The holiday season provides excellent opportunities for scaling due to the overall increase in traffic on Amazon. Throughout November and December, impressions skyrocket, meaning more eyes on products site-wide.

One of the best ways to take a brand to the next level of scalability is to launch a product on amazon. With a genuinely good product and the right launch strategy, you can expedite the entire launch process due to the high sales traffic throughout November and December.

But with increased opportunities comes added risks, leading sellers to wonder…

How do I launch a product on Amazon during the holidays?

In this blog, we’ll outline the 8 steps for retail readiness, so you can launch your product successfully during Q4.

1. Listing Optimization

This is by far the most important aspect of a high traffic launch.

Your listing needs to be in tip top shape before you begin sending traffic to it. Remember - the best advertising in the world will simply be a waste of money if all of your traffic lands on a listing that isn’t optimized for conversions.

Make sure images are high resolution and large enough to trigger the zoom function, and always follow Amazon’s image guidelines (yes – always!).

Include relevant keywords in your title and bullets, but don’t “keyword stuff.” Your copy should be compliant with Amazon’s Terms of Service, well-written, and grammatically correct. Don’t forget to properly fill out your backend keywords and search terms.

Keep track of your highest priority keywords - you’ll be using these in your launch campaigns once your listing goes live (more on that later).

2. Amazon Vine Program

Now that you’ve got a great listing for a great product, it’s time to start getting some initial reviews. A lack of reviews is a conversion-killer, so scoring some early feedback will help build trust in the quality of your product. Amazon’s Vine Program is an easy way to get initial reviews “on the board” so you have a higher conversion rate on paid traffic.

3. Pricing

Keep your price as low as possible while attempting to score your early reviews. Once reviews are in, you can increase your price… but always remain competitive! Sellers in hyper-competitive categories may sometimes need to operate at break-even (or even at a slight loss) during the launch process in order to quickly secure early reviews.

If your product is similar to other products on the market, you’ll need to make sure your price point is enticing to potential buyers. If there is something special about your product that dictates a higher price, you need to properly explain and convey this throughout your listing.

4. Coupons / Lightning Deals

Coupons and Lightning Deals are another great way to reduce the friction of having a newer product that shoppers may be skeptical of. Further, you can stay competitive during the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales event with special holiday deals (or run them the week before and after if you were unable to secure a Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal).

Bonus Tip: Coupons that reduce by a dollar amount, rather than a percentage, tend to be more enticing to shoppers. Even if the value of the savings is the same, the perception of the dollar amount being reduced is easier to process for shoppers who are “scanning” the page.

5. Keyword Research

When launching a new product, especially during a high traffic period, be sure to base your copy and advertising targeting off of current, up to date keyword research. Main keywords should be placed in titles and bullet points and targeted in launch campaigns.

Fit as many secondary keywords into your listing as possible while still committing to a natural word flow. If you have trouble coming up with ideas, consider running a reverse ASIN search on a main competitor.

Keywords you can’t fit on the front end of your listing should be used as backend keywords.

Bonus Tip: Still having trouble thinking of keywords that might be relevant to your product (and engaging to customers)? Skim through reviews of similar products and see what actual shoppers had to say.

6. External Traffic

Amazon loves external traffic – especially when it converts well. Sending outside traffic from an existing email list or social media presence will help you get some early sales from shoppers who already like and trust your brand. This will help with keyword ranking and BSR.

If your brand has an existing email list or social media presence, this is a great way to break in new products.

7. A+ /Storefront Content

If you have Brand Registry (and if you don’t, we highly recommend that you make this happen ASAP), you may take advantage of creating A+ Content. A+ Content replaces the visible section of your Product Description and allows you to use high quality imagery and text to highlight the benefits of your product or cross-promote within your brand. A+ content increases brand trust and improves conversion rates.

Brand Registry also opens up the option to use a Storefront, which is a custom branded space (with its own unique URL) to showcase your brand, various product lines, and individual products. Certain types of ads can be run that bring shoppers directly to your Storefront (or even subpages), drastically improving your conversion rates.

8. Launch Campaigns

Utilizing Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands campaigns during the Honeymoon Period can send much needed traffic to new listings and expedite keyword ranking, BSR, and early reviews.

These campaigns should be turned on as soon as possible once your inventory is in and the listing is live. The Honeymoon Period is a finite period of time during which you’ll have an easier time ranking higher in search results, so take full advantage of it!

Bonus Resource: Learn more about the Honeymoon Period in this blog article.

Need Help Launching A Product and Managing Amazon PPC?

Entourage Management Services understands that your brand is multifaceted. From learning to launch a product on amazon, to advanced multi-device marketing, we use a holistic approach to managing all aspects of your Amazon advertising

To learn more about Entourage Management Services, click here.

Entourage: Software to Scale Amazon Ads and Results Driven Management.

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