5 Big Amazon Mistakes Brands Make with Jenna Lieber

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Hey there, product launchers. Welcome back to another Office Hours. This one's with Jeff Lieber and Jenna Lieber of Turnkey Product Solutions and they're going to talk about all things Amazon. Are you ready? Do you have what it takes? What do you need to be prepared? So let's hear from Jeff and Jenna. Awesome. Well, hey, guys. So this is our third topic I believe that we've been covering here on product launch hazards. Unfortunately, Jeff could not make it today. He is in Alaska. We thought he might be able to make it, but I guess WI fi is a little spotty up there. So it's just me for this one. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Jenna. I work at Turnkey Product Management. We are a company that consults companies on Amazon, basically managing their accounts. We also have a course that teaches you how to manage your account. So that's a quick little background on me. So today's topic, I just wanted to do something a little different than what we've done the last two times. So we actually had a team meeting about this and I was like, guys, what can I do for this presentation? What can I do to make it a little different? They were like, we should talk about some mistakes that we've seen with our clients, with people that have just talked to us and gone through different consultations. Consultations. Basically we came up with five big mistakes that people make on Amazon. So I am going to share my screen and we're going to roll through this presentation. So one second. All right, so we're going to go over five mistakes companies make selling on Amazon. Obviously there's more than five mistakes you can make selling on Amazon, but honestly, we kind of just thought of five big ones, maybe five mistakes that you wouldn't really think about that people made. So, yeah, so we're just going to go through them. So our team brainstormed. Like I said, we really did have a sit down meeting. Let's just go over mistakes that we've made, that our clients have made, that people we've talked to have made. So we came up to close to 100 different mistakes. These mistakes were on and off Amazon. We went through our past mistakes that we've made. And we're bringing you our top five mistakes companies make selling on Amazon. Mistake number one, not listing product variations when you have them. Mistake number two, sending products into Amazon that don't match your images. Mistake number three, not asking for seller feedback. Mistake number four, not using external marketing. And mistake number five, not following Amazon terms of service. So I'm going to basically break down these five mistakes, talk a little bit about them, talk about our experience with them. But we are going to start with not listing product variations when you have them. So here's an example of a listing that has different product variations. You see the four different flavors they're offering, and then actually if you scroll down on that same exact listing, you would see that they have different sizes. So what does a variation do for you? A variation means more reviews, more options for your customers, and more sales. Simply, it's a great way to put everything that you are selling in one place on Amazon. It shows your brand. It really brings the brand together, paints that picture for the customer, really helps sell your product. And like I said, with the reviews, so if you have only one review on there, one product on their gathering reviews, you're going to obviously have less reviews than if you have five products that are getting reviews. Right? So, I mean, this is just a great example because this product right here has over a thousand reviews. And I mean, it's a great product. It's actually one of the products that Amazon represents. A lot of the times, if you go to trade shows and everything, they have a close relationship with them, obviously. But part of the reason they have all these reviews definitely has to do with the fact that they have so many products on one listing. I just want to talk about different variations you can go with. So there's color, there's sizes, there's flavors, there's material type. That's just a few that we've used, but there are definitely more that you can explore on Amazon. So one of my favorite examples is material type. So material type, Amazon doesn't really have very strict preference of material. So one thing we've done with one of our clients, it's a yoga mat. And essentially we have two yoga mats on there that's technically the same exact yoga mat, but there's two different materials. They're made out of a different type of rubber. It's actually for people that are allergic to latex, I believe. Yeah, they're allergic to latex. So basically what we're able to do is we're able to have two yoga mats on that one listing, which is 100% helped upsell the two of them and also increase those reviews. So that's just one example of material type. I also worked for a beverage company, and one thing they were able to do is we were able to create multiple variations on there. So we had size variations where they offered, I believe it was 16, 32 counts and 64 counts. And they were also able to offer all their different flavors. So they had literally every single flavor and size that you can think of. They had it on that one listing. And it also goes to show, maybe someone didn't know that you had that flavor. Maybe someone didn't know you had a 32 count. So having all of that on one listing is huge and very beneficial for your brand on Amazon. So we're going to move forward to mistake number two, which is sending products into Amazon that don't match your images. This one might sound a little silly to some people. Of course, I wouldn't do that. Of course we wouldn't try to do that. But the reality is, I think when graphic design starts to get even more impressive than it already is, I think a lot of people use their images a little differently. Maybe they're not using that exact image of their product. Maybe they're enhancing it a little bit more, making it look a little bit different than the actual packaging. But the reality is, if it does not match the product that is on the listing, Amazon will suspend you. So we made it simple here. Your images equal your product. So this was just one example that I came up with. So let's say you see the first image right here. It says powdered food. And then it has the brand name and it has some descriptions on the bottom of it. And then you have my second image on the side that it doesn't say powdered food, it just has the brand on there. So if a customer is shopping and they see on