Building and growing a strong brand on Amazon

Author: Laura North, Growth Manager at Nozzle

Amazon is a great place to sell your products, but it's also an amazing platform for building your brand as an entrepreneur. Whether you're launching a new business or trying to grow an existing one, Amazon has the tools and resources to help you achieve success. Here are some strategies for how you can build up your brand on Amazon for long-term success.

Optimize your SEO and keep up with trends

One of the most important things you can do to boost your sales is to optimize your Amazon listing. There are several ways you can do this, including optimizing metadata, using keywords in titles and descriptions, and ensuring that images used have high-quality and relevant product information.

Encourage your customers to leave reviews.

Customer reviews are an essential component to the success of your Amazon business. They provide credibility, demonstrate customer satisfaction and showcase the value of your product.

The best way to encourage customers to leave reviews is by sending out email reminders when they receive their order. You can also use package inserts for this purpose, but make sure that you're following Amazon's terms and conditions! (Don't ask for a review in the product description.)

Responding promptly to negative reviews has been shown to improve customer satisfaction ratings and boost sales activity on Amazon. If possible, try reaching out directly with concerns or offering solutions like a refund or replacement item if applicable. Don't be too disheartened if you receive a negative review; studies have shown that too many five-star reviews can actually appear untrustworthy! Customers want to see what's real, and how you deal with difficulties as a seller so they know if they're in good hands or not.

Use the power of email

Email marketing can help you build trust and relationship with your customers, which can lead to loyalty.

On Amazon, you have the opportunity to open a line of communication with your customers through email. This allows you to communicate directly with them in a way that was not possible before.

Email marketing is a powerful tool for building brand awareness, customer relationships and loyalty because it's personal and direct. Again, just make sure you keep on the right side of Amazon’s terms and conditions to avoid getting removed from the marketplace!

Tap into the expertise of others, build a network

You can tap into the expertise of others. Life is too short to reinvent the wheel, so look for people who are willing to share their knowledge with others. You may have a unique and valuable perspective on a certain subject matter, but other people might know more about it than you do. Learning from others will help you grow as a person and make connections with like-minded individuals who can provide insights into your business or industry that would be hard for you to discover on your own, especially when starting out. 

There are tons of seller groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, and even Discord with plenty of experienced Amazon sellers looking to share their experience and knowledge. But remember o give as much as (or more) than you get. When building your network, look for opportunities to help others whenever possible—this will not only make them more likely to assist you down the road when needed but also allow them a chance to reciprocate when they need something from someone else in their network as well! 

Remember: It takes years (if not decades) before any type of success happens overnight so patience is key!

Create a data-driven marketing plan

If you don't have a clear idea of how your business is doing, it can be difficult to make smart decisions.

To start, identify the data points that will help you understand how your brand is performing on Amazon. These could include things like:

• Customer purchase behavior (e.g., what they buy, when they buy, and the products they browse)

• Conversion rates (i.e., how many people purchase an item after browsing it)

• Customer retention rate (e.g. how many customers purchased more than once)

• Customer acquisition cost vs. Customer lifetime value - the relationship between how much you spend to gain a customer, and how long that relationship lasts is a crucial measure of your profitability.

Let’s break those down a little:

Customer Purchase behavior

As an Amazon seller, it's essential to understand your customers' purchasing habits and behaviors. By analyzing customer purchase behavior, you can gain valuable insights into what drives your customers to buy-  and when - to make sure you optimize your marketing budget to target customers at the right time. 

• Improved customer loyalty: By understanding what your customers like and dislike about your products and services, you can make changes and improvements to increase customer loyalty.

• Increased sales: By identifying trends in customer purchasing behavior, you can better predict future sales and make informed decisions about marketing and inventory management.

• Improved customer experience: Analyzing customer purchase behavior can help you understand what motivates your customers to buy, allowing you to optimize the customer experience and increase the likelihood of repeat purchases.

• Better targeting of marketing efforts: By understanding the characteristics and purchasing habits of your most valuable customers, you can tailor your marketing efforts to better target these customers and drive more sales.

Conversion rate:

Conversion rate is probably the metric we hear about most in ecommerce, but how can it contribute to you building your brand on Amazon? Here are a couple of ways analysing your conversion rate will help your brand-building strategy:

• You can identify areas for improvement: By understanding your conversion rate, you can identify areas of your product listing or customer experience that may be causing potential buyers to drop off. This can help you make improvements to increase conversions. Measuring the impact of those changes over time can help you pinpoint exactly what works for your customers.

• Helps with optimizing your marketing efforts: By understanding which marketing channels and campaigns are driving the most conversions, you can better allocate your marketing budget and focus on the tactics that are most effective for your business.

Customer Retention Rate:

Customer retention rate - the percentage of customers who continue to make purchases from your business over time – is critical for the long-term success of your business. Here are a few reasons why boosting customer retention rates can be so beneficial:

• Increased sales: Repeat customers tend to spend more money over time, so boosting customer retention rates can lead to increased sales and revenue for your business.

• Reduced acquisition costs: It's generally cheaper to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones, so boosting customer retention rates can help reduce your acquisition costs and improve your bottom line.

• Enhanced reputation: A high customer retention rate is often seen as a sign of a reputable and successful business, which can help attract new customers and improve your overall reputation.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

As an Amazon seller, understanding and maximizing your Amazon customer lifetime value (CLV) is essential for the long-term success and profitability of your business. CLV is the total amount of money a customer is expected to spend on your products and services over the course of their relationship with your Amazon business.

 By understanding and maximizing CLV, you can better allocate your marketing resources, improve customer retention, make more informed decisions, and increase profitability. 

Here's a more detailed look at how to understand and maximize CLV as an Amazon seller:

How do you calculate CLV? 

The first step in understanding CLV is to calculate it for your business. There are a few different methods for calculating CLV, but a common approach is to use the following formula: 

CLV = (Average order value x Average gross margin) x Average customer lifespan

To use this formula, you'll need to know the average order value, your margins, and average customer lifespan (or average retention period) for your business. You can use data from your sales records and customer demographics to estimate these values, or use a customer analytics tool for Amazon sellers to calculate it for you.

Identify high-value customers: Once you have calculated your CLV, you can use this information to identify your high-value customers. These are the customers who are most valuable to your business based on their expected lifetime spending. By focusing on retaining these customers and acquiring more like them, you can increase your overall CLV and profitability.

Optimize the customer experience: One of the key ways to maximize CLV is to optimize the customer experience. This means providing excellent customer service, offering high-quality products and services, and making it easy for customers to purchase from your business. By enhancing the customer experience, you can increase the likelihood of repeat purchases and customer loyalty.

With these strategies, you can grow your brand on Amazon.

In conclusion, building a successful brand on Amazon requires strong goals, a clear understanding of your target audience, and a data-driven approach. By setting specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals (SMART goals) and using data to track your progress and make informed decisions, you can effectively build and grow your brand on Amazon. 

Additionally, by understanding your customers' needs and preferences and constantly seeking to improve the customer experience, you can increase customer loyalty and drive more sales. Building a brand on Amazon is not an easy task, but by following these strategies and staying focused, you can create a strong, recognizable brand that stands out from the competition.