Shownotes
Welcome to Bring Your Product Idea to Life! In this episode, I’m joined by Eleanor Parnell Santos, founder of Visualise Brands, who shares her expertise on visual branding for product-based businesses—particularly those selling on Amazon.
Visualise Brands provide shoppers with all the information they need to make instant buying decisions, boosting conversions and driving sales. We assess your product listings to identify why they’re not converting as well as they could. Then, we recommend actionable changes and optimise your listings with striking photography and compelling infographics. Whether you need a full-service transformation or just a few adjustments, we’ll highlight what you’re already doing brilliantly and what can be improved to take your listings to the next level.
If you’re an e-commerce business owner or product creator, this episode is packed with practical advice to level up your product listings and increase your sales. We dive deep into:
- The Power of Visual Branding
- Images That Sell
- Brand Store & A+ Content
- Avoiding Common Mistakes
- The Secret to Cross-Selling
Why You Should Listen:
If you want your products to stand out on Amazon, increase brand recall, and boost sales, this episode is for you.
Head over to YouTube if you want to see the visuals Eleanor talks about, but rest assured, you can get all the insights just by listening too.
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Transcripts
Welcome to the bring your product idea to life podcast. This is the podcast for you if you're getting started selling products or if you'd like to create your own product to sell.
I'm Vicki Weinberg, a product creation coach and Amazon expert. Every week I share friendly practical advice as well as inspirational stories from small businesses. Let's get started. Hi.
So today on the podcast, I'm speaking to Eleanor Santos from Visualise Brands. So I've asked Elena to join me on the podcast to talk about visual branding and specifically how it relates to selling your products on Amazon.
Although I will say that I want at least 80% of what we talk about applies wherever you're selling your products, whether that's on your own website or on a different marketplace. The advice Eleanor has about visual branding will apply to you as well. So don't be put off if you're not an Amazon seller.
And in this conversation we talk about the visual aspects that make up your product listings, so the images and graphics you have that help to sell your product. Elena goes into lots of details.
There are some visuals that she uses in this episode as well, but don't panic if you're listening to this episode, they are definitely additional. You don't need to be looking at anything to get the most out of this episode.
However, if you would like to see a couple of examples that Eleanor references when we're speaking, you can go and watch this episode on YouTube. And that's a reminder that I have a YouTube channel with all of the previous episodes in there as well.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:So.
Vicki Weinberg:So I would love now to introduce you to Eleanor. Hi Eleanor, thank you so much for being here.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Hi Vicky.
Vicki Weinberg:So let's start by you, Please give an introduction to yourself, your business and what you do.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yes.
So my name is Eleanor and my company is Visualise Brands and I specialise in visual branding for product based businesses and e commerce people selling online.
And so what I do is look at a product listing and work out why it's not selling and then help to implement change to help the person sell more products online.
Vicki Weinberg:Well, that's amazing. Thank you. I have so many follow up questions for you, but let's start with what exactly is visual branding?
Eleanor Parnell Santos:So visual branding is everything that somebody sees about your business. So it's your visual way to tell people your story about yourself and also your products.
So everything that you can see, that's everything from your product listing, your logo, your photography, infographics, social media content. And I think it's about creating something that's consistent and memorable. So people should be able to recognize you online from your brand.
Vicki Weinberg:That makes a lot of sense. Thank you.
And I guess from a product listing perspective, it's everything that's not the text, so it's the images, as you said, and the graphics and infographics and videos and all of those types of things. So it's not the words, it's the visuals that help tell the story in a visual way. Yes, that makes a lot of sense.
So I would love to talk a little bit about visual branding for Amazon, because, as you know, that's something that I'm really passionate about. So why is effective visual branding so important for businesses who are selling on Amazon?
Eleanor Parnell Santos:So I like to think about if you don't have a brand on Amazon, all you have is product listings. So I think that people confuse why Amazon is different to a website.
So a brand, as we discussed a minute ago, is something that you can recognize and it's really your secret weapon within Amazon to be able to showcase that you're not just one product listing, that you offer many things and that you are a brand offering many products. And another good thing about having strong visual branding on Amazon is that it gives people credibility.
It shows that you're professional and it helps you to communicate your message clearly online through your visual branding.
Vicki Weinberg:That makes a lot of sense.
And I think also when I see myself as a product listing on Amazon and the branding is really clear in the photos, maybe a content, I feel like that makes a brand more recognisable.
So if I were to see them off Amazon, like, say I saw them in the supermarket or at a trade show or their website, whatever it is, I think it really makes it clear, oh, this is the same brand. Whereas I think sometimes if it's very. Your product listings are very generic, and that doesn't just apply to Amazon, it applies to anywhere.
I'm probably not going to remember what the brand is, particularly on a marketplace like Amazon, where there are so many brands on there. The amount of time someone will say to me, oh, where did you get that from?
