Amazon is everywhere. It is on a speedy trajectory to become the Largest Retailer in the United States, surpassing Walmart, with more than 550 million products listed on its platform. Simply put, if you’re not selling on Amazon, you’re missing out. But with half a billion products listed on the Amazon platform, how can you make yours stand out?

Build your brand using video

In my new book, Video Persuasion, I interviewed Jason Boyce, founder and CEO of Avenue 7 Media and a Top Seller on Amazon. Jason started selling basketball hoops on Amazon 16 years ago, before Amazon Retail was selling basketball hoops on Amazon! Jason and I have been getting together weekly for coffee for several years to share D2C marketing strategies on (and off) of Amazon. I credit Jason with expanding my understanding of how Amazon works and recognizing the critical roll video plays in being successful on the Amazon.com platform. I interviewed Jason earlier this month to capture some of the highlights of our coffee conversations about selling advantages on Amazon.

Interview with Amazon Top Seller, Jason Boyce

RICK:         Jason, you’re a Top 50 Seller on Amazon in the Sports & Outdoors category and a Top 200 Seller on the platform overall. There are more than 2.5 million Amazon sellers with active listings. How do you stay out in front?

JASON:       To be honest, Rick, my brothers and I got on Amazon in the pioneer days, and so we’re very familiar with the culture and expectations of their marketplace platform. We learned a lot by making mistakes, and we built some repeatable processes as a result of lessons learned.

RICK:         What would you say has changed the most on Amazon since you started in 2003?

JASON:       That’s easy. It’s not enough anymore to list a product. Today, to separate yourself from the millions of other sellers, you’ve got to build your brand on (and off) Amazon. People like doing business with brands they know and trust, and Amazon rewards traffic driven to the platform for outside sources.

RICK:         This is the point where you and I discovered how important branding was. You taught me that brand-building is the key to success on Amazon, and I’ve spent 30 years building big brands using direct response video marketing. It’s funny how sometimes old marketing and branding strategies work in the new high tech world.

JASON:       That’s exactly right. What worked so well for you 30 years ago—what made you a pioneer in direct response television marketing—is now reborn as one of the most important sales drivers on Amazon. In fact, Amazon has a new program where you can actually advertise your video on the Amazon app, and it has been hugely successful.

RICK:         The technology has certainly changed over the past three decades that I’ve been using video, but what motivates people to buy hasn’t changed at all, and video remains the most effective way to appeal to people. That’s why it’s so important when it comes to building your brand. What advice would you give people, Jason, who are thinking about adding video to their Amazon listings and marketing?

JASON:       That’s a great question, Rick. I think I’d start by saying that Amazon has become a product demonstration video platform. If you’re not currently using video on Amazon, then start now. You will see as much as 20% increase in conversions, which is huge! Here are some tips for getting started:

1. Sign up for Brand Registry on Amazon. If you are brand registered on Amazon, you can upload video.

2. Use high quality video. It will help with the organic search and conversion rates.

3. Use Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) pages to promote your brand story—your origin story.

4. Drive traffic from your video to other marketing channels, which will have the boomerang effect of driving consumers back to Amazon.

RICK:         That was another big lesson you taught me, Jason—that Amazon’s algorithms really love off Amazon traffic.

JASON:       Oh, yeah. For sure. They know it when it comes, and they give preferential real estate and ranking to sellers that do this in a positive way. I’ve had—and I know you’ve experienced this, too—clients sell out in one day because their off Amazon campaign was so sharp. We’ve just seen so many positive metrics when you have video compared to listing that don’t. It’s really key.

RICK:         That’s great information, Jason. I’ll wrap this conversation up with a few more fun facts about why video is so important in today’s virtual marketplace.

Did you know?

• Every second nearly 17,000 hours of new video will be produced. Forbes reports more videos produced in the last 30 days than television networks have produced in the last 30 years.
• Research shows that nearly 80 percent of all Internet traffic will be comprised of videos.
• Using video in an email leads to a 200-300% increase in click-through rates (Hubspot)
• Including video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80% (Unbounce)
• Sixty-four percent (64%) of consumers purchase after watching branded social videos (Tubular Insights)

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