Product Descriptions Copywriter
How to Write Tantalizing e-Commerce Product Copy That Turns Casual Lookers into Impassioned Buyers
Seeking a copywriter to compose your product descriptions?
If you’ve ever done any in-person selling, then you know the importance of watching your prospect and customizing your pitch to get the sale. The prospect’s verbal cues and body language help you to gauge how you’re doing and adjust your focus to their interests.
But what if you’re not selling in person? What if you have to rely on your written words to sell for you? Then you’d better be sure you’ve chosen the right words.
A product copywriter, someone skilled in writing e-commerce web copy or catalog descriptions, can give you your best shot at generating sales
Online Competition Is Growing
Selling products online is nothing new. But with more and more people choosing e-commerce as their primary sales channel, the competition has grown exponentially. There are 562 million items available for purchase on Amazon. Each of them has “a breezy, bullet-point description of its dimensions, colors, amenities, and overarching purpose in the world,” according to Vox news.
Add to that all the items for sale on Alibaba, Etsy and countless other e-commerce sites worldwide, and you begin to understand why a well-written product description is a necessity if you want to capture the attention of buyers.
Search for almost any product, and you’re likely to get dozens and possibly hundreds of online retailers selling it. When you’re the consumer, that’s a sweet situation. You can easily find precisely what you need and price shop to get the best deal.
But what if you’re the seller? That’s a tough nut to crack. If online selling is your meal ticket, you either need a rare, uncommon product or you’ll have to find some other way to stand out.
Photos help, of course, but your product descriptions better also be highly persuasive if you’re to succeed at e-commerce. Otherwise, you don’t stand a chance of getting the reader to reach for his wallet.
Here then are some techniques e-commerce and catalog copywriters use to write about products and convert online visitors into customers.
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Product Copywriters, Start by Defining your Buyer
When you write a product description with a huge crowd of buyers in mind, your descriptions end up vague and dull. A better approach is to create a buyer persona.
A buyer persona is a representation of the type of person you see as your ideal customer. A description of that person might include such variables as their sex, age, behavior patterns, marital status and motivations. The more detailed you can get in your description, the more focused you can be in marketing. You may even find you have more than one persona to target.
With the personas in mind, you can delve into how these types of people make their buying decisions. You can speak to what’s important to them. You can spotlight the benefits of your product that you know they will appreciate and use words that will sound appealing to them and motivate them to buy.
Craft a Powerful Headline
Whether in a catalog or on an e-commerce website, no part of the product description is more important than the headline. The headline’s chief purpose is to grab attention and get your visitors to read the first sentence.
Most people use headlines to decide whether or not to read your write-up. They have plenty of choices, so your headline has to spark their curiosity or their eyes are headed elsewhere.
A well written, relevant headline lets your reader know what your product is all about. It engages them to proceed from the headline to the first line of copy.
Good Copywriters Make Readers Want to Know More
The headline starts off the selling process but it can’t do the whole job. While the goal of the headline is to guide your reader’s attention to the first sentence, your copy will still need to work to keep him engaged. Good copywriters know they must give careful consideration to every word.
Use interesting, thought-provoking language to create a picture in your visitor’s mind to hold their attention and keep them reading. Select words that are consistent with your brand. If your products are upscale, use words like “luxurious” and “lavish.” If you’re emphasizing affordability, use words like “economical” and “budget-friendly.”
Write the copy as though you’re talking to one person and not the masses. Choose “you” instead of a generic, third-person reference like “users.”
Limit your use of jargon. Unless the visitor is likely to be familiar with the terminology, keep it simple. Appeal to their senses, helping them to taste, smell or feel what you’re selling through your words
For your most important points, use words that grab attention like these:
- At last!
- Good news!
- The first and only…
- Treat yourself to…
- You’re going to love…
Be truthful. People don’t want to be mislead. Give facts and details, not fluff, until you’ve conveyed enough information for your visitor to happily click the buy button.
A Copywriter Knows how to Make Product Descriptions Seductive
Because you’re selling online and not in person or in a retail environment, the customer can’t touch or try your product. That means your product description has to do the work for them. It must explain how it solves their problem, whatever it might be, and makes their life better.
Think of promoting a hotel on the beach. You can tell your online visitors its location and that your hotel suites have balconies. Or you can appeal to their imagination. Be the copywriter who pens something a bit more enticing like:
“Relax on your private balcony, sipping a glass of Pinot Grigio. Listen to the waves lapping against the shore as the sun slowly slips away for the night, an orange ball of fire dipping ever deeper into the shimmering water.”
State Features, Emphasize Benefits
Features are characteristics that your product or service has. For catalog and e-commerce listings, give specifics and details, not fluff. Size, shape and color would all be features, for example.
Benefits speak to the value of your product. It’s what the product can do for customers, how it can help them. Benefits hook the customer and are the real reasons people buy.