your listing, they see that powdered food, but then the product they get in the mail doesn't say powdered food. And they tell Amazon, you're most likely suspended for up to two weeks, because that suspended process is a long one. Essentially, Amazon has to physically see that product to make sure what the customer is saying is true. And Amazon's busy, as you know, I'm sure. But basically it takes about two weeks. And they go to the warehouse and they legit. I mean, one time they sent us a picture of the product at the warehouse and said, see, this doesn't match the images. So you know that's kind of a different story, but it honestly happens where maybe you're dealing with a third party warehouse and you're not seeing what different suppliers are sending in. So it's very important that every single part of that packaging that you are presenting on your listing matches that exact product. Do not try to make it look fancier than it is because Amazon, Amazon can flag you for it. And this also goes for the sales copy. So your sales copy equals your product. So one thing we've seen in the past is people will use keywords that they know are important for that product or that niche, or they just know that that keyword can really help boost sales, so they'll put that keyword in there. But the reality is if, for example, if that keyword is an ingredient, like maybe turmeric or something, and you really don't have turmeric in there, but maybe you hit it a little bit in the listing and you're trying to just rank for turmeric. The reality is, if you're saying that you have turmeric in there and there is none in there, Amazon can flag you for it and they can suspend you until you make that change. So this goes for features. Don't put that your product is able to save world hunger when it can't. You need to make sure that your features are actually what your product is. That goes for ingredients and that goes for size as well. If you're saying that it's a two pack, there has to be two in there. Again, this seems very straightforward. Seems pretty simple. Seems like there's no way people are making mistakes like this. But it really does happen. We've seen it a lot in the past where people are just trying to make their product that much better on Amazon. But the reality is, if a customer reports it to Amazon, Amazon cares about that customer. And Amazon's first situation is they're just going to shut you down until they can prove who's right or wrong. Because they care about the customer, unfortunately, more than the seller. So as I'm sure you guys all know, so we're going to move on to mistake number three. So mistake number three is not asking for seller feedback. And this one is a big one, guys. So seller feedback, I guess I'll start with talking about the differences between seller feedback and product reviews. So a lot of people don't really understand the differences between the two, don't really get it. And it is very interesting. Seller feedback, I feel is overlooked a lot of the time, but it really shouldn't be. Seller feedback, truthfully, is a pretty awesome tool, represents the seller. So I'm all for it, but a lot of people overlook it. The seller feedback. Seller feedback is essentially a review on the seller. So that feedback could be something like this seller has great customer service. I reached out to them, they helped me in six hours, something like that. A product review is. This is the best cell phone case I've ever had. Wow. How have I had a phone without this case for this many years? Essentially, the seller feedback is on you as a seller. The product review is on your product. So now that we figure that out, gotten that all squared away of the differences, I want to talk about why people overlook seller feedback. So I think the reason people overlook seller feedback is because it is kind of hidden. We have a picture right here of what that seller feedback looks like in your listing. But basically, if you want to see your seller feedback, what you would do is you would go to your listing and when it says sold by blank but fulfilled by Amazon, just click your brand name right there and that takes you to your storefront and that's where you'll see your seller feedback. So basically, seller feedback is incredibly cool. It's a great way for customers to be able to see what kind of a seller you are. And that percentage does show a lot of. So, yeah, so that's pretty much what seller feedback is, why we like it. But yeah, so I kind of want to talk about the perks of seller feedback, why we really think that everyone should be doing it. So how we ask for seller feedback is we have two autoresponder messages. The first autoresponder message is a seller is asking the customer for seller feedback. It's pretty simple. Basically, just ask, how was our customer service? How did we do? Here's a link for seller feedback. That's just pretty much the gist of what it says. Basically, it gives them a link straight to seller feedback and they answer that link, link on seller feedback and then the second email is a product review asking for the review. So the reason we ask for seller feedback first is because we want to potentially vet those bad reviews, if there is any. So if you're asking for seller feedback, a lot of the times customers don't understand that that feedback has to be about the seller. So they'll actually leave their product review in there. And a lot of the time if it's an angry, you could potentially stop it. So let's say someone says, this phone case is the worst phone case I've ever had. I don't know why they even made it a really aggressive, mean review. What you could potentially do is first what you would want to do is you want to reach out to that person and try to figure out what went wrong. So that's when you'd be able to vet it and provide awesome customer service. And you can also stop for asking for a review on that autoresponder. So that's one way to do it is vetting those potential reviews. It goes the other way as well if someone posts something positive. This is the best phone case ever. Wow. I can't believe they made this. This is awesome. Basically what you can do is you can ask them, oh my gosh, thank you. Can you please share that with our other customers in a product review? So it goes both ways, but it's basically vetting and trying to really get those product reviews out. Another thing is, like I said, solving customer service issues. They could simply say only one came or it's missing parts or something like that. You can then reach out to them and say, oh my gosh, so sorry to hear that. Please reach out to our customer service team and we'll get this squared away as quickly as possible. It's