Becoming successful by selling products on a marketplace or any website depends on many factors, such as the quality of the images, the interface, and product descriptions.
Effective product descriptions can result in effective sales. Regarding this, 87% of consumers rate product content extremely or very important when deciding to buy.
Product descriptions give a professional aura and credibility to your marketplace, resulting in many more conversions for your store. In this regard, the final goal of descriptions is to make sales.
But a good product description is challenging to create. There are several edges you have to tackle when you write product descriptions. For example:
- What target buyer is the product for?
- What tone should I use? Technical? Familiar?
- How long should the description be?
- What information should I include on the product page?
- Is it necessary for SEO when it comes to having epic product descriptions?
In this article, we are going to answer all these questions and others. But before we get started, here is a small table of contents to show you what you’ll learn today:
Table of contents:
- How to Write Good Product Description [11 Little-Known Tips]
What is a product description?
A product description is a marketing text that explains what a product is, its characteristics and highlights the aspects that make the product unique.
Writing product descriptions should include all the essential information about the article:
- materiality;
- size;
- features;
- benefits.
But a good description is more than a technical description. A good description is about satisfying the needs and fantasies of the client so that they do not hesitate to purchase the product.
Writing a product description, in some way, is like designing storytelling in which you present both writing elements and journalism elements.
With your product description, you need to make your prospect feel like they need to buy the product right away.
Why are product descriptions important?
Descriptions make your eCommerce website look more professional. Besides, potential customers will notice you know what you are talking about when you define a product.
When a well-informed target audience sees that your website speaks about any product in proper terms, they are more likely to buy that product. In this case, the conversion rate will increase. That is the idea, isn’t it?
How to write a good product description?
Product descriptions that sell can be considered good descriptions. So, at this point, the next question is: How can I sell high quantities of my product? Next, we explain the main issue you have to focus on when writing a good product description.
Know your audience – Build a persona
Knowing your audience is vital for creating a good product description. The first question you should ask yourself is, “Who am I writing this for?”. When you write a product copy, the answer might not be so obvious.
Creating a buyer persona can help your staff make good product description examples focused on the most important needs of those personas.
- Who is this person?
- What is this person looking for?
- What needs of these people do I have to address?
You should try to respond to these questions before starting writing. An excellent way to do this is by asking directly to the target buyer. You can survey them via email or create special events where people can come and ask them directly.
When you write a product description with a huge crowd of buyers in mind, your descriptions become wishy-washy, and you end up addressing no one at all.
Building an antipersona
Creating an antipersona also helps your company’s marketing and sales departments identify gaps, motivations, and everyday frustrations when customers purchase and don’t feel happy with the product.
This can help you improve your product, including the description, product features, and deficiencies.
An excellent example of an antipersona is a person who loves video games but never supports the industry and never buys anything or a person who believes that video games are for children.
To create a good antipersona, keep in mind the following tips:
- Get the right information. Talk with your former customers with low average sales and people who complained about your product.
- Recognize the difference between ‘not now’ and ‘never’. There is an important difference between people who will never buy you something and those who are waiting for the right moment. Improving your content can help buyers make the decision.
- Keep your antipersona positive. Instead of believing the antipersona is wrong about their decision, explain that your product is not suitable for them.
- Review your antipersona regularly. Reviewing your antipersona is necessary to check if they are still correct. Target buyers change all the time, also the antipersona.
- Use them. People across your company must use your antipersona profiles to address the edges of the product.
Identifying this kind of person’s traits can help you learn to be more transparent in marketing and communicate the best features of your product with honesty.
Use proper tone
When you know your audience, you know exactly how to speak to them. Do you want to sell a six-pack beer? Or do you want to sell a technical tool for engineers or something? Maybe a gaming monitor?
The tone you are going to use in the three previous cases will be completely different! For this reason, you have to be clear about the voice and style you have to use.
Just like there are plenty of ways a retail associate can talk with you in a store, there are plenty of ways you can communicate your product to your visitor. You want to figure out which “voice and tone” are most persuasive for your ideal prospect.
Next, you have a list of points you have to keep in mind:
- Try to incorporate the specific language into your eCommerce sites so you can have a comparable online conversation with shoppers to convert it into successful sales.
