Dedicating time to retaining your customers is marketing 101. But that doesn’t mean ecommerce brands should devote all of their efforts to it.
To grow any business, pursuing new customers has got to be part of the mix from time to time. That’s especially true for smaller and mid-sized shops fighting to sustain themselves.
We’re confident that our equation— Amazon Attribution plus Omnisend —can help merchants capture new customers efficiently. It involves a relatively light workload, without the massive advertising costs usually associated with lead acquisition.
Let’s take a look at Felicity’s story as an example.
From side project to Amazon
Felicity’s DTC budget-conscious shop of dress-up accessories for kids was supposed to be a side project. That was 10 years ago. Now it’s a full-time endeavor with 15 employees.
The shop’s website is the main source of sales, via Shopify . Felicity had been wanting to expand the customer base for quite some time. So she made the leap to Amazon a few years ago. Tapping their huge audience seemed to be a no-brainer.
Amazon’s share of U.S. ecommerce sales was 39.8% in 2020. And it has since surpassed Walmart to become the world’s largest ecommerce company outside of China.
After enrolling in the Amazon Brand Registry, she waited for the sales to start pouring in. Except, it was more like a trickle in comparison to her self-admitted outsized expectations.
Advertising with purpose
Felicity realized that to reap rewards from Amazon, she needed to raise awareness with advertising. But digital ads are expensive, for starters. Paid social media or Google search efforts largely hinge on retargeting—and thus more spending—to develop the level of recognition and trust typically needed to influence a first-time DTC purchase.
Plus, she was a little hesitant to send traffic directly to Amazon, worrying that she would not capture the leads who don’t make a purchase but are still interested in her brand.
So Felicity ran an experiment to test the viability of promoting the Amazon site. Paid ads would remain the launchpad, with the following plan.
Step one: Omnisend landing page
Instead of sending ad-clickers directly to Amazon, traffic from the ad (focused on a limited-run “happy birthday” tiara) was steered to an Omnisend landing page.
And rather than a standard sign-up form to gather contact information, a waitlist program served as the bait. The landing page contained details about the soon-to-be-released tiara—a featured waitlist item—as well as information on the waitlist program itself.
Visitors were invited to subscribe to the program so they’re among the first to know about limited-edition product releases and given the opportunity to pre-order.
Step two: Welcome email drip campaign
New email subscribers of Felicity’s shop traditionally receive a welcome email with a 10% discount code. The advertising experiment inspired her to revamp the introductory email into a three-part series.
After all, she guessed, the paid ads were shown to a lot of people unfamiliar with the shop. She needed to establish a line of communication that would begin to build confidence in her brand.
Now, all new subscribers learn about Felicity’s story, the process behind making the products, and that some of her shop’s surplus stock is donated to a charity for childhood cancer.
Website vs. Amazon sales
So what about that Amazon integration we mentioned at the very beginning of this article? Here’s where it comes into play.
With the welcome series underway—the first sent immediately upon signup, the second after 24 hours, and the third five days later—it was time to take advantage of the shop’s Amazon affiliation.
The thought process guiding Felicity goes like this:
- We have new subscribers, who now know our brand through multiple welcome emails.
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Why not send them to our Amazon page at this point? The reasons:
- The subscriber’s confidence in Amazon’s ability to deliver is probably higher than their confidence in us.
- If they shop online at all, they most likely have an Amazon account and don’t have to fuss with entering contact information, shipping details and payment info. Bonus if they’re an Amazon Prime member.
Felicity devised an A/B test to gauge if the Amazon route had merit. A promotional campaign—highlighting the chance to pre-order a treasure chest—was sent to all ad-generated leads. Half were directed to Felicity’s website and the other half were sent to the Amazon page.
The conversion results astounded her. Sales on Amazon among these first-time buyers amounted to 30% higher than the sales made on her website.
She detected the difference by checking Omnisend campaign sales reporting, and comparing them to the data in the Amazon Attribution dashboard.
With the Omnisend-Amazon integration, Felicity is able to see all shopping activity in Amazon associated with the email marketing campaign. Aside from sales, that includes metrics such as clicks, detailed page views, and items added to carts—insights that can be used to shape future marketing strategies.
Another perk? Each Amazon sale helped defray the shop’s Amazon referral fee expenses, thanks to the Brand Referral Bonus . U.S. sellers that drive product sales with marketing efforts outside of Amazon, such as Omnisend’s platform, earn bonuses averaging 10% of product sales.
Advertising + Omnisend + Amazon = Greater sales
What does all of this mean for your brand? Amazon plays an important role in snagging new customers, especially for brands intent on avoiding the substantial costs of aggressive remarketing.
The ecommerce mammoth has a few winning characteristics. For one, it’s convenient to those who already have an account. Of greater significance, it has market trust. A newcomer that’s not familiar with your brand is more likely to buy your product on Amazon than through your own website.
Therefore, we encourage investing in targeted paid advertising to start. Direct traffic to an Omnisend landing page so you can collect information for your owned channels and leave advertising behind. Build trust by automating a welcome email series. Then, and only then, send a promotional campaign that includes a link to your Amazon product.
By using Omnisend’s integration with Amazon Attribution, you’ll easily detect how well you’re converting new subscribers into buyers and see what adjustments you need to make. And with subscriber details for all those who purchased through Amazon, you have the means to communicate directly with them and keep advertising costs at a minimum.