Press Releases, Listing Optimization and Amazon FBA Experience (Interview with Norman Farrar)

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Our guest on the 30th of March, 2020,  on the sellerboard show was Norman Farrar from PR Reach.

Norman Farrar from PR Reach talks about Press Releases and how they can help you launch your product on amazon, listing optimization hacks and his experience with selling on amazon.

Watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V9MXCxtBVM&t=656s

Speaker 1: So let’s continue you mentioned a couple of cool buzzwords so I don’t know let’s start with press releases so you said like when launching products you’re making press releases what’s that?

Speaker 2: Most people back in the day so when I went through the A. S. M. course up press releases with a big bug buzz word I was using press releases for twenty twenty-five years and I’ve always found them to be quite helpful especially if your geo-targeting something but anyways.  I guess what happened was the people that use press releases properly five years ago six years ago they got results and they continue to get results to this day the majority of the people that tried to cheap out on press releases went to free companies and try to get a two dollar article done with really poor grammar they didn’t get results so what they do the people that don’t get results go on the internet and say press releases don’t work the new people come on they take a course they go and see press releases and they see our press releases are horrible stay away I can tell you that every single product launches we’ve done on Amazon except for the first one because I didn’t realize it work with Amazon works and we don’t do one press release we can do up to twenty press releases in a month.

Speaker 1: So so tell me like four our beginners. What is a press releases like I know PPC I know maybe Facebook ds but what’s press releases?

Speaker 2: Press releases are basically they’re talking about a news worthy event well what’s a newsworthy event it’s not that you have an Amazon coupon okay so it’s it’s not it’s it save your sales promotion or you know Facebook ads and for your blog this you can use I like using the example for bully sticks okay it’s a dog treat so you queue you. You do keyword stuff I hate saying that the title the more you put in the title the more you get ranked the most important part of any press releases the title that’s what gets ranked not the body will get good information in the body but it’s the title so in the title I might put natural organic grass fed bully sticks are proven healthy snacks for dogs or good for digestive system my blog article might be seven tips for elderly logs two elderly dogs have a better digestive system it’s just coming out of a little bit differently so what you’re doing it with your press releases after you write the title is you want to have I keep one of your major keywords linking back to your product listing. So this press release. Basically, it’s a blog post and we keep our staff the tile I got it but where is it what published is that it’s worse.  This is why it works too so depending on the service that you’re using them the better services are putting it out to anywhere from three to five hundred news outlets so it’s going to go out to all the search engines you’re gonna go out to newspapers you’re going to go out to television news media so like for our press releases you’ll be on fox CNN of NBC.

Speaker 1: Like on on the TV?

Speaker 2: I know it’s on their online like on their website then you’re going to go out to the financial institutions like market watch Yahoo finance Reuters and you could go like when you when you add on writers for example on Yahoo finance I could be another fourteen hundred websites. So well that is the standard package for good quality a press release.  It could range from about a hundred and fifty because there’s some that specifically target high end websites but the hundred fifty five hundred if you check out you go to a press release company and you want to see their distribution if if it’s terrible if it looks like in small town USA and it’s free get away from it or if it’s twenty dollars run you know it a good press release usually will run you around a hundred dollars for distribution up to about seven hundred dollars okay what are you going.

Speaker 1: What okay such a company what did the basically do they just stopped they write the post for you or you need to submitted already?

Speaker 2: Usually the price you see will be with submitting I highly recommend that you never touch a press release. You don’t hire somebody in the Philippines to read a press release.  Press release writing is is a science and typically if I you get I I was at a conference once and somebody hired somebody in the Philippines and spent seventy dollars on the press release I had about thirty that I was reviewing and editing and it was the worst.  So I’d spend usually if you’re going to a press release company they’ll charge you anywhere from thirty to about a hundred and fifty dollars do you rate a good press release okay that’s usually on top and sometimes if you’re combining the package you might get both for anywhere from a hundred to two hundred dollars. 

