just fully aware of the dilemmas facing new Amazon sellers. They’re aware of the strengths (as well as the weaknesses!) of your products and how to present them in the best possible light.
Use Your Landing Page to Your Advantage
A landing page is ideal to capture emails, and there’s a very good chance many of you have already developed weekly newsletters for your email list as a result of one. And there’s a very good chance you’ve already invested in solutions to drive traffic to your site without Amazon.
But are you using your landing page to your full advantage?
People aren’t going to give away their email for free. It’s not enough to simply reassure them you won’t sell or trade their address (please don’t!) For some businesses, this can mean offering discounts and promotions, exclusive invites, free ebooks… anything that adds a sense of additional value.
More specifically, sending promo codes prior to your launching. Single use promo codes don’t just garner buzz for your product. They drive conversion. They boost sales. And they ultimately drive long term customer loyalty—one of the most critical goals imaginable in any Amazon sales funnel.
Promotion codes create an atmosphere of exclusivity for your customers—a feeling that they hold a unique privilege in seeing your new product line before it even launches.
It’s not just an enticement for both your current and your potential customers. It’s an enticement that helps create an overall customer experience; an experience that helps you stand apart from your competitors.
Refine Your Social Media Outreach
Customer acquisition cost doesn't necessarily mean spending thousands of dollars on Google ads to drive traffic to your Amazon store. In fact, it can be practically free.
That's because your loyal customers aren't just your customers. They're not passive consumers . They're the backbone of your business. They're your advocates. And they're connected to your brand in a fiercely devoted and uniquely personal way.
In short? They're your tribe. And you need to interact with your tribe in the most personal and honest manner possible.
Social media outreach isn't simply a question of interacting with your customers. When optimized correctly, it can tell you more than you could ever imagine about their hopes, their needs, their pains and their fears.
And it can help refine both your product line as well as your own marketing sales funnel.
No matter what social media channel you're currently using, you can help merge both the awareness phase and the interest stage of your marketing funnel by directly targeting your followers by using direct messaging for exclusive invites and product launches.
Social media management may seem like a process, but it's as profitable as it is organic. Conversion rates have been estimated to be as high as 40 percent for businesses currently providing customer service through social media.
That includes Amazon business.
When Your Amazon Sales Funnel Isn't Working on Amazon
One of the biggest complaints we hear from new sellers is that their sales and marketing funnels simply aren't gaining any effective traction for their Amazon business. There's a very good reason for that.
Not only does the world of digital marketing operate differently from traditional marketing, but Amazon is its own unique entity.
A solid marketing campaign on Amazon needs to factor in a mix of paid advertising (including sponsored brands and sponsored product ads), social proof, listing and keyword optimization, organic conversions and external traffic campaigns—all of which are metrics that will vary dramatically according to your own needs.
With advertising spend amounts at an all time high, Amazon sellers need to focus their sales funnel on long-term benefits, not short-term ones. Building a brand on Amazon may not always be an immediate phenomenon. And there's no such thing as guaranteed success.
can be a time-consuming process, even if you happen to be selling in a high volume product category. And new-t0-market brands may not always have the time or expertise to transition to Amazon successfully. But at the end of the day, what matters is the strength of your product.
Learning to develop your product successfully won't just build your brand. It will build loyalty. And loyalty is a factor that reaches far beyond any marketing funnel.
Are your sales and marketing campaigns not reaching their full potential on Amazon? We can help. Find out more at Color More Lines.