And I say Amazon, but I couldn't tell you who the brand is because there was nothing really visual to tell me and certainly not to stick in my mind.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Absolutely. And I noticed that a lot with brands, especially when they're moving across platforms, so their website might look totally different to their Amazon.
And the same with their social media. There's no consistency.
And so, like you've just pointed out, it becomes hard to remember a brand if they're not taking their visual branding seriously.
Vicki Weinberg:And it also becomes really hard, if there is that inconsistency, to know, is this the same brand? Because I've definitely had that where I've looked at, like, say, social media versus the website and you go, is this their social media?
Because the colors are different or some things, you know, you can't be quite sure. Does this actually align? And I think as a customer, that's a little bit jarring.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah, definitely. And I think it is that that thing that you've made is a really good point.
When you buy something and you can't remember where you've bought it from, brands aren't doing a good job because obviously if you can't remember where you've bought it from, you're not going to purchase from that person again. So it can be super powerful. And I have a couple of slides that demonstrate why it's so important on Amazon.
If I'm able to share those with you now, that would be brilliant.
Vicki Weinberg:And so obviously, if you are listening to this podcast, don't worry, it's still going to be audible. You're still going to be able to get what we're talking just by listening.
However, if you are able to go over to YouTube and watch this episode, you'll be able to see any of the slides as well. So if that's, if that's possible for you. Just a little reminder that we are on YouTube.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:So what I want to, how I want you to think about this is that when you're on Amazon and somebody types into the search bar for a product that they're looking for, hundreds of listings are going to come up. Whereas opposed, if somebody lands on your website, your website's going to be filled with only products that you're selling.
So it's really important on Amazon to first of all get the attention of people and to get them onto your product listing. So I think what this graphic here just kind of shows in a really kind of raw form is that there's hundreds of people doing the same.
And how are you going to make yourself stand. Stand out? And the next thing that I wanted to show you is eventually they find your listing.
So if we look at the example that I've got here, the shopper is looking for a hairbrush for curly hair, and they found that brush and they've put it into their basket. So that's great. You've done the first part really well.
They found one of your products online, but they're still shopping and they're looking for other products. That you, you sell in your shop. So on Amazon, how can we illustrate to the shopper that you have other products that they want?
It could be, we're looking at, just for the people that are listening on the podcast, that they might be looking for scrunchies, they might be looking for a silk hair bonnet. They could also be looking for hair mousse.
There might be other products that you're selling within your range, or it might be that they've been thinking about buying a silk bonnet for a period of time, but they actually haven't made the purchase yet. So what can you do in your product listings to show that person that you have other products that you would be interested in?
And I think that if we look at the next slide, where you've got all of the competitors there and then you've got your products on Amazon, What I think a lot of people forget is that the shopper doesn't necessarily understand how Amazon works. So as a seller, you're aware that you have lots of different products online that you want to sell to the shopper.
From the shopper's point of view, they might not be aware that you've got other items that they want. So they might buy, put the hairbrush into their basket on Amazon and then click back onto the search bar and click onto silk hair bonnets.
So for them, they're not thinking about, oh, I need to be loyal to this person that I've just found on Amazon and see what other products they've got. They might not even be aware that you can do that on Amazon, that a whole brand exists.
So they might just be returning to the search bar and searching for the next product that they want. So in your visual branding within Amazon, you need to be really strategic about how you can show that person that you have other products.
And it's just not. It's not just one listing.
And I think that when you can combine those visual elements together with regards to image, content, video and copy, that's when things can start to work together in a really strong way.
Vicki Weinberg:That makes a lot of sense.
And what are some of the ways that people can actually do that, can actually communicate the fact that they have a range of products rather than just a single item? Because I can. I totally agree with you that. Because I think I've been guilty of doing this in the past myself.
You know, you search for multiple things. You don't always think, oh, actually, maybe this one person whose products I'm looking at could supply all of these.
So what are ways that we can visually do that.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Absolutely.
So I think the first thing that you need to think about with your product listing on Amazon is that the shopper needs to get all of the information that they can from your listing in order to make an instant buying decision.
And if you can't, if they don't get the answers that they need, they're just going to search off and look for other listings till they find what they do need. So there are on Amazon, three main ways that people digest information. The first is image content. And for me, this is the most important one.
Obviously, I'm a visual person, but on Amazon, the images are the first thing that will pop up when people look at a listing. So they'll click on your listing.
Especially if they're viewing on a phone, the images will be the first thing they see and they'll flick through to see what your product is about. So if you've got a couple of images in there, which a lot of people have a few images at least that's a start.
But you then need to have images not just of the product itself, but can show the product in use, that can show it in lifestyle scenarios as well. And also if you are using the infographics.
