Amazon recently launched a new tool that encourages brands to build stronger relationships with their consumers.
When used correctly, this tool will bring visitors to Amazon and encourage them to spend more time shopping.
Keep reading to learn all about the Amazon Manage Your Customer Engagement feature and how you can get started!
What is Amazon’s Manage Your Customer Engagement Tool?
Until now, Amazon has handled customer communication for sellers directly on the platform to avoid driving traffic away from the marketplace.
With this new change, Amazon has given brands more control. Additionally, Amazon has designed a secure and seamless way for brands to reach out to customers without taking traffic away from the platform.
The “Manage Your Customer” engagement tool lets brands market their products directly to customers who are actively following that brand on Amazon. The goal of this tool is to help brands build loyalty and establish relationships with customers, while also increasing the visibility of newly-released products.
With the new Amazon customer engagement tool, Amazon is allowing brands to directly interact with customers who have an interest in their business and products. The hope behind this strategy is that it improves customer engagement across the platform.
Ultimately, more engagement and better traffic directly benefit both the seller or brand and the community as a whole.
How Does the Tool Change the Buyer Experience?
This engagement tool is available to shoppers who follow specific brands. Within the Amazon marketplace, the “follow” button can be found on the storefront page of any business. Users can also follow a brand by perusing Amazon Posts or by visiting Amazon Live video pages.
Example of Follow Button on Peet’s Coffee Amazon Brand Page
Amazon Follow allows customers to stay up-to-date with the people, brands, and interests that they want to learn more about. It provides an easy way to generate loyalty and to stay connected to topics, products, and services that matter most in the customer journey.
How Can Brands Get More Amazon Followers?
When it comes to marketing metrics on Amazon, brands should pay close attention to their active followers. For brands looking to increase the number of existing followers, taking advantage of Amazon Posts is one way to do it.
Although the tool is currently in beta testing, Amazon Posts helps brands build an image-rich story that shoppers can enjoy as they browse and shop for new products. The Posts feature also provides brands with the ability to:
- Reach active shoppers with inspirational and motivational content
- Drive product discovery by leveraging relevant lifestyle imagery
- Make and publish posts for free, with unlimited posting frequency
Taking advantage of Amazon’s latest features (including both the Manage Your Customer Engagement Tool and Amazon Posts) may directly contribute to a brand’s success on the platform. Since Amazon wants to create a well-rounded marketplace experience, leveraging these tools helps brands achieve high visibility and better customer contact.
How to Use the Post Feature on Amazon
What Can Brands Do with the New Engagement Tool?
For now, Amazon says that brands using the “Manage Your Customer Engagement” tool are only able to send out new product announcements.
This means that a brand or business can let customers know when something new is available for purchase. Keep in mind that only customers who are actively following the brand (according to Amazon’s follow policies) will receive these messages.
Amazon has hinted that additional templates will be added to the engagement dashboard in the future.
Why is Amazon Customer Engagement Important?
Engaging customers with relevant and thoughtful information is extremely crucial for finding success in the marketplace. If you operate a brand on Amazon, you might be wondering why engaging with customers matters so much.
For starters, Amazon is a crowded and extremely popular platform. That means that the competition is steep. Buyers always have the option and opportunity to move to sellers that offer better and more engaging experiences.
Additionally, the more you engage with customers, the more visibility you can achieve on the marketplace. Not only does this get your products in front of more people, but it also increases brand awareness and builds trust. To establish rapport, sellers must be willing to engage with customers in thoughtful and meaningful ways.
Which Brands Are Eligible to Use the Tool?
The Manage Your Customer Engagement tool is available to registered brands that have an Amazon Stores page with followers.
If your brand is not already registered, be sure to visit the Amazon Brand Registry to see if you’re eligible. Certain registration steps may be required before you can begin leveraging the tool to its full capacity.
What to Do if You Can’t Access the Tool
Not everyone who sells on Amazon will have access to the new engagement tool. Fortunately, there are still plenty of effective ways to maximize Amazon customer engagement. If you aren’t able to access the new engagement tool, try the following steps.
- Work to increase brand followers – Perhaps you’ve simply never utilized the followers feature before now. Spend some time cultivating a loyal Amazon following by leveraging the tools available. When buyers complete a purchase and are satisfied, encourage them to follow for updates.
- Increase customer retention – By providing a high level of customer service and support, you can keep customers coming back for more. As your brand loyalty grows, so will your ability to leverage all that Amazon has to offer in terms of new tools, software, and strategies.
- Optimize your products for success – When it comes to navigating the Amazon marketplace, brands have plenty of things to focus on. Make sure to set up your storefront, optimize your product listings, and find relevant keywords. You can also invest in Amazon marketing services to elevate your brand to the next level.
How to Use the New Amazon Manage Your Customer Engagement Tool
To use the engagement tool, brand managers should go to the “Manage Your Customer Engagement” tab in Seller Central. To register with Seller Central, brands must:
- Have their trademarked brand logo on hand
- Have at least one recently launched product
- Upload a lifestyle image or alternate product shot
- Submit the desired timeframe for run of the engagement campaign
Step by Step Instructions
To get started with the Amazon Manage Your Customer Engagement tool, follow the simple steps below. If you are properly registered in Seller Central, this process should be fast and straightforward.
Register with Seller Central
Upload Your Brand Logo
First, add or upload a brand logo. Logos must be in a horizontal layout (3:1 or narrower) and can have a black or white background (in JPG format) or a transparent background (in PNG format).
Before moving forward with your official logo, always check trademark and copyright status to avoid potential license issues.
Add a New Product for Sale
Next, you’ll need to add a recently launched product. To qualify as “recently launched,” your product must have been made available to purchase for the first time on Amazon within the past six months. Products that have been listed for longer than six months are not eligible for completing this step.
Select a Supporting Image
Once you’ve added a logo and product image, move on to selecting or uploading a lifestyle image. Most often, this is an image that explains the benefits of the product in question. Note that every image must adhere to Amazon’s product image requirements.
Images are just one of the many ways that customers make buying decisions. Other aspects, such as optimized product descriptions, can make a huge impact on total sales. Once you get up and running with engagement, be sure that the quality of your images always matches the effectiveness of your copy and product descriptions.
Schedule Your Engagement Campaign
Last but not least, it’s time to select the specific date and time range. This is when you want your engagement campaign to send to existing followers and customers. Brands can select a five-day period from Monday to Friday.
Below is an example of what the campaign will look like to customers once they receive and open the message.
Example of Product Campaign
Key Takeaways
No matter if you’re brand new to the Amazon marketplace or a veteran seller, it’s crucial that you stay in the know about features and roll-outs that could boost your sales goals. When considering the Amazon Manage Your Customer Engagement tool, here are a few things to keep in mind.
- Amazon may roll out features like the engagement tool to brands with the highest number of followers. If you don’t yet qualify to use the tool, focus on increasing your brand’s follower count.
- The latest engagement tool is an important step by Amazon to give brands more control over messaging while keeping buyers on the platform. Remember, the goal is always to encourage customers to complete their shopping experience directly on the platform.
- To use the new engagement tool, sellers will simply need to follow a few short instructions. These steps include uploading brand photos and product imagery, so be sure to have those on hand for a faster activation process.
Make sure to follow Ignite Visibility for the latest Amazon news, feature updates, and product announcements. Our team is ready to help you leverage powerful new features and optimize your Amazon storefront for success!
