Write product descriptions that increase online sales

But if you think that your product descriptions should be additionally improved, follow some useful advice from our digital marketing team

Recent survey done by Nielsen Norman Group showed that 20% of web visitors quit buying a product if they couldn’t find a relevant information about it. In a word – no featured descriptions, no sales.

If you don’t want your customers stop putting your products in online shopping cart, make additional efforts to create such product descriptions that bring conversions, and your web shop marketing reaches planned results.

A good product description has to satisfy two important facts:

• It has to be persuasive and written in an appealing way, and it has
• To be SEO optimized

To achieve these goals try to follow the following steps.

Focus on your ideal buyer

As the e-commerce marketing specialst Henneke Duistermaat states on Shopify blog: “Understanding how to write a product description requires putting yourself in the shoes of your audience. 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.

Focus rather on your ideal buyer. Address him directly, be as much as personal as you can be. If you speak to the imagined buyer with a real features is like having a conversation with someone you know. That way you show that you understand his desires, expectations, fears, dilemmas and needs. Before you create a product description define your buyer’s persona and think abou all the benefuts he can get from your product.

Let’s see how specialized coffe blend maker brand Verve described its decaffeinated coffee Vancouver:

Source: https://www.vervecoffee.com/products/vancouver-swiss-water-decaf?variant=39923044483155

“Our Vancouver Swiss Water Decaf blend highlights candied almonds in a chocolaty background. The 100% chemical-free process results in 99.99% caffeine-free coffee. Anyone who enjoys a dessert tasting coffee will love this.”

Pay attention on how this product description aims at concrete niche audience - people who like to enjoy the rich aroma of a coffee but are unable to drink it due to its caffeine composition. Their product description greatly informs buyers about the coffee’s aromas and taste while also demonstrates how the process of decaf was done 100% naturally, without any chemicals involved. The description is at the same time personal, intriguing, seductive and informative! Which brings us to the next quality of a good product description – its informativeness.

Technical descriptions are important, but it’s even more important to point out product’s benefits

Inform your buyer, but don’t tire him with extensive lists of technical specifications. For instance, when you are selling a laptop inform your customer about its main technical features. But don’t forget that your target audience on your web shop are not robots but real people who want to learn about the ways your laptop can make their lives easier. In another words, put the benefits of your product before its technical specifications.

You can learn here from the experience marketing approach. Imagine which problems your product can help in solving and show it to your buyer in a clear and effective way. Describe which user experience brings the usage of your laptop and which everyday benefits buyer can get. Answer to these simple quastions: does your product helps people save money and time, does it help with their business goals, what does it do to their free time?

Here's an example from Lenovo, well known computer equipment producer.

Source: IdeaPad 1 AMD (11”) - Platinum Grey | Lenovo US

Lenovo described one of its laptops with the following words: “You’ll want to take this lightweight laptop with you everywhere—and with up to 7.3 hours of battery life, it will keep you up and running throughout your day*. Stream music on the Dolby Audio™ enhanced speakers. Enjoy videos or just browse online on the 11" HD display.

They didn’t mention only the technical capabilities of their laptop but also the benefits it has to their buyers and the user experience of having it in their homes. To put it in another words, they’ve emplpyed experience marketing approach. If you think you have to put the more technical specifications of your product, do it in the special section on a web page and pojnt aout only few of them in the main section of product description. For instance, if you are selling furniture onlinemention also the dimensions of your compact garden set so the buyers could better know if the set is going to fit into their garden or terrace.

Make your product descriptions readable and scannable

Product descriptions should not only be attractively written and informative but also readable and ideal for quick scanning on the page.

Avoid long paragraphs of text which no one wants to read. Single out graphically all the benefits that will set apart your product from all others on the market.

As Dave Rogenmoser, the fouinder of the renowned tech company Jasper and the expert for e-commerce and digital marketing, states: use the following ways of organizing of information:

• Present your information with bullet points.
• Organize your content in such a way that it is easily scannable. Use smaller textual paragraphs, headers and such.
• Use the bold font for keywords that will single out the benefits of your product.
• Make your texts short. Use an effective selling messages that will present your product in a concise and desirable way.