So if anyone doesn't know what an infographic is, it's basically where we're mixing an image with copy into a visual design that will be then listed as an image within Amazon. So when you start to combine those elements together is where you can be really strong and strategic in your marketing messages.
The second way that people digest information on Amazon is through video content. And video content is great for people that don't like to read or perhaps would just prefer to be told the information.
So I think that video content is something that sometimes people forget about. But you can do things like how to use the product.
You can show it from different angles as well, which can be really helpful because sometimes on a still image, you can't see the different angles and how the product works. So video content is another way that's really helpful on Amazon. And the final piece is obviously the copy elements of your listing.
But they're all really good ways that you can tell people the information that they need that will help them to decide they want to buy from you.
Vicki Weinberg:Perfect. Thank you.
I particularly like what you said about infographics, because that's something I'm really noticing, is that people, you know, some people don't read the text, but it's basically the blunt way I'm going to say this. So when I Work with clients.
You know, I can write beautiful copy for their Amazon product listings, but I always like to have some of the key points included within infographics, or even if it's an image with some text overlaid, even if it's as simple as that. Because as you say, there will be the people, especially on phones, because phones make this so easy. Excuse me. To just flick through the. The images.
And often, and to be honest, I do this as well, because quite often you should be able to find the key pieces of information, the key things that are going to make you decide, am I buying this or not? Just from looking at the images.
So that's a really good point when it comes to communication, that we have a range of products, not just a single one. How can we do that?
Eleanor Parnell Santos:So I've got a couple of examples that I can show you and I can talk it through to you as well.
But I think before we actually go on to that part, I just want to kind of explain to people what they need to have in the visual content within Amazon that will help people buy. Is that okay if I show you that first?
Vicki Weinberg:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Because I'm assuming that having all of this is really going to help with both their conversion rates and their sales.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:So I think this is absolutely. This will be kind of my top tips of things that you need to think about. So I'm going to just share my screen with you again.
Vicki Weinberg:So this is my reminder that if you're going to listen to this, you are. I promise you're going to get everything you need from this conversation.
But if you're able to go on YouTube, then you can go and see the slides as well.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Okay, so hopefully you can see my screen. So as a seller, one of the most important things you can think about is do you make the buying decision easy? So what do I mean by that?
We've discussed it a little bit already. So are people receiving the information they need? Are you making the decision easy to choose your product over somebody else's?
So I'm going to give you a bit of example here.
If you imagine that somebody on Amazon is searching and they're looking for a toy for their child and they want to buy them a little toy Hoover, for example, what are the questions that the person searching would need to know for them to be able to make the purchasing decision? So these are some of the things that you can think about, including within your visual content. So does it require batteries?
And if it does, are they included? Or does the person then need to Go and make an additional purchase to make the batteries. What are the core features? Do the buttons work?
Can you push them in? Is it easy to move around? Is it noisy? Some people might think that's fun play. Other parents might be like, oh, my God, this toy is so noisy.
I'm going to have to put up with that sound for the next month with my kid going around with it. What other dimensions? They might want to put it in a specific place in their home. So will it fit in the cupboard where they store all of their toys?
Is it suitable for toddlers? And perhaps they have another child that's a bit older? Would their older child like to play with the toy as well? Does it come in other colors?
Will the wheels scratch the floor? That might be a barrier for people to stop buying if they're thinking the kid's going to be dragging it around.
If you know it's not going to scratch the floor. Those are kind of things that you can point out, which are things that might prevent people for buying.
So you're turning it into a positive rather than thinking that it could possibly be a negative. Does it actually function? Does the Hoover suck anything up from the floor? What are the core benefits to the child if they have this toy?
Does it help with their coordination, their motor skills, their imagination? Also, could you think of other ways that it would benefit the parent and the child?
So, for example, the parent might be needing to do the hoovering and having like a mini version of the Hoover could then be made into a play session. So could you then say, you know, we're going to get the chores done, but make it really fun?
So the child is going to go around with you and Hoover and you make it like a really fun environment rather than just you're doing the hoovering. It makes it kind of an interactive play with the person as well.
So I think these are the key things that you need to be thinking about on your listing. About what information do you need to give people.
Vicki Weinberg:That's really helpful. And I guess some of this information, you know, if people are panicking, some of this information obviously can go into the text.
You don't have to get everything into the images. But there was. I think there were certainly the key things that are going to affect someone's buying decision.
Could go into a graphic or a video perhaps, or the. A content, which we'll move on and talk about a bit later.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Absolutely. And like you said, it's not about using all of these things because like you said, that would be kind of Overload of information.
But when you're thinking about your own products, think about all of the questions that there may be and then pick out what are the things that are most important that would help people to be able to choose your product over somebody else's.
