Choosing the right Amazon marketing agency can be the difference between becoming a thriving seller on Amazon or one that flops.
Do you know why I say so?
A pool of more than 2.5 million sellers fights for the attention of Amazon’s customers. Out of this, only 10% generate annual sales of more than $100,000.
Only a few sellers make a great income on the platform.
Are you a seller struggling to attract buyers on Amazon? Would you like to increase your store’s reach and drive more revenues?
By partnering with a top Amazon marketing agency, you can improve the visibility of your store, reach more buyers, and drive sales.
Below, you’ll find my recommended steps on how to choose a top Amazon marketing company to grow your store business on the platform.
Know Your Goals and Desired Outcomes
A marketing agency won’t re-invent your store on Amazon.
They’ll work with you to achieve your goals and realize your business outcomes.
If you, the store owner, fail to define what those goals and outcomes are, how can a marketing agency perform magic and turn you into an overnight success on Amazon?
It doesn’t work that way.
To help you get started, let’s explore some scenarios when you should hire an Amazon marketing agency.
Example #1: Rank your products higher in Amazon search
I’ve already mentioned that Amazon has over 2.5 million sellers.
But that’s nothing close to the number of products vying for your potential customers attention and credit cards on the e-commerce site.
According to Retail Touchpoints, more than 353 million different products for sale on Amazon.
With so many stores and products, your store basically doesn’t exist unless it ranks well in Amazon’s search.
Let’s assume you sell belly button rings and someone goes on Amazon to search for it:
This search term alone produced over 96 different products on Amazon’s first search results page that included about 12 stores.
What if your store isn’t one of them?
Your goal should be to improve Amazon SEO.
The higher your rankings, the more visibility you have with Amazon’s customers. And more visibility equals more sales.
As you see in the screenshot above, an excellent way to achieve this is to ensure your store and product descriptions are optimized with relevant keywords.
Is this why you’re looking for an Amazon marketing agency?
Then, consider one with a battle-tested SEO-driven content marketing program, as both store and product descriptions are forms of well-targeted content creation.
Example #2: Promote your Amazon products on Amazon
Let’s keep using our belly button ring example.
This time, assume you’ve optimized your store and product descriptions, adhering to all Amazon SEO requirements.
Despite this, it’s possible to still have other sellers with similar products on Amazon rank higher than you. You can expect this because Amazon has several ranking factors.
For instance, see the first product listed for the belly button ring we searched earlier:
This product was promoted to the very first position on Amazon search results page. The store spent money to get their ad to the top of the list. It’s pay to play.
That’s why it has a “Sponsored” label.
This scenario shows that you can promote your products on Amazon to reach targeted buyers based on different criteria like search terms, locations, age range, etc.
If this is your goal, the outcome would be to skip the queue and reach potential buyers on Amazon.
Amazon has an entire ad network that you can now access. Like any ad network, it requires a ton of setup and lots of ongoing attention if you want to make a decent profit.
An Amazon marketing agency is ideal for this type of work. You already have your store and products, you just want an experienced team to run your ads for you.
Will an agency add to your total costs instead of running the ads yourself? Yes. But the ads will also perform a lot better. The agency will easily pay for itself.
So if you have either of these two goals, I highly recommend working with an Amazon marketing agency.
So, what characteristics should you look out for when choosing one?
6 Characteristics That Make a Great Amazon Marketing Agency
Below are six characteristics you’ll find in exceptional Amazon marketing agencies.
1. Demonstrated knowledge of the Amazon marketplace
Marketing your store and products on Amazon has its best practices.
It also has its dos and don’ts.
To determine if an Amazon marketing agency knows and puts them into practice, check if they have practical knowledge of how the Amazon marketplace works.
Exceptional Amazon agencies share these best practices in the form of how-to guides and training resources, showing how to drive more sales on Amazon:
2. A team of experts
Marketing, on its own, won’t do all the heavy lifting required to turn your Amazon store into a thriving business.
Other essential things like proper store setup, products’ listing optimization, brand-specific creatives, PPC management, and others must go into the equation.
And you won’t achieve all that with a one-person team.
Hence, a characteristic of great Amazon marketing agencies is that they work with a diverse team of experts.
3. A process for implementing their core service
In the agency world, a battle-tested process makes all the difference. It’s the only way to deliver reliable results with new clients.
Without a solid process, working with an agency is like rolling the dice. Sometimes it works, sometimes… it doesn’t.
Successful agencies will customize processes based on your unique needs but they should have a solid core with a proven track record.
For my team at Neil Patel Digital, we’ve developed a comprehensive program to help Amazon sellers drive traffic to their stores and product pages.
4. An impressive clients’ portfolio
Before you choose an agency, it’s important to examine who they’ve worked with in the past.
You’ll find this in their clients’ portfolio.
This is also a critical characteristic to check for, as it gives you a sense of the type of companies the agency typically works with.
Great Amazon marketing agencies take it one step by having an impressive portfolio of clients.
5. Great company culture
When choosing an agency, most people omit the company culture of an agency they want to partner with.