For instance, if you are selling a gaming monitor, you will probably use a different tone and voice than the ones you use to sell a regular monitor. The target audience that is using your product, in this case, your gaming monitor, will be someone who is used to gaming voice.
- Review regularly your persona and antipersona we mentioned in the previous section. These profiles will help you adopt the right voice and tone you have to use with both types of persona.
- Focus on your niche market. This way, you know how important it is to focus on your core audience and “speak their language.”
- Ask yourself, How does your tone feel? Does it feel close and familiar? On the contrary, is it a technical and distant tone?
Focus on benefits and features
“Most companies compete on the quality of the product, not the quality of the user’s results with the product. Competing on user awesome means fewer direct competitors, even within the same product/service category.” – Kathy Sierra
Products are the path to reach a goal for the average customer. What they can achieve with the function of your product is everything to them. Often, they ask themselves questions like the following:
- Does this t-shirt make me look cooler?
- Do I look stylish if I use this water bottle?
Most customers are looking for a great product that makes them look awesome.
A good description of a product should be focused on the product’s benefits, features, and details.
Among the benefits you can describe there are:
- The product quality;
- The useful life of the product;
- What can this product do for you?
Regarding product features, these are a bit more clear-cut. You mustn’t describe features that are not relevant for potential buyers. Focus on attributes that specify that this product is what the great retailer needs!
You need to highlight the benefits of each feature. Make sure to use positive adjectives, although not too many.
Avoid fluff
As a creative writer, you tend to over-describe and present the product as if it is the perfect product, even the best product ever in its niche. This might be true, but this is not important or might be very difficult to believe.
Avoiding fluff can help you to focus on the most important aspects of your product.
Phrases like “excellent quality” are considered yeah, yeah phrases, and they do not contribute much to a good product page copy. At the same time, sentences that have many adjectives are useless and do not offer important information about the product.
As soon as a potential buyer reads “excellent product quality” they think, yeah, yeah, of course; that’s what everyone says. Ever heard someone describe their product quality as average, not-so-good, or even bad?
Next, you have two tips you should take into consideration.
- Being as specific as possible is the key to writing a good product copy. Try to use bullet points that describe each feature separately and expose the benefits of each of these features.
- If you are writing the technical features, you can use a product description template as a guide, so you don’t forget the basics.
For instance, when potential buyers are looking for a laptop, they focus mainly on the technical aspects of this product. They check the brand, the processor, the graphic card, its technology, the RAM capacity, and other specific features that can offer the benefits they need.
Support description with data
Potential buyers and readers want to know if your product’s description is genuine and not fluff. For such purposes, it is fundamental you provide specific proof of why this is the case.
Most professional sites, such as Amazon or eBay, use several percentages or specific technical data to provide detailed information about the product and why it is an exceptional one in its field.
Take a look at one of the best gaming monitors on Amazon. The company describes why the product is not like other products.
Specific data for specific customers.
Amazon describes the previous product as follows:
- 27-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS gaming monitor with lightning-fast 240Hz refresh rate and rapid 1ms response rate, perfect choice for professional gamers and immersive gameplay.
- Active-matrix TFT-LED backlight (ELED Edge type) liquid screen and 400nit Brightness for rich and detailed content at 1000:1 contrast ratio.
The phrase “perfect choice for professional gamers” gives the readers the impression this product is unique.
Also, this web page compares its products with others of the competition by providing specific information about them.
If you are selling gaming monitors, be sure to include all the data you can (resolution, refresh rate, size ratio, etc.) and show how this data affects the gaming experience.
Otherwise, if your product does not highlight for any reason, tone your product copy properly or quote a customer who says your product is actually good.
Use visuals
The human being is a very visual creature, and customers are not different. 63% of customers think that a product image is more important than the description or even the reviews.
Consider that the images are integral parts of your description. What’s more, you can use very detailed images to show some challenging aspects to describe by product description writing.
Images attract the attention of most buyers! Sometimes images are more powerful than words!
There are six types of visuals you can use in your product description:
- Illustrations;
- Photos;
- Diagrams;
- Maps;
- Symbols;
- Tables and graphs.
Illustrations and diagrams can show your particular point of view about the product and even personalize your eCommerce site.
