M07 Pre-Launch PDF

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com
www.getwsodo.com
Pre-Launch
Pre-Launch 101
Module 7
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www.getwsodo.com Pre-Launch
Setting The Scene
• You placed your first order. Now what?
• This is your “downtime” during production & shipping
• Goal:
• Your product lands on Amazon and everything is setup &
ready for launch
• Get started with a Bang!
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Things You Need To Do
• Setup your listing (keywords, copy, images)

• Plan your launch strategy (see Module 8)
• Setup PPC (see Module 8)
• Ensure your Seller account is open & in good standing

• Other “in between” activities – email sequence,
marketing insert, landing pages etc
The Secret To My 7 Figure
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www.getwsodo.com Success On Amazon
Optional But Recommended
Keep filling your product research pipeline!

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www.getwsodo.com
Pre-Launch
Amazon SEO Fundamentals
Module 7
www.getwsodo.com

1. Search based marketplace
• Keyword: what a customer types into the search bar
2. Listing must include keywords to be visible in search

• Keyword Indexing: when the listing is visible in search for that KW
3. Search visibility needs to lead to clicks & sales

• Visibility + sales = KW ranking gets boosted more = more sales
• Visibility, but no sales = KW ranking goes down = less sales
Keyword Add keywords into
www.getwsodo.com
www.getwsodo.com The process
Research listing (for indexing)
Listing gets Customers

more Search click into our
Visibility listing
Amazing
listing copy
& images
Additional
sales
accelerate They buy
A9 ranking
algorithm
Fundamentals
www.getwsodo.com
www.getwsodo.com & Business Setup
A9: Amazon’s Search Algorithm
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Keyword research gets the product seen.

Your listing copy & images get it sold.
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www.getwsodo.com
Pre-Launch
Buyer Mindset Fundamentals
Module 7
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We’re Not Good At This…

• We just spent weeks or months browsing Amazon as a seller &
diving into numbers:
• $$$, revenue, search volume
• Freight costs, materials, specifications
• Now REVERSE all that!

• We need to browse Amazon through the eyes of our customer
• What compels them to click that ‘BUY’ button?
• What are their emotions, feelings, subconscious desires?
www.getwsodo.com
We’re Great At This ;)
• Hacking the buyer mindset & focusing on the 80/20:

1. Critical to get the click:
• Main Image + First Few Words In Title + Price + Reviews
2. Critical to get the sale:
• Answering Objections + Creating Desire
• Both in images + text
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80/20 From The Customer’s Eyes

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• Mobile is even simpler:

• Main image
• Start of Title
• Price
• Reviews
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Mobile Optimization
Average Seller = creating listing on desktop

• “My listing looks amazing!”
Average Buyer = browsing on their phone

• Doesn’t read past the first line
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Mobile Optimization
• Remember these:
1. Title – all main KW in first 60 char
2. Main image – taller is better
3. Secondary images even more prominent
4. Description only shows first 200 char
5. Bullets are buried
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Benefit-Driven Listings
• How does your product make your customer’s life easier?
• What pain does it solve?
• What fears do they have about purchasing your product?

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Buyer Centric Language
Let your buyers write your listing for you.

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Buyer Centric Language
1. 1 star reviews
• Prove this isn’t the case with your product
2. 5 star reviews
• Prove your product does it too (or better)
3. Frequently asked questions

• Answer these questions pre-emptively. Remove any doubt
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Pre-Launch
Amazing Product Images:

Main Image
Module 7
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Amazing Product Images
A picture is worth a thousand words.

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Amazing Product Images

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The Main Image

• KWs get you found – the main image gets the click
• Must go Front & Centre: whatever makes your product stand out
• Different colour?
• Great packaging?
• Funky design?
• Bundle?
• Your unique improvements
• Later: split-test to optimize further (Module 9)

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Amazon Image Requirements

• More strict for main image than for secondary images
• White background, >85% of frame
• Minimal props
• No excluded accessories
• See Amazon’s full requirements (link in resources)
• A lot of sellers break the rules – resist the temptation

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Crafting The Main Image - Tips

• Maximise screen real estate
• Crop right to the edges
• Desktop: 1x1 (square), Mobile: 1x1.5 (tall)
• Great editing & retouching critically important

• Glass, steel reflections etc
• Angles – 3d perspective OR direct

• Image must stand out from the competition
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Crafting The Main Image - Tips

