Having an eCommerce store comes with the task to really take care of your product pages. A product page consists of a good name, images that sell, a really engaging product description and relevant factual information, which will be covered in a next article.
Learn how to write good product names.
Learn how to make your product images sell.
Creating a story around your products is pure art and in this article, we’d like to discuss the techniques of creating an engaging product description.
The way you describe your products tells a lot about yourself as a web merchant and your products descriptions should be the primary driver that you want to be associated with. They are the last thing the customer reads before making their purchase decision.
What is your product about?
Photo by Toa Heftiba on UnsplashThis is the first question you need to ask yourself before starting to write an eCommerce product description. Does it give people emotion? Does it fill a need? Does it play a specific role in customers’ lives?
Once you figure all of this out, then you’re ready to start shaping your product’s story. You’ll be able to answer to people’s expectations if you actually know what they’re expecting to read. If they want a more emotional description, give them tears or laughter. If they want to know how the heck does this thing work, give them specific instructions. If they read exactly what they came to read, then you have them.
Then the thing that comes after figuring this out is – “who are your customers?”. Are they into reading engaging stories or do they just want to get it over with and add it to their cart. Also, you should ask yourself what is their education level, their location, and their language. This way you will know what is the right vocabulary to use for your product descriptions.
So, learning about your customers will bring you an advantage because you can put yourself in their shoes and know whether your way of selling is appropriate.
What should you include in the product description?
Photo by Aaron Burden on UnsplashIn your product descriptions, you should clearly explain exactly what your product is about and how it is supposed to be used. For your product’s features, it’s wise to use bullet points. It makes the content much easier to absorb.
And, of course, give value. Always, always do this. Perhaps this is the hundredth time you’re reading this but for each customer, it’s important to know that they are getting something out of this, not just the product they’re paying for. It’s best when they feel like they’ve made a deal. It’s even better when you’re selling something unique that they can’t get their hands on but that’s not always the case on the Internet.
Another trick is to include influential words that have proven to convert. David Ogilvy made a list in 1963 with the 20 most influential words and to this day, they still work. He is considered a genius in advertising and a genius in copywriting, so trust him, if not us.
Here are the 20 most influential words:
- Suddenly
- Now
- Announcing
- Introducing
- Improvement
- Amazing
- Sensational
- Remarkable
- Revolutionary
- Startling
- Miracle
- Magic
- Offer
- Quick
- Easy
- Wanted
- Challenge
- Compare
- Bargain
- Hurry
Also, the sentences you include in your eCommerce product description need to be short but also really impactful.
What should you avoid?
Photo by NeONBRAND on UnsplashDefinitely avoid overused phrases like “the best quality”, etc. People are so used to these words that they never actually get to contemplate them. They skip them in their mind while reading and this way words like these don’t make any difference or add any value but they do use up your characters space.
Furthermore, when you’re writing a product description, avoid using generic keywords that you think might help your SEO optimization. The keywords you must use should be from the niche you’re selling in. This way you will have better chances of getting noticed when somebody looks up products like yours in search engines like Google.
What should the user think when he reads your product description?
When you write your eCommerce product descriptions, make sure to bring on specific emotions and thoughts in your website visitors’ mind. I realize it’s hard to actually make this work and it’s easier to just give an advice but think about it like this: right before you start writing your eCommerce product, think about what you want to achieve with the story you’re about to write.
Your web store visitors should think to themselves:
“I can’t live without this product” or
“This product has all the things I’m looking for”
So, your product descriptions shouldn’t be a novel but they should definitely be compelling. Compelling sells. It should be short, straight to the point and touch the exact right spot.
Engaging product descriptions: examples
Our forever favorite product description is Apple’s new MacBook Pro.
Like we mentioned earlier, they include the features as bullet points at the beginning making the most important characteristics of the product easier to absorb.
And here is the first part of the product’s description:
With great power comes great capability.
MacBook Pro elevates the notebook to a whole new level of performance and portability. Wherever your ideas take you, you’ll get there faster than ever with high‑performance processors and memory, advanced graphics, blazing‑fast storage, and more.
They connect with their own website visitors because they know them. They know that their customers are led by great ideas because they are creators. It’s short, it’s compelling and it definitely does sell.
Another great example is Net-A-Porter. They have an interesting approach to product descriptions. They decide to share with their customers why they, personally as a brand, love the product they’re selling.
To us, this is a great example of how a proper selling technique has been implemented.
These examples, of course, are from one of the best eCommerce stores out there. You don’t need to compete with them or measure up to them but we think you’ll find inspiration in what they do. At the end of the day, what’s most important is that you pay attention to your product data.
So, tell us, how do you write your product descriptions, have you tried out any of these pieces of advice and did we manage to cover all of your eCommerce product description questions?
