Latest / Influencer Confidential / The Truth About Amazon Influencers & How They Really Make Money #269
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to Influencer Confidential by Sidewalker Daily. My name is
- 0:04Speaker 1: Nina Zeta and I will be your host. I love
- 0:07Speaker 1: working with brands and influencers on all things business strategy.
- 0:11Speaker 1: Are you ready to learn what it takes to work
- 0:13Speaker 1: in this influencer industry and see behind the curtain? Well,
- 0:16Speaker 1: let's jump in. If I was a betting woman, I
- 0:23Speaker 1: would say probably ninety five percent of the influencers and
- 0:26Speaker 1: creators that I work with have an Amazon shop. I
- 0:29Speaker 1: would also probably bet that most of those people are
- 0:32Speaker 1: not maximizing or doing the most that they can. And
- 0:35Speaker 1: I don't want to say any numbers here or shoot
- 0:37Speaker 1: any shots, but most people I know are not thriving
- 0:41Speaker 1: with their Amazon shops. There are obviously creators who are
- 0:44Speaker 1: killing it, but for the most part, I see people
- 0:47Speaker 1: set up these shops and then it kind of just
- 0:49Speaker 1: frizzles away. And I think the real reason that it
- 0:52Speaker 1: frizzles away is that it's kind of disheartening not to
- 0:55Speaker 1: make a lot when you're promoting something right like all
- 0:58Speaker 1: of us. If you're getting two percent mission, five percent commission,
- 1:01Speaker 1: three percent commission on something less than a dollar, I
- 1:04Speaker 1: think that's probably psychologically one of the reasons most people
- 1:07Speaker 1: don't put a lot of love behind their Amazon shop
- 1:09Speaker 1: and then it kind of just fades to dust. So
- 1:11Speaker 1: what I want to talk about today is the truth
- 1:13Speaker 1: about these Amazon influencers who are killing it, what they're doing,
- 1:18Speaker 1: and why the rest kind of just stay broke, and
- 1:20Speaker 1: how we can get you out of that broke cycle
- 1:23Speaker 1: into a cycle where your affiliate life is thriving. Okay, so,
- 1:27Speaker 1: first of all, if you're interested in learning a little
- 1:29Speaker 1: bit more about the Amazon Influencer program, Amazon will give
- 1:32Speaker 1: you a storefront. We all shop on Amazon, and it's
- 1:35Speaker 1: super easy to create lists, to post content, to create
- 1:38Speaker 1: Amazon specific content, and more. But the truth is most
- 1:42Speaker 1: people make very little once they have their storefront up
- 1:45Speaker 1: because they don't have some strategies in place. The biggest
- 1:47Speaker 1: thing I see happening is around content strategy. There is none.
- 1:51Speaker 1: It's just kind of like I made a store and
- 1:53Speaker 1: I'm wishing that people come and shop. There's no content
- 1:56Speaker 1: that is ever green, like my top favorite travel items
- 2:01Speaker 1: for kids under five or whatever, like these sort of
- 2:03Speaker 1: pieces of content that would live forever that your audience
- 2:06Speaker 1: would find valuable and useful and also full of links.
- 2:09Speaker 1: So We're seeing no real content strategy behind these affiliates.
- 2:13Speaker 1: We're seeing a lot of one off posts like oh
- 2:15Speaker 1: I get excited and I remember I have an Amazon shop,
- 2:18Speaker 1: and then I post about it and then I forget
- 2:19Speaker 1: about it, right, versus integrating it into the bedrock of
- 2:22Speaker 1: your content. The biggest thing that separates creators who are
- 2:26Speaker 1: making money on affiliate programs and those that are not
- 2:30Speaker 1: is understanding purchase intent. Does your audience purchase from you?
