How to Sell More with the Amazon Influencer Program

Influencer marketing is all the rage in the world of B2C (business-to-consumer) products. And Amazon’s gotten in on the game with their Amazon Influencer Program. For Amazon sellers, this program could offer a good opportunity to reach a new audience for your products and increase sales as a result.

But first, you have to understand what it is and how it all works.

How the Amazon Influencer Program Works

The Amazon Influencer Program is one part of the company’s Amazon Associates program. An influencer can be loosely defined as anyone with a sizable social media following. Amazon’s program provides them with a way to make some extra money by recommending products they like to their audience.

An Amazon influencer can build a page on the site that they fill with products they like and think their followers will appreciate as well. They can create a custom URL for the page that they promote across their main channels. Then they get a percentage of every sale made through the page.

An Amazon influencer can build a page on the site that they fill with products they like and think their followers will appreciate as well.

Notably, that percentage comes out of Amazon's pocket, not yours. You don’t pay anything unless you work out a deal directly with an influencer in order to be included on their page.

Why Does the Amazon Influencer Program Matter to Sellers?

Social proof plays a big role in the purchasing decisions consumers make. Seeing what other customers think about a product has a bigger influence than hearing what the brand has to say. On the Amazon marketplace, sellers see social proof at work in the power of reviews.

Influencer marketing employs the same idea. Influencers have a big audience of followers that care about what they think. They’ve taken time to build trust with their followers, which means their recommendation holds more weight than it would coming from someone unknown.

When an influencer recommends your product, they bring awareness of it to a larger audience. And the trust they’ve worked to earn gets transferred to your product and brand. That translates to more sales.

How Can I Get Amazon Influencers to Promote My Products?

Getting featured by an Amazon influencer is undoubtedly good for your brand. So, how do you make it happen? Ultimately, it’s up to the influencer whether or not they want to mention your products. But you can take some steps to increase the chances of showing up on an influencer’s Amazon page.

Step 1: Make sure your seller reputation is stellar.

No influencer will want to risk their reputation by promoting a product that is low quality, slow to ship, or difficult to return. In order for them to consider including you on their page, you need to prove you’re reliable. Make sure you have a positive seller reputation and strong reviews.

If you’re not there yet, that’s a better place to focus your efforts than jumping straight to influencers. Work on getting more reviews and fulfilling more orders successfully to start. Then once you’re confident your reputation is impressive, move on to the next steps.

Step 2: Research relevant influencers.

Chances are, your products aren’t for everybody. You have a specific audience that’s most likely to be interested in what you sell. For the efforts you put into working with Amazon influencers to be worth it, you need to identify the right influencers for your brand.

Spend some time researching who your audience trusts and cares about. One trick for figuring this out is to look at who follows you, and then go see who they’re following. If you notice the same name coming up again and again, you’ve found a relevant influencer.

Look at the influencer’s feeds to see if they mention products already. Check to see if they already have an Amazon page. These will be the easiest people to pitch and work with because they’re already a part of the Amazon Influencer Program and have a process in place for promoting products to their audience.

Step 3: Reach out to them.

Now get in touch with your pitch. Make sure to focus on what’s in it for them. Why would this person want to promote your product? What benefit would it provide to their brand and audience?

Aim to work with influencers who genuinely like your product and aren't doing it only for the money.

In a lot of cases, the best way to make it worth their while will be to provide them with a free product. That way they get something for free, plus they know the product they’re promoting and can talk about it authentically.

Once you set up an affiliate program, you can come up with an attractive incentive and then recruit specific influencers to promote your brand."
-Arlen Robinson, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Omnistar Interactive

In a few cases, an influencer will be high-profile enough to expect payment to include your product. If they’re a persuasive voice for the right audience and have a large following, it may be worth considering. But you still want to aim to work with influencers who genuinely like your product and aren’t doing it only for the money. Consumers can usually spot inauthenticity and you won’t get your desired results.

Expand Your Reach

You can make use of the Amazon Influencer Program by finding and reaching out to relevant voices in your space. It’s a smart way to expand your reach and be more competitive on the Amazon marketplace.