
One-half of the founding members of the Titan Network, Dan Ashburn, believes that most Amazon sellers are making a mistake when they treat their respective storefronts like just any other retail store. It goes beyond just listing products for sale and expecting people to start buying them. It comes down to knowing who your customers are, what are the best targeting keywords you can use to attract them, and producing high-quality listings.
He is speaking from experience and he certainly has plenty of it, along with an unrivaled passion for what he does in helping people launch their respective e-commerce stores. The Titan Network has a 170-person team, spanning over 40+ brands that have been selling on Amazon for more than seven years. In fact, Ashburn and his business partner, Athena Severi, take clients to China twice each year, for 12 days at a time, to help them source products.
Ashburn sat down in an interview with Thrive Global to dish out the 4-1-1 on what it takes to find success in selling on Amazon and becoming a seasoned e-commerce business owner.
It’s All About the Conversion
“Focus on conversion first, traffic second. The mistake most sellers make, including experienced sellers, is they’re always asking the question, ‘How do I get more traffic?’ The algorithm is conversion-driven,” said Ashburn, in the interview with Thrive Global. “If you get conversion right, traffic follows automatically; you’re going to win PPC clicks because your performance history is better. That’s going to generate more sales velocity, which will rank the products higher organically.”
Keywords
“Target keywords with specific buying intent that aligns with your product to build credibility first, meaning reviews. The longer a keyword is, the more buyer intent there is,” he went on to say. “Use the targeted terms to generate your initial sales and get reviews, then once your reviews and conversions are in place, your click-through rates are solid, and your unit session percentage is solid, go after the broad route keywords. Then your listing is in a position where it’s mature enough to compete against the other sellers who have already gotten hundreds or thousands of reviews.”
PPC
“Always run PPC at break-even costs to maximize sales velocity and gain organic ranks and profit off the organic sales. Too many people beat their chests about how profitable their PPC is, when in reality, 12 months later, that product will drop off the cliff organically because you’re not being aggressive enough with your PPC,” he stated. “The only time your PPC should be profitable is if you’re ranked No. 1 for the root broad keyword, you’re dominating with thousands of reviews, and then there’s no need for you to be overspending on a PPC.”
Rankings and Analysis
“When you’re ranked across target terms and at target prices and you’re thinking, ‘How do I generate more sales?’, complete a process called keyword gap analysis,” he said. “All you’re doing here is running a reverse search against your competitor’s products to see what keywords they’re ranked for. Cross-analyze that against the keywords you’re ranked for and highlight the keywords that they’re ranked for that you’re not. Add those into your listing and your PPC campaign, then go get ranked for those same keywords your competition is ranked for. That’s where your extra sales are going to come from.”
Launch Products Regularly
“Scale and success in this business comes from launching more products. Yes, PPC, high-converting listings, maintaining all-organic rankings with rebates and external promotions all do generate more sales and more profit, but 90-percent of success comes from launching products,” said Ashburn. “You should have at least 12 months’ worth of products ready to go in the pipeline and you should be consistently launching products within your cash flow.”
Ashburn’s experience and authority in this niche comes with a natural progression, a stout skillset, passion, and drive for growing his organization, but helping others find success as well. Utilizing these five tips will certainly help any budding e-commerce entrepreneur.
About Dan Ashburn
Dan Ashburn is an industry-leading Amazon entrepreneur with a team that delivers 8-figures in annual sales. Having used his ambitious and entrepreneurial mindset to build countless brands, he has become a sought-after speaker, inspiring crowds with his leadership and depth of knowledge on stages across the world. Dan is the Head Mentor on China Magic and the Co-Founder of Titan Network, an exclusive membership organization for elite Amazon sellers. For more information on Dan and Titan Network, please visit: https://www.titannetwork.com