Are you ready to make the leap and start improving your Amazon™ listings to drive more revenue profitably? Hiring an Amazon Expert on your side when it comes to optimizing product pages is going to be huge for your brand's success. An Amazon Listing Expert can help take your listings to the next level by setting up, optimizing, and managing all of the technical details that go into successful listings.
This guide to 6 questions to ask/things to know will help you find the absolute right Amazon listing specialist or agency for your growing brand.
There are so many “experts” out there that claim to know the Amazon Platform so well but they may only know one or two parts. They use outsourced resources that have basic knowledge. Ask if they provide the following (hopefully they say yes to all!)
Working with a professional Amazon Listing Specialist has many benefits such as cost savings, improved visibility, and more specialist knowledge of the platform. They can also help you identify opportunities to further enhance your product page and increase sales.
Their expertise and experience will be invaluable when it comes to optimizing and managing your listings. Ideally they should have strategic experts in organic optimization, advertising optimization and strategic consulting to grow the business.
You don’t know what you don’t know! We talk to so many brands who think their listings are good but they are missing the key points and images that convert. Hiring experienced Amazon listing experts will use data, reviews, 3rd party tools and other input to answer all the questions a buyer could have about your product. This leads to increased conversion because they can see and read everything they need to decide to buy your product.
There are 4 important things to consider when optimizing organic listings. You can read about those here.
One that is often overlooked is reviews. Here's an example.
Using reviews is a powerful tool for improving your listings. For example, you have a great garlic press you’ve developed. Look for the less than 4 star products in your category and read the reviews. What do buyers like and not like? In one product we looked at, the customers didn’t like the following:
Dislikes
Likes
So, if we were writing a description and bullet points and creating images, we’d make sure to highlight the good things and address the concerns about other garlic presses.
XYZ Stainless Lightweight Garlic Press, Easy to Use for Chop, Mince, Press and Slice Garlic.
You may say additional things like Convenient, Durable, Easy to Clean, Made in the USA, etc. if those are true.
There are some great tools that will allow you to easily pick out highlights and lowlights of a certain product. One is the Helium10 Review Insights which you can view from any listing on an Amazon.com page. It will show you common words and phrases grouped by average stars and saves you from reading hundreds of reviews to quickly find out what buyers like and don’t like.
We see this one a LOT! More brands that we can fit in a room have come to us with a shutdown or listing problem of some sort. Typically, it is because they didn’t know about the words, phrases and claims that you can’t make on Amazon. Here are some to avoid.
What happens when Amazon finds one of these in your listing or back end terms? Typically, Amazon will block your listing. Then you have to appeal with Amazon after you remove the banned terms. Getting a listing reinstated can take days and weeks sometimes. Before hiring an amazon expert, ask about what words are banned and if they have experience with shutdowns.
Below are a list of words to avoid in your listing and backend.
Account suspension is real! We've seen it. Before suspension, the brand was doing $10,000,000 per month on Amazon and came to us when their whole account got suspended. After we emailed Jeff Bezos and many hoops, we were finally able to get their account reinstated when 3 other agencies had failed to do so.
It was what Amazon calls “review manipulation.” Amazon wants their customers to trust shopping on Amazon and customer trust is at the top of their values. Amazon prohibits fake reviews or incenting with free product or money in exchange for reviews. Does it happen? Yes, sometimes. Is it worth the risk? Definitely not. There are legal ways to get honest reviews and Amazon is fine with that.
In this case, the brand had given product to an influencer off Amazon and the influencer loved it so much she wrote a review on Amazon saying, “I love this product. I was given it for free and can’t tell you how it’s changed my life…” Well, they never asked the influencer to do this and she had no idea it would get their entire account shut down. An honest mistake cost them $5,000,000 in lost revenue over the 2 weeks.
Creative can improve a listing by SO MUCH! See this example below of a listing that we optimized and the results. So many “experts” may make pretty pictures but they’re not the ones that convert. Over the last 7 years, we’ve tested and perfected the listing optimization playbook including the right creative that converts.
We’ve seen increases in conversion that doubles with the right images. Which ones are important? All of them! But particularly focus on the 6 main images and video for each listing. Use the knowledge you’ve gained in reading reviews and make images that address all of the great and not great things of competitors and your product.
An Amazon Listing specialist or agency can say all the right things but the proof is in the pudding! Ask for case studies detailing how long they worked together, what they did and what the results were. Ask how long their longest client has been with them.
Now, if they can’t show you a case study or two, that’s a big red flag.
Here’s an example case study.
Overview
In February of 2022, a gardening and lawncare business was looking to grow their Amazon sales. They were looking for rapid growth in a shorter period of time, to increase profits and become more sustainable. So, they looked into hiring an Amazon Expert. That's where we, ROI Swift, came in.
Strategy
When ROI Swift was hired as their Amazon expert agency, we started our strategy by boosting and optimizing their product listings on Amazon, monitoring all campaigns to establish effective approaches to sales, and ensured their product listings remained compliant with the changing rules of Amazon. We continuously monitored and adjusted the approach to meet the market demands, and consistently optimized their listings to improve product visibility on Amazon. We also focused on keeping their ad spend low, at less than 5%.
Results
When it comes to investing in quality work for your brand’s future success, hiring an Amazon Listing Expert is a great place to start. An experienced professional can help you take your listings to the next level and give you the tools and guidance needed to make sure they are as successful as possible.
Following these tips to hire the RIGHT Amazon consultant will spare you wasted time, money and frustration.
So, take the first step and get an expert on board today!
So, take the first step and get ROI Swift onboard today!
Here at ROI Swift, we understand that maneuvering through the world of Amazon selling can lead to both excitement and challenges. That's why we're here! We're passionate about teaming up with brands who are eager to take their business to the next level with top-notch digital marketing strategies. Ready to partner with us? Schedule a call today and let's make your Amazon dreams a reality!
