How to Use Amazon Posts to Promote Your Products
Have you ever scrolled down a product detail page in the Amazon app and found something like a social feed or a bunch of images? That’s actually a free tool called Amazon Posts. It’s kind of like social media on Amazon, but it’s essentially a free tool where you can showcase images of your products.
A post on Amazon helps you gain visibility on your products, but it also helps boost your brand awareness and drive organic traffic to your store.
How can you get the maximum out of your Amazon Posts to promote your products? That’s exactly what we’ll help you understand in this article.
What are Amazon Posts?
Amazon Posts is an interactive promotion feature introduced by Amazon in 2019. It greatly resembles promotion on social media and leverages the audience’s short attention span and curiosity for visually appealing information.
Posts on Amazon consist of a combination of an image and a short text describing the offering. It is primarily available for mobile Amazon users, those who use the Amazon app or mobile web browser version.
Why should you use Amazon Posts?
Amazon Posts turned out to be a highly effective solution for promoting products and brands on Amazon. They offer a wide range of benefits for existing and new brands alike:
- A free way to promote products (though a paid Boost feature is available);
- Increase product discovery;
- Enhance brand awareness;
- Drive organic traffic to product listings via search results;
- Boost customer shopping experience by showcasing products in real-life situations;
You cannot sell effectively on Amazon without knowing how to leverage Amazon Posts. It’s the same as with social media advertising or sponsored content campaigns, and the guest posts opportunities they provide – one either uses these best practices or loses customers.
An effective Amazon Posts strategy also provides sellers with plenty of analytics possibilities, e.g., measuring click-through rates (CTR), impressions, customer engagement, and other vital metrics.
Setting up Amazon Posts: a step-by-step guide
Here is a simple step-by-step guide on how to get Amazon Posts set up and running:
- Log in to your Amazon account (in case you’re already logged in – jump to point 2).
- Select Posts from Amazon Advertising, or enter the “posts” search query in your Amazon dashboard field.
- Set up your Amazon Posts brand profile. This includes entering your brand logo and giving your profile a name.
- Start creating your first post. Press the “Create Post” button. This step requires you to upload a high-quality image of your product. Make sure it meets the Amazon requirements, i.e., it is either in JPEG or PNG format and has a minimal 640 x 640 pixels resolution (tip: always use the highest-resolution images available, maximum file size: 100 MB).
- Write a caption for your post. As per Amazon policy, it must not exceed 2200 characters and exclude promotional language that goes against Amazon’s rules.
- Link the respective product (or several products) from your Amazon catalog to your post. You can do this by tagging products. Amazon tags are also known as product ASIN. What they do is take customers from posts directly to your specified product pages.
- Submit your Amazon product post by clicking on the relevant button. The post will go for Amazon review, and if successful, it will start driving traffic to your store.
Eligibility requirements
Only registered Amazon sellers, shop owners, or vendors can create Amazon Posts. It also goes without saying that you should have an active Amazon storefront; otherwise, the system will not let you create “barren” posts that don’t lead customers to product pages within Amazon.
Amazon Posts are currently only limited to US Amazon users. For example, you cannot use posts if you are a seller on Amazon.de.
Also, to be eligible for Amazon Posts, your products must exclude these:
- Alcohol beverages
- Tobacco products
- Adult products
- Tattoo and body branding products
- Weapons
Furthermore, the content of your posts must comply with Amazon’s content guidelines.
Content guidelines
Besides the above-mentioned prohibited product categories and the image resolution parameters, the following content guidelines should be followed.
Additional image guidelines
First of all, don’t use images with watermarks, other brands’ logos, or any other signs. Besides damaging the visual perception, they may violate copyright and get you in lots of legal and financial trouble.
Images should depict your authentic product, ideally in a natural setting, e.g., real-life usage scenarios. It’s best to take five or more shots of a single product from different angles (however, you cannot use them on a single post; only several separate posts showcasing the same product).
Caption guidelines
Besides the 2200-character limit, you should aim to provide relevant captions to the advertised product. Use succinct and clear descriptions, avoiding the use of emojis, hashtags, and URLs.
Additionally, as per Amazon policy, you should avoid using bold promotional call-to-action type phrases. For example, “buy today,” “big sale,” “limited time offer,” etc.
Prohibited content
The use of competitor defamation is strictly prohibited. In general, using competitor products and brand logos is not allowed either. The same goes for vulgar and offensive language in your images or captions.
When it comes to your product and brand, don’t mislead the customers by using false, incomplete, or overtly misleading information.
Tips for effective product promotion
Marketers have accumulated a lot of experience from using visual and short-text promotions on social media ever since it came to be in 2012. Today, you can enjoy many of their lessons learned as tips and recommendations in your Amazon Posts.
1. Design eye-catching images
Images should capture the prospects’ attention within the first second (literally from the first glance). Marketers recommend showcasing the use of your product in relevant contexts.
For example, if you sell kitchen goods, you should depict the use of them by housewives preparing meals. Or if you sell fishing gear, such as reels or rods, you could depict its use in freshwater or saltwater fishing match situations.
You can also use Amazon’s latest feature based on generative AI. What it does is help you adjust your image size and resolution in case it doesn’t meet Amazon format requirements. Easy and fast feature free of charge.
2. Design effective landing pages
A landing page or your product page is meant to convert visitors into buyers. Even the best Amazon Post image and the most appealing caption may go to waste if you cannot convert the incoming traffic into purchases.
Prioritize the quality of your listings and CTAs to ensure visitors get engaged by product descriptions and perform the desired action. You can visit the Spark Plugin site to see how to create an effective landing page with only a few easy steps.
3. Showcase product benefits
The short caption format still allows you to pack a lot of helpful information about your product. Instead of using empty words and phrases, you can list the benefits of your product. For example, for a fishing reel, you can say:
- Great durability
- Smooth long-distance casting
- 10X of ball bearings onboard
- Soft-touch reel’s knob
The same can be true about the images. While no overlays are allowed, you can still display your product in a favorable light, e.g., fishing with a reel in heavy weather conditions to showcase the durability and resistance of your product.
4. Involve celebrities
Marketers have long known the persuasion technique called “celebrity endorsement” or “connection with authority.” Essentially, it assumes partnering with a famous person, with someone with an established authority, to showcase and advertise brands and products.
Why not use the same for your Amazon advertising posts? If you have established relationships with famous people and/or can allow it financially, of course.
Just like many succeed at earning from blog featuring a celebrity, you can hire someone with a strong and positive reputation within your niche to display your Amazon product. For fishing gear, it could be Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston, or Roland Martin.
5. Leverage cross-sales
Consider linking related products in your Amazon Posts. Most often, Amazon sellers offer several related products. These products are often purchased together or as part of a set.
By linking related products in your Amazon product post, you leverage cross-selling possibilities and increase your income. To link a post’s product, you need to tag it to a relevant product in your catalog (or several products).
Conclusion
Amazon Posts are a great way to boost organic traffic to your store. They are highly popular among mobile users, and today’s Amazon sellers cannot imagine successful sales without utilizing Amazon Posts.
Take the best practices and tips from this guide to apply them in your Amazon Posts. Start small, create one or two posts and see how they perform (use the analytics section in your Amazon Posts dashboard).
This initial experience will allow you to scale and create multiple posts for all of your products for time. The benefits will include increased brand visibility, awareness, improved conversion rate, and higher sales.