Key Takeaways
- Prime Day offers a significant opportunity to boost sales and visibility for brands.
- Price reduction alone is no longer enough to succeed on Prime Day; brands must be prepared to compete with ad dollars.
- Emphasize competitiveness when building promotions and coupons to stand out from other brands.
- Establish a strong organic presence on Amazon by optimizing product listings comprehensively.
- Conduct thorough research on relevant keywords, consumer trends, and competitive price points for advertising campaigns.
- Capitalize on offsite opportunities by partnering with publishers and affiliates to reach audiences actively seeking Prime Day deals.
- Define your goals beyond sales, such as improving rankings or driving increased engagement, and design a strategy accordingly.
Prime Day offers brands a massive opportunity to boost sales and increase market visibility. In the past, price reduction was enough to boost sales and discoverability on Prime Day. The reality is those days have passed. To compete against an increasingly saturated field of sellers and ride the ever-changing algorithm to the top results page, brands must come to Prime Day, ad dollars in hand, ready to compete.
We spoke with Mickey Hencey, Sr. Director of Channel Marketing at Spreetail, to cover tips on how to navigate Prime Day from a marketing perspective. Use these insights to help make on-the-go adjustments this Prime day as well as influence your next Prime Day strategy.
Emphasize Competitiveness When Building Promotions and Coupons:
Customers are increasingly responsive to promotional and coupon offerings, especially during sale days. However, it's not just about offering discounts; it's about ensuring the competitiveness of your listings across the board. Consumers are becoming more observant and research-driven, searching out genuine value rather than falling for superficial discounts. Brands must prioritize competitive pricing and strategically target relevant customers with promotions that will stand out against other brands and other marketplaces.
When it comes to new Prime Day trends Mickey Hencey said,
“We’ve started to see promotional activity play a really big role. [As a result, brands cannot] just put a coupon on an item. It’s about looking at how competitive that listing is within the overall space. Does that coupon actually make a difference?”
People are more observant and come prepared with more research. Mickey says,
“A 50% off deal won’t move the needle if it’s not an attractive discount compared to the competition."
Build a Solid Organic Presence on Amazon Before Increasing Traffic:
To drive success during Prime Day, it's crucial to establish a strong organic presence on Amazon. This involves optimizing your product listings comprehensively, including copy, images, variations, pricing, fulfillment options, and customer reviews.
Mickey H.: “First things first, you must have that strong foundation. The last thing you want to do is drive all this traffic to your product listing that isn't truly relevant to your product listing. Make sure your product listings are fully optimized. It’s not just looking at content, but it's looking at full listing optimization. Copy, images, variations, strikethrough pricing, a strong fulfillment offering, and recent good reviews…
…sometimes we tend to compartmentalize or try to solve one thing at a time, but really you must shop how the customer is shopping: they're looking at all these pieces at once.”
By optimizing your listings, you increase the likelihood of conversions when driving traffic to your product pages. Learn more about optimizing your listings for prime day here.
Research and Target Relevant Keywords:
When developing your advertising campaigns for Prime Day, conduct thorough research on search terms, consumer trends, and competitive price points. Aim to drive relevant traffic to your product listings by strategically selecting keywords and targeting the right audience.
Mikey H.: “It’s important to really do your research on the competition before Prime Day and be ready to adjust on the day. Keep an eye on advertising, especially clickthrough rates. This is a big one because on Prime Day, you're going to see a spike in CPC. You want to know right away if you are being drastically outbid on a search term. If someone is bidding $5.00, your $0.50 becomes irrelevant.”
Rather than chasing high search volumes, start with targeted campaigns that align with your product's unique value proposition. As you gain traction, gradually expand your advertising efforts.
Mikey H.: “Understand the type of traffic, the type of search terms, and the price points that appear for specific search queries and build out campaigns that you believe are going to drive relevant traffic to your product listings.
Get fully in the mindset of the consumer. Ask ‘what am I seeing if I'm searching for blank? Everything I see is $150.00 and then my item is $700.00.’ That's not a relevant place to play.
Here is an example: one of our brands is in the baby category, specifically, highchairs. The average price point is around, let's say, $50 dollars. Well, we are selling wooden highchairs that have an average price point within search of around $100.
Instead of spending a ton of money trying to win a competitive term like ‘highchairs’, which drives irrelevant traffic, we make sure we're being a lot more targeted with our ad spend to win terms like ‘wooden highchairs for small kitchens.’
Once you feel like you are winning ad share within the search terms that are really relevant, that's when you start to broaden.”
Capitalize on Offsite Opportunities:
While Amazon is the epicenter of Prime Day, brands should also leverage offsite placements to capture audiences actively seeking Prime Day deals. Partner with publishers and affiliates to feature your products in articles and deal sites. By tapping into offsite traffic, you can reach potential customers who may not be actively searching on Amazon but are interested in Prime Day and are looking for the best deals.
Mickey H.: “People know Amazon will be flooded with deals on Prime Day, and often they are shopping for deals just as much as they are shopping for specific things. Articles that summarize the best deals are a way for the consumer to offload product research.
Brands should capitalize on this. If you are going to capture traffic outside of Amazon, Prime Day is the day to do it.”
Define Your Goals:
Beyond increasing sales, brands can pursue secondary goals on Prime Day. These may include boosting market share, improving rankings, or driving increased engagement and visibility. It's essential to align your goals with your brand's capabilities and resources. Determine the outcomes you want to achieve and design a strategy that aligns with those objectives.
Mickey H.: "Have a strategy in place for each one of your goals like owning more marketshare, driving more views, getting a better rank. It's all about being intentional and clear on what success looks like on Prime Day."
B2B Creative Marketing Manager