Vicki Weinberg:That's really helpful, thank you. And how about.
Do you have any examples of where using this kind of, you know, improving our visual content has actually helped someone with their sales on Amazon?
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah, absolutely. So I'm going to just give you some examples in the talk free one here.
So I think that what I want to show you is by having a cohesive brand within your Amazon, if you're selling multiple products, you can do that by bringing in your brand color. So what you want to do within your infographics is to have a theme for everything that you're putting on Amazon.
So that might link into your website so that, as we said earlier, you're recognizable between platforms, platforms. But on Amazon, you want to make it obvious that all of your products are your brand.
So in the examples that I'm showing you now on the screen, we're doing that by using a certain color. We're using the logo in some places as well. For this example that I'm showing, it's of a company that sells gin.
And so you'll see how I've broken down the information that we were discussing on the previous slide into visual form.
So obviously you need to have the main image, which is on a white background, but then you can be clever with mixing your image content with your copy and your infographics. If we go on to the second example, it's of a couple who are the target market of the brand.
And they're in a kitchen which has also been chosen as a location that your target market can see themselves being in. And the props around the scene are also chosen to attract your target market.
And with that kind of lifestyle image, you can then reinforce that with the information that you give people.
So in this instance, we're using things like the company have won an award and then you're showing your target market and the end benefit of them having a lovely time drinking gin together at home at the end of the long day. So that kind of content can be really powerful to deliver messages. You've then got things like features.
So for the gin here, the image is shot in a more artistic way. So it's got the cinnamon and the mace blades laid out.
And then over the top of the information, you've got all of the ingredient profiles of the gin so including creative content with, let's say, more boring facts. But they're important, the profiles of it. When you mix them together, you can then give a really powerful and strong message.
Did you want me to talk through kind of more of these examples, Vicki, in terms of using the infographics mixed in with the image content?
Vicki Weinberg:No, I think this, I think this is great.
I think just getting people thinking about the fact that we can use text and images together is brilliant just as a way of getting across more information because I think a lot of us have great photography and some really nice images. But it's really. You say that you can, you can simply just overlay some text with some of the key points and that's an infographic.
So for anyone who's scared, thinking infographic means you have to have something fancy made up.
It could just be as simple as examples Elena's giving, where you have a really nice product shot but then you have some text overlaid on that that gets across one of your key messages, for example.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Absolutely. And I think that, yeah, it doesn't have to be over the top.
And I think the more simple it is and the less information over the top of the images, the better because people are going to be wanting to take the information in quickly. So you don't want anything that's really text heavy. You want simple, short bits of information.
Like for the gin example here, like just the size of the bottle. I made a purchase the other day and I was a bit disappointed when I got the bottles.
I actually bought some non alcoholic spirits and when I got the bottle back, I was expecting the bottle to be larger. So you can prevent these kind of issues of returns as long as you have the information there.
So by sharing the size of the bottle with people and also reinforcing it through the size is a 500ml bottle means that people will be less likely to be disappointed or return items because they're being told exactly what they're getting.
Vicki Weinberg:That makes a lot of sense.
And I'm sure I might have shared this story on the podcast before, but I think when it comes to products getting returned, I had a client who kept their product, kept getting returned because people didn't understand how small it was even though it was in the text. You know, the exact size was in the text. And so we just added an image that showed that product in context so a customer could see.
Oh, actually it's that it was basically a picture of showing it in someone's pocket to show that it was pocket sized. And just adding that image was really, really helpful because then there was no way that someone could say, I didn't understand how big that was.
Because you can give people all the measurements that you like, but actually not everyone can visualize that. I don't think I'm good at that, actually, if I'm really honest, which is why I love seeing photos of products like in. In a real environment.
So you can gauge, oh, okay, it's roughly the size of whatever it is, because I think for some of us, that can be really hard to sort of contextualize.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Absolutely. And you can also give people other other ideas and uses for your products as well.
So when you tend to think about gin, you just kind of think of a gin and tonic. But you'll see in the image content here, they're showing people how to. That you can make a cocktail with it. It' garnishing suggestions.
So with lime to be served with the lime wedge and a gherkin for a final flourish. So it's showing that the product can be used for. To make multiple drinks, which is also showing other benefits to it.
And it's showing people giving them ideas without them having to think too much. So the shopper isn't having to think, what could I do with this gin? We're telling them what they. What they can do with it.
And I think that if you can think about things like that, that relate back to your own product and how you can give people ideas about how to use your product in different way, it can help to sell more as well.
Vicki Weinberg:Absolutely.
And I think it just sparks people's imagination because I work with lots of food brands and I think food brands do this particularly well, showing photos, even though the different recipes you could use their product to make or the different ways you could serve it. And I really do think that that inspires people because they think, oh, I didn't know you could put hot honey on a pizza or whatever it is.
