Our Killer Guide To Writing Product Descriptions That Sell

Who are you writing for?

Before you start writing, you need to define and establish your buyer personas so that, when you do begin to write up your amazing product descriptions, they’ll be targeted and on-brand. You might already have these to hand as a part of your marketing strategy, but don’t fret if not, there are tonnes of guides out there that’ll help you put this information together.

Appeal to the buyer’s emotions

Emotions drive the customer’s decision making. If you can elicit emotion in your product description, you’re halfway there in writing absorbing copy that influences buying behaviours.

For example, if you’re writing a description for an item of clothing, you might want to consider a technique of complimenting the reader via the product. For example “This figure-hugging dress will show off your beautiful curves, perfect for knocking them dead on the dancefloor!” This also works well for shoes, beauty products, and fragrances.

When it comes to writing for household goods, use the copy to literally place it in their home for them. Such as, “This long-burning candle will light up your home with a warm and comforting glow, perfect for those cosy winter nights on your sofa.”

You may also want to consider what problem the product solves for them, or how it can make their lives easier.

Convey the features and benefits together

Focussing on the benefits of buying your product is, of course, key in selling it – but there’s a great way you can include this in your copy without it being pushy. People don’t like it when they’re aware of being sold to, so you need to do this in a subtle way.

Let’s take a pair of running shoes for example.

Features:

• Cushioned ankle
• Foam sole
• Grip
• Breathable material

That’s super boring though, isn’t it?

Loads of trainers have those features. But when you put the features together and align with impactful benefits, you get something much more appealing.

Let’s consider using the above example, “With a cushioned ankle and foam sole, these super comfy running shoes will help you reach your goals with ease. The grip lets you scale a variety of terrain and the breathable material helps you go longer for a truly uplifting workout.”

Keep things concise

On the whole, people don’t typically read the content they look at online word-for-word, and the same goes for product pages. According to Nielsen, a whopping 79% of users scanned the pages. So, you have to write copy that caters to this demographic in order to make an impact. Nielsen further suggests employing ‘scannable text’.

Things like:

• highlighting keywords
• using subheadings
• including bullet points

Employ SEO basics

Did you know that Google has a share of 90% of the search engine market worldwide? That’s a lot of users and a lot of searches. Knowing the basics of how you can write product descriptions for SEO will help you drive more traffic to your site.

You’ll need to invest in some initial time to do the keyword research, find out what your target audience is searching for to reach your site, and what you can include out of this in your product description so that when Google crawls your site, you’ll stand out for the things you want and make it easier to be found by relevant customers.

A great way to boost your SEO strategy for products is to allow customers to leave reviews. It not only provides regular new content for Google bots but enhances trust for potential buyers.

We could spend an age going through all the ways you can use SEO to boost your ranking for certain products, but for now, here’s a simple do’s and don’ts to get you started!

Make sure you do

• ‍‍Target keywords
• Use image alt tags
• Include keywords in headers
• Use long-tail keywords
• Include model numbers or brand names in headings
• Include keywords in your URL

Ensure you don’t

• ‍‍Duplicate content – write different copy for each item
• Use the supplier or manufacturers descriptions
• Keyword stuff the page
• Use overcomplicated language

Brilliant images are just as important

“A picture is worth a thousand words”, or so the old adage goes (although, as a writer, I’m naturally at odds here.) Regardless, when it comes to your product description, pairing it with high-quality images that give a full scope of the product is absolutely essential. This will give the customer a full view of all the key features – use multiple images to show different angles or even consider incorporating rotating 360-views where you can.

A note on quality here – pixilation, blurring, poor sizing, bad lighting and so on - are unforgivable, and ultimately, will put people off buying your product! Always take high-quality images. The customer will link the quality of image to the quality of the product.

The image can also be used as an extension of your writing. Remember that candle example above, where it is described as illuminating your home with a soft glow, on a winter night? Take an image of just that – a cosy scene, with the candle centre stage – it’ll create a truly irresistible scene that the customer will find hard to resist buying.

Checklist

We’ve covered a lot of ground – so here’s a handy checklist you can refer back to for creating your own template and making sure your product descriptions are hitting the mark. There’s no one size fits all, it all depends on the customer, product you’re selling, your industry, brand and branding. We’ve covered a lot of ground – so here’s a handy checklist you can refer back to for creating your own template and making sure your product descriptions are hitting the mark. There’s no one size fits all, it all depends on the customer, product you’re selling, your industry, brand and branding.