3 things you MUST do before you publish your first Amazon listing

Welcome to the bring your product idea to life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.

I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started.

Hi. So today we are going to talk about the three things you must do before you publish your first Amazon product listing.

If you're at this stage, by the way, congratulations. It's really exciting and also possibly a bit nerve wracking to ready to launch your first listing on Amazon. But congratulations for getting here.

This episode is really about outlining three things I want you to check before you hit publish on those listings.

Because as you've heard me speak about before, the best thing you can do on Amazon is to get things right at the, at the outset so you're not having to go back in three months, six months when you're not selling as much as you'd like and rework your product listings. Let's get it right from the start. Today I'm going to go through the three things I'd like you to think about.

The first thing is to make sure you're using the right keywords so your customer might not search in the same way that you do. They might not use the same words. Give you an example of what I mean.

Here is a friend of mine was telling me that she was looking for a poncho on Amazon. And I was like, you know, interesting, but I can't find any. And I was saying what sort of poncho?

Anyway, through this conversation, what I actually realized is what she was looking for was a hooded towel. You know, like the kind of towel that kids use when they've been to the beach or swimming the hood and you put it over their head.

Well, she was looking for one of those and she was searching for poncho. But what she was getting was like the plasticky things that you wear in the rain if you know you, if hopefully you understand what I mean.

And all this was down to was, was wording.

So using this example, if some of the, you know, the products she was looking for, some of these hooded towels had used the word poncho, presumably she would have been able to find them a little bit easier. So this is something that's really important because you know what your product is, you know how you would describe it.

But it's really important to use the words your customers are actually using when they're searching for your products. When you've been selling on Amazon for a while, particularly if you're running Amazon ads, you can actually get this sort of data.

And it's really, really interesting to see what people are searching for to find your products. When you're starting off, it's your first product listing, obviously you don't know. So let's think of some ways you can find this out.

First of all, you can use Amazon search bar to see what suggestions come up for, you know, the main keywords that you've got in mind. I think I've outlined this before. There's definitely a video on YouTube showing you how to do this.

But basically if you use the Amazon search bar and you type in keyword related to your product. So let's say you are selling hooded towels and you type hooded towel into the Amazon search bar.

Amazon will then show you suggestions of what other customers who've typed hooded towel have also typed into Amazon. And these are ranked of like the one they search for the most at the top and the least at the bottom.

So you might type in hooded towel and it might say hooded towel, blue hooded towel for kids. I actually should have brought up Amazon so I could see what it really brings up. You can do this along with me for fun.

Then you actually see, but hopefully that's helpful. So that's the first way you can get some ideas of the kind of words that you can use.

You can also look at products similar to yours on Amazon to see what terms are they using. So what, particularly in their product titles, what are some of the words that they are using in their product titles?

Particularly, what are words that a lot of your competitors seem to be using? I want to say right here as well, please, please, please don't copy their product listings. That's not what I'm suggesting at all.

But this will just give you an idea of, you know, the kind of phrasing that they're using. Because you will start to see, if you look at a couple of products similar to yours, you will start to see similarities.

And if they're all using a certain keyword or phrase, there will be a reason for that. And the reason will be is that they know that people are searching for it and it's highly searched.

Something else you can do is look at reviews for products similar to yours because this will give you an idea of the language that your customer is using. So for example, if you're reading reviews for. Let's go back to the hooded towel example.

If you were reading reviews for a hooded towel and you kept seeing people using the word poncho. An example I gave before.

I don't know if they are or not by the way, but let's say they are, then you know that's a word that customers are actually using and that's another one that you can put into your product listing.

So because having good keywords, the whole reason I'm trying to get all this across is having good keywords helps you RAM as an SEO, which helps you with your visibility and ranking and overall helps you with sales.

I should say at this point as well that not all of the keywords and search terms that you identify as being good ones to use in your product listing will work in your listing. So for example, you might, if you do some keyword research, you might find there's a certain brand name that lots of customers are searching for.