• Multiple pieces/bundles:
• 3D layering to create depth (looks nicer)
• Separate everything out & fill available space
• Looks like ‘more’ stuff
• Keywords/direct messaging on packaging

• Giftable? Show the packaging
• ‘POP’ with vibrant colours (but minimal props allowed)
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Pre-Launch
Amazing Product Images:

Secondary Images
Module 7
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Secondary Product Images
Goal: answer objections.

www.getwsodo.com
• You should already know:

1. Who is your customer
2. What are they using the product for
3. What do they like about it
4. What doubts do they have/ what do they not like about it
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• Product images should tell your customer:

• Yes, this is for you
• Yes, you can use it for all the things you want to use it for
• Yes, it has all of the things you’d like it to
• No, it doesn’t have the problems that the competition has
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• Use a mixture of:

• Infographics
• On-white
• Lifestyle / in use
• Instructions
• Show bonuses
• Comparison to other products
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Other Requirements
• >1000px dimensions
• Crop to the edges

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Pre-Launch
How To Organise
Product Photography
Module 7
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Product Photography Options
• DIY
• Local photographer
• Photographer elsewhere (US, China, Philippines etc)
• 3D Renders
• Photoshop
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DIY Not Recommended
• Unless you are a pro photographer
• Amazon in 2019 demands a higher level of quality
• Lighting setup is key & hard to replicate
• Your efforts are better spent elsewhere

www.getwsodo.com
Local Photographers
• No need to send samples
• Can be on-set to direct à easier to get what you want!
• Often cheaper
• Best option for on-white, particularly if you live in a city

www.getwsodo.com
Photographers Elsewhere
• Need to send samples ($$ + time)
• Cost varies
• Option: China-based photographer to avoid sample fees
• May be necessary for good lifestyle photographers

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Ways To Save Money
1. Hire local, less experienced photographers at an hourly

rate & do your own set direction
2. Take only on-white photos & ask only for RAW files
3. Outsource retouching to fiverr

4. Use photoshop for lifestyle photos (also outsource)
5. Use initial samples

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Photography Creative Brief
• Remember – it’s easier to be there in person
• Be as specific as possible & provide sample images
• Most photogs don’t know how to optimize for Amazon
• Nor understand your niche like you do
• Sample brief provided in resources file

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Alternatives: Renders
• Cheap, samples not required
• More common than you think
• Work well for smooth, metal, or plastic textures
• Supplements, skincare, electronics
• Must provide artist with detailed photos of all angles of the

product
• Hard to get right – revisions slow due to re-render time
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Alternatives: Photoshop
• Requires good on-white photos from different angles
• Much cheaper to photoshop than arrange lifestyle/model
shoots
• Good for variations (eg add an extra piece, or change colour)
• Quality is important
• Sometimes indistinguishable
• Sometimes blatantly obvious
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Where To Find Photographers
• Google “your location” + product photography
• Fiverr/Upwork
• My personal photographer will be in resource file if available
• Share your recommendations in the group!

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Pre-Launch
Keyword Research Part 1:

Principles
Module 7
Keyword Add keywords into
www.getwsodo.com
www.getwsodo.com The process
Research listing (for indexing)
Listing gets Customers

more Search click into our
Visibility listing
Amazing
listing copy
& images
Additional
sales
accelerate They buy
A9 ranking
algorithm
www.getwsodo.com
4 Factors For Successful KW Research

1. High number of keywords
• How many KW can we rank for?
2. High search volume of each keyword

• How many buyers are searching for the KW?
3. High keyword relevancy

• If a buyer searches the KW, are they looking for YOUR product?
4. Low keyword competition

• How many competitors also show up for the KW?
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Workflow: Listing Creation
1. Find & prioritise best KWs (by the 4 Success Factors)
2. Fill the title with highest priority KW
3. Write the listing copy & use the remaining KW
4. Any remaining KW not used: add to backend search terms
We’ll walk through this in the next lessons.

