surprising many people don’t understand the purpose of Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) and end up violating Amazon’s rules and standards. Many of them try to use this as an advertising platform which it is absolutely not. There are also those who are unaware of the Enhanced Brand Content’s quality standards and upload blurry and low-quality images. So in this post, we will try to give you a proper idea on Amazon’s Restrictions regarding EBC, Best Practices of EBC and we will also take a look at a few demonstrations of good quality EBC that we found on the web.
Purpose of EBC
The primary purpose of Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) is to communicate product information with the buyers as well as create a brand image. Your product details are obviously the most important information that a buyer wants to know. This information is the final deciding factor for a purchase. So needless to say, how you communicate product details and information. Then present them to the customers, plays a critical role in influencing the customer’s mind and creating a brand image.
Amazon’s Restrictions on EBC
Adding a certain information, words or pictures can violate Amazon’s rules regarding EBC. It’s important that you learn about them from beforehand otherwise it can cause you to waste your precious time and efforts. Violations can occur if one or more of the following things are done.
Violation Lists
- Providing any company name, logo, symbol or contact information of the seller. Basically anything that will establish anyone as the seller. EBC is a place only for your product information.
- Referring to any authority or establishment of a company over the product. Like “Sold by Authorized resellers only”.
- Any selling pitch that pretentiously admires the product itself. For example “Top selling product of 2017”.
- Any selling pitch on pricing or promotion. For example “Save $99”, “Cheapest on Amazon” etc.
- Using Any kind of symbols, logo or images referring to Trademark, Copyright or other Registered Rights.
- Any promotional pitch on Shipping. For example “Free shipping within USA”.
- Adding any editorial statements from reputed sources or adding any quotes from a 3rd party to encourage buyers.
- Any indication to Positive Reviews to influence customers.
- Pitches that tries to market the product on a certain time. For example “Limited time offer”.
- Low resolution, blurry or unclear images that are not up to the quality standards.
- Duplicate images for different sections.
- Any symbols, logos or images that tries to mimic or duplicate the Amazon logo for higher sales.
- Lifestyle images which does not contain the image of the product.
- Logos from a different Company other than your own or showcasing multiple logos.
- Any information related to warranty or guarantee of any kinds.
- Having Any kind of Grammar related error, spelling mistakes, Caps irregularity etc.
- Using Any links, URL’s or texts that tries to redirect the customer to a different site.
- Any other violation of category related rules or Amazon policies.
Best Practices for EBC
The following practices are considered the best when creating an Enhanced Brand Content. The practices are established by the best EBC creators who know very well what works and what does not.
- Always focus on quality over quantity. Find out and display the most important and critical features of your product. Remember, while adding text, less is always more.
- Do your product research and survey well, Prepare a complete Q&A containing the most important questions for your product and make sure that the most critical ones are answered on your EBC.
- Always make sure to upload the highest quality (in keeping with size recommendations), the most attractive and the most professional looking images. Images will be the biggest part of your EBC.
- Make sure that the images are not only high quality but relevant as well. You images should speak for your brand and explain some critical aspects of the product. For example, if you are doing EBC for a shoe make sure you’re adding at least one detailed picture of the shoe sole.
- You must upload images according to Amazon’s size recommendations. Amazon will change the size if it is not according to the recommendation. Also, if the file size is too big, they may decline it altogether. So you make sure image proportions and file sizes are in accordance with the limits before submitting.
- Choose your templates carefully. And look at some EBC done by reputed companies. Find out which template can describe your product the best. For example, template 5 gives you the option to provide one large image that you can divide into several sections to provide various details about your product.
- You can utilize the template as required by your product. You do not have to fill every text boxes and image sections. If you leave a section blank, Amazon will automatically rebuild the template accordingly.
- Apply EBC to your listings one at a time to find out if they are doing well or not. Analyze and find out which style is working and which is not. Applying EBC to all products at once may be a losing venture.
- Adding Enhanced Brand Content to the products that are already generating good traffic (due to paid campaigns or other reasons) is the best way to go. It makes sure that you are maximizing your conversion potential.
- Creating an EBC can take quite a bit time, money and effort. Analyze your potential ROI before applying EBC to your listings. Applying EBC to low-value products like Spoons or pens might not be very beneficial for you.
- If you want to add EBC to a lot of products then you must plan ahead. Amazon currently allows submission of 20 content at a one time.
- Make sure you keep your original product descriptions and bullets. At the moment EBC is not indexed by Amazon but the old product description is. So the original description is quite valuable.
- How professional your EBC looks says a lot about your brand. So take your time to create the EBC. Make sure that are no grammatical or spelling error on the language or you can chase a lot of potential buyers away.
What a Good EBC Looks Like?
Let’s look at a few good examples of Enhanced Brand Contents. This will help you understand what standards of quality you need to produce. Now, keep in mind that the style of EBC will greatly vary depending on the criteria and type of the goods. But these examples more or less follow all the best practices that we just talked about.