And I think that makes it memorable, which is something you mentioned earlier as well as, as you say, giving customers an idea of how would I actually product if I were to buy it.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Absolutely. And there's a couple of other little tips and things you can think about on Amazon as well.
And one of them is if your product is particularly good for gifting, you can think about an image that shows that it's giftable. So in the photo example here, it's kind of a Christmas scenario, but it doesn't have to be a Christmas scenario.
It can be something that shows that it's more of an all year round gift. And sometimes just having a hint that your product is good to give as a gift just puts that seed of information into the person's brain.
So they might have found you, for example, looking for gin here, but then Christmas might be coming up and they need stocking fillers or they need to give like a little secret Santa at work or something.
And having that seed of information in there that this product is good for, a gift can sometimes be enough to make people make that connection that they will use as a gift in some scenario, whether it's for Mother's Day or just a birthday present or a small kind of gift for work or something like that.
Having, having information that makes it easy for people and shows them exactly what your product is suitable for can be really helpful to help make more sales as well.
Vicki Weinberg:Definitely that makes a lot of sense. And I think the more specific you can make your images, the better.
I work with quite a few brands who will change their Amazon imagery in the lead up to Christmas, for example, to show them as Christmas gifts, nicely wrapped under a tree and then in January they'll switch back to their old gifted images.
But I think showing someone, oh, this would be a good Christmas gift or this would be a good Mother's Day gift, I think is always really good because, you know, I guess it's show, show, don't tell. Is that how you say show, don't tell? I think anything that you can do to.
So if someone goes, oh yes, I could use this like this, or buy it for this purpose without actually telling them because we could all put in our text or this makes a great gift.
But I think, let's be honest, most listings say that, but I think if you have a shot showing the product and it's lovely packaging, ready to be gifted. I think the picture, what they say picture speaks more than a thousand words.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah, absolutely.
And I think the final kind of tip on terms of things you should have on your images within your Amazon listing that's really powerful is thinking about how are you going to get them to buy more. So this is going back to one of the questions that you asked me earlier. How can you show people that you're more than just one product?
And within your main image content, there's several ways that you can tell people about your brand. So in the example that we're looking at on the screen now, there's six bottles of gin of different flavors that this company sells.
So in this example here, if the person's landed on the listing. And they don't like that particular flavor of gin. They can see, oh, actually I can get it in citrus flavor and I can get it in nutty flavor as well.
So I'm going to go and see what other flavors of gin there are available. Or it might be that you love this version of the gin, but you see the other flavors too and you think, oh, I want to buy those.
So it's really doing this kind of content that is discreet but is bold enough to say, look at what else we have. We have these other products that you might be interested in is a really great way to show people that you're not just one.
One product and get them to look at what else you're doing on Amazon to find you on other product listings as well.
Vicki Weinberg:Definitely. I think that's a really. That's really good advice.
I work with a haircare brand who I think do that really well, because when they show pictures of their products off on someone's bathroom shelf, there'll always be a shot where there's the products that would pair really well with the key products in the product listing in that shot as well. So someone might be looking at a shampoo for curly hair and say, oh, they also do a mousse and a styling cream or whatever it is.
And then like you say, that then encourages them to go and look for those products.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah, that's a really good example of another way to show it in a discreet situation, isn't it? Because they can see all of the branded products lined up. So that's a great example.
Example of how you can include strong image content to encourage upsells and cross sells across your product range.
Vicki Weinberg:And so do you find that with the brands that you're working with that like people improving their visual content, does that lead to an increase in sales?
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah, absolutely. When there's a.
I'm just going to put another example up on the screen whilst we're talking about it so you can see kind of like a softer design style as well. Definitely. If you have a strong brand presence, it's first of all what we were discussing about it being recognisable.
So people are more likely to come back to you when they're looking for products because they're going to have remembered you. Because you're showing your logo, you're talking about your brand more, your presence is bigger.
But also within your product listings, if you're including information about other products in your range and you're also saying, we have this available in other variants or this product sells well with, with this range, pairs well together, that kind of thing.
If you're doing that within the, the Amazon listing, you're doing everything you can, which really encourages people to purchase more from you and to learn more about you. When, if you don't have that information, they're more likely, like I said before, to click off and look for that elsewhere.
But if you're already telling them you do this, they might be looking for something else, but you're showing them you do other things. So they're more likely to then put your brand name into the search bar then, or click on your brand store and explore what you're selling further.
So it's a really, really good way to tell people more about what you do within your listings.
Vicki Weinberg:That's brilliant. Thank you.
And I think this is also a really good point to say that if you're listening this far and you're not selling your products on Amazon, I think it's fair to say, Eleanor, that all of this advice applies equally as well on your own website as well. I don't think there's anything we've said that you couldn't do on your website or on a different platform if you're not selling on Amazon.
