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You know how people tell you not to put all your eggs in one basket?
Learning to diversify your FBA business outside of Amazon is a hot trend at the moment. With Amazon’s recent TOS changes and even more recent commission changes — smart sellers are looking to build redundancy into their biz.
In eCommerceFuel’s recent State of the Merchant survey – 70% of respondents listed their storefront as their biggest sales channel.
For that group, Amazon made up only 6.2% of their total revenue.
And 20% of respondents claimed that Amazon made up 76% of their revenue.
For most sellers, Amazon is a great source of revenue — but there’s something to be said about safeguarding your business by making sure you don’t rely on a single sales platform.
Article Sections:
Skip to: Why You Should Diversify Your Amazon Business
Skip to: Step 1: Set Up Your Ecommerce Store
Skip to: Step 2: Set Up Your Funnel To Drive Sales
Skip to: Step 3: Increase Your Reach
Skip to: Conclusion: Diversification Is a Long-Term Game
Why You Should Diversify Your Amazon Business
As with any entrepreneurial venture, success can turn on a dime. This is something we all experienced with the ToS changes in October of last year.
When you sell on a marketplace like Amazon or Ebay, the clear fact is that you don’t own your own store. That means Amazon, not you, has ultimate control over your listings.
One click of a button, and Amazon could negatively impact your revenue stream. Many have lost thousands — if not millions — of dollars’ worth of revenue overnight. Just look at this post from Steve Chou, to get a few examples.
Diversification is about taking your ecommerce business to the next level. More sales channels, more redundancy, more potential revenue from different sources. By creating more revenue streams, you are less vulnerable to changes in the landscape.
Simply put: Diversification supports a business model that involves less risk and more money.
If you’re in it for the long game, there’s no question. You should spread out your risk and drive resources to your own site. So how do you do it?
You start by creating a funnel for your OWN online store.
Here’s an example of the structure:
Ready to try it out for yourself?
Here are 3 simple steps you can take to get started.
Step 1: Set Up Your Ecommerce Store
Start by setting up an online storefront outside of Amazon. By doing that you have more control over the design of your store – including conversion rate optimization. This enables you to further establish your brand, and better control conversions.
Fortunately, many platforms have made this part easy.
To easily set up an online storefront — check out ecommerce platforms such as:
- Shopify (our recommendation): Shopify recently announced an Amazon integration that lets you link your Shopify store to your Amazon listing.
- BigCommerce: BigCommerce lets you customize your site, manage shipping and payments, and list your products on Amazon, Ebay, and Facebook.
- Squarespace: Squarespace is a website building tool that also includes a storefront feature.
Important: We’re not suggesting you cut ties with Amazon completely.
In fact, relying on Amazon at first for fulfillment is probably a good idea. Then there’s no need to worry about logistics, and it allows you to easily build up capital to invest back into your business.
Instead, you can focus on setting up your store, driving traffic, and building your brand. By diversifying traffic and improving branding, you also boost your marketplace resilience.
Step 2: Set Up Your Funnel To Drive Sales
How to Build a Landing Page
First you need to build a landing page. A landing page is a website page that a visitor arrives at when they “land” on your site. Often it is designed for a single goal, such as getting conversions.
There are two types of landing pages you should look at:
- Click through pages:
These are sales pages used to describe a product or offer in detail. The purpose is to illustrate the benefits of your product and redirect them to the ecommerce site. - Lead generation pages:
These pages capture information, such as email addresses, that lets you market to prospects at a later time. Here’s a great opportunity to send promo codes.
For an ecommerce funnel, you can also choose to use a combination of these two. For example, by offering a discount if visitors sign up for the email list. But keep in mind that two conflicting call to action (CTA) statements can be confusing.
The best landing pages tell visitors EXACTLY what they should do, how to do it, and what benefit they’ll get out of it. The more specific and direct — the better.
Here’s a conversion-optimized landing page template you can use:
Why it works:
- It conveys urgency with a time-limited offer
- It conveys scarcity with a limited amount of product
- It has a special discount offer
- It shows a clear image of the product
- It contians an email opt-in for the coupon code
- It has a big, clear CTA-button
- It incorporates social proof via testimonials
If you’re looking for more in-depth advice, here’s a guide by CPC Strategy.
Some great tools for building landing pages include:
Next, you should set up a an email list so you can directly market your product or brand.
How to Build an Email List
Email lists help you transform prospects into leads. Email tends to outperform many other marketing channels, since it’s one you have complete control over.
Also, you can keep monetizing your list by pitching multiple products over time. By emailing your customers on a regular basis and providing consistent value, you set yourself up for recurring revenue.