- 2:34Speaker 1: Are they trained to purchase from you? Do they understand
- 2:37Speaker 1: that that's what you do. So many creators that I
- 2:39Speaker 1: work with are shy to sell. They're like, I feel uncomfortable,
- 2:42Speaker 1: like I don't know what to do, and I'm not
- 2:44Speaker 1: asking you to get on live stream and do a
- 2:45Speaker 1: product demo. But again, you're actually needing to change your
- 2:49Speaker 1: mindset around selling because if you are promoting something that
- 2:52Speaker 1: you love, trust, your kids, love, your family, whatever, you're
- 2:56Speaker 1: actually doing a service to your community. You're promoting something
- 2:58Speaker 1: that has helped you or that has retained you, or
- 3:01Speaker 1: that you could really stand by. So a lot of
- 3:02Speaker 1: it is that mindset shift. Taders need to understand storytelling, right,
- 3:06Speaker 1: That's the whole thing around purchase intent and understanding that
- 3:09Speaker 1: your audience is going to purchase, but you have to
- 3:12Speaker 1: take them on that story with you. A big thing
- 3:14Speaker 1: that kind of separates people that understand how this works
- 3:18Speaker 1: and those that don't is those that are just having
- 3:20Speaker 1: their Amazon store front set up, relying on one to
- 3:23Speaker 1: three to five percent commission. They're expecting volume. So at
- 3:28Speaker 1: that level, you need to have a lot of eyeballs
- 3:31Speaker 1: and a lot of people to make it worth your while,
- 3:33Speaker 1: because honestly, like less than a dollar or a dollar
- 3:36Speaker 1: per sale is not very incentivizing, especially when a lot
- 3:40Speaker 1: of the people in my community don't have millions and
- 3:42Speaker 1: millions and millions of followers right people that are starting off,
- 3:46Speaker 1: So how can you expect to succeed if you don't
- 3:48Speaker 1: have that volume? And then it's discouraging and it's like
- 3:51Speaker 1: this everlasting loop, and we're going to get you out
- 3:53Speaker 1: of that loop. The biggest underground secret, I would say
- 3:56Speaker 1: is that a lot of the creators who are flopping
- 3:59Speaker 1: and not doing well is because they don't have any
- 4:01Speaker 1: relationship with the seller. They don't even have like a
- 4:05Speaker 1: dialogue with them, nothing. And it's been for a really
- 4:07Speaker 1: long time that like Amazon sellers or other sellers on
- 4:10Speaker 1: other marketplaces, like the creator doesn't get to kind of
- 4:13Speaker 1: connect with them. Well, that is changing, and this is
- 4:17Speaker 1: actually where I want to introduce you guys to this
- 4:19Speaker 1: tool that a lot of the sidewalkers in our community
- 4:22Speaker 1: are now using and loving, and it is actually the
- 4:25Speaker 1: sponsor of today, which is Levanta. Lavanta is an affiliate
- 4:29Speaker 1: platform that allows you to directly connect with sellers on
- 4:33Speaker 1: other marketplaces. It also gives you an opportunity to get
- 4:36Speaker 1: higher commissions than the two to three percent commissions a
- 4:40Speaker 1: lot of us are used to. We're thinking twenty percent,
- 4:42Speaker 1: thirty percent, and even up to one hundred percent commissions
- 4:46Speaker 1: on products that we are all writing promoting. Now, this
- 4:49Speaker 1: changes the game. When you're getting twenty to thirty percent
- 4:52Speaker 1: commission versus two, you're like, all right, let's go. That's incentivizing,
- 4:57Speaker 1: that's exciting, that makes you want to promote the links. Right.
- 5:00Speaker 1: So you guys know, I'm a visual storyteller, a visual learner.
- 5:03Speaker 1: I just want to show you really briefly like the
- 5:06Speaker 1: insides of this tool because this is actually going to
- 5:08Speaker 1: help you. This tool is going to help you raise
- 5:12Speaker 1: your commissions directly connect with these sellers. Negotiate directly with
- 5:16Speaker 1: these sellers, request free samples, build lists, all of it
- 5:20Speaker 1: and more. And if you are already part of the
- 5:22Speaker 1: Amazon Creator Connection program, you can also access brand campaigns
- 5:25Speaker 1: and there too. One thing I also have to mention
- 5:28Speaker 1: is many Amazon influencers are also part of Creator Connections,
- 5:32Speaker 1: which is a free program that Amazon influencers and associates
- 5:36Speaker 1: can do to partner with brands. But what Levanta has
- 5:39Speaker 1: also done is allowed this integration directly within the Levanta platform.