Paderno Spiralizer – Keeping Things Nice and Simple
Spiralizer is an amazing kitchen tool that turns vegetables into faux-noodles shaped Spirals. So needless to say that the features of the product are the most important aspects. Also as it is a kitchen item it has a decorative value as well. So how good the product will look is an important determinant of the buyer’s decision. Also, the product has some uniqueness about it which requires the manufacturer to explain its features and usages in a short, sweet and to the point manner.
- Relevant, Clear and High Quality Images
You can see that it includes some clear, detailed and cool looking pictures of the products which give us perfect idea of how it works and how it looks. On the last block when they are explaining some of the benefits of the product they have added a very relevant picture that focuses on those benefits. One of the benefits is “Effortless Vibrant and healthy Meals” and here they have shown a picture with some lucrative meals.
- Best Features, Explanation to The Point
As you can see they have included the most important elements/features of the product which are different kinds of blades that do all the stylized cutting. “Shredder Blade” does all the spaghetti-like cuttings. They have explained in a few words how it works and provided a clear picture of the blades. They have also included other blade options that are available. This gives the customer a clear idea of what this product can do.
- Why Should The Buyer Go for It
Easy to Use & Easy to Clean is one of the primary selling points of the product and is very important to the people who are looking for kitchen items. They have made sure highlight it with a proper picture that shows its simplicity. They have also added two other most important benefits that all their customer’s desire.
Overall it is a very nice and simple Enhanced Brand Content that can have a very positive effect on customer’s minds.
Fin-Fun – Catering to the Target Audience, a Well-Designed Theme
FinFun is a mermaid tail for swimming that is tailored especially for kids and often adults. As it is primarily a kid’s product, the content has done a good job creating a style and theme that represents it as a kid’s choice.
- Show Off Your Awesome Product
The starting picture is fully descriptive as it shows a kid using the Mermaid Tail. It also has a very detailed zoom in of the Fin. This high-quality image make sure that buyers have a clear idea of what they are buying and how the product looks like.
- Let Your Content Speak to Your Target Audience
The theme makes is easy to understand that it is primarily a kids product but later it also shows different size options for adults that assures that it can also be used by adults.
- Materials
It explains what materials are used to create the item. This reinforces the durability and comfort-ability of the item to the buyer. Most buyers are very conscious of these aspects when they are buying swimming items.
- Features that Sell
As it is an item that can be used underwater, the features and the safety measures used are vital information for the customers. Showcasing them assures the customer about the safety of the product. Features like “powerful Propulsion” and “Engineered for Safety” is adequately explained.
- A Helpful Chart
As this product can be used by both kids and adults a size guide was absolutely vital. As you can see they have provided a very nicely designed chart that will be helpful for the buyers. Not only that, they have provided a picture to properly visualize the sizes according to waste and hip measurements along with a short explanation. This helpful information alone might inspire a few customers to buy.
Nayoya Back and Neck Pain Relief – Introducing and Explaining an Innovative Product
This EBC is for an acupressure mat and pillow set that is designed to relieve stress and pain. Although Acupressure has been there for a long time, general people have no idea what it is and what it does. The Enhanced Brand Content does a good job of explaining and introducing the product to potential customers. As this is a very innovative product for people looking for a nontraditional solution to pain and stress, it does not hesitate to give the buyers a bit of reading to do.
- Images that Describe the Product
As you can see it has provided clear images and detailed zoom in shots of the item. The proper usage of the item has been shown by a model using it.
- What It is and How Can It Help?
On the first text field it lets the customer understand what Acupressure is and how it can help relieve pain and stress. It tells the customer that the item is one kind of alternative medicine with lines like “Using the wisdom of alternative medicine, they provide effective pain relief that is simple and easy to use”. Then it explains how the Acupressure Mat can do this, what are the techniques used and how do they function with lines like When the pressure points of the body are stimulated, tension in the muscle is released.
- How to Properly Use It
It also goes in depth about how this item is to be used properly. This way the customer will have clear idea of how to utilize this item to its full potentials. There will not be angry calls about an item not working because a customer did not even know how to use it. It explains the usage in three steps- Beginner, intermediate and advanced so that every level customers can reap the fruits.
To sum up
In the year 2018 when we can buy from anyone and sell to anyone in the world, Branding has become, perhaps the most creative, most impactful and most challenging task for any eCommerce business. Amazon’s Enhanced Brand content gives you a proper window create a nurture your eCommerce Brand for the world to experience. Amazon also certified that a quality Enhanced Brand Content can boost your sales up-to 10 – 15 percent. And that is only a seasonal number. If you take into account how much long-term Brand value and growth EBC can bring you, the number rises exponentially. So investing a great deal of time, money and effort into Creating the Perfect Enhanced Brand Content really seems a no-brainer.