But I would love now to talk about something a bit more Amazon specific, if that's okay, which is some of the features you get as a brand registered seller, such as a content and brand stores. So first of all, I'm sure you're going to agree that these are things that if you have Brand registry, you definitely should be taking advantage of.
But I'd like to hear in your words, Eleanor, what do you think the benefits are of using some of these features? I wonder actually if I should start by explaining what a brand store and A plus content is.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah, I think so. I think there'd be some people that aren't aware of it.
I know that I've been speaking with some brands recently that weren't aware that you, you could have A plus content or brand store. So I think that'd be a great place to start.
Vicki Weinberg:Amazing. Well, I'll start off with that then.
So if you have a registered trademark or a pending trademark in the UK for the example, because we're, Ella and I are both based in the uk, but this applies in other countries as well. You can apply for what's called Amazon Brand Registry and you get lots of benefits being a brand registry seller.
But the ones we're going to talk about today are brand store and A plus content. So A plus Content is additional content that sits further down your product listing.
This is a great thing to show people visually, it's always much harder audibly, but it's additional content.
If you scroll down the product listing and it's often in the form of visuals, you can use text in a content, but actually, and I'm sure, and you'll agree it looks so much nicer when it's image, image based and you can do a lot more using images.
And a brand store is basically, you can think about it as like a brand page or like a mini website, but it's on Amazon and this is your place where you can have all of your products there. You absolutely should have all of your products there. You can also talk a bit more about your brand.
You can have additional videos and images and all kinds of content to let people know who you are, what you do and what you sell.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:So hopefully.
Vicki Weinberg:I don't know. That's a good overview.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah, absolutely. And I just love a content and what you get with that.
And I think if you're thinking about the way that people search for things on Amazon, they're starting at the top of the listing where you've got the image content and the descriptions and the product descriptions.
And you scroll down the page and somebody's scrolling down the page because they're interested and they're probably going to go and have a look at the reviews and give those a little bit of a read. And then below that they get down to the apartment plus section.
And I think that that's really powerful because that's really your time, time to shine.
So if they're getting to this section of your listing and they haven't decided to buy your product yet, this is your opportunity to, to persuade them that they need to buy your product rather than somebody else's.
So you get to brand it all with your logo and your information and you have different sections that you can kind of of drag and drop to build out your A plus content.
And it gives people more information so you can put more photos in there, you can tell them more about the product, you can put a bit more about your brand story.
So if you want to try to make a bit more of a personal connection with people that are shopping on Amazon, you can tell them a bit more about yourself and why you're special and why you're different to other brands as well. It just makes you a bit more personal than you know. You're just not somebody big selling online. You're a, you're a company, you're a person.
So I love that part that you can tell more of your story. You can also include additional content in there, like by building the box out. You could use it, for example, for recipes.
You could use it to show people step by step guides of how to use a certain product. You can use it to show other products in your range.
And one of my absolute favorite features on there is the comparison chart charts that you can have at the bottom. And I love to use those to show different products in your range. So things that might sell well so that you can upsell people.
So like we're saying, how can you get people onto your other listings using that comparison chart section to show other products that you have available to get people clicking on those and adding them to their basket as well?
Vicki Weinberg:That's my absolute favourite thing for comparison tables. And I, I often say to my clients, if you don't have, you don't think you have enough visuals, you don' you enough.
Enough content to build out the full a. At least put a comparison table up as a starting point because as you say, it's such a great way of letting people know that you sell other things.
And I'm going to give one tip on here if that's okay, which is if you sell your product in different colors, for example, don't list all of those in the comparison table. I see people do this a lot, but if you set your listings up properly, you should be able to choose those right at the top of the listing as options.
What you want to do is talk about completely different product listings that are separate to get people to go and look at other things that you sell. So that's my piece of advice there.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:That's a really great tip.
Vicki Weinberg:So what do you think some of the benefits are? I mean, I'm assuming they're going to be similar to what we've covered already, aren't they?
About talking about your brand, explaining your range of products? Is there anything additional that having a brand store and A content gives us?
Eleanor Parnell Santos:I think definitely the A content is that final extra sale.
I think if people are kind of sitting on the fence, the main benefit of having it is that final push to get them to purchase it and then yes, showing you other products that are available. But if we talk about brand store for a section, just for a minute, because we have.
I haven't really kind of talked about why I love brand store and it's probably very similar to you but like you've already kind of hinted to.
It's like your mini Your mini website within Amazon, so you have the ability to, to have different pages within your brand store, which I like, because if somebody then comes to you and they're looking for a certain thing, you can separate.
If we go back to the example with the hair products, it could be you've got hair brushes, styling products, products for curly hair, so you can be quite specific.