- 5:44Speaker 1: And what I love about this is that it allows
- 5:46Speaker 1: brands and sellers to basically reward their high performing creators
- 5:50Speaker 1: in a way that isn't done in typical Amazon affiliate model. Basically,
- 5:55Speaker 1: creators are being rewarded not just for making sales, but
- 5:57Speaker 1: showing consistency strong performance instead of being fixed into like commissions.
- 6:02Speaker 1: Sellers and brands can use these loyalty bonuses to recognize
- 6:06Speaker 1: loyalty and results. So, for example, let's just say creator
- 6:08Speaker 1: might earn an extra bonus for hitting a milestone or
- 6:11Speaker 1: for delivering a strong result over set period of time.
- 6:13Speaker 1: Creators are able to unlock these bonuses the more that
- 6:16Speaker 1: they drive results, and then within Lavanta you're able to
- 6:20Speaker 1: see your creator connection campaigns as well as managed like
- 6:23Speaker 1: all of these multiple campaigns, and within Lavanta, you're able
- 6:26Speaker 1: to get this full picture of your performance across multiple
- 6:29Speaker 1: campaigns all in one place. And what's amazing is that
- 6:32Speaker 1: Levanta you can compare these commission rates so you can
- 6:35Speaker 1: make these informed decisions where you want to direct traffic.
- 6:38Speaker 1: So when you're in your product catalog, you're going to
- 6:40Speaker 1: be able to click creator Connections and have access to
- 6:43Speaker 1: all the same campaigns you would have elsewhere you can
- 6:45Speaker 1: see the products, and then when you head over to loyalty,
- 6:48Speaker 1: you're going to be able to see all of the
- 6:49Speaker 1: loyalty bonuses brands have offered you based on your creator
- 6:52Speaker 1: connection campaign activity, your sales progress, your bonus total, so
- 6:56Speaker 1: these are all your little bonuses. Are you joined? Do
- 6:59Speaker 1: you want to join? You're able to see all the
- 7:01Speaker 1: programs laid out. There's also program insight, so you can
- 7:05Speaker 1: kind of go in and see your bonus payouts over
- 7:07Speaker 1: time and different performance metrics as well, So it's all
- 7:11Speaker 1: in there for creators that again are really serious about
- 7:15Speaker 1: their creator connections and affiliates, but they're able to kind
- 7:17Speaker 1: of have this top level view as well, so let's
- 7:20Speaker 1: take a look right here. This is a creator's dashboard
- 7:23Speaker 1: that I got access to. The creator got over eight
- 7:26Speaker 1: hundred thousand clicks. You're able to see the total sales
- 7:30Speaker 1: and the total commissions, So this creator's already done forty
- 7:34Speaker 1: two thousand dollars in commissions. I love that it shows
- 7:37Speaker 1: the conversion rate, the earnings per click. This is such
- 7:41Speaker 1: valuable data you guys in building out your creator business
- 7:44Speaker 1: to be able to be like this is where I
- 7:46Speaker 1: I convert out about two percent. It is really valuable
- 7:50Speaker 1: information from an analytics standpoint. So again, creators who are successful,
- 7:54Speaker 1: they're looking at their data and they're looking at these
- 7:56Speaker 1: type of numbers. So, as I mentioned, Levanta is this
- 7:59Speaker 1: platform that it's not only about getting bigger commissions on affiliates.
- 8:02Speaker 1: That's my favorite part. But there's so much more. You
- 8:06Speaker 1: can connect with these brands directly. You can apply, they
- 8:09Speaker 1: can reach out to you. When I look at my inbox,
- 8:11Speaker 1: like there's tons of different brands that are literally reaching
- 8:13Speaker 1: out to me, sharing with us what their commission structures
- 8:16Speaker 1: look like, what type of products are there. I can
- 8:20Speaker 1: request samples if I want, I can discover new products.
