Marketing Experts Reveal Top Strategies To

Arlen Robinson ([00:02].828)
Welcome to the e-commerce marketing podcast, everyone. My name is Arlen and I am your host. And today we’ve got a very special guest, Francisco Valadez, who has spent most of his career as an entrepreneur involved in retail, wholesale, and private label projects. He has led companies from humble beginnings to successful acquisitions. Francisco got his start in eCommerce as part of a shoe company that sells through brick-and-mortar retail, department stores, and its own website. Most recently, Francisco fell down the Amazon rabbit hole while helping a company set up their own Amazon business. From that day on, Francisco has been 100% focused on Amazon retail. He has ample experience in Seller Central, and has proven his understanding of successful strategies to grow a brand’s online retail presence. Welcome to the podcast, Francisco.

Francisco Valadez ([00:22].231)
Thanks so much, Arlen. It’s a pleasure to join you and your audience here.

Arlen Robinson ([00:27].22)
Yeah. And thank you for joining us. Yeah. This is actually, you’re the second person from the company, my Amazon guy that has joined us. I believe your founder was on the podcast several years ago, two or three years ago. Yeah. Believe it or not. Yeah. He, before the podcast, he sent me a my Amazon guy shirt, a t-shirt. And yeah, whenever I wear it, if I’m out in the bout or whatever, and I wear that shirt, people are always asking, what is that? It always catches people’s eye. So you guys have a,

Definitely a distinctive brand name for sure.
Francisco Valadez ([01:00].435)

Yeah, I believe Steven was in your podcast and the story behind that name, I think he shared that with you. If not, I’ll just take a minute. Uh, when Steven started, uh, consulting, uh, with Amazon, um, brands and businesses, uh, there was no name for the company. And, um, the, Steven was asking like, how would I, why, how should I call my company? What’s a easy, quick way to.

um, make an impression and his wife said, how do they refer to you? And he, Stephen said, well, they just refer to me as their Amazon guy. And that’s how we started with the name. And five years later, this is our five year anniversary T-shirt, uh, from 2023. We are now at 450 employees, um, 400 and so brands and growing and growing and making an impact in the space. So.

Arlen Robinson ([01:34].872)
Mm.

Arlen Robinson ([01:39].193)
Okay. Okay.

Arlen Robinson ([01:57].545)
Okay.

Francisco Valadez ([02:00].058)
I’m super proud to be part of the company.

Arlen Robinson ([02:02].12)
Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah. Great story. I like that. My Amazon guy. Cause you know, a lot of times when you’re dealing with, you know, tech people or, you know, anybody kind of in this, uh, yeah, I guess in the tech space, you know, some people will say, okay, that’s my, my server guy or my network guy or my, um, my software guy and that map. My Amazon guy is nice to kind of go along in that same vein. So, uh, yeah, good stuff. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.

Francisco Valadez ([02:25].928)
Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([02:28].664)
But yeah, I’m super excited to talk to you today. Of course, your guys bread and butter is Amazon. So we’re gonna be talking about the Amazon click-through rate, why it’s important to try to optimize that. What are some best practices and what are some, click-through rate CTR hacks that a brand can utilize in order to be effective on the Amazon platform. So that’s what we’re gonna be talking about. And I’m super excited to dig deep into that. But before we do get into all of that.

Why don’t you tell us a little bit more about your background and, you know, specifically how you got into what you’re doing today.

Francisco Valadez ([03:03].159)
Sure, I’ll be delighted to do so. So I’ve been doing e-commerce for about 12 years involved some way or another with e-commerce, selling in own branded websites, Shopify stores, direct to consumer, or doing some kind of retail, wholesale.

Whatever the name is, I’ve tried it and I’ve done it. So funny story here is I started to get more into the data side of things about five years ago, just trying to get a grasp on how data from the e-commerce world can be aggregated and start producing good insights to make better decisions and obviously grow brands.

and taking branch to the next level. So one of those areas that I started to dabble with about four years ago was Amazon. And Amazon, the minute I started trying to create products and understanding Seller Central, I got hooked. That’s the truth. I got hooked and then one thing led to another. So I started to have problems with Amazon as you know.