In summary, marketing via an email list lets you:
- Inform your customers about new products
- Provide them with special deals and coupons
- Generate recurring sales and a loyal customer base
Here are some quick ways to build your new email list:
If you’re looking to build an email list, you can use a tool like Hello Bar to capture emails. It sits at the top of your landing page like this (as used by Buffer):
You can also use built-in subscribe forms provided by email marketing management programs such as ActiveCampaign and MailChimp.
Another way of getting subscribers is to insert coupon cards into your product packaging. Offer a discount when customers open up their product, say 25% off their next purchase, provided that they sign up for your email list.
Once you’ve got the emails, you need to learn how to transform them into new sales.
Here’s a Quick and Easy Email Marketing Template You Can Use:
Email 1: Send immediately after purchase.
Subject line: Claim Your Amazon.com Coupon
Thank you for your purchase. We appreciate your business, and would like to offer you our Amazon.com [PRODUCT NAME] at a discounted price of [PRICE].
To claim your discount, use the Amazon.com coupon code: [INSERT COUPON CODE]
Use your coupon while you still can [LINK THIS TEXT TO YOUR COUPON]
Limited supply available. Only 37 Left. Coupon expires soon.
Just follow these steps:
- STEP 1: Visit the Amazon.com page for our …..
- STEP 2: Put Our (YOUR PRODUCT) In Your Shopping Basket
- STEP 3: On the checkout page enter coupon code:
When you reach the Amazon.com checkout page, there will be a section called “Gifts & Promotional codes”, enter in the coupon code and click apply. Your total price will be [PRICE HERE]
Use this coupon code: [COUPON CODE HERE]
Order now on Amazon.com!
Email 2: Send 1-2 days after the previous message
Subject Line: Your Amazon.com Coupon Expiring
Hi,
This is just a reminder that your Amazon.com coupon for [PRODUCT] is expiring soon. If you have not claimed it yet, be sure to do so now so you don’t miss out.
Your coupon code is [COUPON CODE HERE].
Enter your code at checkout to claim your discount!
If you have no already taken advantage of your coupon code, then please go to Amazon.com using the link below.
Click here to claim coupon. [LINK THIS TEXT TO YOUR COUPON]
That’s it. Once you have a solid list built, you’ll need to manage it.
Here are some of the most popular email management platforms.
- MailChimp: MailChimp is the world’s leading email marketing platform. It comes with multiple templates and integrations, such as for Shopify.
- Aweber: Aweber is similar to MailChimp, also has a Shopify integration, for example.
- ActiveCampaign: ActiveCampaign is an email marketing platform with loads of integrations and features, which makes it stand out.
Step 3: Increase Your Reach
A great way to increase your reach is to set up a social media page for your niche or your brand. This will most likely be your first point of contact with the customer.
Social media is designed to boost brand awareness; it’s where you capture your prospects.
Choose a few of the major platforms and see which one(s) best fit your brand:
- YouTube
Notice how it didn’t say market your product. If you’re looking to sell a variable temperature electric kettle, don’t set up a Facebook page solely dedicated to that kettle. No one will care.
Instead, look at the niche. Who uses these kettles?
Tea drinkers, for one. Set up a page for tea-lovers and start curating content for your page.
Share content that they would find valuable, such as:
- How to Brew the Ultimate Cup of Tea
- What Temperature Should Water be for Tea?
- 6 Health Benefits of Green Tea
Try to find information that is useful or interesting and fun to share.
Attract an Audience
Unfortunately, the old “build it and they will come” – adage doesn’t apply to social media.
So how do you get followers to your social media page? That’s a whole another can of worms.
The short answer is, it depends on the platform.
Facebook, for example can be built quickly and easily by promoting your page via their advertising platform — which isn’t free. But it does allow you to target your key demographic. Identify your ideal customer — find the tea-lover in need of a kettle — and zone in on them.
Some general social media growth tactics to start with:
-
- Network with influencers to spread your content – finding mutually beneficial partnerships
- Contact influential blogs and start guest blogging
- Share quality content that provides value and actually helps people
- Add social media widgets on your landing page so people can share easily
- Distribute the page within your personal social network
If you want a deep-dive into social media marketing, check out this post by Matthew Barby.
Diversification Is a Long-Term Game
Many would argue that Amazon is still number one, but it’s helpful to branch out to other platforms as well. By doing so, you reduce your risks, gain more control over your business, and increase your potential revenue. But it takes work; don’t expect to skyrocket your success overnight.
If you’re looking to take your ecommerce business to the next level, diversification is the way to go. Spend time building your brand and work hard. With a bit of legwork, you’ll grab a bigger market share and rake in more revenue a few months down the road.
What’s stopping you from diversifying your business?
Let us know your biggest obstacles to diversifying outside of Amazon.
How can we help you skyrocket your business?
Leave a comment below and let’s chat.
