The Ultimate Amazon Product Launch Checklist – 12 Steps to Success

Launching a successful Amazon product can be exciting and challenging too. It takes time, knowledge, and effort to achieve success. Many sellers often fail to succeed and it takes a lot more effort than you realize. It’s not just a matter of listing your product. 

We’d say that you have to come up with a core strategy that works well with your product. These early steps will define your product’s long-term success on Amazon. 

In this article, we’ll help you formulate your Amazon product launch plan. We have divided the plan into three parts:

1. Pre-launch strategy
2. Launch strategy
3. Post-launch strategy

Let’s dive right in.

Here’s a quick peek into the content:

a. Pre-launch strategy

• Getting started – Learn how the Amazon A9 algorithm works
• Launching a successful product starts with the right product research
• Build your brand
• Determining sales target

b. Launch strategy

• Get a grip on the tools that accelerate your business growth
• Optimizing your listing

i. Keyword research:

ii. Keyword optimization

iii. Keyword tracking

• Amazon terms of service
• Drive external traffic to your listing

c. Post-launch strategy

• Get Reviews – Create social proof
• Restock your inventory
• Craft an outstanding marketing strategy
• Run PPC campaigns

Final thoughts

a. Pre-launch strategy

#1 Getting started – Learn how the Amazon A9 algorithm works

Why? Let me explain.

The main issue sellers face after the product launch is not generating enough sales. That’s where the Amazon A9 algorithm comes into play.

The first thing you need to learn about the A9 algorithm is that Amazon is not Google. While Google loves relevancy, Amazon is all about sales. Of course, there are other ranking factors, such as reviews, listing optimization, and more, but the dominating factor is still sales!

The main reason behind low sales is that your product may not be ranking on the top of search results. This eventually leads to little or no sales. So the cycle continues, and you eventually give up!

So, if you want to rank high and generate more sales on Amazon, you need to understand how the Amazon search algorithm works.  

#2 Launching a successful product starts with the right product research

During the product development stage, it is important to choose the right product and the right business model that fits you. While choosing the right product, you need to understand a few things like:

Customers: This may seem a bit obvious, but make sure you are targeting the right customers. While conducting your product research, you need to understand a few things like:

• If you are targeting the right customers for your product 
• What they want
• How often they purchase your product
• The challenges they face while buying a similar product 

These are a few things that you should keep in mind before launching a product.  

Your passion: Well, this goes without saying. You need to sell the products which you are passionate about or at least have some interest in. This is the key to building long-term profitability of the product. 

Competition: The more competition you have, the harder it is to rank a specific product. So it’s important to study what your competitors are up to and learn from them. You may want to pick a narrow niche with a small market, and expand as you go, because having low competition will aid your sales growth.

#3 Build your brand

Branding is no longer optional on Amazon. If you are ambitious about your e-commerce business, then you should consider branding as part of your product launch strategy.

During the product development phase, take a step back and think about your brand. Determine what you want to offer, how you define your brand to your customers and the difference between your product and a competitor’s. This includes product packaging, design, brand colors, and customer perception of your product/brand. All these aspects will help you determine your business strengths, target audience, and help you craft your brand story.

To know more about the Power of branding on Amazon Click Here.

#4 Determining sales target

The next thing you need to do is determine how much revenue you want to generate with your product. You need to be specific with your goal-setting. Why do we say this? 

As a seller, you should calculate your costs and fees you pay, and estimate the sales potential of your product. For this, you can conduct some basic research and check Amazon’s website to calculate your sales potential. However, if you want to have a better understanding, we suggest using the SellerApp chrome extension to get your job done. 

Recommended Guide: Amazon Seller Fees Structure 2021

Install the SellerApp chrome extension, and search for the product of your choice or you can go to a product listing page (that is similar to yours or a competitors’) and click on the chrome extension. 

Our Chrome extension will help you identify the sales potential of a product or an entire category. You should observe a few metrics such as average price, estimated revenue/month, and opportunity score of the top 100 products in the category to identify the product potential. Take a deep dive into a specific product that is similar to yours. 

This will help you identify how much you can sell, and you can set your profit margins accordingly. Besides, you can also set a budget for your PPC campaigns. 

b. Launch strategy

#5 Get a grip on the tools that accelerate your business growth

A successful product launch involves several phases with each phase layered further. Therefore, you need to identify the right and accurate tools that automate and smoothen your launch phase. You want to get a grip on the marketing, product, and task management softwares to manage each process in your e-commerce product launch. Along with that, learn how Amazon advertising and brand analytics work. Understand the core metrics and why you need to track them.

#6 Optimizing your listing

We divide the listing optimization into three parts – Keyword research, keyword optimization, and keyword tracking. 

i. Keyword research:

Think of all the possible phrases and keywords related to your product, and list them in order. Pick up the major keywords, and use a keyword tool like Google keyword planner. However, using a generic keyword tool may not give you accurate results, so we suggest using the SellerApp free keyword research tool to get Amazon-specific keywords. In addition, you can also take a look at a competitor’s product, and see for which keywords they are ranking high. 

Filter these keywords based on your product features and functionality. 

ii. Keyword optimization 

Once you have a set of keywords in hand, target these keywords in your listing title, bullet points, and description. 

Keep in mind that you need to optimize your listings for Amazon SEO as well as buyers’ intent. Knowing your customer in and out will help you succeed in the Amazon Marketplace. You need to understand what they are looking for and showcase your product listing in a way to makes them buy the product.