Source: Mushroom Chicken Bone Broth | Mushroom Broth Soup – Kettle & Fire (kettleandfire.com)

Look no further than Kettle & Fire’s web shop page which sells quality broths. The opening line in the product description for their Mushroom Chicken Bone Broth is at same time intriguing, readable and short and it evokes the richness of the taste of their product: “Say hello to earthy & mellow Mmm-ushroom goodness, with adaptogenic benefits from lion's mane, plus portabella & button mushrooms.”

But they didn’t stop at that when it comes to great organization of content. After a short opening description they have singled out the most important benefits of their broth and displayed them with cute graphic icons: their product is gluten free, it’s paleo and keto friendly, contains no GMO, it’s lactose free…

In addition to that Kettle & Fire made their product description more readable and scannable with the graphically separated section with number statistics relating to product’s contents (proteins, calories, collagen content).

It’s clear, it’s scannable and informative – you’ll hardly find the better formula for perfect product description.

Include customers’ reviews in your product description

Good product description is the most desirable information people search for online. As Shuki Mann on the web page Conversioner.com says: 76% of the web visitors want to read the quality product description to learn more about the product’s features, while 71% consult customers reviews before they decide to make a purchase.

So, don’t forget to publish the product reviews on your web page. Henneke Duistermaat reminds us that buyers who are not certain in their choice of product will look for customers’ reviews and will mostly check on the number of featured stars customers give when they are making assessments. Some reseach shows that displayed stars is the best incentive for online buying.

Source: Cinnamon Chai Woodwick Candle | WoodWick Candles (woodwick-candles.com)

Let’s have a look how the famous scented candles brand Woodwick uses the power of cistomers’ reviews with obligatory 1-5 star graphics.

Along the product description for their Cinnamon Chia candle they have published 7 reviews with the average remark of 4,8 stars. One Buyer signed ASHESOFROSE wrote: “Finally a candle that has a really great scent that is strong enough to notice compared to other brands. This is my first Woodwick candle but the other benefit is that it sounds like a crackling fire.”

To make even greater effect, add photos of your reviewers, but be careful to comply with the regulations and GDPR rules.

Try to connect your product web page with the social media platforms to get even easier access to your customers comments. But keep them in check from time to time so you won’t become a target of unpleasant trolling.

Optimize your product descriptions with SEO

Product descriptions should not only be informative or appealing to your customers, but also optimized for SEO.

Before you start writing your product descriptions do the research on keywords that will trigger online searches for your products. You can find the most suitable keywords with the help of a Keyword planner or some other SEO tools. Check also which are the trending words of the moment in your market niche.

It’s very important step for the success of online sales because the right keywords will also push your web page content to the top f the Google organic search list.

You might ask yourself another question: where to put the keywords? It seems logical that you should put the main keyword in the product title, while other coud be strategically dispersed thoroughout the description.

Neil Patel, one of the leading experts for SEO optimization mentions the good example of amazon.com which puts the main keywords inside the bullets and singles them out with bold font. This strategy might not work for you as well, so try the diverse approaches like putting of the keywords in the openinl line of product description or in the title.

To be sure that your web page has the best possible SEO, Patel recommends that your place your keywords not only in the textual parts of the product description but also:

• In the page titles
• Meta descriptions
• ALT tags

Use the same keywords ideally in your meta and product descriptions. But if you think that your product descritpions should sound more appealing or creative, don’t mechanically list keywords in a page’s body content. Play with the words in the opening line of your product description, and place the main keywords in the bullets or the technical specifications of the product for example.

Always keep in mind that your buyer’s expectations are more important than Google’s algorithms. So try to please the both so your product descriptions will start online sales.

If you want to have effectively written product descritpions contact agency for digital marketing like LOGIC abd be sure that your descriptions are well written and SEO optimized.

Sources for additional reading:

https://www.shopify.com/blog/8211159-9-simple-ways-to-write-product-descriptions-that-sell
https://www.jasper.ai/blog/product-description
https://www.conversioner.com/blog/impact-of-product-description-on-ecommerce-conversions
https://neilpatel.com/blog/write-better-product-descriptions/
https://business.trustedshops.com/blog/write-product-description-online-shop/