Amazon is everywhere. It occupies the first half of most Google search results, it subtly reminds you of those tennis shoes you were looking at the other day while you’re on Facebook, and it emails you letting you know your favorite clothing brand is on sale. With over 244 million active users, Amazon is doing more than just something right. Here I’m tapping into some of the high-level, yet highly effective marketing and sales strategies Amazon uses and how you can use it to grow your small business online.
Upsell Your Products
So I live by a lake and was just thinking that it’s time to get myself a boat! Not a yacht, just an inflatable raft. Naturally, I found myself on Amazon, clicking on one that looked interesting and Amazon immediately, yet subtly tries to upsell me with an additional tube. Although I wouldn’t be getting a discount on purchasing both the items, how the information is displayed (paired together) actually makes it feel that way. Pretty convincing – spurring thoughts that it would be nice to have a buddy floating next to me.
Takeaway:
The moral of the story? Don’t miss out on the opportunity to upsell your customers. Whether you’re offering an additional percentage off for pairing products or services or just giving them the opportunity to enhance their experience, utilizing upselling techniques is a great way to generate additional sales.
Cross Selling Products or Services
Another technique Amazon capitalizes online is cross selling. Any time you view a product, you’re greeted with a lovely widget that informs you of other products people bought along with the product you’re looking at. You mean I could have an inflatable raft, extra oars and a wireless, travel router that I can use to play Pandora while I float? Sure!
Takeaway:
Set up a system which pulls similar or related products or services. These should be ones that have some sort of relation to the product or service they are looking at and would enhance your customer’s experience. Then, boom, you get the extra sale.
Emotion-Evoking Messages
One of the first things I see when I go to amazon.com is the eye-catching images greeting me. But these aren’t just any images. These are emotion-evoking images with simple messaging that are purposefully integrated with one of the products or services they are selling. Wouldn’t you want to be going somewhere tropical where you could read a good book on your new kindle? Yeah, me too. Click.
Takeaway:
We’re beyond the times when you could get by with dry messages and plain stock photos. Today, if you want to stand out from the crowd and truly connect with potential customers, you need to leverage imagery and messaging to do so. Skip the paragraphs of daunting information, and update your site with click-worthy images that communicate a simple message to draw people towards your products and services.
Give Back
Although Amazon is a global brand with over a billion business facets (honestly, does anyone even know how many?), it still understands the importance of social good and giving back. People love brands that care about more than just their bottom line. Like Amazon, most businesses give back in some way, but not everyone communicates that. Amazon does a great job of letting their consumers know how they’re involved (i.e. smile.amazon.com, donations, etc.), and it’s helped to build up their credibility with current and new consumers.
Takeaway:
The truth is, most businesses are already involved in some way within their communities. However, more often than not your customers have no idea. Trust me, your customers want to know how you’re involved. It’s not about bragging or puffing up your chest; social responsibility is a very real thing, and your customers want to spend their money with companies that care about more than just their paychecks.
Clear Messaging
Amazon knows that it gets visitors of all walks of life, education levels and cultures, yet it hits the ball out of the park at getting its message across. Amazon uses simple, yet impactful messaging to communicate everything is offers, whether its through promoting a product special or “reminding” you to buy that item you left in your shopping cart.
Takeaway:
Don’t overcomplicate your messaging. Remember you’re talking to real people not robots, and they’re not into fancy jargon and don’t want all the details right away. Need help coming up with those taglines? These messaging tips can be useful!
Remarketing
A lot of the marketing strategies and messages Amazon uses are quite discreet. However, it’s remarketing strategy is more like the kid kicking your seat during your 3-hour flight, and it’s works! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been surfing the web or was catching up with my family on Facebook and there’s an Amazon ad reminding me that those running shoes that I kept looking at are still waiting for me to order them. So what do I do? Click on the ad and order it, obviously.
Takeaway:
Remarketing is a powerful, yet relatively cheap way to target interested and engaged people that have already visited your website by enticing them to come back or complete their purchase. Simply put, if you’re not doing it, you should start. Find out more about the benefits of remarketing here.
Product/Service Reviews
I don’t know about you, but I can just image myself sinking to the bottom of the lake because I bought a raft that was well known for its leaky seals. Flashes of Castaway run through my mind.
Obviously, if I’m going to be floating out in 50 feet of water, I want a reliable product that I can count. And what better way to figure out which raft is best than by looking at the customer reviews.
Takeaway:
With 90% of people claiming that their buying decisions are influences by online reviews (People Claim), product/service reviews should jump to the top of the marketing to-do list right now. Yes, there are times that the reviews may not favor your products or services, but if you can devise a system where you can showcase real, customer reviews on your website, it’ll help your sales in the long run. Plus, you can use systems like Boast or Rating Widget to practically do all the work for you.
Limited Time Offers
“Today Only Deal!”
Messages like that make you feel a sense of urgency to either commit (often bypassing the point where you usually talk yourself out of it) or flee. Trust me, I’ve gotten pants that are two sizes off because I was in so much of a hurry to snag the deal. Buthaha to all those other people who didn’t get those Nike pants for 80% off!
This time release strategy is also a strangely-effective way to get people to come back to the Amazon website, weekly if not daily, because people don’t want to miss out on any great deals. A quicker sale AND return website traffic? Now that’s success.
Takeaway:
Providing special pricing and deals to customers for a limited amount of time is an effective way to push people through the decision phase and into the sale quickly. Integrate limited time specials and promotions into your marketing calendar to get people to come back to your website and spend some bucks.
All of these strategies aren’t just for the big players like Amazon; they’re also great techniques that small, hometown businesses can implement on their websites. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the business for 50 years, slowly integrating these techniques into your website and marketing plan will not only help to grow your business over time but also provide an even better experience for your customers.
Have you had any success (or failures) with any of these techniques for your business?