How To Master Amazon: “Your brand needs to translate across all your platforms”, with Morgan Bachemin and Eldad Shashua
Your brand needs to translate across all your platforms. I think the most frustrating thing when moving from a brand’s site to their Amazon page is if there is a feeling of disconnect between the two. Use the same language, same photography, and colors to make sure your brand can move more succinctly.
As a part of my interview series about “Five non-intuitive things you need to know to run a very successful Amazon business, I had the pleasure of interviewing Morgan Bachemin. Bachemin oversees all aspects of online search engine marketing campaigns for a variety of businesses across the country. Morgan has led New Orleans based agency Online Optimism in becoming a Google Partner Agency, a designation that illustrates the excellence and size of the campaigns created, and the extensive education acquired when advertising with Google. Morgan was nominated for the Ada Lovelace Women in Tech Award in 2016 and was named “Marketing Strategist of the Year” by the New Orleans Advertising Club in 2018. Morgan grew up in New Orleans and loves helping businesses here grow. She earned Bachelor in English Literature and Historical Studies from the University of New Orleans. She is a Reading Tutor for Start the Adventure in Reading (STAIR) and loves listening to stand-up comedy.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you share with us the “backstory” about what brought you to this specific career path?
It was mostly a lot of hard work and the tiniest bit of luck. Originally, I studied English Literature and History in college and I thought I would probably become a teacher. When I graduated, I started just looking for jobs where I would actually get paid to write. That’s how I came to a small start-up called Online Optimism and I’ve been able to watch it grow into a major player in the New Orleans marketing industry. I started working in marketing as a copywriter and realized I had a knack for distilling and streamlining a business’ most profitable qualities — the perfect skill for a career in advertising. I began learning as much as I could within the advertising world. Once I got my foot in the door, I knew I wouldn’t I stop until I was successful and doing meaningful work.
Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about selling on Amazon.com?
Amazon is much like any other search engine. I’ve been operating in the online advertising world for about 5 years. I’ve been privy to different betas that Amazon offers so I stay up to date on the product and what it plans to do in the future.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?
Unsure if this would qualify as interesting but when my agency was more of a start-up environment, I played a lot of different roles. One thing that my agency uses prolifically is video in order to tell our brand vision. And when you have a smaller budget, I was often a model and stand-in for videos and promotional materials. So much so that my friends and family thought I was an actress because they kept seeing me online and on YouTube. I had to keep reminding them that I had a normal job!
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’m unsure if it would count as a mistake but after a conference here in New Orleans, a bunch of industry people went to a bar for some drinks and networking. I asked one man in all black to get us drinks, I thought he was a server, turns out it was Chris Messina, the inventor of the Twitter hashtag. I was mortified when my coworkers told me and apologized profusely. I think he thought it was pretty funny.
Are you working on any exciting projects now? How do you think that will help people?
My agency always has something in the works. We focus a lot on improving New Orleans business and giving those starting in the industry actual work to build their portfolios. Our projects range from having the best paid internship program for students from all of the country and to offering freebies to complimentary services like installing Google Analytics for free for Louisiana businesses. We find that actually caring about people– even if they’re just an intern or if they never become a client- helps us to create a much wider network of Optimists in the world.
Ok. Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. You are a seasoned Amazon expert. Can you share with our readers five, non-intuitive, insider tips, in order to be as successful as possible on Amazon? Please share a story or example for each.
1. Your brand needs to translate across all your platforms.
I think the most frustrating thing when moving from a brand’s site to their Amazon page is if there is a feeling of disconnect between the two. Use the same language, same photography, and colors to make sure your brand can move more succinctly.
2. Professional Photography –just spend the money!
Photography should be a major priority for anyone uses Amazon. Amazon is an image based search engine. Photography is nothing to skimp on. This is often a point of contention with clients but I insist. It cuts down on returns and improve sales. Win-win!
3. Keep your own records
As an advertiser, I don’t love Amazon analytical information and the fact that you can’t go back more than a year in Seller Central for campaigns. If you are using Amazon’s advertising, be sure that you are recording those reports and saving them in a separate place when you want to do longer scale comparisons.
4. Use Free Tools to Help Improve Your Amazon Numbers
Let’s be honest, Amazon’s tools for advertisers leave a lot to be desired. I’m sure they’ll make improvements in the coming years but if you are SMB try using tools like Google Shopping Insights to help better predict seasonality and upcoming product trends.
5. It’s not just about revenue, make sure you’re paying attention to ACoS.
Revenue is obviously the most important metric for success but you ACoS numbers could help your reveal which areas of your inventory or advertising strategy are draining your budget.
Amazon sellers have a reputation for being great guerilla marketers. Do you use any clever and innovative marketing strategies that you think large legacy companies should consider adopting?
I do have a few but I think I’ll keep them to myself. Just be sure to answer all the questions for your target customer and understand what your customer needs with your product and gear your advertising toward that.
Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
This might be a strange answer to give on an interview about Amazon marketing but I think there is a culture of mindless consumption, especially in the US. If Amazon can get products to us in the same day, can coordinate so many moving pieces, they could overhaul the recycling and plastics industry and make our consumption not has environmentally detrimental as it is.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“When you make a mistake, admit it. When you’re done admitting it, explain how you’re going to fix it. “
Whether it is my personal life or my professional life, I’ve made several mistakes. And I think especially when I was younger, when I made a mistake I would just sit and wallow in the mistake and let it make me anxious to the point of not being able to move. But I understand now that when you make a mistake, people don’t want to hear you apologize 50 times and lash yourself emotionally. That doesn’t do anything for them. People don’t want to hear that you’re sorry about the mistake, they want to hear how you are going to fix it and not let it happen again.
Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)
If there is anyone I could meet and have breakfast with I think it would be Pia Baroncini, the Creative Director for the clothing line L.P.A. Her approach to business and branding is really admirable but more than that, she’s a smart woman in charge of a big brand. I’d love to pick her brain over coffee.
Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!