Arlen Robinson ([04:20].891)
Hmm. Hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([04:30].179)
You and your audience might be aware Amazon gives everybody a hard time. Always there’s nothing easy. And Steven has this great quote that Amazon is not passive income. Because there’s a lot of people that think, oh, I’ll just put out an Amazon store and it’s going to be running automatically. Right. And that’s not the truth. There’s a lot of things to do, especially as the marketplace is growing, adding more features, adding more.

Arlen Robinson ([04:36].438)
Right. Right. Mm.

Arlen Robinson ([04:48].736)
Yep, yep.

Francisco Valadez ([04:59].439)
sellers, it’s always more challenging to make a difference and get market share. So I wanted to get proficient in my skills and I joined a webinar from a company named Smart Scout and Steven Pope was the founder. And the reason I joined that webinar three years ago was because I was following Steven on YouTube. My Amazon guy has

Arlen Robinson ([05:05].27)
Yeah.

Francisco Valadez ([05:27].623)
I think close to 2000 or so videos where every single problem that we find out, we put a video on how to solve it. So we are essentially an educational company where we give out everything that we have in terms of knowledge in the Amazon space and we empower the seller. So you can try to fix whatever catalog problem, PPC, troubleshooting.

and conversion, which is why we’re talking today. But I joined the webinar in early January of 2021 because Steven was the speaker there and it was a pretty cool webinar. At the end of the session, he said, hey, I’m going to ask a question. First person who answers correctly is going to get a prize. So he answered a question. He asked a question with what, which was

Arlen Robinson ([05:58].153)
Hmm. Okay.

Francisco Valadez ([06:25].099)
how many characters are allowed in the alt text for A plus content images. So I reply very quickly, 100, and I want a coaching call with him. And that was a pretty cool thing for me because back then his coaching calls, when he did them were like 300 bucks for half an hour. So it’s a lot of money. And nevertheless, I was super excited because

Arlen Robinson ([06:31].768)
Mm-hmm. Okay.

Arlen Robinson ([06:45].856)
Wow.

Francisco Valadez ([06:52].923)
I was talking to Steven Pope and I was going to show my listing and my account. And so we got a few days later in the coaching call, we got things fixed, like in seven minutes. And, um, it was pretty cool because Steven was telling me what to action the account, we got it done and Steven said like, Hey, well, you got me for 23 more minutes, what do you want to talk about? So we started talking about Amazon. We started talking about the future on.

Arlen Robinson ([07:05].452)
Wow. Okay.

Arlen Robinson ([07:18].136)
Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([07:23].807)
how the space was going to be evolving, challenges, but most importantly, how I wanted to hear him out how I could get better at my Amazon game. And by the end of the call, he said, hey, what you really need is to work for an agency that’s going to teach you and help you understand and learn more about Amazon. And he offered me a job, got an interview the next day.

And fast forward almost three years later, now I’m the VP of brand management operations, overseeing the brand management team and ensuring that we have more structure and that we provide better service to our clients. So it’s kind of a long monologue here, but it’s a pretty cool story to tell because oddly enough, the other

Arlen Robinson ([08:03].178)
Mm-hmm. Okay.

Francisco Valadez ([08:20].999)
leadership team in my Amazon guy join in a similar fashion. So we all started at the Lower level of entry in the company and the company is very focused on recognizing value and hard work and results so The pp of finance bp of client success everyone myself. We all came from the

Arlen Robinson ([08:25].975)
Mm-hmm.

Arlen Robinson ([08:42].238)
Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([08:51].967)
entry-level position in the company and we’ve been able to grow. So that’s my story and that’s how you and I came about to get in touch, Arlen.

