Product Description

What is a product description?

A product description is a piece of text that describes the benefits and specifics of a product. Its goal is to offer customers enough details to compel them to want to purchase the item immediately. To make a compelling product description, you need to learn how to write persuasive content for your products. Moreover, you need to answer questions such as what problem the product solves and what customers will gain from using the item. Your description needs to answer such questions in a way that is simple to understand. 

Benefits of writing product descriptions

Optimized product details work wonders for the visibility of your website. By optimizing the product description and including certain keywords, you can boost your ranking in Google’s search engine result pages (SERPs). You can optimize a product page without including a description, but it may not appear in top results because of a lack of content.

Product descriptions play an essential role in educating the customers on a product. Supplemental information on a product that cannot be explained with photos or videos can be in the description section. For example, you will not buy a phone by looking at the photo and video alone. As a buyer, you need to know its specifications and other important details.

This also applies to niches where you need to know the material and care instructions before buying. By providing essential details on the product description, you inform the potential buyer and save customer queries from piling up. Moreover, product descriptions inform people if certain products are right for them, which reduces the rate of returns or refunds.

Nowadays, many brands use product descriptions to gain the customer’s confidence. You can use them to give people an insight into how your product or service will solve their problems, plus how it’s unique and different from other competitor offerings.

How to write a product description

Store owners often make the mistake of writing product features in the product description section. And this causes fewer people to convert because it doesn’t say how the product will benefit the consumers. Fortunately, there are ways you can create product descriptions that sell: 

Focus on the target buyer

The best product descriptions talk to the target buyer directly and on a personal level. When writing your own description, start by imagining your target buyer. What kind of tone would they appreciate? What words would they like? Are they OK with slang words? What questions do they have that you can answer?

Consider how you will speak to your target buyer if you sell your product or service in a physical store. Now try and use the same language in your online shop to create a similar experience on both mediums (choose words and phrases the ideal buyer likes).

Convey the benefits

When we sell our product or service, we are too excited about our product offering, features, and specifications. We start living and breathing our company, our online store, and our products. The problem is that our target buyers are not that into the mundane features and specs. They want to know what is in it for them- how will this product or service solve their biggest pain points. A successful product description factors this into detail and highlights the ‘what’s in it for me?’ part of every product or service customer.

Consider the advantages of each of your product/service features. How does your product make buyers feel happier, more productive, or healthier? What everyday glitches does your product solve for the buyer? Do not sell only a product; sell an experience.

Avoid clichéd phrases

When fishing for words to include in product descriptions, you might be tempted to use clichéd phrases like ‘excellent quality. This is a ‘yeah yeah’ phrase. When a potential buyer reads the phrase, they go like, ‘yeah, yeah, of course, it is excellent quality. Ever heard someone call their average product quality or even poor quality?’

You sound less persuasive when you use such phrases in your product description and make the customer doubt your product features. To avoid this reaction in the customer, try to be as specific as possible and more creative with words. Product details add credibility to the mix. You can never add technical details in a product description, so it is better to be specific.

Use superlatives and sensory words

Superlatives sound a little deceitful unless you have a reason to use them in the product description. The reader would like to know why you think your product is the best, most advanced, or easiest. So if your product is the best in its category, use a little technical information to provide proof of the case. Otherwise, the superlatives will make you look like you are bragging. Another way to go about it is by copying a real-life customer who said that your product or service is the most wonderful they ever used.

Sensory words can also attract customers to your copy. These words involve more brain processing power and address our senses of touch, smell, and even sound. Words like ‘crunchy’ and ‘soft’ feel very different when included in a product description.

Adjectives are very tricky, and they often don’t add meaning to your sentences, and you end up deleting them. But sensory adjectives are powerful because they make the reader experience the product while reading. Surprise your reader with vivid descriptions, and don’t shy away from using ‘velvety,’ ‘crisp,’ or even ‘bright’ if need be.

Stroke your customer’s imagination

It is a proven fact that if people hold a product in their hands, the chances of them owning it increases. But you are selling online, and your target buyer cannot hold the product in their hands. The best way to keep it close to physical touch is to describe what using it feels like. To start practicing this technique, you can start the description with ‘imagine’ and finish it by how your reader will feel when they own and use your product.

Use mini-stories

Adding mini-stories to product descriptions cuts through a sound barrier and any other persuasion technique. When the reader is going through the mini-story, they forget that they are being sold to for a minute. When writing a story about your products, consider the following questions:

• Who makes the product?
• What inspired the creation of this product?
• Which obstacles did you overcome to make this product?
• How did you test the product?

Add social proof

When the online visitor is unsure what to buy, they start looking for suggestions from others. Most readers lean towards a product that has more positive reviews and testimonials from the buyers. Try using a quote from a customer to put credibility to a quote. It also makes your business look more approachable and relatable. Many businesses also integrate a social media feed in the product pages to show real people using the products.

The quotes from a previous customer have extra impact because they describe a product as popular. The popularity claim is supported more when you add a cutting from the press and tag the item as ‘press favorite.’

When customers see that a product is attractive, they want to buy it. With your online shop, you can highlight customer favorites to make more sales.

Tracking the effectiveness of your product descriptions

The aim of writing a product description is to send a shopper to purchase. But how do you know if the descriptions are working or not? In this case, you need to set specific metrics that track product pages. Using these metrics will let you understand which descriptions are working best and which you can improve to perform better. You can monitor the following KPIs:

• Conversion rate
• Search rankings
• Cart abandonment rate
• Return rate
• Support inquiries

Monitoring these KPIs monthly will reveal how effective your product descriptions are and whether they need to be updated or revamped.