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www.getwsodo.com
Pre-Launch

Tips For Mastering Amazon SEO
Module 7
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The Title Is Important!
• Keywords in the title have much more ranking power

• Particularly the first 5 words
• These also catch the customer’s eye
• Your primary keyword MUST be up front in the title
• ‘Halo’ effect: ALL other KW in the title also get a smaller

ranking boost whenever you make a sale
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Slight Variations Matter
• Include all possible

variations as independent
keywords, e.g.
• “candle sticks” vs “candlesticks”
• “coffee mugs” vs “coffee mug”
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Duplicating Is Not Necessary
• Each keyword only needs to be included once

• E.g. If it’s in the title – doesn’t need to be in the bullets
• Optional: Fill leftover backend search term space with

duplicated keywords from the Description
• Anecdotally, the description is the weakest area for KW
ranking power
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Relevancy Matters
• It’s tempting to go for the highest volume keywords
• But you must balance volume with relevancy

• Jungle Scout / Viral Launch have relevancy scores
• Longer tail KW generally become more specific & relevant
• Use your gut – you know the product
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Brand Names & Trademarks
• Remember the Trademarks lesson…
• If you use competitor brand names you risk listing suspension

• The risk is HIGH if used in the front end (title, bullets, description)
• The risk is lower if used in the back-end
• Your choice. Some brand KW are tempting targets

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Pre-Launch

Finding Winning Keywords
Module 7
www.getwsodo.com
KW Research Goal
Create a list of good KW,

prioritised by relevancy & volume
(& competition if possible)
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Tools I Don’t Recommend
• Merchantwords & other google-based tools (e.g.

keywordtool.io, Google Keyword Planner, ubersuggest,
LSIGraph)
• They don’t use Amazon data
• They aren’t accurate
• They use basic broad-match KW matching instead of
intelligent, market & relevancy based matching
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Tools I Don’t Recommend
• Reverse ASIN lookup (e.g. keywordinspector.com)

• Only looks at 1 ASIN at a time
• Inefficient
• Who knows if that ASIN is using the right keywords?
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Recommended Tools
1. Viral Launch Keyword Research (*or JS Keyword Scout if you
already purchased it)
• Amazon-source data (important!)
• Reverse market lookup more powerful than Reverse ASIN
• Quantifies the 4 KW success factors
2. Excel
3. Helium10 Frankenstein (text manipulation tool)
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KW Research Method
1. Start with primary kw + check Amazon search bar auto-

suggest
2. Filter down to YOUR product
3. Either:
1. Competitor jacking method
2. Reverse market lookup
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Pre-Launch
Creating Your Killer

Amazon Product Listing
Module 7
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Re-Cap: What You Already Know
• Lesson #4: Buyer Mindset Fundamentals:

• 80/20 focus
• Mobile optimization
• Benefits > features
• Buyer centric language taken direct from reviews/questions
• Revisit this lesson if needed

www.getwsodo.com
• You should already know:

1. Who is your customer
2. What are they using the product for
3. What do they like about it
4. What doubts do they have/ what do they not like about it
www.getwsodo.com
• Your listing copy should make your buyer say:

• “Yes, this is for me”
• “Yes, I can use it for all the things I want to use it for”
• “Yes, it has all of the features I’d like it to”
• “No, it doesn’t have the problems that the competition has”
www.getwsodo.com
Writing The Listing
• Title (generally 100 char)

• Most important keywords at the front
• First 60 char for mobile
• Recommend filling the entire character limit
• Put KW in a natural-sounding order & include necessary
identifying info (eg size, quantity)
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Writing The Listing

• Bullets (max 500 characters per line)
• Pick top 5 most important benefits/objections based on:
• Competitor listings
• Customer reviews
• Your own knowledge of product / improvements
• CAPS HEADLINE or similar
• Only top 3 bullets show on mobile
• Work in keywords where they can fit naturally
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Writing The Listing

• Description (2000 char)
• First 200 characters
• Important on mobile (shows at the top)
• Concise benefit / attract attention / Call To Action
• Rest of description:
• Re-spin the bullets, answer common questions & expand
• Add more keywords
• Basic HTML formatting
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Writing The Listing
• Back End Search Terms (250 char not including spaces)

• Use any remaining leftover keywords
• Optional: duplicate keywords from Description (if you have
extra space available)
• Don’t go over the limit!

