Intro from Anthony Lee – COO at SixLeaf.
This is a guest post from Danny Carlson of Kenji ROI. His service focuses on full optimization of listings on the Amazon platform. Danny is a knowledgeable, informed and experienced expert, not only on optimization, but also on a number of Amazon ecommerce industry topics.
The advantage keeps getting bigger and bigger.
New features are constantly being rolled out to Amazon sellers with access to Enhanced Brand Content. Are you getting in on the benefits or getting left behind?
It’s not just a simple description with pictures any more, and far too many sellers just throw something up and wonder why it’s not performing very well.
Doing EBC & doing it right are 2 completely different things, & this article will cover the 5 keys to creating EBC that:
- Boosts conversion rates
- Shows off cohesive branding
- Gives shoppers the right information in the right order
Brief Overview of EBC
Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) is available to brands with a Seller Central account & Amazon Brand Registry which requires a registered trademark.
Regular product descriptions allow only text, but EBC descriptions allow images, fancy comparison charts, and custom layouts for a MUCH more attractive description.
Regular text descriptions are often scrolled right over by shoppers scrolling down to see the reviews, but a well done EBC description is hard to ignore completely.
The majority of brands on Amazon won’t have access to it so those who do have a major advantage.
You’ll also gain the option to upload a video to your last main image slot which sees far more eyeballs than the “related video shorts” section halfway down the page
EBC Key # 1: Cohesive Style
EBC is a great tool, not a done for you service. The end product is only as good as what’s put into it. Garbage in, garbage out.
Don’t be one of those sellers that puts little thought into branding, style, or quality. If you have no idea what you’re doing here, hire someone who does because shoppers often judge your entire product based on your worst photo.
A good EBC description should look like the website of a major brand like Nike. Go to their site & notice how the colors are themed, the font style and sizes go together, the layout is smooth, & every image has professional lighting & high resolution.
Guidelines for Cohesive Style
- Don’t use any of the same photos in EBC as your main image slots at the top of your listing
- Use graphic design on every image, even if it’s just a small banner with a text heading on it. It appeals to people that scan, looks more professional, & helps create the website effect mentioned above.
- No images should be remotely low resolution or poorly lit. Remember, you’ll be judged based on your worst photo.
- In graphic design, use colors & fonts that match your branding. Ideally this matches your logo & website as well.
EBC Key # 2: Choose The Right Template
There are 5 preset templates or you can create a custom template.
Custom templates can be good if you know what you’re doing, but most people I’ve seen try do it wrong.
Amazon’s preset templates are presets for a reason. They do want you to succeed despite what cynical sellers may say.
EBC Template 1
This template is best for products that are visually attractive and would benefit from having 2 large banners at the top showing them off.
There are more sections to fill out on this one so it doesn’t make sense for products that don’t have many benefit to feature.
EBC Template 2
Some products just don’t have that many benefits that need to be shown. In this case it’s best to use Template 2 as it has less sections to fill out.
This sections in this template have larger image slots, so the benefits you are featuring will get more real estate & you avoid cluttering the screen with benefits your target customers don’t care about.
EBC Key # 3: Craft the Customer Journey
Take customers through a journey. When people shop, there are predictable frames of mind and thought processes the majority of your target customers will go through.
If you know how they think, you can write your description to match it… ideally better than they could articulate themselves.
If you do research properly, you should know your customer’s pain points, concerns about the product, biases, & preferences better than they do.
How to Craft the Customer Journey
- Take the most important benefits your product provides & ensure they are prominently featured in a arge banner at the top.
- Take the secondary key benefits and fill the middle sections of the EBC with images and text that feature them
- Take the top objections or concerns about your product and place them at the bottom in the smaller image slots
This is a simple example of a customer journey framework. The psychology behind it is this:
- The banner at the top gets the most eyeballs so the goal is always to get people’s attention. By having your absolute #1 main benefit there, you have the highest chance of pulling shoppers in to read the rest of your description
- They’re now hooked into reading your description, so hit them with your next most important benefits.
- At this point if they’re still interested in buying they likely have 1 or 2 more questions or objections getting in the way. That’s why the sections addressing objections or common concerns should be at the bottom.
EBC Key # 4: Relevancy | Less is More
Amazon’s algorithm has been changing to prefer keyword relevancy more and more the past year. Most sellers understand that, but don’t put as much thought into relevancy to shoppers reading the listing. They’re the ones buying your product!
Image to Text Relevancy
One thing I see all the time is EBC descriptions with seemingly random images thrown in. I assume they put whatever images they had laying around in and hoped for the best. Big mistake…
Each image slot also has a text field. It’s important that the text and image are both showing the same thing. If the text of a certain section is talking all about how your plates are dishwasher safe, the picture should show your plate in the dishwasher.
Sounds simple, but you’d be amazed how many sellers show a plate on a counter with food on it or something WAY unrelated.
Relevancy of the Benefits being featured
Just because your product provides a benefit doesn’t mean your customers care about it.
Many Amazon listings banter on and on about how their product can be used for all these amazing ways when their customers only care about 4.
Not only does this create a mess of the listing, it reduces the keyword relevancy, and can even cheapen the overall impression people have of your product.
A product that does everything does nothing, and savvy customers will leave your listing without knowing the most important things about your product.
Focus on ONLY the things that your target customers actually care about. Yes this requires a lot of research, I never said it would be easy.
Danny Carlson Bio
Danny Carlson is a 26 year old entrepreneur & expert in Amazon Ecommerce. He started his first business producing extreme downhill skateboarding videos in 2014 as a way to fund travelling to & competing in more downhill races.
After a near death experience racing in the Philippines, Danny dove headfirst into building an Amazon FBA business. After selling $200k in home & garden products his first 6 months, he founded Kenji ROI, an agency to help Amazon sellers create an advantage through product listings.
Through psychologically driven copywriting/ keyword optimization, product photography, videos, EBC, & PPC Management, Kenji ROI has served over 541 Amazon sellers & built more than 862 listings from scratch.
Danny is also host of the Actualize Freedom Podcast (check out SixLeaf’s very own Anthony Lee’s interview) and regularly speaks on live webinars, other podcasts, & business events in Vancouver, Canada.
The Kenji EBC process is part of the Kenji Complete Amazon Listing process, where we use a unified team & research to craft cohesive, effective, & highest quality Amazon Photography, Title + Description + Bullets + Keywords, Video, & Enhanced Brand Content for successful ecommerce brands.