Arlen Robinson ([09:03].28)
Awesome, awesome, Francisco. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, that’s quite a story. So it’s like, you went from attending a conference and I guess it was just kind of destined to happen, your position there. You happened to answer that question. You won the free call, coaching call with Steven, and then the rest is history. He kind of saw something in you and then offered you the.

Francisco Valadez ([09:21].239)
coaching call.

Arlen Robinson ([09:29].172)
position and opportunity to apply for the position at the company and then, you know, kind of went from there. So, uh, yeah, that’s, uh, that’s, that’s some awesome stuff. And, um, yeah, it’s, it’s good to know that, you know, you and I know many others that are of course working at, at the company, uh, you know, are Amazon sellers or, you know, either were or still are. And so you’re, I guess you could say eating your own dog food, so to speak, which is a,

You know, one of the things we toss around in our industry these days is so you’re kind of practicing what you preach, which is which is good.

Francisco Valadez ([10:02].575)
And it’s important because we understand our clients. We understand pain points. We understand frustrations because we go through them ourselves. And our Steven has a house brand named Age of Sage. You can watch many YouTube videos about it. And it’s rough. Even Steven, like we tell our clients, even Steven’s account

Arlen Robinson ([10:07].094)
Yeah.

Francisco Valadez ([10:31].775)
major issue from time to time that we need to fix, we learn, and then we try to do better job for our clients. So yeah, super important to know the perspective of our clients.

Arlen Robinson ([10:40].34)
Yeah, yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([10:46].748)
Yeah, yeah, that’s good to know. It’s always a good thing. Well, you know, where I want to kind of start off with our discussion is, because of course, if we’re talking about click through rate on Amazon, if you can start explaining, you know, really, how does the click through rate impact just a product’s visibility and the sales performance on the on the platform, because I think that’s one of the first questions people ask is, you know, why is it that important?

Francisco Valadez ([11:09].367)
Sure. So there’s another good sound by that says when was the last, when was the best time to start selling on Amazon? And we tend to say eight years ago and today. And the reason we say that is Amazon is, in our opinion, the best marketplace and just the greatest opportunity for new brands and established brands

Arlen Robinson ([11:22].471)
Right.

Francisco Valadez ([11:38].847)
have access to their audience, their customer base, and it’s now necessary. It’s almost, uh, intrinsical for new brands to have an Amazon store and Amazon listing, because if they don’t have it, there’s going to be somebody else selling your products. Um, that being said, the amount of sellers that have been joining Amazon and selling stuff is growing and growing and growing and growing exponentially. We, you, you can find pretty much everything on Amazon.

Arlen Robinson ([12:04].864)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([12:08].951)
There’s very few things that you won’t find. And for the most, for most of the times, the market is going to be saturated. There’s a lot of talk about finding that niche product where there’s this big opportunity and there’s not too many sellers that product, but not a lot of reviews, but the reality is that every time it’s harder to find that if there’s still any good opportunity. So. We need to.

Arlen Robinson ([12:35].137)
Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([12:38].123)
do a better job as brands to get market share. And market share starts with the visibility of the product and the engagement that you have with your audience. So click through rate is a very important metric because especially in 2023, where the market is more saturated and you have more options to buy from. If you pick a microphone, go to Amazon and you’re gonna have

Arlen Robinson ([12:49].854)
Hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([13:06].635)
Thousands and thousands and thousands of options the more you narrow down your search. They’re gonna be more specific But still you have a ton of options where to choose from so You want to make sure that first element that you have with your? Potential customer which is the main image Is as best as it can be and it? Pops out from the rest of the results, so that’s where you

Arlen Robinson ([13:09].559)
Mm-hmm.

Arlen Robinson ([13:12].792)
Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([13:16].103)
Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([13:32].672)
Yeah.

Francisco Valadez ([13:35].219)
That’s what we will focus on and that’s why we think CTR is so important because if somebody is behind and somebody comes with new images that are more appealing and get more engagement, at the end of the day, more traffic, more conversion, more sales.

Arlen Robinson ([13:45].304)
Mm-hmm.

