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The Amazon Marketplace is flooded with advertisers around the holidays that wouldn’t normally be there. This makes getting visibility from holiday shoppers extremely difficult for Amazon sellers of all sizes.
Amazon sellers’ holiday marketing strategy ramps up on channels like Amazon PPC and Amazon SEO, taking up most available real estate. So, focusing on those two channels alone would be considered an Amazon beginner mistake.
The good news? For most consumers, their holiday gift-buying journey begins off of Amazon, and as an Amazon Consultant for 10+ years, I’m here to share how you can capitalize on this with a proven, time-tested holiday marketing strategy.
Related: 5 Proven Marketing Strategies for Amazon Sellers
Step 1. Make a list of holiday gift guides
To begin, consider that your customers will be visiting the top two search engines in the world, Google and YouTube, to help make their holiday gift-buying decisions easy.
They will be searching for things like:
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Best gifts for mom
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Gifts for golfers
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Jewelry gifts under $100
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Top tech gifts for dad
That means, your first step will be to make a list of lists.
First, ask yourself: Who would your product be an amazing gift for? Then, think about all of the buying guides, holiday gift guides, best lists and top lists, and write them down.
Not sure? Ask ChatGPT for help, then move on to step 2.
Step 2. Find Amazon Influencers
Amazon Influencers who create blog and video content link back to Amazon to earn affiliate commissions from programs like the Amazon Associates Program and Amazon Influencer Program.
They’re the prominent creators of gift guide and buyer guide style content because they can easily link back to the products on Amazon, where the customers with buyer intent go and make a purchase after taking their recommendation, earning them a commission.
In other words: Your goal is to perform searches on Google and YouTube for the lists in your list and make note of all of the results that link back to products on Amazon.
Then, you’re going to collect the social media links and email addresses of the content creators, just like you would in your modern PR strategy.
Now, you know who creates the type of content that drives sales for your Amazon holiday marketing strategy.
Your next step is to build relationships to get included in the existing or upcoming holiday gift guide content.
Step 3. Build relationships with Amazon Influencers
Simply put, you don’t want to quickly send out a cold email or DM asking to get included in their gift guides. This doesn’t work.
As a business owner, think about how many cold emails you get every day and which ones you choose to read and which you choose to skip.
You choose to open the cold emails from people who have interacted with you before and see their names in your notifications.
You’re going to want to follow the same process you likely use to get PR for your business.
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Follow the content creator on social media
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Engage with their content for a day or so
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Send them a DM or an email
By following this process, they’re going to see your name a few times and know that you’ve taken the time to consume and engage with their content. This is what makes them willing to open up and respond to your outreach — reciprocity.
Related: 5 Incredible Ways to Get Your Product, Service or Business in a Holiday Gift Guide
Step 4. Ask for inclusion in gift guides
The content you’re going to get included in will fall into two categories.
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Existing content
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Upcoming content
Existing content:
Publications and bloggers alike often choose to create evergreen content — in other words, content that is relevant year over year or kept fresh and relevant through updates.
That means you have a fantastic opportunity to get included in a piece of content that’s already ranking well on search engines and will have prominent visibility during the holidays.
Upcoming content:
Since you cannot re-upload YouTube videos and update existing video content, your choice for YouTube content is only for upcoming videos. Many publications and bloggers choose to create new content as well.
This gives you a bit more flexibility in terms of how you’re positioned.
BONUS PLACEMENTS:
Don’t stop at the article or the YouTube video inclusion. Amazon Influencers will also break up their gift guides for social media placements and email lists.
Your goal is to maximize the real estate and opportunities to be in front of holiday shoppers when they’re making their purchasing decisions.
With that in mind, the ultimate placement is the solo placement. This is where the entire piece of content is dedicated to your product.
Some examples of great solo placement options are:
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“The Best Tech Gift For Mom”
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“The Ultimate Jewelry Gift For Grandma”
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“The Only Gift Worthy of The Golfer In Your Family”
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“The One Gift I Give Every Single Year To Coffee Lovers”
Not only do you take up the entire real estate, but you are positioned as the best in class at what you do, which increases perceived value, boosting conversions.
Standing out from the crowd on Amazon during the holidays is a herculean task, but luckily, you don’t have to. You can thrive this holiday season by going where your customers go — off of Amazon.
Related: 3 Essentials for Taking Your Amazon Sales to the Next Level