You shouldn’t!
Working with an Amazon marketing agency is usually a long-term partnership. If your beliefs are not aligned, you face the possibility of running into problems in the future.
To avoid this, choose an agency with a great company culture with similar values as your own.
6. Customer testimonials
Before you choose an Amazon marketing agency, take a moment to look out for testimonials they’ve received from past and present clients.
This gives you an idea of what people think and feel about their services. It also helps you to see if what the agency offers is worth the fee.
How to Work With an Amazon Marketing Agency
Working with an Amazon marketing agency follows a series of steps. And you should adhere to them to ensure a smooth partnership.
For great agencies, expect go through the following steps:
1. You’ll fill an inquiry form
When you visit the agency’s website, the first step is to fill their inquiry or contact form.
There’s usually forms for basic information about your business.
It’s also the first opportunity to share what your needs are and how you want them to help you.
For any well-run agency, you should hear back from them within 24 hours. If it takes longer than that, proceed with caution.
2. Discovery session
Experienced Amazon marketing agencies will want to do a one-on-one consultation session.
You should expect this, as it gives you the opportunity to share your needs and talk directly with a marketing expert.
3. Research and strategic recommendations
No two business cases are 100% identical.
Great agencies take what you share with them from the first call and perform in depth research to come up with recommendations unique to your Amazon store.
Usually, a second call will get scheduled to go through everything.
4. A Proposal and contract
By going through the recommendations delivered to you by an agency, you’ll gain more clarity if working with them is a good fit.
Right after this, you’ll usually receive a proposal and contract that sets the terms for working together.
5. Official client onboarding
Project management plays a very essential role when working with an Amazon marketing agency.
To ensure both parties have an understanding of who does what and when, excellent agencies would take you through an official client onboarding process.
Over this process, you’ll get to know who is your account manager (the expert overseeing your project) and get a full scope of the project, deliverables, and timelines.
How to Find The Right Amazon Marketing Agency For You
So far, I’ve walked you through the characteristics and steps to working with an Amazon marketing agency.
But one question remains, how do you find an agency that is right for you?
The first step is to always know your goals.
The next step is to choose an agency with expertise in the area you need help with.
To help you, we profiled the top Amazon marketing companies and what they excel most at.
The 5 Top Amazon Marketing Agencies
#1 Neil Patel Digital — Best for Store and Product Content Marketing
With SEO-driven content marketing, you can score higher Amazon SEO points by optimizing your store and product descriptions.
In turn, your store and products will become more discoverable with higher rankings when potential customers search on Amazon, as you saw in the example above.
It’s been ages since you could get away with one good photo and a basic product description. These days, you need a host of professional photos, videos, optimized descriptions and titles, comparison tables, FAQs, and detailed descriptions that address every objection in the market.
This is a core part of the offering at Neil Patel Digital:
Companies from across the world, from startups to enterprise brands, trust Neil Patel Digital.
#2 Thrive Agency — Best for Amazon PPC
When potential buyers research products or services on Amazon, a whopping 64% of them don’t click beyond the 1st three results.
To get your store and products in those top positions, you may need to use sponsored posts on Amazon.
Another name for this is Amazon PPC.
Thrive Agency is a company with over a decade of experience in this area:
This company has over 150 five-star reviews across Google, Facebook, and Clutch with Amazon-specific case studies.
#3 Vertical Rail — Best for Amazon Account Management
Your Amazon store account health, product deactivations, shipping performance, intellectual property violations, and several others have a direct impact on how well your marketing performs on Amazon.
Vertical Rail is the agency I recommend to ensure you’re 100% compliant on Amazon and reach your marketing goals:
This agency has great case studies on how to run your Amazon store more efficiently.
#4 Voice SEO – Best for Amazon Echo and Voice Search Optimization
In the US, more than 111 million people used a voice-assisted device. And two-thirds of consumers with voice-enabled devices said they considered using them to place orders.
This trend could be the next big marketing opportunity. And with big marketing opportunities like this, you can make a bundle if you get in early.
Voice SEO is the agency you can turn to for this:
TopSEOs, an agency ranking domain, ranked Voice SEO as its number one company for voice search optimization, and they have accreditations to demonstrate their expertise.
#5 Voy Media – Best for Amazon Social Media Marketing
Most successful Amazon sellers turn to social media to engage their target audience with the ultimate goal of driving traffic to their store and product pages.
If you want to take advantage of social media to drive sales for your Amazon store, Voy Media is great for that:
This agency combines strategy and creativity to help Amazon sellers drive sales on Amazon via various social media platforms.
Do You Really Need to Hire An Amazon Marketing Agency?
Yes, and I’ll tell you why.
To give your business a chance, standout from the crowd, and get found on Amazon when potential customers search for things you sell, you’ll need marketing.
And that’s where hiring an Amazon marketing agency comes in.
Whether you want higher rankings or want to run profitable Amazon PPC ads, get an expert that knows what they’re doing. There’s too much competition on Amazon to do it all yourself.
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