Arlen Robinson ([13:52].188)
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. You know, I’m a I’m a huge advocate. Amazon purchaser, I guess you could say. Yeah, if you look at my recycle bin, it’s nothing but Amazon boxes. So, you know, it’s you know, because you just you just can’t beat the whole. Like you said, there’s not much that’s not on Amazon. So it’s like anything that you think of any little niche product that you may think is not there at nine times out of 10, it is there. So.

Francisco Valadez ([13:59].079)

Yeah, so am I.

Francisco Valadez ([14:07].455)

Yeah, I hear you.

Arlen Robinson ([14:20].884)

You just can’t beat that convenience. And it gives people the ability to get things they need without having to go out, spend gas, there’s money on gas, spend time looking for things. So yeah, and like you said, from eight years ago, of course, the catalog on Amazon is huge. And so if you’re a brand on there, you’re amongst millions and millions of other.

products there and so you got to stand out and of course you mentioned the first thing that people see when you’re doing a search a keyword search is the product image and of course that that’s very important that definitely stands out and I know that’s the best practice to optimize that you’re gonna tell us a little bit more about that I know in our discussion what are some other best practices to optimize the click-through rate on Amazon

Francisco Valadez ([15:06].295
Sure. So the main image has to speak to the features of the product as much as, or the offer as much as possible and also the senses to connect with the potential customer. Quick example. So you have a protein powder that is chocolate flavored and that protein powder

is probably with the recommended dosage or usage is going to last 30, let’s say 60 days, right? But the main image is only showing the product packaging. Well, not actually the packaging, but the bottle itself or just the tub of the protein powder and just the label. That’s Amazon compliant. However, we’ve seen in recently that Amazon is

Arlen Robinson ([15:59].704)
Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([16:03].531)
allowing more creative, so to speak, main images where you can add little touches that can tell the customer more about what the product is about. So in this case, adding a batch that says, hey, this is a 60-day supply product, right? So now the customer can look at the actual product and say, okay, that’s going to last me for two months.

Arlen Robinson ([16:15].756)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Arlen Robinson ([16:31].553)
Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([16:32].155)
And then if you add a little, if it’s a chocolate flavor product, you add some chocolate bars somehow in the back with some powder to waken up the senses. Then the chocolate flavor is more easy to connect with and recognize. So now you have two elements that you didn’t have before and are telling more about the product in one single image. Lastly.

Arlen Robinson ([16:50].368)
Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([16:59].061)
Yeah.

Francisco Valadez ([17:00].743)
which is one of the most, I think, on the utilized mentions in the main images for US-made product. If it’s manufactured in the US, you put that in the main image with a small batch, small callout, and that makes a difference as well. So now we went from having a single image like this one here.

Arlen Robinson ([17:11].724)
Mm-hmm.

Arlen Robinson ([17:20].739)
Mm.

Arlen Robinson ([17:26].999)
Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([17:27].319)
to something that tells you more about the product, wakes up your senses in the sense of the texture, the smell, and tells you where it’s from. So now you got more information from one image. That has proven to be more appealing and generate more interest than a regular image. So that’s why…

Arlen Robinson ([17:45].889)
Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([17:53].932)
Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([17:56].243)
CTR is important because that change and that engagement is going to make your advertising efforts more efficient. Sometimes the main image is terrible. You’re spending money, you’re spending money, you got traffic, but they’re not converting because the main image might not be appealing enough and not

Arlen Robinson ([18:08].236)
Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([18:24].171)
good enough for your audience. And I wanna take a minute here. Everything has to do with your customer persona. So you have to look at the data, look at the search query report to see what are the keywords that your customers are more relevant for. And using those keywords, you can start crafting your image.

Arlen Robinson ([18:25].076)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([18:35].453)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([18:53].643)
so you can connect better to them. So the better engagement, the more relevancy and ultimately it’s gonna draw more sales.

Arlen Robinson ([18:55].634)
Mm-hmm.