And then when people are within your brand store, they're looking at only your products, so you're taking the competition element out a little bit more. So that's a great way again to sell more of your own product to people rather than them clicking off and looking for that product somewhere else.
So I think that's definitely a big highlight of it.
Vicki Weinberg:Definitely. I really, again, I really like to have a store.
And even if you think, oh, I don't have enough products to build out a store, you can have a simple one page. It doesn't need to be fancy, it doesn't need to be huge.
But I really do believe that if you have a registered brand, you should use all of the features available because they're all there to help you sell more.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Absolutely. And you can really personalize it and you can really. That's when visual branding comes in really strong.
When you've got your own brand store, you can.
All of the elements that you have in there are showing people your brand again and making it more memorable and more recognizable within Amazon as well. So it's definitely something that you should be doing if you have brand registry.
Vicki Weinberg:Brilliant. Thank you. Now, what about some of the, what about some of the mistakes that you see when it comes to Amazon, when it comes to visual branding?
Because I'm sure you see lots of examples of where people could perhaps be doing things better to sell their, you know, to sell more of their products. What are some of the things you see quite often and how might we address them if we're listening and go, oh, gosh, I do that?
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah. So one of the things that I see a lot is fake mock ups of composite images.
So perhaps somebody wants to show their product in a lifestyle environment, but they haven't invested in the photography or they don't want to invest in it. So they think, oh, I'll just get an image and I'll drop my product into it.
And I think that I've only seen a couple of times when that looks really good.
Most of the time it's really obvious that it's fake and people who are shopping online can see that it's fake and it just doesn't build trust with the client when they see it put into that scenario, because it doesn't look real, it makes it look fake. So it makes it look like it's not believable. And it lowers the trust level with people that are shopping online.
Another thing that's an issue with that is the incorrect sizing that we talked a little bit about earlier.
So if you're putting it into a composite image and you're not aware of how you need to size that product to make it, make it be the realistic sizes, you're going to have issues with returns. And I have a really good example of something that happened to me, actually. I was, I was buying some tweezers to put into my photography toolbox.
So if I'm doing really delicate work on a photo shoot, I like to have some tweezers so I can move around like little elements within the shoot scenario. And I was in a rush and I was on Amazon, so I was doing it really quickly. And there was only like one or two images on the listing.
And I was like, I just ordered it. So I'm thinking I'm getting like a regular sized pair of tweezers. It turns up and it's huge. It's like 40cm long. These tweezers that I've got.
And they're actually for a fish tank so that people can move things around the fish tank without getting their hands wet.
So not having the right images or making things where the sizing is wrong is definitely one of the main issues that I see people have and definitely causes returns. So, yeah, that's my first one. My second one is product color issues.
Now I've had a couple of situations where people have wanted me to enhance the image color of their products.
And I've said to them, this is really not a good idea because when you have the product listed and you want to make it look more vibrant, but the reality is that the product is more dull or toned down in colors.
All that's going to cause you is issues with returns because people are expecting this vibrant product to turn up, but what they're actually getting is something that looks quite different. So don't try to enhance the colors. You really need to show what the product really looks like.
And the second problem related around product colors is where people have tried to do the image content themselves and they might have multiple products on their listing, but the color of the product looks different in each image because they don't know how to color balance the image properly.
So one might be taken in direct Sunlight one might be in the shade, and then they might have a couple in between, and the product color looks different in every single image. So I think they're. They are the two most common ones that I see. And I do have one more, but I don't know if you have any thoughts on those ones.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, I think I agree. I totally agree with you on both. The first one, I don't know if I see it that often, which is a really good thing.
So the brands I'm working with aren't doing that. That's great.
The second one is something I see quite a lot, and as a customer, I find it really frustrating because I've looked at things before, especially when something's color specific. So I was buying something for my daughter recently. She really likes lilac.
I was looking something in lilac, and some pictures it looked lilac, and others it looks more like bluey purple. And I couldn't quite gauge how light or dark it was. And I did what most people do in that situation and just didn't buy it.
So I think these are some, like, relatively easy, easy wins in terms of getting more sales.
But I think if most of us are so impatient, aren't we, if something doesn't look quite right or we've got any sort of questions that aren't answered instantly, we just click away and go and find something else. So I think that people who are doing this is definitely losing out on sales.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah, absolutely. And I've got one more that I would like to share with you, and I've got a couple of slides that I think help illustrate this.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, yeah, that'd be really well. Yeah.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:So this is something that I see even really big brands doing, and it's probably the most common thing that I see people doing wrong on, on the listing.
So if you are doing this now, you need to stop it, because you are sabotaging your success on Amaz, and you probably don't even realize that that's what you're actually doing. So this is the most common one that I see. And that is. It's so obvious.
