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How to be Successful on Amazon with Alfred Mai · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Just because Amazon has a 150,000,000 members here, it doesn't mean they're all gonna be
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  flocking to your listing.
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  And, you know, honestly, it doesn't even mean a single person is gonna click on your listing.
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  Right?
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  So it's all up to you to, you know, create a, a great listing and, b, to drive traffic to that
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  listing however you can.
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  10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz chat podcast with the number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give the information you
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  need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and I'm the host of the small biz chat podcast.
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  I'm so excited to have you all here with us today because we have an amazing show.
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  Now the small business chat podcast is a peer to peer interview show.
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  That gives small business owners a way to get invaluable business advice.
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  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
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  You're here to get advice about how to take your business to the next level, and we're
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  giving you different angles that you might wanna consider.
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  So now with that, I want to turn and introduce my very first guest.
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  I'll come to someone who is the President and CEO of MS Games, and he has a wonderful unique
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  card game company.
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  And this is one of his best selling products.
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  I decided to try it out for myself.
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  It's pretty cool.
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  So I'm gonna get him to tell us how he took his clever card games and created a business and he
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  has a power seller on Amazon.
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  So prior to starting his company, he was a digital marketing 1st specializing in mobile
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  performance campaigns and paid ads on Facebook, Google and and Apple ad campaigns.
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  So he knew a little something about digital before he got on Amazon, but he toss it all
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  aside to start his company ASM Games dotcom.
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  And and, Albert, welcome to the smallest chat podcast.
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  Thank you, Melinda.
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  Very excited to be here.
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  Well, alright.
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  So You gotta tell us how you started a card game business.
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  I hear you.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  So, So, I mean, we create and publish and sell all different kinds of card games.
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  I I I know you've seen from oversight from party games to gamified conversation starters
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  to trivia games would kinda make it all.
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  I started the business 5 years ago out of my home, my girlfriend at the time, now wife, and
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  I would always go to these game nights with friends, honestly, we didn't really like a lot
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  of the games that we played.
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  And on the drive home, one of these nights, when we're talking, we thought, hey.
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  We can make a better game.
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  Let's do it.
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  Let's let's try to make our own game.
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  And so and so we did.
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  So after work and on the weekends, we learned all we could about graphic design, print
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  design, manufacturing, importing.
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  We watched, you know, YouTube videos, read articles, took online courses.
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  We we did it all.
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  And long story short, about half a year later, we finally were able to 1st launch our game on
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  Amazon.
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  And since then, we've had 3 separate products on Amazon's best sellers list.
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  And we now sell in 8 different countries.
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  Awesome.
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  Awesome.
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  So people might think that's a rags or riches story, but I I kinda want you to tell me about
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  why did you start selling on Amazon versus your own website?
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  I mean, would you do it again the same way, or do you think people should do both.
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  Yeah.
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  So I definitely think you should do both.
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  Right?
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  There's pros and cons of selling on Amazon and selling on your own website.
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  The pros of being on Amazon, of course, is the potential for Amazon users to see your product
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  when they're browsing or searching around on Amazon, where they otherwise wouldn't have if,
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  you know, you weren't selling Amazon.
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  So that definitely may help drive extra sales to you if you do things, right?
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  Another big pro is the trust that Amazon has.
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  People oftentimes are more likely to purchase something if it's on Amazon rather than on an
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  obscure website, right, where they have to input their credit card information, their
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  address, and and personal information.
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  My dad, I mean, he falls for every other online scam out there.
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  So I always tell him, hey.
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  Whatever you need, just just buy it on Amazon and stop giving everyone else on the internet
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  your card number.
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  Right?
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  So even aside from the whole trust aspect, just reducing the friction of having to have
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  potential customers fill out their billing and shipping information on your website.
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  I mean, that's a big bonus for Amazon, and you've seen it.
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  It's it's it's as easy as 1 or 2 clicks to make a purchase on Amazon, and I gotta tell you that
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  that is huge when it comes to having potential customers, the actual customers.
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  No.
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  It's scary easy to click and buy overall.
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  Yeah.
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  To make it too easy for you to give Amazon Right?
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  But, I mean the phone anywhere.
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  It's like, it it's faster than doing on your phone.
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  It's a
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  really good.
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  Right.
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  But, I mean, Aside from all that, there is one big benefit though of selling on your own
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  website, one that you don't get if you sell on Amazon, and that is the customers you acquire
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  selling on your own website.
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  They're yours.
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  Amazon customers who purchase your products on Amazon, they're not your customers.
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  They're Amazon's customers.
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  Right?
