2022 Update: the Amazon Posts program and why you should use it.
Back in September of 2019, I wrote about the launch of Amazon Posts, a program to integrate shopping into a social media feed on Amazon’s retail platform. While Amazon’s aspiration of meshing social media with a retail overlay has yet to be a resounding success, Amazon Posts has grown in its adoption and carved out a larger role in the content & advertising strategies for brands on Amazon.
Reviewing the Amazon Posts landscape now, the mobile-only program has introduced a number of new features and improved the adoption use-case for brands seeking to build awareness with shoppers. To help give additional insight into the program, we’ve updated our thoughts regarding opportunities & limiations of posts:
Opportunities with Amazon Posts:
No-cost program
Provide customers with rich content and build brand equity
Drive awareness & purchase associations between complimentary products in your catalog
Integration into Amazon Store for improved visbility
Create visibility for new product offerings
Analyze traffic and engagement across your posts, and evaluate content that is resonating with specific products
Up-cycle content from Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to Amazon posts for additional exposure
Free detail page placements on competitor pages and similar products
Ability to schedule posts and synchronize content calendar with other social media platforms
Amazon includes new metrics for each post including: total reach, clicks to stores, clicks to detail page, and follows
Opportunity to design & deploy email messaging campaigns to followers through Manage Your Customer Engagement
Limitations with Amazon Posts:
Still no access to retail sales attribution
Niche site placement - Posts reside near the bottom of detail pages and only display on mobile devices
Modest reach relative to other social media platforms
No ability to leverage video
To maximize the opportunity for your brand through the use of Posts, below is curated a shortlist of recommendations that ARMR recommends for all its clients:
Post frequently and schedule ahead: post at least twice per week, driving towards a goal of three times
Be relevant: ensure that the content of your post, and the product promoted, are highly related.
Shop your products and review the competition: on your mobile device, review your product pages and see the type & quality of content other brands post.
Compare your performance: review your competitors brand feeds and take stock of their follower count vs. your own to gauge your
Start with your best sellers: you may be tempted to focus on promoting a new item, but start with your items that have built up equity with customers and have accumulated trust via reviews & sales history.
Post authentic content to build awareness, not sales: the goal of Amazon Posts should be to engage with current and prospective customers and generate a new touchpoint for them to recognize your brand.
Combine Posts with your traffic analysis: in March 2022 Amazon gave Sellers the ability to measure mobile vs desktop traffic; evaluate the prevalence of mobile shopping for your products to gauge the size of your potential audience.
Use in coordination with Vine and promotions to launch products: Posts are a helpful tool to launch new items, but its most effective when paired with other programs to kickstart the flywheel philosophy for your items.
Test, Analyze, Adapt, Repeat: don’t be afraid to try new tactics, but use data to inform your decisions.
At ARMR we firmly believe that, as a free program, Amazon Posts is a central component of ongoing efforts that brands should make to grow their audience on the platform. Despite the lack of sales attribution, measuring customer engagement is a unique opportunity for brands to evaluate content that resonates with customers when they are close to the point of purchase.
Want to learn more about Amazon posts or crafting a content strategy todominate your product segment? Let’s chat.