There’s just one last thing to consider – All of these need to be within the scope of Amazon SEO.

It’s worth mentioning that SellerApp can help you with your Amazon listing optimization tool. We are experts in handling thousands of PPC accounts, product listings, and the A+ content of our clients. If you want to get your job done without hassle, so you can spend quality time launching your new product, you can set up a free consultation here. 

If you’d rather do it yourself, continue reading.

iii. Keyword tracking

Once you optimize your products with the right keywords, you need to ensure if they are working well with your listing. For this, you need to start tracking the keywords and see how they are performing. Monitor the performance metrics such as click-through rate (CTR), number of clicks, and conversions. You can eliminate the non-converting keywords, and optimize the listings with the high-performing ones. If you want to improve your ranking for a specific set of keywords, you can target them in your ad campaigns. 

If you want to learn more about Amazon product listing optimization and finding the right keywords for your products, check out this video. In this two-part series, Ankitha Nagraj from SellerApp’s Customer Success team will help you find profitable Amazon keywords and target them in your listings to rank high and improve your sales performance. 

#7 Amazon terms of service

While launching a new product, you need to ensure that you are abiding by Amazon’s terms of service. If you want to give your best shot to succeed on Amazon, you should definitely comply with Amazon’s guidelines and policies. 

#8 Drive external traffic to your listing

Ideally, you need to start working on it before your product launch. You need to create brand awareness among your target customers. This can be done in various ways such as:

• Creating a blog post that drives traffic to your listing
• Having a website to gain initial traction
• A social media account (like Facebook or Instagram page) with ample followers 
• An email list that you’ve been growing 
• Identifying early adopters or influencers, and asking them to review your product

While Amazon has a large customer base, the competition is also significantly high. So it makes sense to drive external traffic to make your listing visible and drive initial sales momentum.

Learn more about Amazon Competitor Conversion Rates here.

c. Post-launch strategy

#9 Get Reviews – Create social proof

Generating the first few sales can be challenging, but convincing the customers to leave reviews can be more daunting. Amazon product reviews are crucial for two reasons:

• Customers trust reviews like personal recommendations. Therefore, better reviews lead to more sales.
• Reviews also play a prominent role in the product ranking. Also, it is hard to generate PPC campaigns without reviews. So you need to concentrate on receiving more reviews initially.

Amazon has a set of rules while asking for a product review or seller feedback. Also, the e-commerce giant takes action against anyone who abuses the system. So make sure you check the policies. Besides, here are your options for collecting reviews on Amazon:

Amazon Early Reviewer Program: This review program was introduced by Amazon to help sellers get initial product reviews. You will be eligible if your product has less than five reviews, and costs at least $15. Amazon will contact random shoppers who purchased your product and request to leave a review. The buyer receives a $1-3 voucher for leaving a review, irrespective of whether it’s positive or negative. Amazon charges you $60 after you received at least one review for the enrolled product. 

Amazon Vine Program: This program invites the most trusted reviewers to post their reviews on your products. Amazon invites specific shoppers to become ‘Vine Voices’ based on their reviewer rank, so they provide honest and unbiased product reviews to educate fellow shoppers. Amazon shares free products to these reviewers from participating sellers.  

#10 Restock your inventory

Estimate your sales and be prepared to restock your inventory ahead of time. You may be tempted to wait until the last minute, but you will risk running out of inventory before you replenish. So effective inventory management is essential as running out of stock will negatively impact your product rankings and sales.

#11 Craft an outstanding marketing strategy

How do you generate sales if your customer doesn’t know your product, or how it solves their problems?

Make sure you have a strong marketing team to project your product in the best light possible. Customer retention is the ultimate goal of any effective marketing plan. So ensure you create high-value and loyalty driven marketing strategies.

Few things to keep in mind while launching a new product on Amazon:

• Sell benefits not features
• Understand how different sales channels work
• Target the right customers on social media platforms. Know what they want from your product
• Focus on customer needs and wants.

#12 Run PPC campaigns

Amazon PPC campaigns are your best bet to make your products visible in front of your customers, especially for a newly launched product.

• Target the top-performing keywords in your campaigns to improve your rankings
• Target a competitor’s product or brand to reach a broader audience
• Use bidding strategies to target the right audience and improve your sales performance

While creating PPC campaigns, keep in mind that you need to set a specific budget so you don’t run out of money. Furthermore, organize your campaigns so you don’t lose money by bidding against yourself.

Final thoughts

There is always so much to do during your Amazon product launch, but in short, we’d say to:

• Make your product launch big and eventful
• Organize your shipping and storage costs, and fix your profit margins
• Conduct thorough product and keyword research
• Build an optimized listing. Optimize your product title, bullet points, images, amazon backend keywords, and description. Make the best use of Amazon A+ content
• Track your keywords and eliminate the non-performing keywords
• Use Amazon PPC campaigns to rank high for specific keywords on Amazon search results
• Restock inventory in time
• Drive external traffic. Use social media, paid campaigns, and influencers to gain initial traction
• Encourage customers to buy your product and leave a review after their purchase. Make use of Amazon reviewer programs

If you want more help while selling on Amazon, you can drop us an email at support@sellerapp.com.

Happy selling!

Additional Read:

How Voice Search Will Affect eCommerce SEO

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