Regarding photos, they must be high-quality photos. Pictures can show some key features that can be overlooked. Besides, the customer will be able to imagine how this product will fit in their life.
Photos are essential to reveal some aspects that can be overlooked.
Hire a professional photographer if it is possible. Try this professional focus on the aspects you want to highlight. For example, if the design of your gaming monitor is unique, be sure to offer a picture that shows this. If the contrast or the color is the most relevant, tell the photographer to focus on showing the intensity of these aspects.
Regarding maps, including one in your description might be a great way customers approach your physical store if you have one.
Symbols and icons, on the other hand, can help you to clear some strong points, even to make a purchase easier.
Research conducted by Joann Peck of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Suzanne B. Shu of the University of California, shows that customers who can hold a product in their hands are more likely to desire to own the product. The same can be said for images or videos that encourage touch.
Another handy way to simplify your product without losing value is by using page videos. A study conducted by LiveClicker surveyed eCommerce business owners and found 88% saw conversions increase when they implemented product page videos.
Optimize products for SEO purposes
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is currently a great way to attract new potential customers to your website and define any purchase decision. Optimizing your copy for search engines will make your product more visible to a larger audience.
Keywords are the key to optimization. These are the search terms that people use to find the product that they are looking for. A good optimization, in terms of keywords, depends on the following factors:
- Density;
- Position within the description;
- If you are using it in the title and meta-description;
- Use of partial keywords;
- The organic introduction of them.
With a little bit of keyword research, you can quickly discover which keywords are recommendable for your store. Search results depend, in addition to dozens of factors, on these keywords.
In line with the best SEO practices and good measure, Shopify recommends placing fundamental keywords in the following parts of your web page:
- Page title. The page title is one of the most fundamental things when it comes to positioning your web page in the first place of the search engines.
- Product title. Main keywords must appear in the H1 but be included organically in the first paragraph of the article.
- Meta description. A good meta description can be the final reason why people click on your website. A good meta description must explain all the customers can find in your store simply and bring emotions.
- Image tags (ALT tags). Applying alt tags to images can positively impact search engine rankings.
- Product descriptions. When you write the description of your product, make sure to include the main keywords.
Use storytelling
Including mini-stories can be a great way to flank the customers’ rational barriers. When you use storytelling, customers forget that you are trying to sell something to them.
Writing storytelling that is easy to read can create an emotional link between your product and potential buyers. Try to be clear and consistent and do not include irrelevant information. Non-easy-to-read storytelling can create confusion.
When it comes to telling a story about your product and how this will influence the customer’s life, ask yourself:
- Who is making the product? A short reference about who made the product is vital to connect the visitors with the product’s story.
- Who are the store owners of the website? Telling customers the name of who is offering the product means you are honest with your audience.
- What inspired creating the product? A little story of the creation process of your product can help customers make the last decisions and purchase.
- What obstacles did you need to overcome to develop the product? Difficulties are the order of the day when creating a product or offering one.
- How was the product tested? Buyers trust products that have been tested by demanding quality tests. This definitely will increase the number of conversions on your website.
Use sensory words
Sensory words can impact potential customers in the best way possible due to their memories and personal sensations.
In fact, using words like smooth, lightweight, soft, or some that focus on scent and texture, such as sweet or crunchy, and many others can produce good feelings in buyers, leading to higher sales.
In this gaming monitor description in Amazon, the copywriter uses words such as vibrant and smooth (three times). Obviously, the author wants to highlight both aspects because they are relevant to gamers.
Anyway, do not abuse these. Be careful with adjectives because these are tricky words and can divert the buyer’s attention.
Great writers know adjectives can ruin a good text. Ernest Hemingway said that a couple of adjectives for a page was enough. Listen to this master and avoid non-essential adjectives.
If using them is strictly necessary to enhance the description, then you must use sensory words. These adjectives are powerful because they make your reader experience your copy while reading.
Make text scannable
The wall of text is one of the most common mistakes many writers make when writing a description. This block approach can paralyze a potential buyer. Otherwise, this way to configure the text, in general, does not include relevant information or essential details.
It is much better if you deliver a stream of information little by little, including a few details and valuable information in sections.