solving those customer service issues before they become a product review. And also, you know, just having a good relationship with your customers. We know that's very important. So that's one thing to think about. Another thing also is seller feedback can easily be removed. So the reason is, like I said, a lot of customers don't understand that seller feedback is feedback on the seller. They think it's a product review. So Amazon actually, if you ask them, will remove seller feedback if it's about a product. So if someone says, one star, worst product ever, you can easily tell Amazon, hey, this is a product review, but it's in my seller feedback. Can you remove it? And Amazon will 100% remove it because it's a product review in the seller feedback. So that's why we ask for that seller feedback first, because we know we can get it removed if it's really bad on the product. Unfortunately, with customer reviews, I'm sure you all know it's not that easy to get things removed. And then just another bonus on having seller feedback, if you have seller feedback, you are able to use coupon clippings. As we discussed in our last little chat, coupon clippings are that new promotion that Amazon is running. And basically, if you don't have seller feedback, you cannot participate in coupon clippings. So you definitely want to be racking up that seller feedback so you can get coupon clippings. So we're going to move on to mistake number four, which is not using a text external marketing. All right, let's talk a little bit about external marketing and just why it's so important. So, as I'm sure a lot of you know, especially if you've been on Amazon for a while, this is not the same Amazon it was a few years ago. Things are getting a lot more competitive. There's more sellers than ever. There's more people making counterfeit items. Reviews are harder to get. This is simply just a way tougher market than what it used to be. So basically, you need to be using things outside of Amazon to support your Amazon business. Amazon paid per click is awesome. 100%. It's one of my favorite things to use. Our marketing team does a fantastic job of running those ads, but at the same time, you need to be pushing outside of Amazon as well. So relying just on Amazon marketing will not make you a top seller. That's just the reality at this point. You need to be doing that extra stuff to push you to that next level. So one thing actually a lot of people don't know is when you're using external marketing like Facebook ads, Amazon is able to see that. They're able to see, wow, this seller is pushing traffic from Facebook to Amazon. Well, let's increase their ranking. Obviously they care. Obviously they want to make sales on Amazon. So that's one way to actually boost your ranking on Amazon is using that external traffic. So as we talked about in our last call, how do you use external marketing like Facebook to push traffic to Amazon? What you'll do is you actually download your customer list off of Amazon. Pretty simple. You can just set a certain date range or you can do all of your customers you've ever had. Basically what you do is you download that list, you plug it into Facebook, and Facebook is able to find those customers using their name, their last name, their zip code. They're able to locate a good amount of them. It's not 100% just because some people might not be on Facebook, but it'll come pretty close. I think a lot of our clients get about 60% of that list will be found on Facebook. Maybe 70%. Really depends also on your market. But anyway, what you do is you create an audience from that customer list. And then once you have that list, once you have that audience, you build a lookalike audience off that, and then you just keep building that list over and over and over again. And that is your Amazon list. So I know a lot of people, they don't like to share traffic. They don't want to steal traffic from their Shopify website. They don't want to send more traffic to Amazon because they're sharing a percentage with Amazon. They would rather those sales be on their website. I 100% understand that. I know those are your customers, but at the same time, a lot of customers trust Amazon. So it's understanding that some customers might not buy on your Shopify, but they'll buy on Amazon. So that's why we definitely recommend at least doing a portion. One thing we say is just keep those audiences separate. If you have your audience for your Shopify and your audience for Amazon, just run separate ads. The Amazon customers, they're only sent to Amazon. Shopify customers, only sent to Shopify. So having those two separate lists is also a good way to do it. Another thing we always tell people is why not just have a small budget every month for just Amazon and see how it goes? See, are you making that ad money back? Are you getting that ranking up like you want? Test it. See if sending traffic to Amazon is worth it for you. I'm pretty positive it will be worth it for you. But I would recommend trying it because it's definitely worth it. It's worth that extra effort. At the end of the day, it's about growing your brand and Amazon is a huge part of growing your brand. That's 100%. And then I just also wanted to add in there. Google Ads is a great one to use, like on special holidays, Prime Day, not just Facebook. You can use Google Ads as well. We would highly recommend it. And then, I mean, we also will be talking, next time we talk to you guys, we're going to talk about one of our cool strategies we have coming up with Pinterest. So that's another one. That would be external marketing. So, yeah, so just I would really recommend using that external marketing, not only to grow your brand, but to get that ranking up on Amazon and really show Amazon that you care about making sales on their website. So we're going to move on to our last big mistake. And this one, I'm sure is another, oh, no brainer. But at the same time, I think it needs to be repeated because a lot of people break these rules. So mistake number five is not following Amazon's terms of service. So Amazon terms of service, the best way to describe it is they will catch you. Amazon is big brother. That's the thing I think a lot of people don't understand. Amazon will catch you if you are breaking their terms of service. I know it seems like, oh, there's no way they'll catch me because there's so many sellers out there. How can they be watching every single one of us? Reality is, they are. So, I mean, one example is pretty simple. I think it happened about a month ago. Amazon went through and wiped out a ton of reviews from customers that they thought were being biased or they had some type of a