Are you wasting money on an Amazon expert? If you don’t know how to answer that question, then the answer is probably “yes.” Here are 5 signs to look for.
5 Ways to Know Your Amazon Expert Is No Good
Just because you’re making some sales, and maybe even earning a profit, you’re eating into your bottom line with wasted consulting fees if your consultant isn’t offering any value.
Here are 5 ways to know that your Amazon expert isn’t any good.
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Your Amazon Expert Should Be Improving Your Sales Rank
Have you checked your sales rank lately? Have you checked it relative to where it was a year ago? A month ago?
In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, your sales rank shows how your products are selling in comparison to other products in your niche. The rank is like a golf score: a lower number is better.
So if your rank is going up, that’s a bad thing. As weird as that may sound.
How is it calculated? That seems to be a secret that Amazon engineers are keeping to themselves.
However, you can be sure that they’re using a very sophisticated algorithm to crank out that figure. In other words, it’s pretty accurate.
So if you’re seeing your sales rank increase over time, then it’s likely your Amazon consultant isn’t doing you any favors. Quite the opposite, really.
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Your Amazon Expert Should be Getting You Ranked
Part of your Amazon consultant’s job responsibility is SEO. If you aren’t moving anywhere in rank, then your consultant isn’t worth very much.
Keep in mind that there’s a special type of SEO involved with Amazon. That’s because when people search for products, they often visit Amazon directly instead of using Google.
That’s right. Amazon is a search engine.
If you aren’t looking at Amazon that way, or if your consultant hasn’t advised you to look at Amazon that way, then you’re going to limit yourself when it comes to sales.
Amazon’s ranking algorithm is called A9. Again, it’s a secret as to the numerous factors that go into determining rank, but there are plenty of experts out there who’ve learned some ranking factors by experience.
If your consultant isn’t helping you rank your products, then it’s probably time to look for somebody who can.
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Your Amazon Expert Should be Running Ads
Did you know that you can advertise your Amazon products on Amazon? Hopefully, your consultant told you that.
Amazon offers PPC sponsored products that allow you to rank at the very top of the search results. That’s probably going to land you some additional sales.
Keep in mind, though, that the cost per click will eat into your profit margin. Of course, Amazon charges a variety of other fees as well, so make sure you count the cost before you splurge on advertising.
Even better: Amazon will boost the organic rank of products that sell well with PPC ads. That’s a departure from how Google operates.
If you prefer a more sophisticated approach to marketing your products, Amazon also offers Amazon Marketing Services. That will give you the ability to run display ads, target competitors, and gain access to Amazon’s data on shoppers.
If your Amazon consultant hasn’t explained how you can use Amazon advertising to your benefit, then maybe that consultant isn’t such an expert after all.
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Your Amazon Expert Should do Price Testing
Hopefully you know about the 4 P’s of marketing: product, promotion, place, and… price.
It’s that last one that can be a real killer on Amazon if you aren’t careful. That’s because you’re up against cutthroat competition but still need to maintain a healthy profit margin to keep your business solvent.
So have you done any price testing?
If not, then you could be shortchanging yourself or losing customers because you’re charging too much. It’s a tightrope walk when you set your prices on Amazon, so make sure you’re getting advice from the very best.
- Review your top competitors
- Look at their prices
- Analyze your margins
- Set your best price
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Your Amazon Expert Should Recommend Looking at Competitors’ Reviews
Amazon allows customers to post reviews of products. It’s one of the best features of the website.
Although customers often browse reviews when they’re shopping, sellers should also browse the reviews of competitors to see if they have an advantage.
For example, you might notice that more than a few people give a competitor’s product 4 stars instead of 5 because of a missing feature. Yet, your product has that feature.
That’s when the light bulb should go off.
Now, you have an angle for marketing your product. You can advertise that it has a feature that’s missing in your competitor’s product.
Is your Amazon adviser telling you to look at competitors’ reviews? If not, then you’re not getting your money’s worth.
How to do it.
- Get find 10 competitors and put them into a sheet
- Review the best reviews and worst reviews
- Pull out the key information
- Use that to write your product descriptions and create your A+ content or enhanced brand content
Find A Good Amazon Expert Now
Don’t waste your time with someone who is not really a true Amazon expert, it can set your business back months. Take the time to review these item with your team, you will be happy you did.
