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The Amazon Seller’s Guide: The Art of Writing Your Bulletins
Unfortunately, Amazon sellers don’t have the same working conditions or opportunities as traditional sellers might have. We don’t have brick and mortar stores with a window facing the street. We don’t decorate our windows to gain interaction with customers in traditional ways. Our store window is the title image of our listing. It has to be enticing enough for a customer to enter our store, AKA our listing. Additionally, we don’t speak with our customers, our listing must do that for us.
Most of the conversation they are having is with bulletins. The bulletins are essential. It’s the part of the listing that has the power of turning an indecisive potential customer into a paying one. Bulletins act very much like a salesman at a counter in a store. Proven by experience sellers, changing your bulletins can drastically increase your sales. So, take the time to think about what you want to put in them.
Many sellers make the mistake of just putting something in so that it’s not left empty. Next they try all different ways of increasing their sales, minus revising their bulletins. There might be listings with poor bulletins that have a lot of sales. Imagine how many more sales they’d have if they put effort into the bulletins? So, this article discusses what we should know and take into account while writing our bulletins:
Amazon Sellers Should Focus Less on Keywords
As mentioned above, look at bulletins as an opportunity to say what you would like to say to a customer. In a previous article, called “The Art of Writing Your Product Title,” we mention prioritizing keywords in the title and the backend. Someone has searched for a keyword, found you listing among others, and opened it. So keep in mind, Keep in mind that the SEO portion of your listing is doing its job when the customer comes in contact with the bulletins.
The words you use in your bulletins certainly affect SEO, but to a lesser degree. The primary focus should be on relaying relevant information to the person reading them in order to secure a sale. Use relevant keywords, but not at the expense of making the “conversation” with the customer worse.
It’s REALLY a Sales Pitch!
Think of this not as a regular conversation, but as a sales pitch. Take the opportunity to emphasize your competitive advantages. Those might be price, quality, clever design feature, etc… It’s proven that most people read the first and last bulletin. Therefore, use those 2 for maximum impact. The bulletins should also have a continuity to them so they flow nicely. It is also important that the individual ones emphasize the most relevant information. This way you’re maximizing odds of a potential customer reading through all of them.
Promote Your Brand
If you are a private label seller, you need to have goals in mind to help you determine your success. One of those might be to use something like our keyword explorer. Type in your brand name, and see the search volume for it. You want to do a good job establishing brand identity and communicating it well so people begin searching for it. A wonderful brand identity leads to word of mouth recommendations, the most powerful form of marketing. Use bulletins as an opportunity for your customers to remember you. If you have company values you think your customer would appreciate, make sure they’re included. Do the work beforehand to come up with a brand, and present it to the best of your ability to your customer. It is one of those things that doesn’t seem like it’s terribly important in the beginning but pays large dividends long-term.
Make Them Read It
Each bulletin is limited to 200 characters. That’s plenty of space for creativity to divert attention to it. Nowadays, people have fairly short attention spans. Holding someone’s attention, especially in an online environment, can be a challenge. Be aware and take advantage of different options available. While writing your bulletin, start off with a short phrase or single word that will grab the attention of the person watching it. This phrase or word should be as relevant and informative as possible. The rest should further explain the said phrase. You can also use different symbols for the beginning of each bulletin. A great example of this can be seen in the diving snorkel listing pictured below:
This way, you might grab the attention of someone willing to read through all bulletins, or at the very least, supply them with vital information
Reference your Product Description
Another thing you can do in your bulletins is to mention something and than say that they can read more about it in the product description. The product description has a lot more space and you can use this tactic to entice your customers to spend more time on your listing. You should only do this If you believe that you can offer truly important information that the potential customer that’s at your listing. Relaying information like how to instal your product or how to maintain or clean it or any other issue that might make the customer think “I’m glad I read this”. It’s better not to employ this unless you can think of that is going to be worthwhile, otherwise it might just have a negative effect and it can seem like you are messing with them.