Next, you have some very useful strategies you can use in your online store to make your text more scannable:
- Create a table of contents. A table of contents is not totally necessary but can be a good idea if your description is too long or has several points. According to a survey conducted by Brafton enterprise, the average session duration of most websites is 2 minutes, 15 seconds. Creating a menu at the beginning of the description is perfect for letting the visitor know if they can find what they are looking for.
- Entice your web visitor with headlines. Visitors know exactly what they are looking for. They head straight to the information that is relevant to them. Your headlines must describe what they will find in the section.
- Include plenty of white space. Silent is everything or a significant part of the content. To make your text more readable, include white space between paragraphs, images, and sections.
- Use easy-to-scan bullet points. Bullets points are perfect for sorting product benefits and features. If you include an excellent headline with some bullet points, visitors can go directly to the product info and decide if they want to purchase your product.
- Increase the font size to improve readability. With different font sizes, you can accentuate various aspects within your eCommerce site. By default, headlines are written in bigger font sizes.
Discover pain points of your potential customers
Last but not least. Not every person is aware of the problems they have. Consider any pain point you can find out of them and explain why your product is the best to correct those pain points.
This is a result of the first point of this article. Knowing your audience includes their fantasies and hopes in your product, but also their fears.
Summary
Writing a good product description is more an art than a technical thing when it comes to content. Anyway, the technical description is just a starting point.
We know writing a good description is not easy. This is why we are here to guide you through the process of making your eCommerce better than ever before. We will take into consideration all the points we are mentioned in this guide and provide you the best description possible.
If you need an expert in terms of E-Commerce descriptions, product information, and content in general, here at GamerSEO will be happy to work with you. Our job is to help you attract as many buyer personas as possible to improve your conversion rate. Just contact us and start to work together.
Next, a brief resume of the strongest points of this guide:
- Know your audience. Do good research about which are the needs of your potential customers. Browse social media, read about success stories, case studies, or customer reviews, and build a persona and an anti-persona.
- Watch your voice. When you talk to a specific customer, you must know exactly how to speak to them.
- Address any product benefit and feature you believe it’s important. Customers want to know which benefits they get when they buy your product. Be clear with this, item by item, detail by detail – do not forget anything.
- No fluff, just good data. Please, do not use yeah, yeah phrases; just write any value proposition you consider necessary. The shopper is not interested in buying air. They just want an opportunity to buy something to fix a problem.
- Use visuals. Product images with a good format that show some specs or some bonus points of your product are a great way of convincing potential customers that your product is what they need.
- Use good page titles and product titles. Customers looking for some product will click on the blog post or marketplace with a good title. Make sure to include the main keyword and write a good meta description.
- Use SEO keywords. A good copywriter knows to use keywords to position the content. If you are a copywriter, then you know what we are talking about. If you are not, hire a good one.
- Do not forget storytelling. Describing a good product’s story is an excellent way to present the branding, business owners, and potential customers.
- Use sensory words. Any word that describes the benefits of your product in a great way, for example, light, curved, soft, shiny, etc., will create a close image in the reader’s mind.
- Write a scannable text. Using selling points to list the features of your product on sale is another great way to offer important info little by little. White spaces and infographics are also an excellent way to divide your text into exciting zones. Advice: write a general draft of the description, maybe hand-written, of all the topics you want to discuss before writing the definitive.
- Just a final tip: we recommend you check good product description examples before starting your own, just like those you can find on Amazon or eBay.
FAQ
What should a description of a product include?
A good description should include all the benefits and features of the product. A correlation among both aspects is desirable. Data and visuals are important as well since they can provide helpful information in addition to text descriptions.
What is product rendering writing?
Product rendering writing or product description writing is how you have to communicate the features and benefits of the product you sell on your website.
What is a target buyer?
A target buyer or target customer is the type of person that a company wants to sell a specific product or service to. According to Jon Morrow of SmartBlogger, knowing your target buyer is the most important aspect of a selling purpose.
This site uses cookies to provide necessary site functionality and improve the experience.
All rights reserved. Copyright 2021.
Full-time workaholic with four years of experience in Content Writing and Copywriting. Creating texts that bring sales, content that’s worth reading, and paying attention to detail is his key to provide quality and results. On-page SEO enthusiast and voice-over in his spare time.