How to Write Product Descriptions That Sell

If you have an online store or a website that sells products or services, you know how important it is to write product descriptions that attract and persuade your potential customers. Product descriptions are not just a way to provide information about your products, but also a way to showcase your brand personality, highlight your unique value proposition, and convince your visitors to buy from you.

But how do you write product descriptions that sell? What are the best practices and tips to follow? How do you avoid common mistakes and pitfalls? In this article, we will answer these questions and more. We will show you how to write product descriptions that sell in 2023 and beyond.

What is a product description?

If you own a store or have a website that offers products or services you understand the significance of crafting persuasive product descriptions. These descriptions serve not as a means to provide information about your offerings but as an opportunity to showcase your brand’s personality, highlight your unique value proposition and ultimately persuade potential customers to make a purchase. However it can be challenging to know how to write product descriptions that effectively drive sales. In this article we will address this issue by providing practices, useful tips and guidance on avoiding mistakes and pitfalls. Our aim is to equip you with the knowledge needed to create compelling product descriptions that will continue to generate sales in 2023 and beyond.

Why are product descriptions important?

Product descriptions are important for several reasons:

• They assist customers in comprehending the nature of your product, its functionalities and how it can address their issues or meet their requirements.
• They help your customers compare your product with other similar products in the market and see why yours is better or different.
• They help your customers trust your brand and feel confident about buying from you.
• They help your website rank higher on search engines by targeting relevant keywords and providing useful content for your visitors.
• They help your website look more professional, credible, and appealing by using expressive words, images, videos, and other elements.

How to write product descriptions that sell?

Crafting compelling product descriptions that drive sales is an endeavor. It demands a blend of creativity, meticulous research and honed expertise. Nevertheless there exist overarching principles and practical suggestions that can assist you in composing impactful product descriptions. Let me share some of these insights, with you;

1. Know your target audience

The initial step in creating product descriptions involves identifying your intended audience. It’s important to understand the features that would catch the attention of buyers. This process starts with comprehending your buyer persona, which’s a representation of your ideal customer derived from market research and data analysis. Familiarizing yourself with their demographics, psychographics, challenges, objectives, motivations and preferences will enable you to customize your product descriptions to meet their requirements and desires.

2. Focus on benefits, not just features

One of the errors that online sellers tend to make is listing the features of a product without adequately explaining how those features can benefit the customers. Features refer to the characteristics or attributes of a product, such, as its size, color, material or functionality. On the other hand, benefits are the outcomes or results that customers experience when using a product like convenience, comfort, satisfaction or happiness.

It’s crucial to understand that customers are not solely interested in the features of a product; they are primarily driven by its benefits. Therefore it is essential to emphasize and showcase the benefits your product brings in your descriptions. By doing you effectively demonstrate how your product can address their problems and enhance their lives. Additionally, incorporating triggers that resonate with their feelings and desires can significantly amplify your appeal.

A straightforward approach to achieving this is, by employing a formula; feature + benefit + emotion. For instance;

• Feature: This laptop has a 15-inch screen.
• Benefit: You can enjoy a larger display for watching videos or working on documents.
• Emotion: You will feel more productive and entertained.
• Product description: This laptop has a 15-inch screen that lets you enjoy a larger display for watching videos or working on documents. You will feel more productive and entertained with this laptop.

3. Use clear and concise language

Here’s another valuable suggestion when it comes to crafting product descriptions; employ succinct language. It’s best to steer clear of jargon, complex terminology or ambiguous vocabulary that may perplex or disinterest your customers. Instead opt for words and sentences that can be comprehended by anyone. Prioritize the voice, over the voice and choose positive words instead of negative ones.

For instance;

• Don’t say: This camera has an optical zoom of 10x.
• Say: This camera lets you zoom in 10 times closer to capture every detail.
• Don’t say: This shirt is made from cotton.
• Say: This shirt feels soft and comfortable on your skin.
• Don’t say: This product is not available in stores.
• Say: This product is exclusive to our online store.

4. Use storytelling techniques

One effective method to enhance the appeal and persuasiveness of your product descriptions is, by incorporating storytelling techniques. Storytelling involves utilizing words, visuals, sounds and other components to craft a narrative that resonates with your target audience. Employing storytelling can provide you with the following benefits;

• Grab your customers’ attention and keep them interested in your product.
• Demonstrate to your customers how your product seamlessly integrates into their lives and assists them in attaining their objectives.
• Build trust and credibility with your customers by showing them the origin, purpose, and values of your brand and product.
• Create an emotional bond with your customers by making them feel something.