Speaker 1: Okay and what happens next like what do they do with this text do they have their own like contacts on fox and NBC who knows what will does online or?

Speaker 2: Yeah that’s the distribute that’s the press releases responsibility so the press release distribution company.  They take it they put it through their channels so they might have they might put it through one distribution network that goes out to a hundred they might send it out to another that goes out to like for us for example we have a group that goes out to five hundred then we have a group that goes out to fourteen hundred then we have a group that goes out to the fifty five thousand journalists that we have a group that goes out to influencers and bloggers and then they pick it up now  the fifty five thousand journalists. If your audience wants to check this out it’s a free service that you can get called helpareporter.com  and it’s free to join. If you want to do it on the day you know on the down low you can do it that way and I would never recommend letting the press release service do it because they are on it will happen is they’ll be notifications from journalism what they wanna write and then the press release company if your client will let you know all they’re talking about your niche let’s read a press release about it. Well, it’s just a way to get more exposure.

Speaker 1: Okay I get it so basically helpareporter.com all of its a site where which connects journalists and people have some exciting news of potentially with their or their ads and I can submit the release are basically all rights reserved will be distributed for free but I think them the idea is to write a good one tell me like suppose we have a really really great text right so and and and it’s interesting it has a catchy title is your staff on the optimized. How much traffic can I expect so this is all like does it work?

Speaker 2: I don’t if it’s Amazon I’m not worried about any traffic zero. Okay what I’m the only thing I’m looking at. Is the links that are going back to my listing so I’ve got four hundred authority links going back to my bully sticks from box Washington post Miami Herald Yahoo finance you know all these railings Amazon I think this is only what I’m I’m trying to figure out I never found out why but because I’ve done that too. Amazon will stick longer with my keywords so I’ll see the ranking climb. And we monitored on helium ten so we’ll use our keyword tracker and we’ll see that and we’ve done this with a product where was very similar we launch one with just rebates. One with rebates some press releases and one with just press releases and their rebates and press releases went about I think it was about six weeks longer. With that with you still have to like when I’m using press releases I use it with like the key word that I’m using so let’s say it or getting six inch organic bully sticks okay. We got back to the ballistic listing and also by rebates. Four six inch organic bully sticks and so the two link the press release is is using that keyword and the rebates are using that key word and you’ll see that there’s a they’ll be a spike in your ranking.

Speaker 1: Maybe it’s because of Google is a ranking you’re basically your listing on Google better if it has a lot of backlinks linking that listing. 

Speaker 2: That could be it like it’s hot it’s interesting you brought up Google because I was doing I was doing a podcast. I think this was for Kevin king so anyways he wanted me to you know talk about go pull that labor press releases so I said okay I was typing it and it blew me away.  I blew me away I all of a sudden I looked up in the first.  The first listed in her first position on global was Judy so ballistics. Chilton. The second one the third one the fourth one we’re press releases from two thousand sixteen two thousand eighteen two thousand nineteen I I had the fourth but like the the picture image image and I had the bottom two I went to the second page and I only missed out on one spot and so my compact complete phrase. Was filled up by Google ranking for two pages with me.

Speaker 1: Right.

Speaker 2: It was all me and then the other thing that they hear a lot of haters say is that all the only last for a short period of time so I took I I took a eight eighty a phrase well actually was a press release that I put out and to that July a June eleventh two thousand eighteen on June eleventh two thousand eighteen it was number one on I forgot which media site and then in August I was still number one sorry I was number two Chuy was number one we were number two a year later.

Speaker 1: Okay so I think that’s definitely worth trying and that’s a very interesting topic we’ve never actually we’ve never talked running this submarket since more than one year maybe one and a half years I don’t remember exactly but we’ve never talked about press release so thanks so much that’s very exclusive and I think I should definitely should check this topic all. Tell us. One more question that had or one more topic that I want to talk to you about our subjects to increase profits. I know you’ve got some some tips there so can revisit this topic and we talked a little bit about this.