- 8:24Speaker 1: I can use my old products that I like. I'm
- 8:27Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and search Lego because so many of
- 8:30Speaker 1: the creators in my community, I have a lot of
- 8:32Speaker 1: parents and people with young kids. So let's go ahead
- 8:35Speaker 1: and take a look at Legos and what that looks like.
- 8:38Speaker 1: So right here, you know, we are seeing again these
- 8:41Speaker 1: twenty percent commissions. Imagine you do a video on my
- 8:46Speaker 1: best family Toys or whatever this holiday season. You link
- 8:50Speaker 1: a bunch of these, You set up an automation on
- 8:53Speaker 1: Instagram comment you know, gifts to get my top gifts,
- 8:57Speaker 1: and you are getting about twenty percent commission in some
- 9:01Speaker 1: cases even more for all of these recommendations. This is
- 9:04Speaker 1: when it adds up, not when it's like two percent
- 9:07Speaker 1: or five percent. That's just not exciting for creators. But
- 9:10Speaker 1: even as you guys can feel my energy, right, twenty
- 9:12Speaker 1: percent makes it exciting for creators. Thirty percent makes it exciting.
- 9:15Speaker 1: And again you have now a relationship with the seller.
- 9:18Speaker 1: You can even negotiate higher and get in there and
- 9:21Speaker 1: message them and develop that rapport, which I think is
- 9:24Speaker 1: really really important. Now again, what I am interested in
- 9:28Speaker 1: is like, let's just say I go to my Discovery
- 9:30Speaker 1: board and I see the brands like, right, here you
- 9:33Speaker 1: can see brands that you can apply to, and then
- 9:34Speaker 1: brands that you have access to. Let's take a quick look,
- 9:39Speaker 1: and here are brands that I've been invited access, like wireless.
- 9:42Speaker 1: I actually have these headphones, so let's go ahead and
- 9:45Speaker 1: click on these. It's interesting, right, it's showing me fifteen
- 9:48Speaker 1: percent commission. I'm getting four dollars and twenty cents per conversion.
- 9:51Speaker 1: I can click to partner now, I can obviously read
- 9:55Speaker 1: the terms and conditions and confirm it, and once I'm in,
- 9:59Speaker 1: I can part or with them. Right, so I could
- 10:01Speaker 1: go ahead and create a new link. I'm getting this link.
- 10:04Speaker 1: It is mobile optimized. I save and copy it and boom,
- 10:08Speaker 1: like this link has been created for me. Right. You
- 10:10Speaker 1: can obviously start tracking performance and all of that. But
- 10:14Speaker 1: what's interesting is what even shows you? Like their Amazon page,
- 10:17Speaker 1: you could go ahead and take a look at it
- 10:18Speaker 1: on Amazon, see the reviews. I actually literally have bought
- 10:21Speaker 1: this product before. So what I love is that Levanta
- 10:25Speaker 1: just gives you this really good head up to get
- 10:27Speaker 1: in there and understand. Notice this top toolbar. This product
- 10:30Speaker 1: normally earns you four percent via Amazon Associates, but through Levanta,
- 10:34Speaker 1: you're going to earn fifteen percent. Now there's also all
- 10:37Speaker 1: these different variation, different colors, like you could get as
- 10:40Speaker 1: granular as you want in that. Now here's where it
- 10:43Speaker 1: gets fun, right. I can literally message this brand directly,
- 10:48Speaker 1: a random brand, I can message them directly. We can
- 10:51Speaker 1: start conversations, we can request a commission change, you know,
- 10:55Speaker 1: and there's even like templates and all of that inside.
- 10:58Speaker 1: You can create it so you can start talking to
- 11:00Speaker 1: these brands direct. Think about the possibilities from a relationship standpoint.
- 11:04Speaker 1: So anyways, I personally love that. I think it's great.
- 11:06Speaker 1: You guys know, I'm all about connecting with brands and
- 11:09Speaker 1: getting them in. So this is all very exciting. So
- 11:11Speaker 1: if you're already creating on Amazon and you're frustrated and
- 11:14Speaker 1: not seeing results, I would strongly suggest giving tools like
- 11:18Speaker 1: Levanta a try, because again to higher the commission. There's
- 11:21Speaker 1: just something psychological there. It gets you excited about promoting.
