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Every year thousands of Amazon sellers attend a conference to keep up with best practices and networking. Today we’ll talk about how you should strategize your attendance and why it should still be on your radar in 2020 despite COVID-19. We’ll also have a promo code for our listeners to get a discount off a conference. My name is Steven Pope and this is the My Amazon Guy podcast. 

I’m now joined by Travis Barritt who is the Director of Marketing for the Midwest Ecom Conference. http://www.midwestecom.com/

• Travis you probably have a tough job right now with COVID-19, how are you holding up?
• A lot of travel has been canceled, but your conference is still a green light? Any contingency plans?
• This conference has been annual for 7 years. First year we lost money. Grown 15-20% each year.
• Networking is most valuable. Sponsor meet and greet evening.
• Why should Amazon sellers go to your conference?
• Speakers - Amazon may be on a speaking panel.  List of speakers http://www.midwestecom.com/speakers/
• Big changes - suspensions. Diversifying outside of Amazon.
  • Travis’s account got suspended. Been suspended twice. IP complaint for inauthentic product. 
  • You can sell anywhere.
• Amazon Seller Lawyer - if you get a suspension. 
• What’s unique about your conference?
• I understand you have a promo code for my listeners. 
  • $50 off: MyAmazonGuy
• Last question, I understand you just published book on poker.

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Advertising is difficult. Competition is going up. On this podcast we go over Questions to Ask to Improve ACOS & Revenue on Amazon Seller Central.

Get Ad management from the pros at https://myamazonguy.com/advertising-management/

Are there any stock out concerns?
Are all skus in ads?
MFN in ads? 
FBA in ads?
Focus on key products?
Top 3 products should be main focus on ads.
Products not selling much at all, should they get special campaigns to boost them?
Are the ads segmented enough?
Large catalog - more segmentation
Multiple Manual non brand keyword campaigns
Budget on campaign runs out, may need dedicated best keywords into separate campaign so they don’t run out of budget.
Should we have campaigns for exact/phrase/broad? (Most likely do not need)
Is there enough budget on the campaigns? Running out of budget? 
Do we need to ask the client to raise the budget?
New listings in ads?
New ads up? (Current client sheet has columns)
Brand custom image
Display product targeting
Any new ad campaign suggestions?
New campaigns with fixed bids?
Old campaigns up and down bids?
Ad placement % adjusted, should it be in place?
Only on top 3-5 keywords that are important and perform well. Create new campaign for best keywords, with % on top of search 100% up (or massage as needed)
Do we have enough display category targeting setup?
Can bid 15 cents on some campaigns here.
Are the CPCs in place good? High? Low? 
How is the ACOS?
Is enough offensive ASIN targeting in place?
Ad groups using category targeting, negating ASINs
Negative keywords? 
Campaign clean up? (Low priority)
Portfolios needed? 
Archive bad paused campaigns?
Download bulk update tool for data gathering?
60 date download. Check box for placement data for campaign. Hit spreadsheet for download.

Get Amazon Consulting at https://myamazonguy.com/

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Speakers, Authors, mentors, and anyone that needs to meet people in person for their business have seen tremendous fall offs to their business. And they are hurting big time right now because most events have cancelled. This podcast will talk about how to turn to other scalable opportunities through Amazon selling books, cards, and more. Guest: Chad Littlefield Cofounder of We and Me. Find him on amazon on amazon.com/we

• What is we and me.
• What’s your business story? 
  • Saw the movie Patch Adams. Robin Williams becomes a doctor to go for quality of life. 10 years of med school later, re-focussed my effort from the scalpel to what makes people tick.
• Advice
  • Start an email list now, you’ll be happy you did it later.
• Launch Pad
  • Started launch pad to get on Amazon. 
• Went from once a week, to not traveled in a couple months longest I haven’t traveled in years. 
• Book recommendation: Fanocracy 
  https://www.amazon.com/Fanocracy-Turning-Fans-into-Customers/dp/B082349829/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=FanAcrocy&qid=1586190530&sr=8-1
  • Personal connection for brands. Adele drops confetti - had her lyrics written on it with her handwriting. Deep personal connection.
• 60-70% revenue gone due to Corona Virus COVID-19. Could have been 90% if I didn’t have Amazon.
• Business based on large groups together.
• How has Amazon affected your business?
• Asking Powerful Questions
• Chad ask Steven questions on how to improve sales and launch a product with Ask Powerful Questions

About We and Me:
Chad Littlefield and Will Wise here, co-founders of We and Me, Inc.