Speaker 2: Sure this is the very first presentation I ever did to any Amazon seller was adding perceived value to the listing so one of the things I noticed when I got in is that there’s a lot of bottom dwellers. These type of people like I used to be in the promo industry and I used to call this product cannibalization these are people that you know there might be volume there but they wanna make pennies because they think that by making pennies they can rank they can be on page one but there. They have no profit I’m not in the business to make no profit some people want to sell it there’s a lot of liquidators out there that want to sell a ton of volume and make a penny and that makes a lot of dollars I’m not I’m not in that position I don’t want to be in that position I’m a brand guy so I’ll take a look at them I started looking at most new Amazon sellers and they were horrible yeah the listings were shot with an iPhone they they thought they were a photographer I mean it looked really good to their wife or their husband but you know it’s not what people want so I was telling you know saying first of all you’ve got to have a good brand so if your brand personage two types of Amazon sellers there’s the people that want to go out there and sell product. Which is usually on arbitrage and they can do a real they can make a really good living doing it. When I’m looking at something I’m looking at a brand so the very first thing I want is a good brand and then what am I gonna sell within that niche of the brand okay so you got to think about it like you know Bob’s. Bob’s beauty products typically is not going to be the greatest brand and if you go to Fiverr you’re gonna get what you get. Your pay for usually a really crappy logo that’s been used a hundred times either they say that it’s unique yeah right the color might have changed so anyways where you can start really making differences from everybody else is hundred percent optimizing your listing I called the Brady bunch you go in you take either the the your your primary image you take your competitors and send it to a focus group like are usability hub when you get them to tell you which is the best image and if you’re not the best or close to being the best you’ll never get sales. People are clicking on images is that you know are they draw the right to it second thing is you do the same thing with titles you know you you you can do your research but as human engagement humans are buying the product so you can you definitely want to have the major phrase in the title but you know and you can do that with the bullets so once that’s all done now the fun begins take a look at your product you member the knife. So I was talking about that product right we changed the packaging.   We we went from forty nine dollars at the low point of two hundred twenty four the package cost us. About can change and we do a professional design like a really beautiful gorgeous look great and and the imagery that we have is probably like in in that category well is probably one of the best. That’s how you you can do it now you can also you want to be. I’ll give you a great example. I’m told wart remover not a sexy product okay not a sexy product.  Guy contacted us and said I haven’t sold anything since I’ve been on Amazon well no there’s a reason why you got a brown bottle it’s powder blue you’ve got a yellow foot with a big war on it. You’re not going to sell anything it looks ugly so we change it we came out with a wellness product that was green with white and black it looks really sharp we put it into a micro corrugated box you had to open when you opened it not from like a talk box when you opened it it had a message on the inside there was two bottles there and the bottles went from brown to green.  Which looked a lot sharper and we spent money on some photography like we spent about a thousand dollars on the whole slide deck.  Okay the first month we put out the product, it was eight thousand dollars the second once was twenty three the third month was sixty six thousand dollars in the third month was our sorry op I think six months later we were over six figures in this product a month. We took the product from nine ninety nine to twenty three ninety nine. So we’re not dealing with brought bottom dwellers they’re all getting their pennies.   I think he was making seventy two thousand dollars a month profit at the end of the day.  And all that just by basically optimizing the images and the listing and and and the packaging right. His packaging I think was fifteen or twenty-five cents and that’s what I think it was, regardless twenty five cents let’s say by putting twenty five cents into the packaging we were able to get that now there’s other things you can do so especially like if you’re in supplements writer in something in consumables so let’s say it’s eight let’s say could be so when you put a safety seal on it like I if transparency let you know that nobody’s done anything with it or supplements you have the lead well what are some things you can do to stand out I like I know the pet supplements market really well and I can pretty much tell you I can go on to the page and tell you what manufacturer is changing is providing the seller.  By the way that the logo’s designer that labels are designed the bottles because nobody’s different I get like a if I go to one manufacturer they’re using their design team that knows one specific way of doing things so if I see dogs to the left the golden retrievers there you have it you know they’re using green and they’re using blue. I’m looking at it going okay and they’re using a specific type of bottle. Okay you’re no different than anybody else is selling the same sixteen ounce bottle you know white cap do something different and here’s a great example. Back in the day, S. M. A. is talking in the I think it was a SM they came up and they were talking about. Correct and it so happened to be dead sea mud the dead sea mud used to be able to go for sixteen ounces fifteen at fifty nine ninety nine after this everybody and his mother because they show it was in the dead sea mud and they ram the product down like the same guy doing fifty nine was twenty nine even dipped to twenty four competitors were coming in at nineteen ninety nine for sixteen now my client comes in and says I want to do that’s the money I see you’re crazy don’t do it it’s oversaturated I wonder does he might okay now I gotta figure out how he’s going to make money doing dead sea mud so we came out with a four ounce container. Okay so a quarter of the size. We had it not in plastic but it looked like it was a metal premium product. Right we sold it for twenty four ninety nine outselling the sixteen ninety eight sixteen ounce bottles I made a killing. Because we made it look hot like a higher value end because it was something that was reusable we made sure that the packaging that it went in was something that was while it was like getting an iPhone anticipation when you’re opening up the package.  I got to order this again and I’m gonna tell my friends about it.

