What you need to know about Amazon marketing, capable agencies, and a few no-no’s when hiring.

Chris Fryburger, founder of nReach and Amazon consultant, spent six months researching and interviewing branding, digital, and full-service agencies. The goal? To figure out where the Amazon experts were hiding, and to understand why. As it turns out, they aren’t hiding, there just aren’t that many of them. So before you click that Facebook Ad for the “Amazon expert that can take you to six figures next month,” you might want to vet their references and develop some criteria for hiring.

A New World Order

Amazon is the new world of opportunity, and brands will need marketing guidance from  Amazon-savvy agencies. Everything is changing daily in this new world, and this unsteady terrain makes it difficult for anyone to really stay in expert territory. Within this new world order, Amazon is making the rules, and they are subject to change at any moment. On top of that, Amazon is a logistics business first, so while they might deliver from one side of this new world to the other, their dedication to helping sellers figure out how to maximize their Amazon profiles and advertising is minimal at best.

Gray Isn’t Good

For agencies, there are a lot of gray areas and blurred lines, and this could really be contributing to the lack of agency expertise when it comes to Amazon marketing. A lot of the big agencies and firms are hesitant to jeopardize their reputation when there are so many unknowns. On the flipside of that coin, Amazon represents dwindling budgets and a threat to existing marketing budgets, so it presents less as an opportunity, more as a threat to their current survival. The future of e-commerce belongs to Amazon, and Fryburger is hoping to close some of the learning gap, while protecting brands, with nReach, a customized matchmaking service that brings together Amazon sellers and trusted Amazon Service Providers.

Welcome to the Wild West

Read the original INC article published on August 20, 2019.