Some of the storytelling techniques that you can use in your product descriptions are:

• Use a hook: A hook is a sentence or phrase that captures your customers’ attention and makes them want to read more. You can use a hook to start your product description or to introduce a new section. A hook can be a question, a statistic, a quote, a fact, or a story.
• Use sensory words:Words that stimulate the senses are words that engage with one or more of our five senses; seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. By incorporating words into your product descriptions you can bring them to life. Provide a more detailed and vibrant experience for your customers. These words allow your customers to imagine the appearance, texture, sound, aroma and flavor of your product.
• Use testimonials: Testimonials are a way for happy customers to express their satisfaction and endorse the quality of your product or service. They serve as proof adding credibility to your product descriptions. Additionally testimonials can demonstrate how your product has successfully addressed the needs and goals of customers.
• Use mini-stories: Mini stories are narratives that demonstrate the functionality and advantages of your product. These stories can depict real life situations. Provide examples of how your product can be utilized. Additionally mini stories serve as a means to showcase the character and principles of your brand.

5. Optimize for SEO

SEO, short for search engine optimization, refers to the practice of enhancing the visibility and ranking of your website on search engines such as Google or Bing. For sellers SEO plays a role as it enables them to attract more organic traffic and potential customers to their website. Additionally SEO empowers businesses to differentiate themselves from competitors and boost brand awareness.

An integral part of SEO is conducting keyword research, which involves identifying and analyzing the words and phrases that your target audience uses when searching for products or services to yours on search engines. By conducting keyword research you gain insights into the topics and queries that pique your customers interest. Moreover leveraging keywords strategically in your product descriptions allows for optimization.

To optimize your product descriptions effectively for SEO purposes here are some recommended practices;

• Use long-tail keywords:Long tail keywords refer to keywords that contain three or more words. They are more precise. Face competition compared to short tail keywords. For instance while “laptop” is a short tail keyword “laptop, for design” qualifies as a long tail keyword. Long tail keywords enable you to focus on audience niches and achieve rankings, on search engines.
• Use keyword variations: Keyword variations are synonyms or related words that have the same or similar meaning as your main keyword. For example, “camera” and “photography” are keyword variations. Keyword variations help you avoid keyword stuffing, which is the practice of using the same keyword repeatedly in your content and can harm your SEO performance. Keyword variations also help you cover more topics and questions that your customers might have.
• Use title tags and meta descriptions:Title tags and meta descriptions are elements in HTML that appear on search engine results pages (SERPs). Give an overview of the content on your webpage. Title tags are the headlines that show up on SERPs while meta descriptions are the snippets of text displayed below the title tags. These title tags and meta descriptions play a role in attracting clicks and visitors to your website by utilizing appropriate keywords and engaging language.

6. Test and improve

The last tip for writing product descriptions that sell is to test and improve them regularly. Testing and improving your product descriptions means measuring their performance and making changes based on data and feedback. Testing and improving your product descriptions can help you:

• Find out what works and what doesn’t work for your target audience.
• Increase your conversion rate and sales.
• Reduce your bounce rate and cart abandonment rate.
• Enhance your customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Some of the methods and tools that you can use to test and improve your product descriptions are:

• A/B testing: A/B testing is a technique that involves comparing two variations of a web page or an element, on a web page in order to determine which one yields results. It allows you to experiment with elements of your product descriptions, such, as headlines, images, videos, copy, layout, colors, fonts and more.
• Heat maps: Heat maps provide representations of how visitors interact with a web page by indicating their clicking, scrolling or hovering activities. These heat maps can be utilized to analyze the level of attention and engagement that different sections of product descriptions receive to identify any areas that may be overlooked or skipped by users.
• Analytics: Analytics are instruments that gather and assess information regarding the traffic on your website including visitor count, page views, bounce rate, conversion rate and more. By utilizing analytics you can effectively gauge the effectiveness of your product descriptions. Understand their impact on your sales and revenue.
• Feedback: Feedback refers to the insights and opinions provided by customers or potential customers regarding their experiences, preferences and thoughts, on your product or service. It serves as a means to understand what resonates with your customers, what aspects of your product descriptions they appreciate or find lacking and their suggestions for improvement. Utilizing feedback allows you to gain an understanding of customer preferences and make decisions about enhancing your offerings.

Conclusion

Crafting compelling product descriptions is crucial for the success of your store or website. These descriptions have the power to greatly impact your sales and customer satisfaction. That’s why it’s essential to dedicate time and effort to create product descriptions that effectively drive sales.

To ensure your product descriptions are persuasive and enticing consider the following tips;

• Know your target audience and tailor your product descriptions to their needs and wants.
• Focus on benefits, not just features, and use emotional triggers to persuade your customers.
• Use clear and concise language that is easy to understand and appealing to read.
• Use storytelling techniques to make your product descriptions more engaging and memorable.
• Optimize your product descriptions for SEO to increase your visibility and ranking on search engines.
• Test and improve your product descriptions regularly to find out what works and what doesn’t work for your target audience.