Leaders call us when they want to amplify a culture of connection, belonging, and trust. Great leaders know that investing in their people boosts results and increases retention. We are mildly obsessed with relationships, organizational culture, learning & development, connection, trust, and team performance. We design and deliver interactive keynotes, team-building retreats, programs, and workshops that have real impact. And we’ve got the data to prove it. We’d be happy to share our success stories, whether helping tech startups like Typeform.com, Fortune 500 companies like JetBlue, or educational institutions around the world.

We believe…
Leaders accomplish more by asking powerful questions than by commanding and controlling

Deeper human connection fosters more engagement and better performance

People, purpose, and planet are just as important as profit

Interactive experiences have more impact than powerpoint slides because people learn by doing

Not only do we believe these things, we are genuinely excited about making them a reality for each organization we work with.

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Product Review Strategies have changed a lot in the past 3 years on Amazon. Today’s guest Colleen Quattlebaum, Marketing Manager with eComEngine, will tell us how to get more product reviews while staying compliant. Feedback Five is their flagship product and you've probably heard about them. They also have sourcing tools. Market Scout. Pricing tools. Been around the past 13 years.

Monitor website changes with www.Wachete.com (Tool has alerts)

Amazon making it easier to leave a review. Frustrating for sellers who want to respond to negative reviews.

Stay white hat. Early reviewer program. Amazon Vine is on hold for 2 weeks. Use tools like Feedback Five.

Amazon Approved Product Review Strategies
How are reviews affected in the current environment (COVID-19)? 
Shifting to MFN from FBA. 
What are some effective and compliant ways to get more reviews on Amazon?
Safest way “request a review button” on orders page.
What are the benefits of the new Request a Review button in Seller Central?
Lot of unknown. Take 100 requests to get 10-15 reviews.

Get Amazon Consulting at https://myamazonguy.com/

Article from EcomEngine on Request a Review Button.
Amazon recently added a “Request a Review” button to the Order Details page in Seller Central, raising many questions for sellers. A clarification to the Amazon Communication Guidelines was also posted in November 2019. In this article, we’ll discuss both updates and what they mean for third-party sellers.

How Does Amazon’s Request a Review Button Work?
To send a review request with the Request a Review button, log into your Seller Central account. Go to the Manage Orders page and select the order that you would like to request a review for. Click the order to go to the Order Details page, and you should see the button on the top right side of the page.

When you click the button, Amazon will send a seller feedback and product review request (in the same message) to the buyer for your order. The message will be automatically translated into the buyer's chosen language. You cannot send a follow up message to the same customer after the initial request has been sent. Requests can only be sent from 4-30 days after the order is delivered. Buyers cannot respond to the message. It's worth noting that this is a manual process in which the seller is unable to customize the message that is sent to the buyer. Sellers cannot respond to these messages.

Great news: you can now schedule Request a Review automation using FeedbackFive!

Getting started is easy. Just activate the Amazon Feedback and Review Request Template with any campaign in FeedbackFive. FeedbackFive will then tell Amazon which of your orders to send the request for based on your unique campaign settings. You can set it once and forget it, as FeedbackFive will continue to communicate with Amazon via a secure and authorized connection based on the sending rules you select. Learn more about how to automate Request a Review messages.

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Photography is an art that is hard to get right. On today’s podcast we talk to the experts on how to get the best photos in front of your consumers on Amazon to increase sales. Jeff Delacruz - President of POW Photography or Products on White Photography. I’ve personally used their service and recommend them to my clients as the go to place to get professional photography. 

