Follow these simple and actionable steps to enhance your product descriptions and increase your website conversion rate (aka sell more of your products!)
Picture this; You’ve done the hard work, painstakingly creating a product, bringing it to life and caring for it like a first born child. Just like a demanding newborn, it has kept you up at night and got you jumping out of bed early in the morning. You’ve poured your heart and soul into it, and you know your finished product is amazing. You can’t wait for your customers to experience its benefits and love it as much as you do. Ah. Therein lies the problem - not many people seem to be getting to that stage. Your website visitors seem to be dropping off at the product page, before adding the product to their basket or taking action. Sound familiar? Fear not. There are some simple steps you can take to increase your conversion rate and make sure your customers are following through with a purchase.
Follow this simple guide on how to write product descriptions that sell and watch your conversion rate creep upwards.
What is a product description?
First things first, let’s define our terms. Put simply, a product description is the text that appears on the product page on your website, designed to educate the customer about the benefits of the product and persuade them to make a purchase (which is also referred to as a conversion). Product descriptions are usually made up of a short description (a paragraph or two summarising the main selling points of your product) and a longer description, which will go into much more detail on the product’s features and specifications, often including SEO keywords.
Why are product descriptions important?
In the world of eCommerce, product descriptions act as your virtual shop assistant. They speak to the customer and tell them why the product is right for them, list the product’s specifications, and gently persuade the customer towards the till (or in this case, the ‘Add to Basket’ button and, ultimately, the checkout). Product descriptions are important because in the absence of human staff to guide the customer, they must convince the customer that your product is worth buying.
In a time when attention spans are shorter than ever, it’s crucial to hook your customer in from the beginning, appeal to a need, desire or problem they have (also known as a pain point) and offer them a solution to that need or problem (enter: your product).
Tip #1: Be clear on who your customers are!
Okay, it might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many brands get this part wrong. To sell a product online, and sell lots of them, you need to be absolutely sure who your customer is, and tailor your language specifically to appeal to that customer profile.
By narrowing down your target audience to a specific customer (you could draw up customer profile with a picture and information on their likes and dislikes to help), you’ll find it much easier to choose copy that resonates with them.
Some good questions to ask yourself before starting:
How old is your customer?
Would they engage well with humour?
Are they sensitive to certain types of language (ie colloquialisms like legit or on point?)
Are they more likely to be reading on desktop or mobile
Once you have a better understanding of your customer and what makes them tick, you’ll be able to visualise their mindset more clearly and craft copy that they understand and engage with.
Tip #2: Put the benefits of your product front and centre
I’ll say it louder for the people at the back: PUT YOUR PRODUCT BENEFITS WHERE THEY’LL BE SEEN! That means, make sure you have hit on your top two or three product benefits in your short description. Do this by showing your customer how the product will improve their life; how it will make them feel healthier, or happier, or more confident.
The aim here is to address a pain point your customer has, and answer it with the solution provided by your product. For example, if you are selling a facial moisturising cream targeted at millennials who are time poor, you could say something like:
Fed up of waking up with dry, tight skin that looks dull and feels totally zapped of moisture? Treat your skin to the ultimate overnight hydration treatment with Hydrate & Goodnight moisturising mask. Packed with powerful active ingredients including [XXXX] and [XXXX], this vegan-friendly, cruelty-free hydrating mask locks in moisture and gets to work whilst you sleep, so you can wake up with spring in your skin and your step, and wow the world with your radiance.
In the above example, I’ve addressed the following paint point:
Dry, tight skin, particularly noticeable in the morning
And woven in the following benefits:
Ultra moisturising
Works whilst you sleep
Whilst reminding the customer of an important USP:
Vegan friendly and cruelty-free
Tip #3: Use emotive language to connect with your customer
Imagine you are browsing in a physical brick and mortar store. You’ve got a rough idea of what it is you’re looking for, but you’re not quite sure how to differentiate between various options or find the product that best suits your needs. Along comes a helpful shop assistant, at your disposal and ready to help you. They take a deep breath in, open their mouth and start talking... in a robotic voice using short, disjointed and factual language. They appear to have no personality or human warmth at all. You look on with a mixture of bewilderment and shock, stay put to humour them for a few minutes before making your excuses to leave, vowing never to return to the aforementioned establishment ever again.
Believe it or not, the above scenario is not too dissimilar from what happens if your product description is a lifeless list of facts. By using emotive language and showing how your customer will feel after using your product, they will feel much more connected with your offering and as a result, far more likely to follow through with a purchase.
Tip #4: Appeal to your customer’s imagination
In the previous tip, I asked you to imagine a scenario where you entered a fictitious shop and spoke to a make-believe shop assistant. The chances are, as you read your mind conjured up an image of the situation based on past experiences.
This is a powerful tool to use in your product description, as it encourages the customer to think of their own individual experiences and calls on them to engage with real, actual emotions. To utilise this technique to its full advantage, start your sentence by asking your customer to ‘Picture this’ or ‘Imagine’, and then go on to build the image, ending with the solution which involves owning your product and how that would make them feel.
Tip #5: Make your product description easy to scan-read
Let’s face it; most people these days have hundreds of plates spinning at any given time. They have a scary amount of tabs open on their phone, and an even more terrifying number on their laptop (don’t worry, I’m not looking at you - although of course there would be no judgement if I was!)
The point is, you need to make your product descriptions as scannable as possible. That means breaking the text down in to manageable chunks using headlines, sub-headers and bullet points.
Use headlines to signpost key pieces of information that you want the customer to remember, and then use the paragraphs in between to break that point down and include SEO keywords in a natural and seamless way.
TL;DR: The 5 Tips for writing product descriptions that work
Be clear on who your customers are!
Put the benefits of your product front and centre
Use emotive language to connect with your customer
Appeal to your customer’s imagination
Make your product description easy to scan-read
Still need some guidance on how to write the best product description your website has ever seen? Get in touch with me using the contact form below to find out how I can shape your copy to grow your business. 👇
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