Estimated read time: 7 min
More than 140,000 third-party sellers on Amazon exceeded $100,000 in revenue in 2017. If you’re keen on growing your Amazon business and getting into the 6-figure or 7-figure sales club, becoming a registered brand can be a big step in the right direction. Becoming a registered brand also offers important protections from Amazon, which would otherwise be unavailable.
Registering your brand on Amazon can stop a lot of copyright infringement issues in their tracks. There are a few juicy marketing boosts you’ll get as well for registering your brand on Amazon. In this post, we’ll take a look at key advantages to joining the Amazon Brand Registry and how to become one.
- • What is Brand Registry on Amazon?
- • What Are the Benefits of Amazon Brand Registry?
- • Unleashing Amazon Enhanced Brand Content
- • How Does Amazon Marketing Services Work?
- • How Do You Get Approved for Amazon Brand Registry?
What is Brand Registry on Amazon?
The Brand Registry is a program devised by Amazon to allow sellers more control over their products and listing. Designed to empower Amazon sellers to focus more on building and growing their brands on the platform, the program works to verify sellers as the actual owner of the brand. In a way, you can look at it as getting a blue check mark on Twitter.
What Are the Benefits of Amazon Brand Registry?
Being a registered brand will not stop others from selling your product, if you’re familiar with Retail Arbitrage on Amazon you should know that. However, if anyone clicks on the “buy now” button on your listing, the sale goes to you.
Unleashing Amazon Enhanced Brand Content
Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) is one of the most potent upgrades you get by signing up with Amazon’s Brand Registry program. It’s the option to turn the space that was once your Amazon product description (more precisely the space above it) into what is essentially a highly customizable page. So instead of having just a small, largely inconspicuous box of text beneath a long line of “Sponsored products for this item” – you get a large display to tell the full story of your brand.
You can even keep your product description, in fact, it’s wise to keep it. Enhanced Brand Content doesn’t get indexed by Amazon’s A9 algorithm, but your description does.
“Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) is one of the most potent upgrades you get by signing up with Amazon’s Brand Registry program”
Enhanced Brand Content Examples
You get to choose between several templates while designing your Enhanced Brand Content. The templates are Rose, Tulip, Orchid, Sunflower, Lilly, plus Amazon gives you the option of creating your own custom template.
As soon as you start playing around with it, you’ll realize you have amazing, new tools to build the ideal presentation for your Amazon store. One of the best options is adding hero shots, like this wireless headset:
Or an enticing lifestyle image, like this one for a product called Hydro Flask:
If you have a more technical product, you can include crucial technical information. Much like the various qualities of this cordless vacuum cleaner:
These are only a few examples of well thought-out Amazon product listings making the best use of space. The point is you have this wonderful blank canvas that isn’t nearly as restricting and rigid as the default listing configuration Amazon provides.
Having this new space allows you to educate your potential customers, hold their attention and start building brand loyalty. There are a number of positive effects that you can expect to notice once you’ve fully customized your Enhanced Brand Content page, such as:
- • Increased sales – Present your product on your terms. The customer gets a better mental image of how it would feel to own or operate your product.
- • Higher conversions – Use your colorful information-packed canvas! It’s much more alluring to potential customers, and it means you have a better shot at stopping them from moving on or clicking on a related listing
- • Lower rate of returns or negative reviews – Fully educate your customers on every aspect of your Amazon products. It will naturally lead them to being a more educated buyer. That leads to fewer returns or bad reviews due to lack of information.
- • More return customers and recommendations – Having a registered brand on Amazon helps build your brand. Being able to tell the story of your brand leads to more people remembering you. They’re also more likely to recommend it to others.
Add Video to Your Amazon Registered Brand Listing
Video is another major upgrade you can give your Amazon listing as a registered brand. You can have a short video on the part of the listing that usually has product images. Just make it count. You only get one video, and it takes the place of your final product image.
What’s the Best Type of Video for Your Amazon Product?