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Final Steps
1. Fill out rest of listing details
2. Upload
3. Visual confirmation (wait 15m) on desktop & MOBILE
4. Check KW indexing (you may need to wait 24h)

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www.getwsodo.com
Pre-Launch
How To Price Your Product
Module 7
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How To Price Your Product

• Pricing is critical across all metrics:
• Profit
• Clickthrough Rate (CTR)
• Conversion rate (CVR)
• No simple answer other than ‘TEST’

• Considerations:
• High review, competitive niche?
• How differentiated / premium is your product? (be honest)
• ‘Status symbol’? (higher price = higher demand, rare in PL)
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Basic Guidelines
• Start with low / breakeven launch pricing (Module 8)
• During launch period, monitor & adjust based on CVR
• Begin increasing price as you gain traction
• Aim to be in the high end bracket of your niche

• Again – be honest about whether your product supports this
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Ending with .95, .99, .97, .00?
• Very UNLIKELY to test this with statistical significance
• Anecdotally, .00 performs worse than .9x
• Pick one, set and forget
• Exception: luxury products (then use .00)

www.getwsodo.com
www.getwsodo.com
Pre-Launch
Setting Up An
Email Follow-Up Sequence
Module 7
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What Is An Email Follow-Up Sequence?
• Automated message sequence

• Sent to all buyers
• Variable timing
• Through Amazon’s Buyer-Seller Messaging Service
• Not actually email – we don’t have direct access

• e.g. a222d34b3891234b@marketplace.amazon.com
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Why Use A Follow-Up Sequence
• Engage our customers, open dialogue
• Avoid negative reviews

• Follow up on negative seller feedback
• Identify product issues, fix the issue for them
• Get positive reviews

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Seller Feedback Vs Product Review
• Seller feedback = applies to your storefront
• Product review = applies to your listing page

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Play By Amazon’s Rules
Source: Amazon prohibited seller activities (link in resources)

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Source: Amazon prohibited seller activities (link in resources)

www.getwsodo.com
Source: Amazon Buyer-Seller Messaging Service overview (link in resources)

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• The last one may sound like a grey area..
• But currently used by 99% of sellers
• Will advise you if anything changes

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Important Notes
• Average review rate doing NOTHING:

• 1 per 100 orders (1%)
• Average review rate with Email Feedback:

• 2-3 per 100 orders (2-3%)
• 100-200% increase on doing nothing
• But still not “magic”
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Important Notes
• Decreasing effectiveness as buyers now have “opt-out”

option (2017 change)
• Don’t be spammy, limit # of messages. 2 is good
• Recommended tool: Zonpages (link in resources file)
• Set it up immediately (Day 0)

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Hacks & Optimizations
• Optimize the title

• re: Your Amazon order [order-id]
• Have you received your order?
• Tell a story
• Add more value (bonuses, freebies)

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www.getwsodo.

Setting The Scene

• You placed your first order. Now what?

• This is your “downtime” during production & shipping

Things You Need To Do

• Setup your listing (keywords, copy, images)

• Setup PPC (see Module 8)

• Ensure your Seller account is open & in good standing

Keep filling your product research pipeline!

Amazon SEO Fundamentals

Amazon SEO Fundamentals

2. Listing must include keywords to be visible in search

3. Search visibility needs to lead to clicks & sales

Listing gets Customers

Keyword research gets the product seen.

Buyer Mindset Fundamentals

We’re Not Good At This…

• Now REVERSE all that!

We’re Great At This ;)

• Hacking the buyer mindset & focusing on the 80/20:

80/20 From The Customer’s Eyes

• Mobile is even simpler:

Average Seller = creating listing on desktop

Average Buyer = browsing on their phone

• How does your product make your customer’s life easier?

• What pain does it solve?

• What fears do they have about purchasing your product?

Let your buyers write your listing for you.

Buyer Centric Language

3. Frequently asked questions

Amazing Product Images:

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Amazing Product Images

The Main Image

• Later: split-test to optimize further (Module 9)

Amazon Image Requirements

• A lot of sellers break the rules – resist the temptation

Crafting The Main Image - Tips

• Great editing & retouching critically important

• Angles – 3d perspective OR direct

Crafting The Main Image - Tips

• Keywords/direct messaging on packaging

Amazing Product Images:

Goal: answer objections.

Secondary Product Images

• You should already know:

Secondary Product Images

• Product images should tell your customer:

Secondary Product Images

• Use a mixture of:

• Crop to the edges

Product Photography Options

• Photographer elsewhere (US, China, Philippines etc)

DIY Not Recommended

• Unless you are a pro photographer

• Amazon in 2019 demands a higher level of quality

• Lighting setup is key & hard to replicate

• Your efforts are better spent elsewhere

• No need to send samples

• Can be on-set to direct à easier to get what you want!

• Best option for on-white, particularly if you live in a city

• Need to send samples ($$ + time)

• Option: China-based photographer to avoid sample fees