Let’s say you’re thinking of buying a drill. Its features might be that it’s cordless, has slow and fast speeds, and offers multiple torque settings. The benefits would be you can drill holes faster and easier into any type of wood or metal. Those are the reasons you buy!
When you turn features and specifications into enticing benefits, you prompt your buyer into thinking, “I really need this!”
Solve a Problem
Another approach is to think of your product description as the perfect answer to your customer’s question. According to Online Daniel, a blog for e-commerce professionals, “Raw and cold information is great when you are writing a scientific paper. But as a store owner your aim is to present your products as the solution for your customer’s needs.”
Online Daniel goes on to explain that you need to put yourself in your customers’ shoes. “Let your customers know what can your products do for them. How can your products solve their issues or, more generally, how can your products improve their life? Always keep in mind that you are selling solutions.”
Enthusiasm Is Contagious
Back when my son was in college, he ran an online business selling used Lego sets. Ryan would buy collections from other kids, mostly boys in their late teens, who’d long since lost interest in their Legos and were happy to trade them for cash.
Ryan would then sell each set individually on eBay. Sometimes his products were the only ones of their type. But more often he had plenty of competition with multiple sets of the same type for sale.
What was interesting to me was that nearly every time that situation occurred, Ryan’s set sold for the highest price of all the sets available. Often his auctions sparked bidding wars. What was the key to his success? His product descriptions. While other sellers simply posted the name of the set, a picture of the box it came in, and a few factual lines about the number of pieces and condition of the goods, Ryan included pictures and descriptions showcasing every exciting little facet of each set.
Ryan loved Legos. He’d grown up playing them. He knew every trap door and hidden building feature like it was his own house. And he spoke about the mini-figs (Lego people figures) like they were old friends. In great detail, Ryan wrote about each Lego set, and his enthusiasm was contagious. His buyers, who too loved Legos, ate up every word and then placed their bid hoping to be the lucky winner. That’s what a good product description can do for you!
Tell a Story
A story about your product in use can be a great enticement. Ever hear great speakers deliver a presentation? They mesmerize the room with their interesting stories and amusing anecdotes. You can do the same in writing your product descriptions.
Look for stories to tell. Maybe you can talk about who makes the product or the inspiration behind its creation. Or describing the obstacles overcome to produce this product is another potential story starter.
One fashion designer had me write her catalog promoting her jewelry. In addition to the individual product descriptions, she wanted me to include the story behind her jewelry.
She travels to the remote village of Mompox, Colombia to work with artisans who create her designs in handmade silver filigree jewelry. For hundreds of years, crafting filigree jewelry has been a way of life for families in this rural town. It is considered a rare, ancient art form. The artistic techniques have been passed down through the generations.
Now imagine yourself buying a piece of this unique, authentic jewelry. Wouldn’t reading the story about the Mompox artisans create value and intrigue about the product in your mind?
Use Social Proof
What you write about your product will likely be met with a degree of skepticism. After all, the prospect knows your goal is to generate sales.
One of the best ways to defeat that skepticism is to use social proof. Testimonials, case studies, endorsements, and posts on social media like Facebook and Twitter are effective tools of persuasion.
Including a photo of the person speaking adds credibility to a quote. Even better if you can incorporate a video so the customer can see them talking about the product.
E-commerce buyers are more likely to buy if they believe the product is popular. Social proof helps highlight the products that are customer favorites.
Third party endorsements carry impact. Get and use them whenever you can. If the testimonials are a bit long or poorly written, have a professional copywriter do some minor editing.
Format Your Product Descriptions
Your e-commerce sales copy should be easy to read, not only because you’ve chosen simple language but also because you’ve used proven copywriter techniques to make your product descriptions more visually appealing such as
- Short paragraphs – Easily scanned
- Bullet points – Attract the eye with white space
- Bold text – Makes headlines and subheads stand out
- Tables – Organize specs for fast consumption
- Photos and graphics – Complement what you’ve said in the copy
Don’t Forget SEO
In your e-commerce product descriptions make sure your written descriptions include the phrases and keywords your customers would use in searching for a product like yours. You want your copy to be search engine optimized (SEO) so that Google and Bing will give it visibility in their search results.
Be sure to use the most important keyword phrase in your headline, a subhead and body text. Reference it as well in your meta-tags. If you have photos, use it in the captions and alt tag too. Just don’t overdo it.
A good SEO copywriter should be able to get the target keywords in without making the copy sound awkward or contrived. While SEO is important, it shouldn’t take precedence. Use a human-centered approach. Always write for your reader first, and optimize for search engines later. After all, the reader is your customer, not Google.
A Quick Product Description Checklist
The infographic below is a quick summary of how to write winning product descriptions. You can use it as a checklist when creating your copy. (Infographic created in collaboration with Daniel Munoz, editor of Online Daniel, a blog for entrepreneurs and e-commerce professionals.)