Arlen Robinson ([19:04].704)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, all of that is really powerful information and everything that you were saying down from, you know, when you were describing, improving the product images, adding those additional elements to it to be more attractive and to improve the click-through rate. It’s like all of those things are, you know, if you don’t have the education and you don’t know that Amazon is allowing you to do these things, then you’re gonna be behind.

You know, you’re going to be behind all of the other sellers that are kind of up on all of these changes. So that’s how I can quickly see that. Yeah, it’s it takes a lot. And that’s why I know dealing with brands like yours that are helping, you know, companies like yours that are helping brands kind of navigate through these things is essential. It’s essential that you get the right information and definitely get with the resources that are providing timely information because these things are changing all the time. And you got

Francisco Valadez ([20:01].879)
They’re always changing.

Arlen Robinson ([20:02].824)
Yeah, you gotta be on top of it. Now, the click through rate of course is important when somebody is doing that initial search. You’ve got a nice product image, you’ve added those additional elements like you said, and you’re getting the traffic through to your site. But of course the bottom line is the conversion rate. Everybody’s concerned about, is that person gonna purchase, I’ve got them to my listing page. So how does the improving that click through rate really correlate to?

the conversion rate and you know is there any point where focusing on the conversion the click through rate doesn’t translate into higher sales.

Francisco Valadez ([20:40].639)
Yeah, so that’s a great question. Conversion rate depends on other factors that are not exactly the main image only. First factor would be pricing. You can have the best main image in the world, but if your competitors are at $20 and you’re trying to sell the same thing at $100, then that’s going to be a problem. So number two, are you?

Arlen Robinson ([20:49].215)
Mm-hmm.

Arlen Robinson ([21:01].982)
Yeah.

Francisco Valadez ([21:06].759)
advertising, are you reaching your relevant audience? There’s a mistake where new sellers try to just get as much traffic from the keywords that have more search volume in the category, and that could be a potential waste of money because that doesn’t necessarily mean that your product is going to be relevant for that term. So.

That’s going to be in the advertising efforts and the SEO efforts. Going back to CTR, what we want to do is provide as much information and relevancy in the main image for your relevant audience. So that person that clicks in that image follows through the purchase. So yes, there might be instances where it doesn’t necessarily correlate to sales, but what we’ve seen in this year

is that the better image that you have and the more features, the more information you give out from your product in the main image is gonna yield better results all over.

Arlen Robinson ([22:16].16)
Yeah, yeah, I get that. Yeah, that makes sense. It’s because you like you said, there’s of course, there’s other factors like, yeah, how were you pricing up against your competitors? So you know, because obviously, you know, most cases when people are purchasing something, especially on Amazon, they’re not just doing a keyword search, they pull up a product, they see one listing click on that they immediately buy. I mean, of course, that happens. But you’re nine times out of 10.

they’re comparing things. They’re looking at one brand’s product and then they’re looking at another. They’re looking at the pricing, they’re looking at the reviews, they’re looking at the product description, all of that. And then they’re making a decision based on that. So yeah, those factors definitely come into play. I think the competitive aspect of how your listing is presented, I think really comes into play as to how you’re going to convert those users once.

you’ve optimized your click through it, you’ve got them on your listing page, then all right, what is, what’s going to be that? What are you going to do to set yourself apart? I guess you could say from, you know, there’s other competitive brands. And so I think that’s, that’s where it comes into play.

Francisco Valadez ([23:26].339)
And Arlen, I think this is a great time to show you an example and the audience, if I may. This is a great visual representation of what I’m talking about. So let me share my screen. This is a, which by the way, we have our CTR guru at my Amazon guide, John Aspinal. Shout out to you, John. You can follow him in LinkedIn. He’s always providing very, very

Arlen Robinson ([23:29].5)
Okay. Sure, sure. I can show you.

Arlen Robinson ([23:38].768)
Okay, great.