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is video worth? Data shows time and again that videos are the most engaging type of online content. Creating a video that shows exactly how a product works using motion and sound, as opposed to still images, offers the potential for huge impact.
The most-effective Amazon product videos are usually short and, in many cases, look like short commercials. Sometimes, they’re even more like an instruction video with more technical products. Either way, it’s a prime opportunity to sell more products on your Amazon store.
How Does Amazon Marketing Services Work?
Amazon Marketing Services is a special feature that becomes available to sellers with registered brands. What AMS (Amazon Marketing Services) provides is an expansion of your Amazon PPC reach within the Amazon advertising platform. These services include two important new types of ads: Sponsored Brand Ads and Product Display Ads.
Sponsored brands (formerly known as headline search ads)
Sponsored Brand Ads are displayed at the top of pages that show search results for certain keywords. The advantage of these ads is that, unlike sponsored products, you see only one Sponsored Brand on the top of every search. Sponsored Brand ads stand out on Amazon and have an importance that signals “this is the very best in this category” to shoppers.
They’re great for building your brand as they allow you to include a slogan as well as a selection of a few products from your store. Needless to say, they are the most potent ads in the Amazon PPC arsenal: You see them at the top of most searches on Amazon:
This type of Amazon ad is keyword-targeted, and they require some ingenuity in term of design and crafting a message you want associated with your brand. The bidding works much like regular PPC ads. Keep in mind, since there can only be one ad, don’t expect to get your sponsored brand ad displayed with a low bid.
Product Display Ads
Product Display Ads are somewhat special. You can find them on most Amazon listings underneath the buy button. You’re almost certain to find one on every listing.
What’s interesting about Amazon’s Product Display Ads is that they can be targeted by ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) or by interest. Targeting by interest is important on Amazon. You have a better chance of showing your product to customers that didn’t necessarily search for that particular type of product, but might find it interesting. Your product can go beyond just being listed in your Amazon category/subcategory.
After all, your customers’ interests aren’t necessarily tied to a product; they can be tied to a lot of things. This opens up a new marketing dimension to explore on the Amazon platform. You may even learn a lot more about what types of customers you can attract, as well as ideas for your next Amazon product.
How Do You Get Approved for Amazon Brand Registry?
There are a few requirements for registering your brand on Amazon. The first step is to check if you’re eligible for brand registry or not. You can find out on the official Amazon Brand Registry website. You’ll need basic information about your products and where they’re sold, plus some supporting materials.
In order to enroll in the brand registry you’ll need a few basics:
- A website with your brand name and a social media account
- A trademark registration or serial number
Registering Your Trademark
You can register a trademark by filing it with USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office). If you’re already selling on a foreign marketplace, you can put in the serial number from Canada, Germany, Spain, France, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom, and the EU.
This, of course, implies that you’ve already registered your trademark. If you haven’t, try to file for your trademark as soon as possible. The process usually takes at least 6 months, or more. You can do this by yourself or by hiring an attorney to do it for you. You can also look into using an online legal service, which usually costs less but will be more automated and require less participation on your part. It’s important to look at the pros and cons of both.
Developing Your Website and Social Media Presence
The other aspect Amazon will require is a website and a social media account for your brand. You won’t need as much lead time as you will with applying for a trademark; however, it does require some thinking ahead. It’s important to make sure your domain is available – while you’re choosing your product and creating your brand name.
In a way, this also helps with your trademark registration. If no one has purchased the domain name you want, the chances are better that no one will challenge your trademark application.
After you purchase your domain, create a website and social media accounts – even if you’re not planning to post on them frequently. For your website, keep it simple to start. What Amazon’s looking for on your website is consistent contact information (the same as your Amazon account). You can always add more sales pages and improve the content as you go.
You’ll be expected to provide some other information in the registration process, such as your product and packaging images. In other words, things you already know and have if you’ve already been selling your product on Amazon or another online e-commerce platform.
