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9 Steps To Write A Product Description That Sells

8th September 2021

Whether you are selling stationery or surfboards, cups or cars, customers like to buy from a product that is unique, trustworthy, and offers them a solution to their problem. But if a customer is shopping online, they can’t see, touch, or feel your products, so how do they know that your product is right for them? They have to rely on the only thing they can see about your products – the product description and product image.

In this article, you will learn how important your product descriptions are and how to write a compelling product description for your eCommerce website. We will give you 9 tips for product description writing to help you to create content that sells.

What Are Product Descriptions?

A product description is the copy you write on a product page that gives potential customers detail about your product. It should educate shoppers about your product, including benefits, usage, and features. But it should also persuade them about your product so that they are compelled to buy it, showing them how it solves their problems.

So great product descriptions are both descriptive and persuasive. But, more often than not, eCommerce websites have product descriptions that just describe the item. Shoppers can struggle to connect and relate to this type of content on your product pages, which can mean that they struggle to understand how the product can help them. This can cause lower conversion rates, increased returns, and a lower retention rate according to Semrush.

This common mistake can be seen on a range of products and a wide variety of eCommerce websites. Consider this example for the latest Macbook Air. Apple.com (left) uses compelling copy that sells. Backmarket.com only lists the specification details of the computer.

Why Are Product Descriptions Important?

If a bad product description can affect your conversion, return, and retention rates, a good product description can help to boost sales. With the right content, shoppers can connect with your product and understand how it can help them. They are then more likely to buy, which leads to more sales for your eCommerce site.

A good product description also has the potential to boost traffic to your site too. Optimising your description for SEO, by implementing keywords, can help your product page to rank higher in search engines. This will help more people find your site and therefore drive more traffic.

A good product description can increase your traffic, sales, and retention rate.

How Do You Write A Product Description?

To achieve the benefits of a good product description, you need to know how to write one. You can follow these 9 steps to help you to write a product description that sells.

Understand your buyers
Solve a problem
Avoid empty claims
Add feeling
Craft stories
Add social proof
Summarise
Choose The Right Keyword
Write Your Own Description

1. Understand Your Buyers

The first step you need to take to write a compelling product description is to research the buyer. To sell your product you need to connect with your buyer. And to connect with them, you need to gain a good understanding of what drives them.

Once you have an understanding of who your buyer is, use language that resonates with them. Consider how you would speak to them face-to-face and emulate that language.

Remember that if you write a product description for everyone, you will end up connecting with no one.

2. Solve A Problem

As part of your buyer research, you should try to understand what problems they face that your product can solve. To sell your product you need to persuade your buyer that it is of benefit to them.

But it is important to avoid listing features and benefits as in our earlier Macbook example. Instead, you should tell the shoppers how your product will solve their problems. Will it make their life easier, happier, or healthier? What day-to-day annoyances can your product help with.

Remember to sell an experience, not a product.

3. Avoid Empty Claims

When you move on to the writing stage, you should avoid the common buzz phrases at all costs. These are phrases like “high quality”, “best buy”, and “life-changing”. These are common in product descriptions because they are quick and easy to add to our content and they give the impression that they are persuasive. But they aren’t credible.

Instead, you should explain why your product is all these things. So rather than saying that your car is “high quality”, tell shoppers that your car is the “pinnacle of German engineering” or was “designed with precision and you in mind”.

Remember to be specific with any claims that you make.

4. Add Feeling

Your writing should also help your buyers understand what your product is like to use and to own. Since your product is online they may struggle to connect without seeing it. So your writing needs to help them to imagine.

The images you use to accompany your product description will help to show your buyers what your product looks like. But your description should show them what it feels like. So try to help them imagine what it would be like for them to use your product.

Remember that your buyer can’t see or feel your product if you’re selling online, so you need to elicit their imagination so that they know what it feels like to be holding your product.

5. Craft Stories

Another way to connect with your buyers is through descriptive stories. Elicit their imagination by telling stories about how the product is made and what or who inspired the creation of the product.

This will help to add emotion to your writing, which can help to create a connection between your audience and your product. Although don’t rely solely on stories to sell your products. Your description still needs to be largely informative and factual.

Remember that your audience still needs to relate to your stories, so only tell them if they have the potential to resonate.

6. Add Social Proof

An element of social proof can help to add credibility to the content in your product description. For example, just because you tell your buyers that your chocolate is smooth and decadent, doesn’t mean that it is or that they believe you. A review from a customer or a picture on social media can help to confirm your claim about your chocolate from an independent person.

Social proof can help to build trust between your audience, your product, and your brand. But don’t be tempted to use more third-party content than your own. Buyers still want to hear what you have to say about your product.

Remember that social proof doesn’t have to be just product reviews. You can also use images from social media or links to press features.

7. Summarise

Providing a scannable and easy-to-read summary of your product can be the final push to conversion. It can help to remind your buyer of what you said in your product description or it can quickly inform a viewer in a rush.

A summary should include an overview of the key features and benefits of your product. A short bullet point list is perfect for this. But keep each point short, to the point, and informative.

Remember that adding a summary to your product description may need support from web design so that your overview is easy to find and read on the page.

8. Choose The Right Keyword

Optimising your product description for SEO can help you to rank your product and drive more traffic. So you should do the correct keyword research to target the right search terms in your description.

To choose the right keyword you will need to consider what keywords your competitors are targeting, where to use your keyword in your description, and how difficult it is to rank for your keyword based on the website’s already ranking.

Remember to carefully consider the search volume of your keyword against how competitive it is. You will get more traffic targeting a lower volume keyword that is easier to rank in the top 5 positions.

9. Write Your Own Description

If you sell products from other manufacturers, you aren’t likely to be the only website with the product. For example, you may sell a HP printer that is available on 27 other websites.

Often, in these cases, websites will use manufacturer-provided product descriptions. However, by creating your own you can stand out not only with potential buyers but also with search engines. You can make it unique, compelling, and specific to your brand, which will give you a greater chance of converting.

Remember to follow the other 8 steps in this article when writing your unique product description – don’t be tempted to follow the generic messaging in the manufacturer’s copy.

Summary

Creating a good product description can help to drive traffic and sales to your website. So you should invest time in crafting a unique and compelling description.

Your product descriptions are what connect your buyer to your product, which is especially important when shopping online. Buyers can’t see or touch your products so it is up to you to make them feel what it would be like to use and own your product instead.

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