Selling on Amazon is hard, but you can make it even harder on yourself if you make a critical mistake I’ve seen repeated for 15 years now. I’m an Amazon Consultant, and the most frequent mistake I see resulting in sometimes years of stunted growth is copying big brands.

Here’s what happens:

1. They look at the top big-brand sellers moving significant volume monthly.

2. They copy their images, A+ Content, title and bullet points.

3. They copy their ad copy, imagery and video.

4. They make their Amazon Storefront look nearly the same.

5. Sales don’t grow.

In discussion, the logic given is: “We want to reverse engineer the successful brands and emulate them to fast-track our success.”

The problem is, that they’re emulating the wrong things.

Here’s why that’s a mistake and what to do instead.

Related: 5 Proven Marketing Strategies for Amazon Sellers

Why copying big brands to increase Amazon sales is a mistake

If you’re reading this, it’s likely you’re not a major big-box brand selling on Amazon. You’re likely looking for tips to find your way to that place, and that’s the reason copying them is a mistake.

You’re not a big brand, so the same rules to increase your Amazon sales do not apply to you. More importantly, you don’t get to make the same mistakes they do.

Here’s why copying big brands to increase Amazon sales is a mistake:

1. Big brands are known, liked and trusted — you’re not

Know, like and trust are the key ingredients in the recipe of a sale. Big brands are talked about by every Amazon Influencer, seen 10x daily on social media and search ads, and even appear in your Netflix ads.

No amount of listing optimization can overcome that. The massive online presence of big brands translates to their visibility and sales on Amazon.

2. Big brands’ off-Amazon presence results in on-Amazon visibility

Speaking of Amazon Influencers and off-Amazon presence, you likely already know that Amazon crawls the web and measures the online presence of the brands and products sold on its marketplace. Key performance indicators like brand mentions, the domain authority of your website and the amount of traffic coming from off Amazon onto Amazon specifically for your product listings all factor into how high you will show up on Amazon, not to mention how much you sell.

Showing up on videos and articles like “The Best Tasting KCups For Coffee Shop Quality Coffee at Home” with link clicks back to the Amazon listings sends signals to Amazon that the product should rank higher for keyword searches like “french roast k-cups.”

Combing through an Amazon listing and jotting down notes or running the product through your favorite Amazon seller tool won’t reveal this.

As you’re taking notes on the colors and images they use in their A+ Content or the bullet points they wrote, you’ll end up making the same mistakes they make.

3. Big brands make beginner mistakes because they can

The reason you enter big brand listings into your favorite Amazon seller tool and see huge monthly sales volume is not because of their listing optimization, stellar copywriting or color psychology mastery.

You may be surprised to know that big brands make the most basic mistakes in copywriting, imagery and listing optimization. It’s simply not a priority.

Their investment is off of Amazon, not on Amazon. This results in them still earning significant sales while making beginner Amazon mistakes like poor imagery, wooden bullet point copy devoid of keywords and lackluster A+ content.

So, what should you do?

Related: The Top 2 Reasons Amazon Sellers Fail

How to increase Amazon sales

If you approximate big brands’ Amazon listings as your own, you’re going to be emulating the wrong aspects of why big brands are successful.

To drive explosive growth on Amazon, you’re going to want to use a combination of what made them a big brand in the first place while also focusing on fundamental sales best practices that you can’t afford to ignore because you’re not a big brand.

Focus on this:

1. Copywriting, imagery and color psychology best practices

People buy because of emotion, and they justify their purchases through logic. These elements need to be accounted for in your copy and imagery.

Your product alleviates a pain, solves a problem or fulfills a desire. Become skilled at communicating how it does this quickly and easily.

These are the most important foundational skills for effective Amazon listing optimization.

2. External traffic to Amazon listings

Simply put, Amazon loves it when you send traffic from off of Amazon on to Amazon to your product listings.

Focus on getting included on “Best” and “Top” lists on articles and YouTube videos because it’s easier to click back to the Amazon listing from those sources than on social media platforms that don’t make it easy to leave the platform.

Speaking of off Amazon…

3. OFF Amazon presence

Build traffic to your brand’s website through SEO to show Amazon you’re vital and relevant, which translates into likely to convert a sale in the eyes of the algorithm. Don’t stop there — build your presence on social media, partner with Amazon Influencers, and build your brand through PR.

You have the power to send signals to Amazon, so the next time a customer is searching for your keyword, you should show up at the top of search results instead of your competitors.

Related: Selling on Amazon? Take These 5 Steps to Knock Your Sales Out of the Park