By gbolade on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2018 in Copywriting. No Comments
How do you convince a customer to click the “Add to Cart” button on your e-commerce website? That is one question most webmasters have found trouble getting suitable answers too. Many people are looking for products and services online that fits their need. There are many websites that sell what you are selling, so why should anyone buy from you? The simple answer lies in the way you write product descriptions.
A product description is a very important aspect of your online shop when it comes to conversion. It is the reason why some online shops sell more than others. Writing good product copy is not easy, as there is too much information to fit in so short a text.
This article highlights 10 easy-to-follow rules about product description writing.
Following these techniques and tips will help you write product copy that converts.
Identify your target audience
The very first thing you need to do when writing product copy is to define your target audience. By target audience, we mean the people that will be most interested in buying from you. Define the features that would interest your potential buyers. This is called a BUYER PERSONA. It is a breakdown of the characteristics of your potential customers.
The following questions must come to mind when developing a buyer persona.
- How did the person arrive at your page?
- What are his or her interests?
- How will this person describe this product to a friend?
- What features or benefits would the person be looking out for?
- Why would this person be interested in your website?
When writing product descriptions, you must answer these questions. The buyer persona helps to specify what your customers need and want. With this in mind, answering these questions in your product copy is a way to make them buy what you are offering.
Always focus on benefits rather than features
Most e-commerce websites make the mistake of focusing on writing features rather than highlighting what the customer stands to gain by patronizing you. While features are good, benefits are better. They help sway the mind of the customer, as he or she is not necessarily interested in the mundane features of the product. They can always get that on Google. Writing about benefits tells the user how the product can benefit their day-to-day living.
Before writing product descriptions, make an outline of the features and benefits of your product. Its aim is to increase pleasure or reduce pain points. Your product copy must reflect this.
Use psychology in your product descriptions
There is something called THE BUYER’S GUILT. It is the feeling of guilt when spending money to buy something, especially if it’s not particularly needed at that point. Use psychology when writing your product descriptions as it helps to eliminate this guilt.
Write in a way that sounds reassuring, as you leave the customer with a feeling of happiness and satisfaction. It achieves two things which are: it helps you make a sale and also prompts a speedy return on the part of the buyer. A definite win-win situation for you. You can eliminate buyer’s guilt by letting them know it’s a one-time only offer, using words like “absolute bargain” and by making the product sound exclusive.
You can also compliment them on finding such a bargain deal and also stating that buying the product will help them save money. Who doesn’t like saving money?
Tell a story sometimes
A product description is a perfect opportunity to elicit emotions. It should have an emotional angle as it helps them buy the product faster. Give out relevant details in a way that sounds like a story as this fills any gap potential customers may have about the product. Stories show that real-life people have benefited from using the product too.
The story may be real or fictional, as long as it delivers a real-life perspective. It helps people connect with your brand on an emotional level rather than a transactional level.
The following questions can help in writing a story :
- Who made the product?
- The inspiration behind the product
- How would the product improve the buyer’s everyday life?
Use natural language and avoid certain words
Your potential buyer must read your products description as though they are having a real conversation with a real friend? If it does, you are one step closer to making them buy your product. Inject life into your words, rather than coming up with something that sounds like a computer-generated string of words.
Having a natural tone will help your customer connect with your brand, as there are no sweeping generalizations or empty adjectives. Who uses those when talking to a friend? Your guess is as good as ours.
Another thing you can do while writing product copy is to avoid the use of some words which would be highlighted below:
- Actually, literally, honestly: These are gap fillers that people use when they can’t think of something else to say.
- Get, got, gotten: Tell or suggest people to “buy” rather than use these words. They sound like you are advising them. You must be assertive in what you do.
- Sorry: This just spews negativity.
- Kind of, maybe: This word sounds as though you are not sure of what you are saying.
Never duplicate content
It is bad practice to duplicate copy or content. Make sure your copy is 100% unique, even if you are sure you wrote it yourself. The same copy can be online already on a different platform. Apart from having plagiarism issues, using the same content that others have used paints a picture that you don’t know your stuff and it can actually ruin a business.
Copyscape.com helps you verify that your copy isn’t on a different website. If your copy is on another website, you have to edit it.
Use power words and never stuff keywords
According to Jon Morrow, power words are words that naturally elicit an emotional response in humans. When you use the words and phrases, you can convince them to take the leap and make a purchase. Words that have positive connotations such as amazing, happy, jaw-dropping, jubilant, wonderful, surprising and excited are examples of power words.
While using power words, keyword stuffing must be avoided. Keywords stuffing is the art or practice of using too many keywords in a line or paragraph of text just to rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). You must use your keywords in a systematic way so as not to fall foul of search engine regulations. It’s good practice to identify these keywords (what your buyers are most likely searching for) before writing the descriptions.
You can do your keyword research with tools such as MOZ Explorer and Keyword Planner. A good product description infused with keywords help your site SEO rankings as more people see your product when they search for these keywords on Google and other search engines. You can optimize your product’s SEO by placing your keywords in your page title, meta descriptions image tags (alt tags).
Read our earlier post on how to optimize your site’s SEO.
Capture the imagination of the buyer
In the movie Gifted Hands, Ben Carson’s mum told him that, “Everyone’s got an imagination”. She was right, and you can tap into this for your product descriptions. Write in a way that stirs the imagination of the reader. User words that conjure up images in the buyer’s mind. Doing this keeps them coming back as you want them to feel like they are buying a lifestyle rather than a product.
Sell in a way that doesn’t feel as though they are being sold to but like their dreams can be achieved with your product. You can do so by mentioning an event, using adjectives, or pointing out a celebrity that is using the products.
Use Good images
While being adept at writing product descriptions is good, one sure way it can lead to sales is to make sure you have high-resolution images. Images rather than text are the first attention-grabbers on a page, so you must invest in good images.
Research has shown that a product image is more important than description or reviews from previous users. Quality images show the customer to imagine having this product in his or her life and also shows all the key features of the product in a way that text or words couldn’t have mustered.
In using images, one key trick is to use people using the products or the products in action. It shows them that real people are already using it.
Make it short
Your product description must be able to capture the attention of people in the shortest possible time. People have very short attention spans, which implies that you should write your copy in a way that the buyer finds information quickly without wasting time.
Make use of catchy headlines bullet points, and short paragraphs. Ideally, these paragraphs should contain a few sentences, lots of white space, and different size fonts.
You are more likely to lose a potential customer if you have long lines of text.
Final Words
Product descriptions are all about giving reasons why the product will improve your customer’s life. The main aim of writing product copy is stepping inside the head of the customer while adhering to Google guidelines. Following the aforementioned points can help you increase sales.
If you liked this article, you can drop messages in the comments section. Let us know what you think. You can also add other things that can be done to boost sales through product descriptions. You can check out our previous articles to join the conversation. We do hope you can learn one or two things from them.
Get in touch with us and connect with us across social media platforms @MactavisDigital. We are a digital agency that has built expertise in web design and development, mobile app development, content production, Search Engine Optimization and other digital services. We will be glad to hear from you.
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