• Just to qualify you guys to my audience, I’m sure it’s impossible to count how many photos your studio have taken, but can you share your background and why are you guys the experts in this?
• Pictures on White Photography name came about because of the importance on white.
• How did POW start? 2010 in midst the last meltdown. 
• What makes a good photo?
  • What is pleasing
  • What encourages someone to click my listing photo
• Tent light kit vs Studio approach
  • Product on white background is bare minimum. 
  • How do I win that click and make my photo standout?
  • How do I light it?
• Common photo mistakes
  • Can look at a product before even putting it on set.
  • Color number for a wine glass - 250.
  • Light density. Black cards on the side. Reflection of the black card.
• Basic starting point
  • Light sweep
  • Trying to do it as an amateur as a professional is not possible.
  • How to balance lights.
•  What types of photos should be on an Amazon listing?
  • One thing I like about your website is it has tutorials on how to order the right photos. 
  • Survey the Amazon competition and shoot lookalikes.
• Progression Amazon sellers go through
  • Get to market as fast as possible
  • Once up start optimizing
• Hardest product to shoot and why?
  • Liquor decanter + glasses
• Easiest product to shoot and why?
  • Bottles
• 200,000 photos in past 10 years.
• Beauty products. 
• What should clients ask more from you or photos they should obtain than are not as common but should be?
  • Biggest question we get - do you shoot lifestyle images?
    • We do, but it’s challenging. 
    • Started service 6 months ago “Amazon Lifestyle Composite Photos” Or “Stock Composites” We retouch it so the item matches the scene. $150 per photo.
• Funnest product to shoot?
  • Hard light shot for beauty products. Created a whole new lighting style for us. Background called “hard light”
• Types of photo styles.
• Perfect listing:
  • Main image photography is most important. Stand out from competitors. 
  • Pitfall: Front, back and side. Nobody cares about that.
  • Better: Features, what makes it sell. Is it tough, really big? Show call outs. Really sell me why.
• Obviously sellers should pay for high grade professional shots, but are there any hacks or shortcuts they can take?

This photo guide has all the specs and recommendations for images on Amazon.

Summary:

1. Photos should be 2000x2000
2. Jpeg
3. 7 photos per item
4. Main photo on white cropped so item is 85% of image (Prevent white space at top and bottom of product, so that item looks bigger in search results)

7 Photo Shots you can take:

1. Main image - on white.
2. Back image - labels etc.
3. Close up shot to show a feature
4. Infographics -Photos with text and key features
5. Lifestyle- Makes you feel you’re using the product, or how and where you would use the product
6. Aspirational -Humanizing the product in use to show social gain (photos of humans)
7. Video (Requires EBC / Brand Registry)

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Sean Halls is currently in India in the midst of a shutdown and COVID-19. To get a flight out of India right now it would cost $6,000. Sean is hunkering down. I used to go to high school with Sean and we played chess, basketball, and MTG back in the day. Today Sean runs a team of developers in medical technologies. 

His career path went down the development work track. During a Hackathon event Sean got a cold, and in a turn of events it led him to end up in India. During an event in his worst pain of his life, he was collapsed on the floor following a flight descent in India. It was the enlightening moment in time for him. Over the years he ended up staying. And it led to him to helping people through development in the medical industry.

Amazon is strong in India. But only 2% of India is utilizing ecommerce to where it could go. Volume is still in traditional markets and streets today in India. "People are willing to pay for convenience than high quality."

Flattening the Coronavirus Curve Is Not Enough

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Get help with Advertising management:

Buy a Brand Store Page $350

Custom Image Brand Advertising Release:

Get Amazon Consulting https://myamazonguy.com/

#PPC #BrandStore #SellerCentral

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New Custom Image Video Demo

This video came from a comment on our custom image video: What photos convert the best CTR? In the video I show how people with smiles, the product in use, or a lifestyle image showing the end product are the best way to get customer interest. CTR = Click Through Rating % of the number of people who see an impression vs who actually clicked on the ad.

Get Advertising support:

Get Amazon Consulting at https://myamazonguy.com/

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I received in the mail an offer for a $10 gift card if I submitted a 5-star review for a product I had purchased more than a month ago. This is a blatant violation of Amazon rules. You can't incentivize a review on Amazon. So I reported it to Amazon on my buyer's account. They gave me a $10 promotional credit for the trouble and I didn't even ask for a credit. That's how much Amazon wants to crack down on this stuff.

A month ago Lockpicking Lawyer also did an expose that got a million views already on the Mofut key lockbox where they also offered a $10 Amazon gift card to leave a 5 star review. Following that story, Amazon removed thousands of reviews from the violator.

Link to review manipulator address that was on the mail they sent which violated two Amazon policies. #1 marketing Amazon Buyers by mail outside of my purchase. And #2 review manipulation and incentivizing reviews. 

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