Francisco Valadez ([23:56].319)
valuable hacks in LinkedIn and This is actually something From his team So this is bio die degradable golf balls, right? You have the image you have The ball the golf balls there and now how can we take this to the next level? How can we?

Francisco Valadez ([24:22].347)
Provide more information to our relevant customers and make sure that split second that we have can be of more value to our brand. So this is an example we did. We didn’t change the packaging, we just did some upgrades, but we’re now showing with a larger font what the product is about, how many balls.

Arlen Robinson ([24:42].444)
Huh? Okay.

Arlen Robinson ([24:51].201)
Hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([24:52].419)
We are putting some green themes there and the water droplets there as well, but especially just making the emphasis that this is bio degradable, and that is a 24 pack here. So if we go back to the original listing, which is a little bit dry, to some extent, we make some improvements here.

Arlen Robinson ([25:00].109)
Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([25:05].88)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Arlen Robinson ([25:16].684)
Yeah.

Francisco Valadez ([25:22].212)
This is what it’s all about. Just having more information, more color popping, and grasping that attention from the client customer.

Arlen Robinson ([25:24].011)
Okay.

Arlen Robinson ([25:31].848)
Yeah, that’s good. Yeah, that does make a big difference just from looking at that. Yeah, a huge difference.

Francisco Valadez ([25:39].763)
And I’ll give you another example quickly. This is our house brand, Age of Sage, and we sell cold pressed soaps. The key here is to always test. It’s not about me thinking or you thinking that the image is better. It’s about getting data and getting real information of what appeals more to the customer and what produces more sales. So this is our…

current image for this product. It’s a four pack, different aromas. And as you can see here and your audience can see here is… Oh, I’m…

Arlen Robinson ([26:19].432)
Yeah, actually, I’m still seeing the golf balls. I don’t know if it switched.

Francisco Valadez ([26:23].74)
It’s yeah. Here we go.

Arlen Robinson ([26:30].975)
Okay, great.

Francisco Valadez ([26:32].235)
So this is our listing. It’s a very successful product, but nevertheless we’re always testing for new improvements in the image, something that can generate more sales. So here we have some fruit elements that address the fragrance of the soap and give the customer a better idea of what

Arlen Robinson ([26:46].072)
Hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([27:02].52)
that soap is about. And not only that, we also include a few images here of the complete soap. So we could have just…

Arlen Robinson ([27:03].734)
Mm-hmm.

Arlen Robinson ([27:08].704)
Hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([27:13].067)
Got the product, the Amazon compliant, but by testing, testing. And by the way, one of the coolest hacks we use, and we strongly recommend that all Amazon sellers use, is A-B testing for brand register brands. So A-B testing, it’s a great tool where you can measure and tweak. We always recommend it to always be A-B testing, always. You make small changes and you get data.

Arlen Robinson ([27:38].573)
Hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([27:42].419)
and you make better decisions and you improve. Or you can roll back decisions you made that doesn’t necessarily improve your account. So this is just a quick example, always be testing and as hacks include what the product is about, appeal the census. And if there’s a good piece of information where

Arlen Robinson ([27:43].873)
Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([27:52].032)
Yeah, yeah.

Francisco Valadez ([28:12].155)
the protein shake I mentioned last 60 days or it’s a 90-day supply for supplements, for instance, capsules and soft shields and all that. Always try to do that. Or grill, how much can a, like, if 22, 25, 100 pounds is the max load for a machine or a grill, make sure you add something like that. And that’s how we improve images.

Arlen Robinson ([28:24].777)
Mm-hmm.

Arlen Robinson ([28:35].5)
Hmm. Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([28:41].148)
Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. The visuals help because you can definitely see the before and after, and it makes sense on those tweaks of how you can change things up. And those changes, of course, improve the CTR, click through rate, and then, of course, at the end of the day, the conversions, which is the bottom line. And it’s clear to see how that can happen.