track record that these reviews were no longer valid. And there were some accounts that really big accounts that they got thousands of reviews knocked off. They're placed on a timeout now where they can no longer get reviews. So this is a big time for Amazon where they are really, really cracking down on the rules. And it's not even affecting just sellers anymore, it's affecting customers. Customers can get in trouble now if they are accepting payment for review. So that's just something to really be aware of and really understand that Amazon does know. And assuming they don't know can be kind of a dangerous game. We kind of brainstormed a few of the big ones that we see people making that they think they can get away with. So reviews are the biggest defense for Amazon terms as a service. And the reason being is Amazon's number one concern is their customers. So when you're messing with Amazon reviews at Amazon's mind, you're messing with their customers. So with reviews being the biggest defense, one thing that's pretty common is review groups on Facebook. If you took a second right now and you went on Facebook, typed in review group, you would definitely get hundreds of hits of Amazon review groups that are out there to accept free product for a review. The reality is Amazon and Facebook are friends and Facebook is sharing that data from our understanding. So they are able to see what customers are doing those things. So even if they're not going to catch you, they will most likely catch that customer that is doing that and that customer can get in trouble. So I would just recommend staying away. Don't do it. Amazon is cracking down on it. They know Big Brother is watching. Leaving a review on your own listing. This is another one, kind of seems like no brainer, but definitely want to repeat it and kind of stress what that really means. So basically Amazon tracks you using the IP address. So if your seller account has logged into your home IP address, that means you should not be leaving a review from that IP address. They will catch you. They know that IP address has been on your seller account, they know that if you go to your mom's house and you have worked from her home on your seller account and you ask your mom to leave a review, they know that your seller account has logged into that IP address. So now your mom cannot leave a review. So that's another thing to keep in mind is even when you're asking friends and family to leave these reviews, you have to understand if your seller account has logged into those IP addresses, that does raise a red flag with Amazon. And they will send you a pretty scary letter where they'll basically say, hey, we've seen that. You know, you're messing with the reviews, you're messing with the terms of service. This is your warning. So Amazon's known to send those warnings, but at the same time, you don't want to risk it. You never know if they're going to just stop sending warnings and just start suspending accounts. Something to keep in mind. Another one is paying people on Fiverr to leave a review. This is obviously not just for Fiverr, but that was the first one I thought of. But it could be literally any site. Amazon is able to find that out. It's kind of the same thing with the review groups on Facebook. Just don't do it, guys. Do not do it. Another one I see is image and sales copy can get you in trouble as well. One thing like mentioning your competitors or other brands that aren't yours, you're not allowed to do that. So if you have a makeup brand that you run and you mention that it's similar to Mac or it's similar to another brand, you can get in trouble and they will take that listing down until you fix it. So that's one thing to keep in mind. Breaking any rules like image rules, like no white background. Your main image has to have a white background. If they catch it without a white background, they can take down your listing until you fix it. That's one I think a lot of people think they can get away with. And I think people do get away with it. But then all of a sudden your account will be suspended. And then Amazon, they're not very fast guys. They're not going to fix your problem as quick as you would like. So just avoid doing it. Try to get that white background image that fits your product that works for you. That would be my biggest recommendation. And then also just mentioning your website, email address, phone number, anywhere. Don't do it. Amazon will find it. I know a lot of people try to sneak their website or their email address and those Autoresponders and those PDFs that you can attach. And Amazon does have a system that does scrape those PDFs and make sure that there's no website in there, that there's no email in there. And if Amazon does catch you, that's they could suspend your account or take down your listing until that issue has been solved. So just make sure you guys are paying attention to this Amazon Terms of Service. You really don't want to get on Amazon's bad side. You don't want to be getting those warning letters because the reality is Amazon won't forget that. They won't forget that you broke that rule once or twice or maybe three times. Eventually you'll run out of warnings is what I'm trying to say. So that's big mistake number five is ignoring Amazon Terms to Service. Do not not. Do not do it. So, yeah, so that's our five big mistakes. As I said, my name is Jenna. If you have any questions, like any questions at all, it can be about this presentation I gave you right here, or it can be about Amazon in general. I've had a few of you guys reach out to me. I really appreciate it. I love helping you guys. So please, please, please email me. If you have any questions about your Amazon account or need any advice, please reach out to me. So, yes, do we have any questions about this specific presentation or anything? All right, so Erin asked. Hey, Jenna, curious to know, do you think Amazon is working with Facebook and has the ability to see our Facebook messenger messages? I'm not really sure about that. So from my understanding, Amazon is working with Facebook in the sense that they're the data on customers. They are watching those groups. Those groups that are marked private are not really private. I'm sure we all know that about the Internet. But as for Facebook messenger, not really sure about that. I would recommend being a little cautious, but I feel like if a customer's messaging you or anything like that, I feel like you're already off of Amazon. It shouldn't be an issue. Does that answer your question or is there maybe. Are you referring to maybe messaging someone in those review groups or can you maybe explain it a little bit more?