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  You you can't retarget them.
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  You can't, you email them for promotional marketing.
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  You can't build an audience off of them to custom target on Facebook or Google
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  advertising.
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  It ain't your customer.
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  When you sell on your website, I mean, you can do all that.
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  Right?
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  You can collect emails.
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  You can remarket.
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  You can retarget, and that in its own way is really, really big.
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  So mean, back to your question.
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  I, you know, I definitely recommend doing both so you can capture the pros of of each.
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  Now how important is it to do your own online marketing even though you're on Amazon?
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  Cause I think some people think if I put it up there, They're gonna find me all these people
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  with millions of people every minute coming to Amazon.
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  Like, you know, you still have to market even though you're on Amazon.
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  Right?
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  You're you're absolutely spot on.
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  I mean, it's absolutely critical.
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  There's sometimes, you know, a misconception when people hear stories about Amazon success
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  And they think, you know, simply joining Amazon and creating a listing, I'll be, you know, it's
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  an easy goal and take it to 10x in their sales, but that's that's rarely the case.
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  Amazon is an amazing platform for e commerce, but, you know, really how you leverage the
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  platform is key.
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  Right?
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  The principles of running any successful business remains the same.
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  It's about creating amazing products and how you market and sell sell those products.
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  You know, just because Amazon has a 150,000,000 members here, it doesn't mean they're all gonna
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  be flocking to your listing.
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  And know, honestly, it doesn't even mean a single person is gonna click on your listing.
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  Right?
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  So it's all up to you to, you know, create a a great listing and, b, to drive traffic to that
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  listing however you can.
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  So talk to me about how you drive traffic to your listing.
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  Right?
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  You can buy ads on Amazon.
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
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  You you can't.
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  So ads on Amazon is relatively new.
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  When I first started selling on Amazon, they didn't really have any ads in the search
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  results.
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  You know, I believe there was an internal fight on at the executive level within Amazon,
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  whether to even include paid ads on the search results, one side said no.
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  Right?
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  They said the goal of Amazon is to show users the best products possible.
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  And then by having ads, you're gonna hurt that experience.
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  The other side said, look, it's potentially a lot of revenue for us and, obviously, the
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  revenue side 1.
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  And so it just started off with one listing as it paid ad in the search results.
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  And now it's up to 5 on desktop.
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  So every few months, you know, I see them adding more and more ad spacing in the search
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  results.
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  So it's taken up more and more real estate.
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  And I I do think that it will continue taking up more and more real estate on Amazon search
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  results.
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  You know, it's obviously very lucrative for Amazon.
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  So you know, I think Amazon sellers need to be prepared for this new reality, right, that it
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  will be more and more pay to play that it will cost you to get visibility So, you know, can
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  you be successful on Amazon without buying ads on Amazon?
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  Yeah.
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  Absolutely.
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  Will that be the case in the future?
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  You know, probably, but I do think to a lesser extent, I will say though that ads on Amazon
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  have become more and more expensive.
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  It's tough to be profitable.
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  So definitely learn take some courses, read all you can about best practices and running ads on
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  Amazon.
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  And like I said, make sure your listing is top notch.
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  If you're going to be paying people to drive, you know, paying to drive people to your
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  listing, make sure it actually converts those clickers into customers.
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  Alright.
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  So let's talk about that.
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  1 first thing I wanna know is what can you do if you're not buying ads to promote your stuff
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  on Amazon?
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  And what makes a good ad?
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  Right?
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  What makes a good product listing on Amazon?
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  Yeah.
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  So, you know, when we first started, we kind of we did everything.
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  Right?
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  We did paid ads.
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  We did PR outreach by found every editor I could, their email address or Instagram handle,
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  the Twitter handle, I DM them, I messaged them.
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  I said, Hey, you know, feature our product.
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  We have a really cool product.
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  We did everything we could influence from marketing.
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  And, you know, it's really just about doing ground up digital market you know, everywhere
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  you can.
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  If you have a lot of money to spend, if you have great performance marketing background,
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  spend that money on Facebook ads, make sure you're profitable, right, because you can spend
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  a $1000 and generate $10 in revenue.
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  And I've had a lot of I've worked with a lot of people that that have done that.
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  So do what you're best at doing and take the time to learn.
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  There's a million ways to drive traffic to your Amazon listing.
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  There isn't one right way.
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  It really depends on your product, but my philosophy is always try everything out there.
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  And if it works for you, scale it up.
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  Right?
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  If, you know, you spend a $1000 on paid ads and it's driving good conversion rates and you're
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  being profitable, scale it up.
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  Alright.
