Last updated - July 12, 2022
Often, product descriptions in online stores are made up of a couple of paragraphs honestly copied from the manufacturer’s website. Plus, a couple more original phrases to make the text unique. Probably, when it comes to a specific product, part of the technical characteristics should still be copied.
But this does not mean that you need to ignore the description of the goods as an instrument of sales and promotion. Try to compile full-fledged sales descriptions for at least bestsellers (or, conversely, for products that sell poorly), and after a while, you will surely notice a positive trend. And the tips outlined in this article will help you with this task.
Sell Benefits and Advantages
In addition to the dry facts about the characteristics of the product, describe also the emotional benefits that it brings. When you write a product description, think about what is useful specifically for the target audience. And what distinguishes it from hundreds of similar ones. This is exactly what you should emphasize in the text. For example, see how Nike does it.
It would seem that these are ordinary pink sneakers. But the brand focuses on the ability to remain as comfortable with long marathons. This description is structured in such a way that every technical trait turns into a benefit and an emotional characteristic.
Hint! Try to show in the description not just the benefits of buying the product, but the benefits of buying the product from you. In the end, the consumer compares prices anyway, and it will be very disappointing if your text helps a person decide on a model, but this person will make a purchase from a competitor at a lower price. To avoid this situation, make your offer unique from all points of view.
Optimization Plus Structuring Plus Problem-Solving
Very often, getting to the page with the product’s card, you can see a large “sheet” from the text describing the history of the product and its purpose, stuffed with all the keywords that the site owner managed to collect. Another option is grammatical errors, lack of punctuation marks, and as a result, completely unreadable text.
We found an anti-example that ideally matches the two cases above. Here is a real product description consisting of an unreadable set of words. If you scroll this page down, you will find a sheet of text written in the same style.
Yes, this is the English version of the Japanese website, and its creators are absolutely sure that everyone understands everything without a quality description. Therefore, here is one more clue – create high-quality localized translations of each product description if your site supports several language versions.
Looking at such a description, the visitor simply leaves. Therefore, what is the use of being a leader in search results if the bounce rate goes off the scale?
So, when writing a product description, put yourself in the place of your reader. Will your text be useful to him? Will he solve his problem? How to give your text maximum readability and structure?
Therefore, in order to remove the bad impression of the anti-example, let’s look at the correct approach. This is how Patagonia describes a hiking backpack.
Here we see a reasonable combination of technical characteristics, structured information, a solution to the user’s problem (the backpack promises to withstand long mountain climbs and fits in narrow gorges), plus a trump card – a video instead of a thousand words.
Now many owners of online stores may begin to complain that they have thousands of items. Writing a description for each product or paying a copywriter big money is a huge waste.
But imagine that each text can bring at least one additional sale, which pays for the money invested in this text. The main benefit is that the text needs to be written only once, and it generates sales constantly.
Do Not Use Fake and Hackneyed Phrases
When there is nothing more to write about the product, sellers add fuzzy phrases like “the most reliable on the market” or “the highest quality of workmanship” to the product description. It remains to add that your managers are a “team of professionals”, mention your “great experience”, and promise that the goods will be delivered “as soon as possible.”
Such phrases are meaningless, while there is no evidence. Do not write such phrases if you are not going to prove with facts that this product is really the most reliable on the market.
Here is an example. Yeti brand refrigerator passed the test of grizzly bears. In this case, it’s already possible to talk about quality and reliability.
The fact is that everyone has long been immune to such phrases. Reading that your product is of the highest quality, the buyer thinks: Yes, of course. Everyone writes like that. I have never seen anyone write “so-so-good product” or “mediocre quality product.”
So that the buyer does not think so, write a description of the product clearly and without water, register each advantage and its benefits, plus confirm this with facts and statistics.
Entertain the Buyer with Short Stories
To relax and distract the customer, include small stories in product descriptions. Reading the story, the buyer is carried away, and his alertness decreases: the buyer forgets that in fact, the store is selling him goods.
To write a mini-story, answer the following questions: Who created the product? What inspired to create a product? What difficulties did you have to overcome in order for the product to be born? Think about what else you can tell to captivate the buyer.
Summary
Product descriptions can be very effective sales tools if approached from a marketing point of view. But in this case, it is worth remembering that the text of the article type is not suitable here. An effective approach is not just to give out a thematic text mass filled with keys, but to solve the buyer’s problem and reflect this solution in the text.