Well, you know, as we get ready to wrap things up, this is kind of in relation to the, what you talked about ABT, always be testing and, you know, constantly be testing. And I think that’s very important because Amazon, as we know, and you’ve discussed before, is always changing their algorithm, you know? And so how does a seller adapt, you know, their strategies to maintain or improve their CTR?

you know, in light of these ever changing changes to their algorithm, how do you stay, how do you stay abreast of their

Francisco Valadez ([29:43].607)
I think you just mentioned this Arlen and it’s testing. You have to test, you have to be on top of the new tools. Amazon has been testing the many different search results displays, display in the past months, where usually before we just saw one image, right? And now you can see the image and the brand or the keyword bolded in the title of your search results. So that’s another test then.

Arlen Robinson ([29:47].828)
Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([30:06].04)
Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([30:12].767)
We have some images that the first thing you see is a video and not only the main image. So bottom line here is Amazon is not a set it and forget it. Be aware of the news, be aware of the new features and the new tools and always look at the data and test, test main image, test SEO, test different keywords, search trends, change very frequently.

Arlen Robinson ([30:16].824)
Hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([30:43].127)
And it’s category dependent, but there’s always new trends, new keywords that are exploding in search volume. So you have to be on top of that.

Arlen Robinson ([30:52].316)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. It’s, you know, of course with the testing, that I think goes across any type of marketing that you’re doing. You have to always test and then change things based on the results. I think that’s really a main component of marketing. With.

Amazon and you know, like we said, the algorithm, you’re always kind of staying abreast of everything and it’s, you just kind of reiterated the fact that, uh, like you said, it’s not a set it and forget it. And I think a lot of times as I talked to e-commerce, uh, store owners all the time and you know, they’re doing a million things. And so they can tend to fall on, especially with these platforms. Cause you know, you can easily get in there. You can add your products, you can create your listings or you can create your ad campaigns and you know,

you can’t almost get the feel that already I’m done now, you know, I’ve got this, it’s added there, I’m done, I can just sit back and you know, the sales are gonna roll through. So I know a lot of times sellers have the tendency to wanna do that, but that’s not the case, you can’t, because you’re gonna be left behind, you know, your listings are gonna report click through rate and then of course, ultimately, you just won’t get the sales that you need for it. So yeah, I think it’s just.

It’s so important to stay on top of things and to be testing and to be able to pivot and switch when you need to. Yeah.

Francisco Valadez ([32:17].239)
Correct. So it’s testing, staying on top of the changes, and always be on the lookout for what speaks more to your client, to your customer, and what at the end of the day translates to more sales. That’s what we’re here for.

Arlen Robinson ([32:25].94)
Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([32:32].596)
Yeah, for sure, for sure. That’s the bottom line. Well, that’s a great to end on that, Francisco. Thank you for sharing everything that you did. This is an awesome conversation. I was gonna go far with all of our Amazon sellers that are listening and our viewers as well. And thank you for sharing those examples because I think those definitely really hit home. So if any of our listeners are just listening to the audio version, if you check out our YouTube channel, you’ll be able to see the visuals of those examples that Francisco pointed out. You know, if you just go to youtube.com.

at eCommerce Marketing Podcast is our handle on YouTube. So you can check us out there. But lastly, before we do let you go, Francisco, I always like to switch gears at the very end here so our audience, viewers and listeners can get to know you a little bit better. If you don’t mind sharing one closing fun fact about yourself that you think we’d be interested to know.

Francisco Valadez ([33:22].343)
Oh sure, that’s easy. And I think my background is a little bit telling here. So I’m an avid vinyl record collector. I’ve been collecting vinyl for, I would say, 15 years, more or less. And I’m proud to say that I have about 3000 vinyl records. I have, half of my collection is classical music. The other half is…

Arlen Robinson ([33:31].858)
Okay.

Arlen Robinson ([33:39].056)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Francisco Valadez ([33:50].283)
divided between jazz and basically everything, but rock, rock and roll and pop music. So I have a little bit of everything and one fun challenge is when I have meetings like this one, is to ask for your favorite band and hopefully I’ll get a vinyl record here. But that’s a fun fact. I haven’t been collecting since my daughters were born.

