For the modern man and woman who are as busy as bees in this fast-paced world, online shopping is a blessing. After all, shopping for the things you love from the comfort of your home is just awesome. However, not all online shopping experience turns out to be great. The best ones are those where you get an all-round idea about the product you wish to purchase.
Don’t you just love shopping from sites that offer luxurious, detailed visual Content (images or videos) and added information about products?
That’s what we call an “A+” experience!
While it’s a known fact that rich visual Content is customer magnets, what many of you don’t know is the power of the new Amazon A+ content. It has created quite a stir in Content Marketing.
What is A+ Content?
In simple terms, Amazon A+ Content refers to product descriptions that have multimedia content (high-quality images or HD videos and comparison charts) in it. A+ Content allows any first-party (1P) vendors on Amazon to enhance their brand content through the inclusion of detailed product descriptions, vivid and high-quality images, comparison charts, HD videos, and other such interactive visual Content.
With A+ Content, you can better convey the value of your products/services to your customers. The detailed Content, vivid images/videos, and comparisons allow customers to have a 360-degree idea about the product they wish to purchase – they can make informed decisions. A+ Content shows you’ve put in a lot of effort to showcase your products to customers, thereby boosting the credibility of your brand.
Not just that, A+ content also gives you the upper hand and competitive edge over other vendors on Amazon. In addition to increasing your brand value with best-in-class Content, Amazon maintains that A+ Content holds the potential to push sales up by 3-10%. Furthermore, A+ content (particularly comparison charts that depict a visual comparison of the features of products) can provide a massive boost to conversion rates specifically.
There are two types of A+ Content on Amazon:
- Basic A+ Content that comes with five standard modules and is available to every seller on Amazon, and,
- Premium A+ Content that comes with seven modules along with other features that can be accessed only by brand owners and professional sellers.
Brands and sellers across the world are already using A+ Content to market and promote their products.
Faber Castell is a name everyone is familiar with (their pens, colors, and writing materials are one of a kind!). It is one of the oldest manufacturers of stationery items, office supplies, and an assorted collection of leather goods. Take a look at this description they created:
The detailed description of the items, the colors, the fonts, the placement of images – everything seems so perfectly poised. The overall effect is beautiful!
Another such eye-catching example of a brand leveraging A+ Content is Serta Simmons Bedding’s ad for their mattress:
In this attractive ad, Serta Simmons Bedding tells you all you need to know about their premium mattresses. The ad highlights all the key features of the brand’s mattress, almost persuading you to go for it!
How to create top-notch A+ Content?
Creating A+ Content is not rocket science, provided you have all the right information up your sleeve. However, before you jump to creating Amazon A+ Content, you must be aware of a few things:
- A+ Content is not indexed – it will not boost your organic search ranking.
- At present, A+ Content is only for desktop websites – you cannot see it on mobile or the Amazon mobile app.
- You can only create A+ Content free of cost for products that aren’t already listed on Amazon by other vendors. To create A+ Content for products being sold by other vendors, you will have to pay.
- To qualify for the A+ Content promotion on Amazon, you must submit your entire A+ Content within one month of confirming the purchasing order (PO) for the eligible product.
- Each vendor is allotted only 5 (maximum) A+ Enhanced Marketing Content pages.
- Once the A+ Content page is live, you can make changes or modifications within 2 2 business days of it being published.
- The images/visual Content and text you put in your A+ Content should be unique and must focus on the product – you can use lifestyle images only if they depict a clear link to your product.
- Amazon holds the right to remove your A+ Content page/s for any reason like (but not limited to) if you close your account with Amazon, or if you fail to fulfill your PO, or if you violate Amazon policies.
Now that the guidelines are clear to you let’s look at the best practices for creating quality A+ Content!
1. Highlight your USP.
As the seller, you are the one who best knows the Unique Selling Point (USP) of your product/s. Once you identify what the USP of your product is, try to find out the ways in which your product will help people in their daily lives – this is what you highlight in your A+ Content.
2. Be precise.
While customers would love to see a detailed description of your products, they would only want to see what’s relevant to it – nobody likes to read on and on about the same thing. List the core features and benefits of your products and compile them in a precise yet relevant description. That’s the key to creating quality content.
3. Content errors are a big NO-NO!
This is obvious. When creating content for your product promotion, you cannot afford to make mistakes. It leaves a wrong impression with the customer. Make sure to proofread your content before you submit it. Also, you cannot include certain special characters and symbols in your Amazon A+ Content, including registered brand symbols, registered trademark symbol, and copyright symbol. So, keep that in mind.
4. Text and images go hand-in-hand.
Only adding images/videos won’t suffice. Your customers need to learn what your product is about. So, instead of making it monotonous with just images/videos or text, combine both text and images to highlight the features and benefits of your products. However, make sure to keep both text and image proportionate.
5. Keep the image size and resolution in mind.
Amazon has different image requirements for different A+ Content modules. So, every time you create A+ Content, make sure to read through Amazon’s image guidelines thoroughly. This will make sure that Amazon doesn’t reject your Content because of image mismatch.
6. Use product reviews and testimonials to your benefit.
Never underestimate the value of customer reviews and testimonials. Apart from all the info you provide about your product, a potential customer always looks for an outsider’s opinion – reviews by other customers. By incorporating product reviews in your A+ Content page, you not only save your customer’s time (they would Google), but you also increase brand transparency.
7. Maintain uniformity in your designs.
Take note of this, for this point, is supremely important! When you design for product promotion, you don’t just design for your landing page; rather you design for the product catalog. So, your designs should be consistent throughout the page layout – this looks visually appealing.
8. Make wise use of banners.
With the careful placement of banners, you can successfully fragment the features of your product. Each banner can highlight a different aspect, unique benefits of your product – this allows the customers to see your product from every possible angle.
What to avoid when creating A+ Content?
So far, we’ve told you what to include in your A+ Content to make it more catchy, attractive, and relevant to your products. Now, you should know about the things you must avoid while creating A+ Content for Amazon:
- Never provide contact information about your company.
- Never refer to your business as a ‘distributor’ or ‘seller.’
- Never use quotes (for example, reviews or references) from third-parties.
- Avoid low-quality images.
- Never use the same photo twice.
- Never include links to other websites.
- Never mention the product warranty or guarantee.
- Never use questionable claims (for example, “This is the best…”).
- Avoid bold fonts and capitalization.
- Avoid internet buzzwords.
That’s how you create fantastic A+ Content that will appeal to your potential customers and turn them from mere visitors to customers. It is all about understanding your product and creating unique ways to promote them to the customers.
Article By
Mayank Gulati
Founder at ContentNinja, a marketing communications firm working with PwC, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Oxford Press.
Unhappy with the concept of 5 working days a week, Mayank Gulati started his own Marketing Communications firm. He now works 7 days a week, where he wears many, many hats (and a neck brace). An unfortunate engineer, he founded a med-tech startup that was inducted into Nasscom 10k. He’s now decided to stop asking people to invest in his company, and get them to invest in their own – through better marketing and design.