You are an expert of your product and you know everything about it because you've spent however long you've spent designing it making sure it's perfect.
You might have invented some kind of technology that's really unique and nobody else is doing, and you think it's absolutely fine, fabulous, and you think it's obvious to everybody else, everybody else knows what it is. But on the other side of that, you've got the shopper and they're thinking, hang on a minute, what, what are they talking about?
I don't understand the language that this person is using. So technical language is an issue. Assuming people know things about your product because for you, it's obvious you know it because.
Because you live it every day, the shopper doesn't. So you need to change your mindset on.
Changing your thought process into something that you might think is really important about your product isn't necessarily the same thing that's going to sell the product to the shopper. So you need to switch your mindset and think, how will this product help the customer? What problem do I solve? Or what benefit will it give them?
What's the end result they'll have from using my product? And that is the biggest mistake for even very big brands I see making on Amazon is assuming that it's obvious.
Vicki Weinberg:That makes sense and also I think, assuming that they know what's important to the customer. So I've got a really good example of this, of a brand I was working with who sells a supplement.
And the listing initially talks a lot about the various ingredients.
This supplement, however, when I worked with them, what we did is we reworked the listing to talk more about the benefits of the supplement and, you know, the kind of things you might expect to experience if you took it.
Because I think the client who spent so long developing this was really keen, you know, to talk about the fact it's got this and it's got this and it's got this. And I had to explain to them that actually I consider myself relatively intelligent and I didn't know what any of these ingredients were.
I didn't know what any of them would do to me for me. And I am a potential customer because it was a supplement intended for people over 40. I fall into that bracket.
And I had to say to them, I actually personally wouldn't buy this, despite the fact it sounds great. Now you've explained it to me, because a list of ingredients means nothing. I. I want to know, why should I take this?
What are the benefits of taking it? Are there any potential side effects? How long do I need to take it for before I see benefits?
Those are the things that I'm looking for if I'm buying a supplement. The list of ingredients, not so much. So, and I'm not saying that isn't important information. It needs to be somewhere in the listing.
But we found that by tweaking the listings so that the, you know, the infographics are talking more about the benefits, you know, completely transform the sales because suddenly people are saying, oh, I can see why I might need to buy this. And it did make a huge difference.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah, it really does. When you start to think about it in a different way. And it is hard because.
Because you've kind of poured everything into doing your listings, haven't you? And your products and what you think is important.
And sometimes it can be hard to hear that what you think is the important thing and the most special thing about it actually isn't going to help people buy it.
Vicki Weinberg:Yeah. And I think, like I said, there's not a nice thing for anybody to hear, but I think it's a good thing for all of us to think about.
And actually a really great way you can find some of this out is by looking at your reviews, if your products on Amazon already.
One of my top pieces of advice is to read the reviews and see what people are saying about your product, because that will give you an indication of whether the things you think are important are the things they think are important. And I think that's probably.
Unless we're in a position where we can go out and actually talk to our customers, I think that's a really good way of finding out what is that people like and dislike. And that will really give us some clues about the types of things we need to make sure. Really clear and honest things.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah, definitely.
And it might bring, you know, the same thing coming up over and over again that you didn't even realize was for us, a certain type of person would be buying it. So you could discover new things, can't you, by looking at the reviews and seeing how people are using it?
Vicki Weinberg:Definitely. I think. I always think that's really interesting.
And I can't think of a specific example off the top of my head, but I've definitely worked with brands where they've had a bit of a surprise because they found out someone was using their products in a different way to what it was was originally intended.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Yeah.
Vicki Weinberg:So thank you so much for all that you shared with us, Eleanor. I have one final question before we finish, if that's okay.
And that is, what is your number one piece of advice to entrepreneurs looking to enhance their visual branding on Amazon?
Eleanor Parnell Santos:My one piece of advice I think that it would be on Amazon is that remember that your images are the first thing that people see. So I want you just to have a think about your listings now.
You can go and have a look after this podcast and have a look at a listing and when you're looking at that image, content, ask yourself do your Amazon images give the shopper all of the information that they need to make an instant buying decision. And if it if you don't, then you need to have a look and revisit that because that's the one thing that's going to help you convert more on Amazon.
Vicki Weinberg:That's brilliant advice. Thank you so much, Elena.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Well, thank you so much for having me on your podcast. It's been really fun to talk about Amazon today.
Vicki Weinberg:Oh, it's been brilliant and you're so welcome.
Eleanor Parnell Santos:Thank you.
Vicki Weinberg:Thank you so much for listening. Right to the end of this episode.
Do remember that you can get the full back catalogue and lots of free resources on my website, vickiweinberg.com Please do remember to rate and review this episode if you've enjoyed it and also share it with a friend, friends who you think might find it useful. Thank you again and see you next week.