Can you hear me okay?

Yeah. Yeah, I can.

Awesome. Yeah, I don't think why I was asking that is just like previously on my other listing, I was asking people, you know, review swaps. So I kind of secretly did that within the Facebook Messenger. Right. But I deleted conversations after reviews. Probably wonder Amazon have the ability to see track record data after it was deleted.

I think there's potential that Amazon could eventually find that out. I think I heard this at Prosper, actually, that Amazon has been cracking down on those groups, that they're able to see stuff, which I think is just crazy. But I just would recommend not doing it just because I do think there's a connection there with Facebook and with Amazon. So the big recommendation would be to try to avoid doing anything like that.

Yeah, I'm not doing that anymore. I'm focusing mostly on building subscriber list and launching it and then getting reviews from that. I raised their hand right in my subscriber list.

That's awesome. Yeah. Manychat, honestly, I mean, what are they saying now? They're saying, like, emails have about a 20% open rate, but those Manychat messages on Facebook, I think it's like up to 80 or 90% open. So that's incredible that you're doing that. I would definitely recommend running some engagement stuff. There may be some contests for some reviews. Definitely use that to your advantage with ManyChat, because that is an incredible tool for sure.

Thank you.

Yeah, of course. Do we have any more questions or anything? I think that's it, Jenna. Awesome. Thank you so much. And we'll get this up as soon as possible. Perfect. Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much. Have a great day and looking forward to the next one. Yes. Great. Bye.

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