Arlen Robinson ([34:00].209)
Okay, awesome.

Arlen Robinson ([34:06].025)
Okay.

Arlen Robinson ([34:19].728)
Okay. Sure, sure.

Francisco Valadez ([34:20].02)
and it’s just lack of time, but it’s a passion I have.

Arlen Robinson ([34:25].04)
Okay, that’s awesome. Good stuff. Yeah. And I can definitely see, I was wondering where those books or, but they did look like records. Oh, I didn’t know for sure. But yeah, that’s good stuff. He actually just had this conversation with my brother. His a good friend of him. His is now into getting vinyl records of kind of some old classic albums that he was into back in the day. And, um, yeah, pointed out the fact that as far as sound quality, if you’re listening to a vinyl record versus, uh, something streaming on let’s say Spotify or Apple music,

It’s a big difference. There’s a lot of things that are lost when you’re listening just via streaming. Audio components, you don’t really get the full sound of it. So I know it’s one of the better ways to listen to audio, especially if you’re an audio file and you’re really concerned about listening to really good quality music. So yeah, good stuff.

Francisco Valadez ([35:21].947)
Yeah, I love it. I love it. I love the analog experience. I love having a physical item where there’s the music there and vinyl records are like even like smell, like some certain smell that you remember, hey, I was there and or that person

Arlen Robinson ([35:28].546)
Mm-hmm.

Francisco Valadez ([35:51].767)
Cologne or perfume, vinyl records are a little bit the same. You remember when you got him, who, if it was a gift, who got it for you. And you travel back in time, so to speak. But at the end of the day, it’s about the music, the experience. And don’t get me wrong. I love Spotify. I love podcasts. I love streaming, but the vinyl record experience is great.

Arlen Robinson ([35:53].423)
Hmm? Yeah. Hmm?

Arlen Robinson ([36:03].264)
Yeah.

Arlen Robinson ([36:14].596)
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, yeah, thank you for sharing that, Francisco. I appreciate that. Lastly, before we do let you go, what would be the best way for our listeners and viewers to contact you if they wanna pick your brain anymore regarding the Amazon click-through rate or just all things Amazon?

Francisco Valadez ([36:30].899)
Yeah, for sure. You can search me in LinkedIn. I’m very… I’m basically active in LinkedIn. Just search Francisco Valadez Amazon and you’ll see my LinkedIn profile there. You can be on the lookout for my Amazon guy YouTube channel. I have you videos from time to time. The website, obviously, which, by the way, we…

Arlen Robinson ([36:34].752)
Okay.

Francisco Valadez ([36:59].795)
We’re hiring we’re hiring people we’re hiring brand managers and My email is the quickest way to get to me Francisco at my Amazon guy calm so questions or questions about joining the team Feel free to reach out to me or look at the website we are in a constant mission to hire people and educate more people about the Amazon space and Grow grow our

Arlen Robinson ([37:11].177)
Okay.

Francisco Valadez ([37:29].043)
our impact in the e-commerce community.

Arlen Robinson ([37:33].72)
Okay, awesome. Well, that’s great to know. We’ll definitely have the direct link to my Amazon guy, of course, in the show notes so people can check out what you guys have to offer. Definitely encourage people to look you guys up on YouTube, check out your YouTube channel and see all the resources that you provide. And then of course, you know, if anybody is looking for a job, that’s good to know. So thank you for sharing that as well. They can connect with you either on LinkedIn or send you an email and see what you guys can work out.

Well, again, thank you, Francisco. It’s been an awesome conversation. We really appreciate having you on the e-commerce marketing podcast.

Francisco Valadez ([38:06].987)
Thanks so much for the invitation Arlen, anytime. Super happy to be here.

Arlen Robinson ([38:10].496)
Right. No problem. You’re welcome.

Podcast Guest Info

Francisco Valadez
VP of Brand Management operations at My Amazon Guy