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  Well, I think that's more than fair.
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  How can you encourage?
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  I know you said that, you know, when they buy from Amazon, they're your customer, but is
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  there a safer legal way to get people to give you reviews, like, to reach back to people to
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  to to give you reviews?
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  Yeah.
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  I I get that question a lot.
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  So first, Amazon has a 0 tolerance policy when it comes to cheating on reviews.
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  So, you know, you will get banned and you will be banned And the thing about cheating on
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  reviews, it's it's kinda vague.
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  Right?
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  There's, some people ask me, hey.
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  Is it cheating if you add a pamphlet in your package and say, hey.
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  Leave me a review.
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  No.
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  Not yet.
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  But if you say, you know, you throw a bunch of 5 stars on that pamphlet, is that priming
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  people to leave you with 5 stars?
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  Yeah.
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  And is that considered cheating?
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  Probably.
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  So, I mean, with all that said, you know, Amazon knows that reviews aren't important for
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  selling products.
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  We view sell products, Amazon makes money.
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  So Amazon obviously wants reviews and and wants to solve products.
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  So for new products, the easiest way to get reviews is to enroll in a Amazon program called
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  Vine.
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  It's a program where you can get up to 30 reviews by giving away your product to trusted
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  unbiased Amazon reviewers.
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  They're gonna test out your product and leave your review.
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  It's kind of a an automated process.
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  It's it's Amazon sanctioned giveaway program, essentially.
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  It's pretty cheap.
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  It's like 200 bucks to enroll each product in there.
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  You really absolutely need a strong reviews.
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  Aside from that, always double check the the terms, but, from what I've seen work is
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  oftentimes when you leave a note in your package and you you kinda tell your story about
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  being a small business, thanking them for the support and asking them to leave feedback on
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  Amazon so that they can help know, other customers and users that has worked really
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  well, but, again, Amazon rules always change.
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  So double check and make sure that's okay.
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  Alright.
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  I love it, Alfred.
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  What is the best business advice you've ever been given?
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  My wife actually told me this.
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  She said nobody cares about your business more than yourself.
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  In the context of this is when I would catch mistakes here and there from professionals that
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  I've hired to look at things, like legal contracts or or taxes and as racketeering, I
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  was saying, you know, why am I paying all these quote unquote experts all this money to do a
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  job where I find issues?
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  Right?
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  I'm not professionally trained in accounting or law.
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  Like, like, I like I like to read.
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  I'm kind of a geek.
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  Right?
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  I like to go thoroughly go over things, and I shouldn't be catching these things, and I
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  shouldn't be doing the research that I am to ensure that these things are right.
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  And she said, you know, no matter who you work with, who I hire, there will never be a bigger
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  advocate to make sure things are done right for my business.
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  So make sure take the extra time even if you hired the best to ensure that things are done
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  right.
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  Nobody cares about your business more than yourself.
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  I can concur completely.
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  Thank you so much, Alfred.
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  You've shared some really valuable nuggets here about how to hit it big and scale your business
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  with Amazon.
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  Alright, Alfred.
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  What's your favorite podcast?
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  I don't listen to too many podcasts, and I'm being completely honest.
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  Your yours is probably one of the the the first or the few that I've I've actually listened to.
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  So I'm gonna have to say small this chat.
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  Well, you're a teacher's pet.
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  I appreciate that.
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  Alright, Alfred.
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  What's your favorite app?
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  Mine's at Boring.
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  It's the Amazon Seller app.
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  I I could be in a beach in Hawaii and have a pulse of everything in my palm, sales,
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  inventory, everything, So it's if you're an Amazon seller, you need to have that app.
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  What is the best business book you have ever read?
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  Mine's is the lean start I I come from a startup world and have taken so many lessons
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  from from being in that world, and this book has just so many good ideas, many of which I
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  think you definitely can apply for to even traditional businesses
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  This was so awesome.
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  Please support my guests because they have given their time and advice here tonight.
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  They help all of us do better in business.
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  Thank you all for watching this episode of the small bitch chat podcast.
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  If you're looking for your digital pivot, I've got a resource that's gonna help you.
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  We've got wonderful courses over at Small Buslady University.
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  And I have one called social media selling that we just launched earlier this year.
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  So if you're looking to figure out how you can turn your social into cash, I've got everything
• 13:19
  you need.
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  All you do is head over to smallbizladyuniversity.com.
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  You know, the mission of smallbiz chat is to end small business failure.
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  It is my honor to work with you all and share my insight and the of my guests.
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  And I wanna leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business, either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Good night.
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  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 13:54
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.