So, you sell on Amazon.

Maybe you’re launching a product. Or, you have one and know it could do better.

“If only I could get to page 1 I’d make sales and my problems would be solved!”

But is that true?

Can simple keyword ranking solve your problems?

The data says… yes.

One Click Retail, an analysis firm with clients like Unilever, P&G, and Nestle, found this Amazon data…

Page 1’s first 3 items get 64% of all clicks.

Page 1 in general gets 81% of all clicks.

And only 30% of shoppers look past the first page. Ever.

So if you appear on page 2 or lower, you’re losing 70% of all potential sales. Ouch.

It’s imperative to reach page 1.

But how?

HonestFew, my company, has successfully landed dozens of sellers onto page 1. Here’s what we do in 3 steps.

(1) Make something of quality.

Many people skip quality in favor marketing tactics, i.e. the acquisition of new customers. But quality should come first.

Why?

Because all of your To Do’s become easier or unnecessary as quality increases.

Quality is a force multiplier.

Quality causes more repeat business, better reviews, fewer customer service issues, fewer returns, and more word-of-mouth referrals.

Quality multiplies marketing ROI because the lifetime value of every customer increases.

Quality is so important to Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky that he designed a step-by-step visual storyboard of what the perfect Airbnb experience looks like, hired a Pixar animator to draw each panel, and hung them in the office. The project was code-named “Snow White” after Walt Disney’s storyboard approach to his first feature-length film.

Share in the magic: identify each step in your buyer’s experience, then imagineer (it’s a Disney term) ways to make each step better.

The customer types a search query into Amazon, and their story begins.

Their experience with you can be better or worse depending on your listing content, photos, review count, the types of reviews you’ve received, your customer service email sequence, packaging, packaging inserts, return policy, the product itself, and post-sale service.

Plot it out and make changes accordingly.

Seriously, don’t neglect this. Increasing quality is simple advice. So simple, in fact, that people skip it.

Now that you’ve got quality, you need customers.

Your job in step 2 is to…

(2) Reach escape velocity.

Rockets need a certain velocity to escape the gravitational attraction of Earth. It’s the same thing with your Amazon listing.

When you create a new listing, it has 0 reviews and 0 sales. Gravity is pushing, pressing, bearing down.

No sales, no velocity.

And if you don’t do anything, it’s going to stay that way.

So how do you get velocity?

Get sales.

With enough sales, you can free yourself from Amazon’s gravitational pull and float on page 1. Ever noticed that products on page 1 tend to stay there?

It’s a cycle: the more sales you’re getting, the further up the page you go; the further up the page you go, the more sales you get. Therefore, fighting to get to page 1 is harder than staying there.

But it comes at a price.

Amazon won’t rank your product on page 1 unless you’re matching the sales levels of the others on the page. Makes sense, right?

But you can artificially match page 1 sales levels with an Amazon product promotion. In other words, find people to buy your product at a discount in exchange for reviews. This can be achieved by building your own audience, recruiting reviewers on Facebook, or by using a product launch service like HonestFew.

This gives Amazon’s ranking algorithm what it wants: sales and reviews.

But how many sales and reviews do you need? The numbers depend on your competition.

1. How many sales?

Watch your competitors on page 1 for a while and figure out how many sales they do to achieve “escape velocity” on page 1. This will be your minimum effective dose of units sold for review. This can be done with a product research tool that estimates sales, or you can just add “999” of a competitor’s item to your cart every day, and see how many they have left over from day to day.

2. How many reviews?

In addition, you’ll want to match the review count average, so that shoppers will perceive your item as a viable option. If you shop on Amazon in addition to selling there, how often do you buy the option with the most reviews? Of course. Why wouldn’t you? No one wants to take a risk on the less-reviewed model. They want what’s popular.

(3) Maintain momentum.

Once you’ve got promotional sales and reviews, you need to keep the momentum going. If not, your ranking will drop and everything will be in vain.

So, how do you maintain your sales levels?

Drop your price.

As price decreases, the quantity demanded increases. Thanks, Econ 101.

You see, promotions temporarily improve your BSR. But if the promotional sales stop, then your ranking falls as well. To compensate for this, you can lower your price, increasing the quantity demanded by organic, everyday shoppers. This effectively replaces the sales you were getting in your promotion with organic ones.

Calculate your break-even price point, and charge just above that. That way, you aren’t bleeding cash with every unit.

Account for:

– product cost

– shipping cost and duty fees

– Amazon pick and pack fees

– Amazon referral fees

– and conversion rates if you’re selling in a different currency

Use Amazon’s FBA Revenue Calculator to help you predict Amazon fees.

If the price drop isn’t working as you’d like or you want to supplement it with more sales, you can run Amazon pay-per-click (PPC) ads.

Don’t hold back with the ads. Target the top keywords in your category. It’s the raw amount of sales that matter at this stage; you can fine-tune your keyword selection later. Don’t worry if you’ve got an ACoS only a mother could love.

And once your organic sales are consistently high in comparison with your competition, you’ll secure your place on page 1. Keep going. The best way out is through.

After you’ve consistently matched and exceeded your competition’s daily sales for weeks on end, you should start to see permanent page 1 ranking.

From here, you can raise your price back to normal and start profiting.

There you have it: how to rank on page 1 and stay there.

Make something of quality, improving your customer experience “storyboard” panel by panel. Sell units for review by building an audience, Facebook groups, or launch service. This increases visibility and social proof. Drop your price and run Amazon PPC ads to generate organic sales, which will keep your ranking high. Do this until your daily sales levels are high enough to match or exceed the competition.