Another thing you can do in your bulletins is to mention something, then say more can be read about it in the product description. Product descriptions have a lot more space. You can use this tactic to entice customers to spend more time on your listing. Only do this If you believe that you can offer truly important information for the potential customer. It’s better not to employ this unless you think it’s worthwhile information. Otherwise, it might just have a negative effect. So, be careful.
6 Bulletins?
It’s true, you only get 5 bulletins per listing. However, in some cases, there is a way around this. You can get an additional 6th one by entering in your listing information. It’s not technically a bulletin, but it looks like one to someone viewing the listing. It has a smaller character limit but will show as the top or bottom bulletin. To get it, go to your seller central account. Put your cursor over “INVENTORY” and select “Manage inventory” from the drop-down. Select the product you wish to edit the list and click the “Edit” button all the way to the right. From there, open the “More details” and look for a text box that says “Materials” or “Material type.” Whatever you write in here might show up as a new bonus bulletin.
It doesn’t work for all products and tends to bug (for example it won’t show capital letters, bolded text etc…). However, trying to see if it will work on your listing won’t hurt anyone, just potentially help!
Point Out Your Advantages
You have most likely identified all advantages because you’ve chosen your product based on some chance of success in the niche you are selling in. Make sure you point these out. It seems obvious, but many sellers don’t take advantage of the multiple ways for accomplishing this. If your product has a feature that solves a problem that others encounter while using this kind of product, describe it. For example, we are selling an optic mouse. You’ve decided to sell one with a longer cord because you’ve studied reviews of other mice, and reviews deemed it favorable because of problems they were having with short cords. In this case, first, point out your feature and follow it with an example of what it solves. That bulletin might look like this: -6ft CORD LENGTH - Never have to worry about having the full range of motion or being too far away from your PC
There are plenty of elements worth mentioning in your bulletins that you can add over time. If you get a number of reviews, and they are all close to 5 stars, you can add, “a 5-star product according to all our customers.” If you have sold a few hundred units, with zero returns, it’s not a bad idea to mention it. Just make sure advantages are pointed out clearly so potential customers can imagine their problem is solved with your product.
Synergize the Rest of Your Listing
Bulletins are not the only thing to be seen on your listing. There is the title, product description, and product images. In order to maximize listing potential, adjust your bulletins with the rest to form a coherent whole. There’s plenty of room for creativity here. You can have each product image correspond with a bulletin or use text on the product images to match the first word or phrase of a bulletin.
So, a potential customer understands the bulletin is explaining that image. The listing as a whole is there to maximize a potential customer’s interest. The parts need to work together but emphasize different aspects of the product. This is dependant on the product itself and the perceived needs of the customer. No one knows better than you, so find a way to creatively showcase your product.
Surpass the Character Limit at Your Own Peril
If you browse Amazon, you find listings with bulletins that go past the 200 character limit. Even though it’s possible to enter more characters than the established limit of 200, it’s against the guidelines. Yes, numerous successful listings break that rule with apparently no consequences. For example, let’s look and the fish tank pump listing below:
These bulletins are definitely not in accordance with the guidelines. Yet, it doesn’t seem to stop this product from being very successful. Using the AMZScout product database, we can see the volume of monthly sales:
This product, as well as others, is seemingly not being sanctioned by Amazon. Be aware of the fact that it’s technically breaking the rules. However, in the worst case scenario, you will receive an email from Seller Central asking you to change it. It’s hardly an offence worth suspension. In any case, it’s wise to avoid it unless you think it’s necessary. If you decide to do it, you are taking a risk. Not a big one, but if you can avoid it, don’t take it.
In conclusion, the bulletin part of the listing is much more likely to be read by a customer than the product description. It’s the closest thing you have to a customer conversation as an Amazon Seller. Adjust for people with short attention spans and relay enough information to interest those that wouldn’t otherwise bother reading through all of them. You will never be at a point where your bulletins (or any part of your listing) are going to be “done.” You can always improve and adjust over time. By knowing your options, you have a much bigger range for making those adjustments. An Amazon sellers work is never done. Good luck sellers!
