When customers visit your site to buy a product or a service, the first thing they look for is information. Product description provides them all the salient features and other information about the product you are selling.
To have a complete website, you need images of your products as well as good product descriptions.
According to a survey conducted by eMarketer, product descriptions have almost the same influence on a customer’s decision as product images.
Writing a good product description is crucial as not only it helps the customers to build trust in your brand but it also helps you rank better in the SERPs(Search Engine Results Pages). Welcome to the ultimate guide to help you write epic product descriptions. Today you will learn the ins and outs of writing a good product description and how to use language to your advantage.
What is a Product Description?
The name explains itself, isn’t it? Well, Product Description is exactly what it sounds like. It is a section on your website that contains all the information about the product. Along with that it also outlines why the product is worth buying.
The main objective of any product description is to provide accurate information about a product to the customers. This helps the customers in comparing different products and their usability. As a result, customers can easily buy the best product for their requirements.
Benefits of Writing Product Descriptions
Imagery has a very deep influence on our decision making that is why you will see every site displaying the images of products to the maximum extent. While they do help in creating initial strong impressions, they hardly contain any information.
When someone wants to buy a product, they look for how a product looks and what it can do. So the second part is where the product description comes into place. It provides all the information a customer needs and the advantages of using the given product.
But that’s not all, there are a lot of benefits of writing product descriptions. Let’s look at some of them:
Provides Product Specifications and Info
Perhaps one of the most important benefits of writing product descriptions is to provide customers with specifications and information. As mentioned earlier, images on their own can’t sell a product.
Builds Trust
When a customer reads your descriptions, sees the product images, and orders a product from your store, he/she expects everything that was mentioned on the product page. If you successfully deliver what you said, the customer automatically trusts your site more. Building trust is important if you want long-term clients and a good brand image.
Improves SEO
For any site to rank top in the SERPs(Search Engine Result Pages), having good SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is crucial.
By writing product descriptions, you can optimize your site for keywords. The more keywords you have, the better SEO score you get. So product descriptions help in rankings as well.
Makes Your eCommerce Store Look Professional
Imagine that there are two eCommerce stores selling T-Shirts. One has images of the product and the other one has a proper description of the T-Shirt including the material, fit, sizes, etc. Which site would you select?
For most people, it will be the latter one with important details. Not only does it contain more info, but it is more professional as the site owner knows what people are looking for.
Influences Buyers
With product images, you can create a strong impression but that’s it. If you want to influence someone to buy your products, you need to communicate. Product descriptions are one of the best ways to communicate and influence the buyers as you can use language and word-play to your advantage.
Helps in the Competition
The eCommerce sector is one of the most competitive markets on the internet. There are thousands of sites selling the same products and that means a lot of competition.
When the products are the same, images play very little role in setting your store unique. So you are just left with product descriptions. It is where you can use your skills to be unique from your competition and that is a big factor in the cyber world.
How to Write a Good Product Description
Be Aware of the Product You’re Selling
Setting up an eCommerce store is quite easy these days and many people are doing it. The mistake they make is leaving room for proper research.
Generally, they just copy/paste the specs given to them by the manufacturer on their site. That is not what a good product description is. To be able to write a good product description, you need to be aware of the product you are selling.
You should know the pros and cons of your products and how it helps users in daily life. Once you know the ins and outs of a product, then can you write effectively about it.
Ask the Important Questions to Yourself
Before you begin the writing process, just ask some important questions to yourself:
- What tone should I use?
- Who am I selling this product to?
- Why would anyone want this product?
- How will it benefit users?
- Does it have any extra features?
- How will the customers use the product?
- How will this product add more value to the customer’s user experience?
These are some important questions that directly relate your product description to sales conversions. Once you have the answers, you will have more information to work with. You can use this information to have maximum influence on the audience.
Identify Your Target Audience
Knowing your target audience is key. Once you know who you are dealing with, you can use your writing skills to write a copy that will instantly appeal to them. It also helps in determining the tone of your cope. For a general consumer, you can use a formal tone but if you are selling a technical product, you need to use technical language.
Tell Important Things First
Any given product contains a lot of specifications. Now some of it is important and some of it is not. It depends on whom you are selling the product to. You should begin your product description by telling the important things first.
If you are selling a mobile phone, let’s say, then you should mention the processor it comes with, the screen size, its storage, cameras, etc. The rest of the things can be mentioned at the bottom.
Another example, if you are selling a T-shirt online then mention its fiber. Colors, and fit first. Then you can mention other things like thread count, collar, etc.
The bottom line is that you have to find out what your target audience cares about and make that information a priority. Ensure that it is the first thing they read when they come looking for information.
Tell All The Benefits
Here is how it works: people are not always interested in how much your product is loaded with features, but how these features will help them play a big part in whether they will buy your product or not. So do not just load your page with features, also tell the benefits customers will get from the features.
Here’s a little example:
Product: Detergent (Only Features): -Strong Cleaning Formula -Daily Use
Product: Detergent(Features with Benefits): -Strong Cleaning Formula to clean tough
Stains
-Mild on Hands, good for Daily Use
So you see, when you tell people how the features of your products are going to benefit them, they are more likely to consider your product.
Make it Easy to Read, Avoid Jargon
This is easy, you just have to make it easy to read for everyone. Don’t use any high technical language. If there is something technical, mention it, and then explain what it does.
Many sites use bullet points which is a great way to provide information shortly.
Storytelling
Customers connect with the products better over stories. Stories are powerful and can have a very deep influence. You can use the art of storytelling while writing a product description. The main goal is to appeal to the emotional side of the customer using words.
You will see a lot of sites selling organic products using storytelling. They have these paragraphs at the bottom that describe their hardships to deliver authentic products to the customers while saving the environment. That’s a selling potential in product descriptions to be tapped.
Keep SEO in Mind
Last but not least, when you run an online business, a big part of the success depends on a better SERPs ranking. That is how you will get new customers.
Optimize your product description with proper keywords that go with the given product. Use long-tail keywords for better rankings and generate SEO-friendly content.
Closing Phrase
So this is the ultimate guide to help you write epic product descriptions. Just remember to ask yourself the important questions and know about your target audience. Once you have those two sorted out, follow the other tips and you can easily draft a solid product description.
