7 Easy Hacks on How to Write Compelling Product Descriptions
Most online business owners invest a substantial amount of time and effort into building a website. However, many of these online retailers only put a small effort into one of the essential parts of e-commerce, the product descriptions.
Fundamentally, product descriptions define the product, highlight its features, benefits, the material is made from, as well as the colors available, essentially, it persuades the customer why they should buy a particular product from a particular vendor (you!).
As customers browse the product page, they tend to imagine whether these products can benefit them. Thus, a well-written and interesting product description can help drive your customers into your purchasing funnel and ultimately, towards that all-important conversion.
To improve the likelihood of a potential customer resonating with your offering, adding a touch of creativity to your product descriptions can help transition your customer from casual browsing into sale completion.
If you’re looking to improve your product descriptions, simply follow the tips provided in this guide and increase the chances of persuading your audience to make a purchase.
Get to Know Your Buyers
The first step in creating a description that converts is always learning the insights of your customers. Each of your site visitors has a different background and interests. If you can determine how they think and act, there’s a higher chance you can convince them to purchase.
Moving forward, creating a one-size-fits-all product description might be the biggest mistake you can make. If you write for every kind of potential audience, chances are your product will not connect with the visitors on any meaningful standard, resulting in you actually selling to no one.
To offset that risk, consider narrowing your audience down, which will help you design a more persuasive product description.
Here are some key questions to ask yourself to help determine your target audience:
- Who is buying your product?
- Who is your end-user?
- How do visitors land on your site?
- What are the demographics of your users?
- How do your products benefit your buyers?
- Why is your product better than that of your competitors (what’s the USP (Unique Selling Point) or UCB (Unique Customer Benefit)?
Once you’ve determined who’ll be purchasing your products, all the other stuff will become much clearer.
Setting Up Goals and Metrics
Before creating your killer product descriptions, it’s essential to have precise, measurable, and actionable goals. That said, you need to design sharp KPIs to analyze your performance and have a foundation on how you will develop your product descriptions in the future.
Here are some of the KPIs that might help you:
- The flow of conversion rate
- Rate of cart abandonment
- Amount of product returns
- Decrease of calls from shoppers
- Ranking on organic keywords
- Website traffic levels
Furthermore, you can compare conversions, organic traffic, and engagement as affected by the adjustments you will make. Always remember that you need to have metrics and goals for all stages of the purchasing process, from browsing to completing the orders.
Introduce Features, Emphasize Benefits
You are probably excited to share the advantages your products may have. However, some of your audience is somewhat not interested in the features of your product; most of them want to know the benefits it carries.
One of the most common pitfalls a marketer can fall into is confusing benefits vs. features. Most of the time, copywriters only offer a list of features, which is not enough for a conversion.
For example, you are selling children’s toys; you should emphasize how durable and safe they are. If you are selling clothes, try to highlight how cozy and relaxed these clothes are; this gives customers a straightforward reason why they should purchase your product. Also, by adding more care and attention to outlining the various benefits, you are trying to convince customers that your products will somehow improve their lives.
Indeed, both features and benefits are equally significant for a compelling advertising copy. However, your product’s benefits are the ones that will give you a higher chance of converting customers.
Use Simple but Influential Words
Always remember that your audience comes from different backgrounds and mindsets. Most or some of them may not be fluent in English, or others have limited vocabulary due to varying education levels.
Hence, if you’d like to reach a broad audience, try to avoid using complex words and sentences. Instead, use simple but powerful words to attract more potential buyers.
Here are some of the most influential words to use when creating compelling product descriptions according to David Ogilvy:
Using these words can help capture the attention of your audience and influence them into purchasing your product.
The Significance of Product Story
Nowadays, most people are not interested in dull, uninspiring product copy. They want to understand how your product helped or improved the lives of your buyers. You may want to tell your customers the inspiration of your product, who is making it, and how it was tested.
For example, if you are selling a drink, try to imagine the setting and mood of your customers when they’re drinking it. If you’re offering services such as international remittances, show your customers how your service has connected the lives and families of their loved ones abroad.
Again, a product description is about persuading customers, and stories can effectively inspire emotions than facts and figures.
Consistency of Tone
One of the factors that define your brand is the tone of your writing. Keep in mind that product description is a crucial part of your sales. That said, you should set the tone that supports the character of your brand when writing a killer product description.
For example, if you’re selling luxury goods to wealthy, middle-aged customers, try to use a formal style of writing and set a more serious tone and approach.
On the other hand, if you’re targeting Millennials, consider setting a friendly tone by using informal and lively language.
Above all, the product description needs to be consistent and aligned with everything on your site.
Final Grammar and Proofreading Touch
Once you’ve finished your product descriptions and are happy with them, consider giving them a final check before publishing. When your product copy contains poor grammar or typo errors, it may drive your prospective customers away. That said, potential customers might think that the quality of your products is sub-standard as well.
Nevertheless, don’t be discouraged if some of your product descriptions don’t work. Instead, consider it as an opportunity to learn more about your customers and eventually formulate the product description that would work best for different buyers.
To Conclude
When customers visit physical stores, they tend to talk to the salesperson to inquire about the product. On e-commerce sites, customers browse your pages to look for information about the products you’re offering.
Some of the ways that can allure us to make a purchase when shopping in a physical store are not the same when we’re shopping online, so we can imitate these physical store experiences; it requires a lot of care and thought into the planning, visualizing, and marketing of your products.
Therefore, take the time to learn the techniques of creating compelling descriptions, like the tips mentioned above, since it’s one of the factors that can boost sales and help improve your business’ online performance for many years to come.
Author Bio:
Alexia Todd is a content creator at Ding.com. She started writing during her college days and ended up loving it, eventually adopting it as her chosen career path. Alexia loves to explore different towns and countries as well as meeting new people and acquaintances along the way. When free, she spends her time with her pets (a husky and a bearded dragon) or playing video games (mostly RPG).
Originally published at https://adzis.com on October 12, 2020.