- 11:24Speaker 1: You're going to see results faster and better. I'm going
- 11:27Speaker 1: to go ahead and leave our link below so that
- 11:29Speaker 1: you guys can use this to sign up. Once you do,
- 11:33Speaker 1: tell me, Nina, I am in. I cannot wait to
- 11:35Speaker 1: see what this platform does for you. Guys. As you
- 11:38Speaker 1: guys know here, we have built a community of over
- 11:40Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty thousand creators, and I would definitely
- 11:43Speaker 1: not put my name behind anything I did not strongly
- 11:46Speaker 1: think was going to help you in the monetization side
- 11:49Speaker 1: of your biz. And y'all know that about me. So
- 11:51Speaker 1: go ahead and take a look at Levanta for yourself
- 11:53Speaker 1: and see if you think it's a good fit for
- 11:55Speaker 1: your business. When we think about top earners making money, yes,
- 11:58Speaker 1: they're using tools like Levanta to get high commissions and
- 12:00Speaker 1: not leave money on the table. But they're also building
- 12:03Speaker 1: really strategic, ever green content. Amazon Travel must have my
- 12:07Speaker 1: Baby registry gadgets. I use again, content that is intentional,
- 12:13Speaker 1: not just like here's a post of the headphones I like,
- 12:15Speaker 1: but really thinking it through and knowing what your audience is. Also,
- 12:19Speaker 1: they're positioning their content around solving a problem. So a
- 12:23Speaker 1: lot of the Amazon people that I know, they have
- 12:25Speaker 1: like literally trained I know that word trained feels funky,
- 12:28Speaker 1: but like they've trained their audiences that they are source
- 12:32Speaker 1: of recommendation and expertise, so people now know to come
- 12:36Speaker 1: to them for these solutions, for these recommendations. So when
- 12:39Speaker 1: you start to create content that's also solution focused. You
- 12:43Speaker 1: can now integrate your links in a more strategic way.
- 12:45Speaker 1: The creators who are killing it on these platforms are
- 12:48Speaker 1: creators who are tracking their businesses. Like the screen share
- 12:51Speaker 1: I showed you earlier. We're looking at cost per click,
- 12:54Speaker 1: or looking at conversion rates, We're looking at our total
- 12:56Speaker 1: numbers that we've sold. We are looking at not only
- 12:59Speaker 1: our commission all of that. And I think you know,
- 13:02Speaker 1: whatever affiliate tool you end up using, you want to
- 13:05Speaker 1: make sure they have good analytics, because this is a
- 13:08Speaker 1: piece of the pie that again, a lot of people
- 13:10Speaker 1: that aren't making money on these platforms they ignore, they
- 13:13Speaker 1: don't look at their analytics. What I love about tools
- 13:16Speaker 1: like again Levanta, because that's the one our team is
- 13:18Speaker 1: going to be using moving forward, is that it makes
- 13:20Speaker 1: it really really clear for performance and tracking. And again,
- 13:23Speaker 1: when this is a business for you, you want to
- 13:25Speaker 1: be in the mindset of tracking, tracking, performance and all
- 13:28Speaker 1: of that. This is also going to help you in
- 13:30Speaker 1: so many other ways in your business. I can't tell
- 13:32Speaker 1: you the amount of creators that I know who have
- 13:35Speaker 1: had a booming affiliate business and then go on to
- 13:37Speaker 1: license their own products or develop their own brands, and
- 13:41Speaker 1: it all started because they saw that they had a
- 13:43Speaker 1: really good push on the affiliate side. I was talking
- 13:46Speaker 1: to this Amazon influencer the other day, and she kills it.
- 13:49Speaker 1: She does really really well. This is also just like
- 13:52Speaker 1: the type of content she does day in and day out.