Speaker 1: That’s a very motivating story, very cool cause we hear a lot from people say okay I was and it’s almost saturated and so hard to find a niche and orders them out but thanks so much well I’m definitely motivated so tell me like I said I’m not in the US well did see my business what is it good for like is it a mask or?

Speaker 2: Yeah so it mud but you can put on your face and it really helps with well you know disclaimer I am not saying that does this but it’s alright we’ve used it I’ve used it I’ve tested out my wife’s tested it out we love dead sea mud and it’s great for your skin that brings out like it helps with wrinkles it helps with I’m just rejuvenating and moisturizing your skin.

Speaker 1: Okay and then you put it back into this bottle right?

Speaker 2: No he continued to use it for you that you wash it off then you use it you wash it off you know. This is so a wife uses a one so like say once a week. That’s why that’s the beauty of it.

Speaker 1: Nice.

Speaker 2: I can give it to help out new users who are stuck finding products is find products that people are going after and I’ll give you some examples. One of the products that I’ve done really well with his church lights. Nobody buys your lives. Okay order everybody there’s a lot of people by check lights nobody’s going after chair glides so nothing I do is I just put it in a nice box seller for ten times more than anybody else and it’s a killing in the am I use I added to Amazon B. the B. so now instead of buying one pack okay distributors buying a hundred packs. It’s a nice I think it’s also less a way to kind of differentiate. 

Speaker 1: Yeah and people forget that you can negotiate contracts and preferred pricing for wholesalers and distributors right through seller central.

Speaker 2: You can specify basically can specify discounts. Four week bye bye and multiply to consider like starting with one hundred get out. At a cheaper price but what why is slick nobody by insured rights I mean I would expect that there are a lot of. What I mean nobody selling the number nobody don’t want why is nobody going after them right this is the right.  Known name. Unsexy.  Problem like another. Well it’s good now really good now but like. We also do wipes like for your cellphone.  And well anti bacterial the crown of viruses happening right now. It’s going crazy but even prior to that. We have a high quality white that you know it’s it’s great in the market place is a ton of people now on it but when we first got into the market there was very few people. Well I just look at you know the products that people tell wart remover why was that so successful.  It was because there was all these other people they were all in brown bottles that made it look like a medicine that weren’t selling wellness and natural and we took that in and we blew it up I mean it was it was because of the way we created the brand in the marketing around it look what people liked it and.

Speaker 0: Well they did you want to go into a drug store and say Hey I got towards help now.  If you can get in a brown bag from Amazon. Those are the type of things if you can go through and think of what don’t.  I want to go into a drug store and buy or go into a grocery store or a hardware store.  Those are some really great spots to start sourcing.