Now your product might be exactly the same as this brand, but obviously you can't use their name in your listing. However, keep a note of that because it's something you can perhaps use in your paid advertising.

And if it's not a brand name, but let's say it's a, it's a word or phrase that's similar to your product that doesn't really fit in the listing, you can use that in your backend search terms as well. But you can't put other competitors names in your backend search terms. So be aware of that.

There are some paid tools you can use for keyword research. So I use Jungle Scout. I've also used Helium 10, but if you don't want to invest in those, you can do a lot of your research.

As I say, just using the Amazon search bar and seeing what comes up when you type in different terms. Don't use Google AdWords for this because it is different.

By all means, you could use it as a starting point to get those keywords that you're then going to plug into Amazon to see what Amazon suggests. But Google and Amazon SEO can be slightly different, so don't just go with that.

Although the main thing is, I guess the bottom line is just make sure you are optimizing your listing research. Whether you do all or some of what I've suggested here. The main thing is that you've got a product listing that's, you know, really well written.

We'll talk about that a bit later, contains all the information your customer needs, but also is, you know, does have a chance of coming up in the search results and knowing what keywords and Things people are searching for will also help if you want to run some ads and try and get some paid for search as well. So that's the first thing. The second check to do before you publish your listing is have a look at your images.

So your main product image must be really high quality. Customers must be able to zoom in on it. And it needs to be on a plain white background. That is an Amazon requirement.

But beyond that, you can do what you like of your images. But of course I have some thoughts on this. I definitely think that every great Amazon product listing should include some lifestyle images.

These are images that show the product in use. So let's say you're selling hair products. Products. You might show them sat on a bathroom shelf. You might have some.

You might show someone, if it's shampoo, actually washing their hair. Maybe you might have a close up to show how it. Lava. Is that the right word? You might share some before and after images.

If you sell a garden toy, you might show it actually in the garden. You should show it in the garden. You'd probably want to show some children playing with it to give ideas of how it's used.

Maybe also images that show the size of it. Perhaps because that's something that's sometimes hard when you buy something online.

You should also have some images that highlight the key benefits and features. So you could have text or icons that show various features of your products.

So for example, if your product is vegan or it's gluten free, or it's sustainable or it's, you know, whatever it is, because it really just really depends based on your products. But there's some key points about your products, have them in the images. Maybe you've won awards.

Have images to demonstrate that, as I say, if your product is something that's hard to size, have images that just show what the size is. Images are there really to help build trust, help people make quick decisions.

Because I'm sure we've spoken about this before, not everyone's going to read all of your text, but most people will flick through the images. So images are a great way of reiterating your key messages.

So anything that's in your, your product listing text, if that's your title, whether that's your bullets, that's really, really key. See if you can get that onto an image.

Either an image that shows what you're trying to convey, because they do say an image, it's a thousand words, or an image with overlaid text. Pulling out some of these key features is really really important.

And finally, when we're talking about images, remember if you have brand registry, you can also use a content. It gives you more space for more images and more text if you want that as well. And you can also add video.

That's something we haven't spoken isn't necessary. But if you have a video that shows how your product is used, maybe it shows the unboxing experience, anything at all that gives a customer more.

If you have it, then definitely, definitely use it. And then the third thing I want you to look at before you hit publish on your listing is, is your listing written for your customer?

Because you obviously know exactly what your product is, you know exactly who it's for, you know how you intend it to be used, but your customer doesn't.

So read your listing from a customer perspective and think, if I was coming into this knowing nothing about this product, does this listing tell me everything I need to know?

Another great thing you could do is get somebody else to read your product listing and ask them that question, particularly someone who maybe isn't as familiar with your product as you are. Starting with the title, you want your, you want the title of your listing to have all of the key information in there.

