How to Optimize Your Image Stack For More Sales

When I first started this conversion optimization game, I always started with the sales copy for the title, bullet points, and description. While I had good success starting with those changes, but had I fully understood the power of images, I would have always started there. I can’t tell you the number of times that I have just worked on images for clients, and then they saw a solid boost in sales— almost immediately.

The ONE thing that will keep your customers around longer is your Image Stack — the first set of images they see on the top left of your product listing.

So why focus here first?

EVERYTHING AMAZON DOES IS DATA DRIVEN

Everything Amazon does is based on data, and that includes how they structure their pages. They have split-test that thing to no end! So if Amazon has set things up for images to be seen first, wouldn’t you agree that it requires our initial attention?

Absolutely! Our eyes naturally travel from left to right and top to bottom. So many studies have been done on this very subject.

So if that’s true, why do so many Amazon sellers have such boring images?

Your customer wants a certain result from your product. To secure your customer, you have to be able to show your product providing the results and emotion they are looking for in a real life setting. Let’s assume for this particular product, your ideal customer wants to feel more validated for their beauty, and they want to feel more connected, complimented, and admired by with their friends. They want to feel like Calypso. They want to feel like hopeful and positive that things are really bright and looking up in their life. Maybe right now their feeling a little hopeless and discouraged. Maybe they don’t feel very good about themselves.

BOOSTING YOUR IMAGE STACK

Now let’s bring this full circle. Let’s assume that the owners of this tanning mitt reached out to me, and wanted to be one of my elite clients.

If it’s true that people will buy a“WHY” message, along with a result that they can see and almost tangibly feel, then we’ll have a lot more success showing customers more than anything else.

This product listing is very interesting in that they actually do a fairly good job with their product, and showing a lifestyle and result that customers may want.

But there’s something missing.

I know you may be thinking, “Come on, Karyn. They have no lifestyle pics at all! What are you trying to pull on me here?”
And you’d be right… that is until you scroll down the page and look at their EBC.
Weird. Right?

They have great pics… Just NOT in the Image Stack where they matter most.

Now obviously these pictures aren’t perfect. But here’s what they have going on…
They give a clear message about feeling cool when going out with your friends. They admire you. You admire each other. It’s fun.
They also included some demonstration images, and the results you get without using their product… the dreaded orange hands and streaks. Those are really compelling images.

So here’s my question for the seller…

Why are these great images all the way down in just their EBC?
Are they counting on people sticking around and reading all the way down the page? You can’t always count on that!

8 SECONDS — A GOLD FISH’S ATTENTION SPAN

I was at this event with Russell Brunson, one of the smartest marketers I know. And he said something that hit me like a whip on my rear end.

He shared about a study that was recently done that proves that in the USA, people today have less of an attention span than a goldfish.

That’s crazy!

Putting this into perspective, goldfish only have eight seconds of an attention span before they have to go do something else.
Humans today ONLY have seven seconds of an attention span before their attention is directed somewhere else!
With smartphones, tablets, social media, emails, text messages, phone calls, and near limitless sources of content, people have less time and patience for paying attention. Everything is at our fingertips, and all of a sudden we have no time. It’s the craziest thing, but it’s true. If we’re the seller and we’re counting on people coming to our product listing, and only looking at the images at the top of the page, then we’re in trouble.

What if we took a different approach to showcase your listing?

“INSTAGRAMIZE” YOUR IMAGE STACK

What if we took these images in the EBC section and we brought them to the top of the page? What if we took even more pictures to still paint the desired lifestyle even further? What if people came to this listing and rather than having it look like a one or two dimensional product like it did before, it was transformed!

What if all of a sudden the buying experience became all about the status, the result, and not necessarily about the Amazon listing?

BOOM!

I’m no longer looking at an Amazon listing, but at an Instagram page!

We need to talk more about how to set this up properly. Because there is such a thing as having too many people, or too much of a good thing. After I take lifestyle pics for my Elite Level Clients, this is how I setup their Image Stack.

HOW TO SETUP YOUR IMAGE STACKFirst, you have the 1) white background image. It’s the same one as before. It’s actually a pretty good image and the color pops well. I like it. It’s really different from all of the other competing products on the search results page.

Next, the 2) lifestyle image is critical. Right away, we show the experience. We show the people that are enjoying the lifestyle that this product can provide. We show the result the customer is looking for.

So back from the top, white background product photo first; then lifestyle image; then another lifestyle image. If you look at like this, it’s more like Instagram.

Do you see how everything’s kind of shifting inside and out of each other. We have a product right here of just the product shot. Then right here to the right, we have people. Then to the left, we have people. Then to the right, we have the product close up.
Then to the left, we have the product close up. Then to the right, we have another lifestyle image with people. We want to show the emotion on people’s faces, if possible. We want to show the excitement. We want to show our future customers the desired result they’re looking for.

For my Elite Level of Clients, I take all of these images with our own network of models.

So rather than using a bunch of stock photography, I actually put the product in real life environments to get the right feel to coordinate with the messaging that a customer needs to make a buying decision.

OUR FOCUS IS ON— “WHY”

So vision-wise, if our “Why Focus” was going to be surrounding relationships and self-worth, then I would create images showing that “WHY.”

I would have an image with friends having fun together. I would have another image with a beautiful woman being in love with her significant other.

I would have another image with a beautiful model holding the tanning mitt in one hand, and then holding her finger to her lips, like the mitt is her secret weapon to getting what she wants. The experience we’re selling is about having a fun time and feeling confident.

The product may even take a back seat to the models.

RECAP: THE IMAGE STACK

It is crucial that your images are interesting and show the “why”of your product. Get great ideas from instagram and magazines, and then work with a professional photographer and some models to create your perfect Image Stack. Then watch your sales and conversion rate increase!