When you want to become the next major seller on Amazon or turn your Shopify store into the go-to place online there’s one thing that you can control: how good your descriptions are.
By taking you through everything you need to know to craft the perfect product descriptions, again and again, we’re going to tell you what sells, and what doesn’t. Once you know that all you have to do is list your products and the masses will come.
Only Describe the Product if You Have to
Some products sell themselves with the right images, whilst others require some explanation. Take clothing for example. Everyone knows what they are looking at and whether the style is for them when they click on a link and see some photos of it being modeled. In this case, you want to adopt an attitude of less is more when it comes to writing text. Keep your description short and sweet so that customers don’t get turned off by overly wordy explanations and descriptions.
Electronics, on the other hand, is a different animal altogether. The number of functions and options on offer will require plenty of explanation. In this case, you’re going to need more text, but you want to avoid losing people in the jargon and detail. It may be interesting to you and few of your colleagues, but the average person wants to know how your product can solve a problem. Paint a picture of the problem, position your product as the solution, and the rest is history.
Use Features and Benefits to Show the Value
The features and benefits style of writing has been around for what seems like forever, and for good reason!
In today’s world, it’s not enough to simply list pages and pages of features. You need to sell the benefits. “Yes, your product can do x, y, and z, but what’s the benefit to the customer? How will having all of these features at their disposal make their lives easier? Once you can communicate how your product helps you’ll be well on the way to taking your sales and conversions to unprecedented heights,” states Samantha Brannon, digital marketer at Canada Writers.
Not sure how to proceed? Take a step back and find someone with no familiarity with your product to read your description. Then ask them why they think they need it. If they can’t tell you after 30 seconds or less of reading then the chances are that you haven’t got your message across sufficiently clearly.
Create an Image of Your Buyer Using the Product
If you want people to buy your products you have to make them feel invested in them from the moment they set eyes on them. Paint a picture that allows the reader to see themselves using it in their daily lives and you’ll be amazed at the difference this will make to your conversion rate.
Using emotive and descriptive language that references how it will make them feel and what it will allow them to do is always the best way forward in this respect. Don’t go over the top; you need just enough to create an image — you don’t want to pen an entire novel.
Keep Your Keywords Relevant
Ranking in search is all about having the right keywords, but you can’t stuff them in here there and everywhere purely for the sake of SEO. If you have too many keywords or worse steal keywords that are popular but not relevant, then your description just won’t read right.
What’s another word for a description that doesn’t read right: a distraction! The last thing in the world you want to do at this critical juncture is to distract or alienate your potential customers with poorly written text. They’ll instantly jump to the conclusion that the quality of the text is a reflection of the quality of the actual product. And once that perception is born there’s no way back, you’ve lost another customer. Not only that, but the chances are that they’ll make a line for your competition who will then grow at your expense.
Bullet Points Always Sell
No matter how good a paragraph of text is there’s always an easier way to pass on the key points and facts about your product to your customers. They’re known as bullet points.
Keep them short and succinct so that the reader only has to skim down the list to remind themselves of all the key details and features that you’re offering. That way when they need something that will tip them in your direction so that they click ‘Add to Cart’ it will already be there, staring them in the face.
But as Garrett Copeland, a content editor from Essay writing service Toronto explains, the key with bullet points is that you don’t want to overdo them. “Sure they’re useful ways of condensing disparate pieces of information, but you can still have too much of a good thing. There’s a reason that Amazon keeps bullet points to no more than 5 — that’s the perfect number if you want to maximize the retention of new information,” he says.
Follow the experts on this one and you’ll be amazed at how many more products you sell.
Develop a That Tone Matches Your Brand
A mistake that many people make is that they have one tone for their core brand and a much sales-orientated voice for their descriptions and landing pages. This simply won’t wash with the online shopper of today who is more discerning than they’ve ever been.
Revisit your core brand and its ethos so that you can identify what your true voice in the marketplace is. If you can write it down in a couple of sentences on a piece of paper then you understand it, if not then you have more work to do before you can start writing descriptions that sell.
Avoid Stupid Mistakes
Another error sellers make are those stupid little mistakes we all make on a daily basis that can so easily be avoided: typos.
There’s no shame in making a typo in a draft and having a colleague spot it, but it’ll be a whole different story if you go live with something that leaves a lot to be desired.
To ensure that your text is error-free and professionally structured you can use online tools, such as Grammarly, GetGoodGrade, and Readable. That way you’ll be able to sleep with the peace of mind that you have taken care of all the little details that need to be perfect.
Know Your Customers
The final thing to remember is that you need to know your customers. Too many people find a product and then try and sell it to anyone that will buy it. This is doing things in reverse.
You need to come up with a simple one-page profile of your ideal customer. Who are they? What are their likes and dislikes? What do they aspire to? Start asking yourself these kinds of questions and it will make it much easier to find a style of product description that connects with your target audience.
Final Thoughts
Creating product descriptions that will sell is all about being able to connect with your customers in a way that makes them want your product. There is no one size fits all approach, and the style and length of your description will be shaped largely by your audience and the type of product that you’re trying to sell them. Take the time to get to know both of these things and it will soon become apparent how to put the rest of the advice above into practice.