- 13:55Speaker 1: But one thing that I noticed that she said, She's like,
- 13:57Speaker 1: I never just promote a product. I promote a lifestyle
- 13:59Speaker 1: or a pain point. So if I have a pain point,
- 14:02Speaker 1: that's what I'm promoting, and then the product is just
- 14:05Speaker 1: kind of like involved versus like here's something I like.
- 14:09Speaker 1: So I think that again has been a really big factor.
- 14:11Speaker 1: If you're not seeing success in your Amazon influencer storefronts
- 14:15Speaker 1: or in your affiliate strategy, you really got to think
- 14:18Speaker 1: about the content that you're making. Do people even care
- 14:20Speaker 1: about the recommendations that you're doing and that you are promoting.
- 14:24Speaker 1: The creators who are doing really really well are constantly
- 14:28Speaker 1: asking themselves, you know, and not only tracking, but really
- 14:31Speaker 1: digging deeper than the number and being like, do I
- 14:33Speaker 1: know my audience? Do I know my human Do I
- 14:35Speaker 1: know what they want? Do I know what makes sense
- 14:37Speaker 1: for them? Am I actually serving them? Or am I
- 14:40Speaker 1: just spitting out a product. They're asking themselves what content
- 14:43Speaker 1: does convert the best? What is something that is helpful
- 14:46Speaker 1: to my audience? And they're doing this from day one.
- 14:49Speaker 1: One thing that I've seen too, guys with creators who
- 14:52Speaker 1: are killing it with affiliates and especially you know, Amazon
- 14:56Speaker 1: influencers that I work with outside of the many chat
- 14:58Speaker 1: automations and do gift guides and things of that nature,
- 15:01Speaker 1: is alternating content styles, Like it doesn't always have to
- 15:05Speaker 1: be the style that you're used to making. You know,
- 15:07Speaker 1: maybe it's a carousel post, maybe it is a short
- 15:10Speaker 1: form video, maybe you're doing threads. I don't know. It's
- 15:13Speaker 1: just also not feeling tied to a specific type of
- 15:16Speaker 1: content so that your content always does feel fresh and
- 15:20Speaker 1: that people are kind of like, oh, this is different,
- 15:23Speaker 1: this is new, you know, rather than kind of sticking
- 15:26Speaker 1: to one style. I think kind of changing things is
- 15:29Speaker 1: always a good thing in your content kind of gives
- 15:31Speaker 1: you just like a little bit of a dopamine hit
- 15:32Speaker 1: because people see something different. And last, but not least,
- 15:35Speaker 1: the people on Amazon who are killing it, the influencers
- 15:39Speaker 1: that I know that are killing it have used the
- 15:41Speaker 1: product before because they can vouch for it. It is
- 15:44Speaker 1: so hard to sell something you don't believe in, right,
- 15:46Speaker 1: It is so hard to like stand behind something you
- 15:48Speaker 1: don't believe in. So when you actually use the product,
- 15:52Speaker 1: you can stand by it. You're like, I actually love this,
- 15:54Speaker 1: this feels good. So I always tell creators to use
- 15:57Speaker 1: the product ahead of time. Now, what's funny is that
- 16:00Speaker 1: I've had people say to me, well, this gets really expensive.
- 16:02Speaker 1: I have to always like start buying stuff and always
- 16:05Speaker 1: buy more and more and more. It could be really costly.
- 16:08Speaker 1: So again, one thing I do like about Levonta, just
- 16:10Speaker 1: to bring it up, is that they do have that
- 16:12Speaker 1: whole product sample section where you can request a sample
- 16:16Speaker 1: from the brand directly. So I have not seen that before.
- 16:20Speaker 1: Super cool, so you can test it, if they approve it,
- 16:22Speaker 1: they give it to you, and then boom. You are
- 16:24Speaker 1: able to get that link with confidence and speak about
- 16:27Speaker 1: it with confidence because you actually believe in what you're using,
- 16:30Speaker 1: and those always make for the best affiliate partnerships. I
- 16:35Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, make sure
- 16:38Speaker 1: to rate, review, and subscribe to our show and visit
- 16:41Speaker 1: Sidewalkerdaily dot com for more resources on all things influencer
- 16:46Speaker 1: marketing and social media. Until next time