And remember, put the important bits up front because in search the end of the title does get cut off. And in search results all the customer sees is your main image and the title, but only the beginning bit. So definitely front.

Load your title with the best, you know, the most useful things up front.

When it comes to your bullet points, don't just list the features of your product, think about how your product benefits the customer and answer the questions your ideal customer is likely to have.

So for example, I bought a coffee press recently and it took me ages to find one because I really struggled to find a product listing that told me how many cups each, you know, each coffee press size is going to make. And that's kind of what you want, isn't it?

Like you can tell me something's a litre, but actually what I want to know is how many cups of coffee is that?

And I can't tell you how many product listings I disregarded how many potentially great products I didn't buy because they didn't give me that information that I needed. We spoke a little bit before about looking at your competitors listings and also looking at their reviews.

Now this might give you some ideas of things that you can include as well as reviews you'll also see on product listings if customers have asked a question about a product. So there's Often question answer section. If customers are asking questions, it means this is something they want to know.

Have a look at what they're asking on your competitors listings and if it feels relevant, include this information somewhere in your listing.

And again, when it comes to the product reviews, if you're reading them and you can see that there's any customers have got any, I don't know the right word, if they're a bit confused about, you know, how the product works or what it is or who it's for, anything like that you're picking up, make sure you address that in your own product listing. Having said all of this, you also want to make sure your listings are clear.

They're easy to read, you know, they're not overly long, which I realize is complete contradict sounds like complete contradiction of what I've just said. But remember, you can get some of this key information in the images as well. Not everything has to be in the text.

Think about what will help someone say yes to buying your product and think about how your images can support the text.

So to give an example, if you're selling a food product and it's designed for snacking, you could show pictures of the product in someone's bag or in a pocket as an example. You don't necessarily have to say in the text this is great for snacking or this fits in your pocket.

You can use images so you, you know, so you don't have to put everything in the text. So think really carefully about how your images and your text work together.

And actually I've just recorded just this week a really good episode about this which will be coming out in May, which is exactly about how your visuals on Amazon work with your text and how you can use the visuals on your product listing to help you sell more products. So quick, recap the three things to do before you hit publish on your listing. Make sure you're using the right keywords.

Make sure you're using some keywords and your and your listing is optimized for search. Check your product listing images and make sure that your main image is compliant is the first one.

And that secondly, you've got some great supporting images.

Whether they're lifestyle images, whether they're graphics, whether they're infographics, whether they're, you know, award wins, whether they're information about your product, whatever it is, make sure you've got them in there. Remember, you've got eight images to use. Use as many of them you can.

And the third thing is make sure that your product listing has been written with the customer in mind.

You're telling the customer everything they need to know, you're answering their questions and basically giving them everything they need to make a buying decision. Remember, there is a bit more to it than this, but I think if you do these three things, you'll be in a really good place.

Remember that I have an Amazon setup checklist. This is absolutely free.

I'm going to link to it in the bio, not the bio, link to this in the description for this episode and that will hopefully be a really helpful resource. I basically go through all the things you need to do to get your first Amazon product listing live.

And I guess I also just want to reassure you that it's really normal to feel unsure, you know, about whether you've done the right thing, whether you've done enough.

But I think as long as you, you know, you make sure you've ticked off these three things, you'll be in a really good place and you'll be in a better place than a lot of people when they first get onto Amazon. If you need any ongoing support, my Amazon Made Easy membership is open. You can get guidance, feedback.

You can get my feedback on your listings, your images, whatever it is. You get access to me via that membership, so I can help you out with whatever you need.

I'm going to include a link to that in the show notes for this episode as well. And I guess I will end with saying, if you've got this far, well done. And I genuinely, I genuinely mean that. You've done amazingly and best of luck.

And if you need anything, you know where I am.

Thank you so much for listening. Right to the end of this episode.

Do remember that you can get the Fullback catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vickyweinberg.com Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it, and also share it with a friend who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.