What are the best practices for writing effective product descriptions?
Although you can write different types of product descriptions, you should still follow some common practices. Some of the most essential considerations are listed below.
- Tailoring: You should already have thought about your target buyer persona; once you know this, it’s important to then tailor your messaging accordingly. Think about the problems they’re likely to encounter, and how your product will help them solve this.
- Features: Make a shortlist of all your product features and put the most important ones at the forefront of your description.
- SEO: Consider the impact of your product descriptions on your search engine rankings. Use keywords in a natural manner, and ensure that you’ve tested for readability. The level of words you use will depend on your audience, but in all cases, sentences/paragraphs should be succinct.
- Sensory words: Use words that will evoke emotions and encourage people to make a buying decision. Don’t be misleading, but do emphasize why your product is better than your competitors. Back all of your statements up with facts; consider using statistics if you have access to these.
- Clarity: Use bullet points, short paragraphs, and headlines; emojis might also work in some cases.
How do product descriptions impact SEO and marketing?
Product descriptions are very important for search engine optimization (SEO) for several reasons. When you use keywords, you will tell search engines what is on your page; their algorithms will therefore have more information to rank your pages, though it’s not a guarantee that they will. In some cases, product descriptions might be used in featured snippets on Google.
Beyond SEO, product descriptions are also an imperative part of your marketing strategy. Explaining what your product does, and why users should care, is important for credibility, trust, and awareness. Presenting detailed information empowers customers to evaluate and decide whether your products or services align with their requirements. This, as a result, is vital for determining your conversion rates.
Why are product descriptions important in eCommerce?
Product descriptions play a vital role in eCommerce for several reasons. If you have a physical store, product descriptions in eCommerce are also important. You should think about bridging the gap by offering comprehensive product descriptions that tell customers precisely what they will get. They may still purchase online, but they could also use this information if they visit in-store instead.
- Trust establishment: You must create clear descriptions that still have the required information so that buyers know what they’re getting.
- Communication: In your product descriptions, it’s particularly vital that you highlight what your products do and why the customer should care. Determining your unique selling proposition (USP) is a core part of this; spend some time thinking about it in advance.
- Engagement: Use your product description for engagement purposes. The customer should be interested to learn more about your product and, ideally, make a purchase thereafter.
- Buying decisions: Your product description will influence a buying decision either positively or negatively, depending on how you approach it.
- Reducing returns: Many returns happen because of inaccurate product descriptions; focusing on your descriptions and being as accurate as possible could stop misunderstandings from occurring.
- Credibility: Consider the influence of your product descriptions on your perceived credibility and professionalism.
Despite the advantages, you should also remember that product descriptions can take time to create; make sure that you allocate enough to get this right. If necessary, you can refine and revisit later. Split-test different descriptions to determine what does and doesn’t work.
How exactly do we translate ‘features’ into ‘benefits’ for effective product descriptions?
To translate features into benefits, consider following this three-step framework:
Step 1: Determine the pain points/desires that your customer has. Health, wealth, and happiness are three areas to consider.
Step 2: Write down how your products tackle these problems or meet your customer’s desires. At this point, you can brainstorm or write everything in bullet points.
Step 3: Once you have the background details, start developing your narrative and crafting your product descriptions.
Example:
Someone selling an SEO course might write the description below:
“Get onto page one of Google and convert more high-value customers with this comprehensive SEO course. Complete with 40+ modules, weekly workshops, and tips from experts with 10+ years of experience.”
The description is designed to identify their core desire (ranking on the first page of Google) to alleviate their problem (not being visible to their right customers). Then, the customer sees that their getting value through the number of modules and how much experience the experts have.
What are the different types of product descriptions, the tools available to create them, and what are the pros and cons of each?
Consider using AI tools to assist with building your initial pages, such as Hocoos’s website builder, and then refine your content as needed. As for different types of product descriptions to consider, you should look at the different options below (along with their pros and cons).
- Bullet-point lists: Ideal for easily-to-scan information that highlights benefits/features; not the best option for products that need more comprehensive descriptions.
- Lifestyle writing: Better for creating a connection with customers; might not be the best option for brands outside of fashion and similar industries.
- Voice-to-text: Ideal for creating conversations, but might not be entirely accurate.
- Templates: An easy way to be consistent across your descriptions/products; be careful that you don’t become too generic.
- Sensory language: Can help evoke emotions in the reader and make your product more appealing, but requires careful balance so that you aren’t too gimmicky.
- Substantiated claims: Builds trust when you use evidence and statistics, but can be damaging if you don’t include these.
Conclusion
Product descriptions are one of the most important elements for converting customers, and you should spend considerable time crafting these. Understanding your customer’s pain points and desires is a starting point; once you have this information, you should then determine how you will appeal to them.
Knowing what types of product descriptions to use will also be essential, and you must consistently keep trust and credibility at the forefront of your mind. Split-test different product descriptions to determine what does and does not work for you.
