How to do customer research on Amazon

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But . . . if by some slim chance you’ve just stumbled onto this page in your internet wanderings, and you’re NOT on my list, I strongly suggest you get the PDF and subscribe to my list before you go any further.

You can do that HERE.

The PDF and the emails are incredibly useful, of course, but they’re also good for putting this Amazon research thing in context and making it easier to digest.

OK. On with researching your customers on Amazon. Here are the steps:

Step 1:

Find the books or products most relevant to whatever it is you’re selling. It makes no difference whether you’re offering tangible goods or digital products.

If it’s tangible stuff, someone is already selling something like it on Amazon, and the people buying it are your prospective customers.

If it’s digital content, someone has probably already written a book on your subject or something close. They’re selling it on Amazon, and the people reading it are your target audience.

Step 2:

Once you have your list of products or books, sort through it and select those most relevant to what you’re selling.

From these, make a list of those with high sales numbers and lots of reviews (you want dozens or even hundreds of reviews—the more the better).

Pick one.

Step 3:

Now click on Rufus (Amazon’s AI driven chat bot). Make sure you do this from the specific product or book page you’ve selected. That way Rufus is already primed to talk about that specific item.

(Note: As of this writing, Rufus is available on Amazon.com on a PC or Mac computer. It’s available on the Amazon smart phone app too, but NOT on the Amazon iPad app. Will this change? Probably.)

Step 4:

Now that you’ve got Rufus fired up, you’re gonna throw it some questions. Let’s assume you’ve created a course to help people maintain a healthy work/life balance. You’ve followed steps 1,2 and 3, and you’re on the sales page for James Schramko’s excellent book, Work Less, Make More. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

You: “What problem are people trying to solve when they buy this book?”

Rufus: “Based on the reviews, customers are trying to find ways to increase their productivity and achieve better work-life balance as entrepreneurs or business owners. Many mention being overwhelmed and struggling to build a profitable online business without sacrificing too much personal time.” (People feel overwhelmed. They feel locked in a struggle. It’s costing them too much personal time. Useful stuff, but you need more. You need consequences.)

You: “What are some consequences of working too many hours and not having enough personal time?”

Rufus: “Working excessive hours without adequate personal time can have several negative consequences:

- Burnout - Prolonged stress and overwork can lead to physical and mental exhaustion, decreased motivation, and a lack of productivity.

- Health issues - Lack of sleep, poor diet, and minimal exercise due to long work hours can increase the risk of obesity, heart disease, depression, and other health problems.

- Strained relationships - Neglecting personal and family time can damage relationships with loved ones, leading to feelings of isolation and resentment.

- Decreased creativity and focus - Constantly being overworked can impair cognitive abilities, making it harder to think creatively, solve problems, and maintain focus.

- Reduced job satisfaction - Feeling overwhelmed and unbalanced can lead to dissatisfaction with one's career and a desire for change.

- Increased absenteeism - Burnout and health issues caused by overwork can result in more sick days and absenteeism from work.”

(OK. What you have here is a list of story topics. Each one describes a consequence that some of the folks in your target audience have experienced, are experiencing right now, or are worried they’ll experience in the future. This is gold — the stuff of unlimited stories.)

Step 5:

Now that you’ve identified some consequences, you can write any number of stories that take this form:

Problem: A person is struggling to balance work and life—they feel ill, they hate their work, they’re isolated and resentful, their family relationships are deteriorating, etc.

Solution: They learn (through your course) how to find a better balance.

Life After: They feel better and happier—they’re no longer sick or isolated, they’re happy in their work, their home life is richer and more fulfilling.

But it would be great to find some specific instances in which people are reporting these experiences. To find those, you need to start combing through the individual reviews. When you can find them, they make great details for your marketing content and often suggest plot lines you otherwise wouldn’t discover.

The individual reviews are also where you’ll find reasons why people don’t like the book. These can provide valuable information about objections and reasons why people don’t buy. It’s true that the reviewers on Amazon did buy, but if they wish they didn’t, you want to know why.

That way, you can anticipate these objections in your own marketing content and inoculate against them.