Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) provides its third-party sellers game-changing services, including quality storage, shipping, and customer service. All you have to do is to apply and prepare your products, and all your logistical needs are taken care of.
In the e-commerce high road made accessible by Amazon to virtually anyone who has a retail business, the question remains: how does one stand out? If all your competitors use the same platform, how can you keep your sales on the rise and your competitive ranking stable? While there are too many factors to consider in pushing your business up the line in the FBA scene, one major aspect certainly sets aside the winners: marketing.
In the current e-commerce landscape, social media is one of the most used platforms for corporate advertising. Today, you can see ads ranging from clickbait photos to emotional videos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other popular social media. These platforms provide a spectrum of new advertising opportunities never seen before. There are many resources online where you can get quality online courses on marketing, such as journalreview.org, but to get you started, here are a few strategies in marketing your products better while in the FBA arena.
Market Analysis
There are two main analyses every business who wants to engage in social media must make: market and competition. Simply put, market analysis is gathering and interpreting data provided by your customers. If you know your buyers well, chances are you can highly improve your marketing strategies.
There are three main aspects of a market analysis:
- Industry overview
First, you have to research your product on social media. If you’re selling shirts, which platforms have the most ads about clothing merchandise? How is the shirt-selling industry going in social media marketing? You can scan your social media accounts and check existing ads to help you.
- Target market
What are your customers’ actual age and locations? Do you have an international potential? This technique in social media is an easy task since platforms provide business pages with actual market-targeting tools to filter out those who will receive your advertisements.
You might ask, why do you need to identify your market again in the middle of your business career? In the rapid flow of information online, there is importance in re-engaging your consumers toward your site. You don’t want to wake up one morning and see your sales go down because you’ve been talking to the same people over and over again using the same techniques.
- Pricing and forecast
Link your pricing to the economic class that you want to target. It will also help you to specify a portion of the market that you want to acquire; for example, you may want to get the attention of the fandom communities in your city for a start.
Social media is a goldmine for data analysis because all your consumers are already on it, and the creators of the platforms have already placed corresponding tools for you to use. Facebook, for one, has a feature called Facebook Analytics that page owners can use to track the behavior of people who visit their page. You can also use external tools such as Bitly, a link shortener, to check how many people click the links to your Amazon page.
Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis essentially means getting strategic insights from businesses who sell the same thing you’re selling. If you want to have an edge against your competition, you have to know which ones are at the top and what they’re doing. In this way, you’ll see where you stand in the rankings and what strategies you need to do, end, or change to rise. Here are a couple of tips to do it:
- Identify your competition
First, know what specific industries you belong to; examples are home and family, technology, and food. Then, you can start identifying competition. Start with the particular product that you’re selling; for example, search for Facebook pages of local niche restaurants. Know who are the best in the business. Next, try to zoom out a bit and identify other types of food places, such as fast food, fine dining, etc.
- Compare and contrast
Why do the best stay at the top? What are they doing differently? How did they reach that position? Ask questions like these and then study their pages. Business pages that are good in social media marketing are usually able to engage their viewers, have positive online reviews, and maintain a good online profile complete with quality photos and essential updates on their stores.
Upon applying these social marketing techniques, expect that you’ll know what to change in your own strategies. A better insight into your market and competition will make you realize the things that you’re doing wrong. In quick-changing platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, the best thing to do to stand out from your FBA competition is to reevaluate your situation and ultimately market your products better.