Speaker 1: Cool. Very nice so Norman thanks so much I’m a really really motivated and I hope that we can now have you on the show again and talk football team just six years Jeez.

Speaker 2: If this topic to me I mean you can say a few words about this so.

Speaker 1: What’s so special about logistics?

Speaker 2: Well what’s so special about our they would they would get about your lives. I’ve been in sourcing and logistics. Since the nineties. So I’m I’m the old guy. But I teamed up and this is one thing Hey going to events listening to podcasts it’s so important I love going to events because you get to meet people so I met this one gentleman at an event and he was talking to me about sourcing and I was like oh gosh no no I I don’t need sourcing to do it myself family business. Now I do it differently.  So he sat down and I said okay it we started talking to me by the time he finished my mouth was you know my mouth dropped so we decided to team up and form a business so he took sourcing and logistics to whole other level. Like basically and this is what I talk to you we’re gonna come on and talk about things you’re sourcing agent will never tell you and like for example we just talked with a fairly large company that you would know hello industry and they thought that they were dealing directly with the manufacture they weren’t dealing directly with the manufacture they weren’t getting the same prices because they were going soon as you talk English to a manufacturer your price goes up.  Unfortunate but soon as you talk English.  There’s other things like dealing in the American dollar they’re gonna head yet and you’re gonna pay more for it so you want to deal in RMB will how do you do that you know so there’s ways of of doing that in setting up an account to do with it there’s ways of setting up ways to talk you know getting an agent that’s dealing on your behalf when they’re sending the samples having an address in China there’s all sorts of different ways of doing it then on the logistics side.

Speaker 0: We’re basically leveraging two and a half almost two hundred thousand containers so we’re getting prices on two hundred thousand containers when others are getting. Twenty thirty containers. Yes so it’s a we just help like this one guy almost cut its costs by fifty almost sixty percent. Because you’re doing it wrong and the other thing is negotiating so our team will go and negotiate which is one thing that  we did of. And this just it just happened and. Coronavirus who would have thought something like this would happen we’re supposed to be getting our product in products only gonna come in next month’s now possibly so. We negotiated that from now on. We get the twenty five hundred units that we need that they have printed and ready twenty five hundred units for us we pay thirty percent up front we pay ninety days after it arrives can not and will be with me never path will be by the way I like we never we never let sorry I shouldn’t say that we never let the manufacturer handle the shipping for ever. You’re just throwing money out the window so anyways we will keep another twenty five hundred and stock. And the we don’t pay anything for it once we pick it. They ship it we pay them ninety days this saves I forget how much money but it was a significant amount just in cash flow so having people negotiate in. Like in China. Chinese. We were able to save a lot of money so these people and I love it I was telling you before we got on. You know I am an eight figure seller I am a nine figure company we do channel the time we’re coming back and we’re killing it like we’re just you know we’re saying I know we save you ten percent here or we save you this much over here and they can’t believe it they think that they’ve been you know getting the best price but.  And again. It wasn’t for an event I want to I would never have known about these techniques so we’re going to put something together and I’ll send it over to you about things that you can do to help save some money.

Speaker 1: Very cool so look guys please comment below and press like button if you want to see another episode with Norman, we talked about logistics and sourcing ninja tactics how the state bar real cash. And they will ask Norman to come again and share more with us. 

Speaker 2: I hope people wanna hear about sourcing logistics and be great.

Speaker 1: I am sure if it’s in order to get the invitation then why wouldn’t they right.  So thanks so much again it was a pleasure talking to you and yeah  I wish you all the best in your businesses and hope to have you again on the show.

Speaker 2: I see well thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: Thanks Norman bye bye.

Speaker 1: Thanks so much for watching guys if you like this then please press the like button and subscribe to our channel we’re posting these videos regularly and I’d love to know what you think please comment this video and give us some feedback and if you know or if you have somebody who you’d like to see on the show let us know and we will invite them or maybe you want to come on join us and tell your stories please write us. Thanks again and I’ll see in a couple weeks bye bye!