Let’s take a tour 30 years ago- starting a business, promoting, adopting strategy- weren’t easy at all. Now, we have the advent of the internet and its access to all sectors to make working easier. So, online businesses are growing.

But on the other side of the coin- along with the number of online businesses, e-competition is increasing. Therefore, online marketers are adopting new strategies to face the virtual battle of customer hunting.

A product description is considered one of the effective strategies for online business. So, knowing how to write product descriptions that will help you increase sales is important. If your words convince the clients, you may hit the jackpot- get your product to sell.

Words have power. So, choosing the right words that describe and adorn your product well to customer’s thoughts will definitely be a good trick. Note here, it is about your products, and you need your customers to buy those- there should be no lack of authenticity involved.

There are some guidelines to follow when it comes to writing product descriptions. Let us walk you through it so that you can come up with a great piece of description next time you are writing.

What is a product description?

In simple terms, it is the elaboration of products on online stores.

Product description is a statement from where the potential customers of a particular product learn descriptive information about its substantial features, technical information, what it does, how it works, solutions of problems users face, benefits or advantages users will get, etc.

Such descriptions are mostly seen on online platforms, especially on e-commerce sites, and are an integral part of the product listing. Being a kind of marketing content, product description engages more clients and pursues them to buy that particular product to help increase sales.

Why Do You Need to Write Effective Product Descriptions?

When 87% of consumers prioritize product description as one of their buying decision factors, wouldn’t it be like digging a grave to avoid it?

The strategic goal you have in mind- to implement that, you need to ensure the work has been finalized to the point you never have to repeat it. If we specify matters here- you need to write product descriptions in a way so that any reader can decode the message you are giving.

Obviously, I don’t mean it would be greek to someone. The more clients understand your description, the better benefit you will receive. So, here we are describing the importance of effective product descriptions.

Among the numerous benefits you can get by adding a well-written product description, we have boiled the noticeable ones down here, take a look-

• Create authenticism

The more specifications your product includes, the easier your customers will apprehend your product, what it includes and how it will benefit them. Moreover, your inclusion of outlines will be of big help for your regular customers and potential ones. By doing them this favor, you will help them have authentic information.

• Add professional look

Having a product description helps customers to know more about not only your product but also your brand. As a buyer, we tend to look for products that will benefit us the most even having similar features or quality. When a particular brand is letting us gather much information about the product we are looking for, we will definitely assume they are responsible and professional, don’t we?

• Grow trustworthiness

What is a product description for a client? I would like to consider it as an unconventional way to relay your message to your target clients. As you are putting a lot of factual information into the description, you are letting your customers realize it is the best product for them. Thus, they believe your products and your speech through your description.

• Bridge between brand and buyers

Good description of products works as a way to connect brands with their buyers. Buyers can know and understand the product you are offering. Thus those who don’t know will be aware of the products, and who knows will keep your brands in mind.

• Stand yourself out

The more details your product has, the more upper hand you have considering its marketing purpose. When other companies are trying their best to reach more customers, it is wise to be specific yet elaborative enough towards writing the description, a vital part of online marketing! With this, you can convince your potential clients that you have the best solution for them.

• Rank your online shop up

When you optimize your products by the book intended to appear in front of people searching in google, your product description plays a vital role. Not only will it help your customer to trust you, but also help you to propel your ranking.

Now that you know why you need a good copy for your product description, it’s time to dig into how to write a good one.

How to write a good product description That Sell

A couple of months ago, our team of researchers conducted research on different types of soap bars available in the market. They figured out that some soap bars have no description at all. And as expected, those soap bars are not getting that much sales like the ones that have well-written descriptions.

At that time, this thought came to my mind that people should know what type of criteria they should follow while writing their product descriptions.

With that thought, I have gathered the information, prioritized users’ perspectives, and learned that these are some of the figures that consumers want to see in any type of product description.

1. Tell About Your Product

The first thing you need to do is to tell people about your product. While you are at it, you can synchronize it like a story plot- like you are telling the creation of your product to your clients. To do that, ‘Wh words’ play a vital role. Let me show you instead.

Let’s say your product is a pair of sneakers. So, the questions I want you to answer are-

• Why do people need them?
• What are the used materials?
• What are the specialties, features, benefits of your product?
• How is it different from the established brands like Nike, Adidas, or Puma?
• Which age of people are you targeting?
• Are there any color variations?
• How long can people wear them?

An example of this is pictured below here-

Here, Adidas has shown a well-descriptive copy for a pair of women’s sneakers. You can do that yourself. Show what your products include.

2. Target on Your Ideal Customer

A quote from Seith Goodin suits here, he said, “Everyone is not your customer.” Sure thing!

Each of the products available in the market has its own clientele, so has yours one. Define which category your products belong to. Then look into the clientele of those products.

You should consider each and every characteristic and surroundings around your buyer persona before making your move; because those people are your ultimate target to get conversions.

Here are some of the points relating to your ideal clients you should take into consideration-

• Who is your core audience?
• What’s their age range?
• Where do they live?
• Are they male/female?
• What drives them to buy these products?
• What’s their income level?

If you observe their traits, demands,s, and requirements, sure enough, you will be able to understand what your product description should include that will entice them.

3. Describe in a Brief and Alluring Way

Your product manufacturing involves numerous matters you want your clients to know, but the fact is a super long description may tire your clients out; they aren’t here to read an essay or article rather grasp the information they need.

Make sure to keep these in mind while preparing your copy. Before starting, let me show you an example from Calvin Klein in Amazon-

Any people searching for buying this t-shirt will understand what fabric is used, how comfortable it is, and some other points at a glance; because the brand has made this part sure with their bullet points, the features are easily readable and understandable.

Most of the buyers tend to skim the description. Thus, by inserting brief points or paras to highlight the most important features your potential clients would love in the description, you can help them receive the necessary information about your product.

4. Add Product Benefits

Colleen Francis, President and Founder of Engage Selling Solutions, wrote in her book ‘Nonstop Sales Boom’-

“Customers…only care about value and achieving their objectives.”

To put it bluntly, customers are naturally drawn to what they will receive in return where monetary terms are involved there. In fact, being a businessman, you can imagine the expectations level.

Your products are definitely going to bring something to their table, aren’t they? Come clean and help them by telling them the benefits first!

You don’t have to tell all the benefits your product is offering; better shortlist the most important ones and think how you want to describe a product to a new customer.

Let’s say with your carbonated beverage, you are doing business in a hot state like Arizona. ‘Tastes good’, or ‘Stay hydrated’- which one do you think would be a better power word?

While writing, take advantage of 5 senses (sight, sound, smell, touch and taste) to create a realistic feel. Let the potential clients understand what difference it would make by having your product in hand. Then highlight the values they are to receive in the product description writing aiming to solve their occurring problems.

I need you to show what Oakley has illustrated, which I think is pretty good. Not only they sectorize the descriptions into 2 individual parts, but also they have a separate part, ‘technologies included’, where they have showcased the specialities of this sunglass, which any potential client would find impressive.

Ensure your customers that you are serving them with one of the world’s best products. It isn’t sufficient enough if only you and your brand knows what benefits you bring; let the potential users have knowledge; as they are the ultimate target for whatever you will be doing.

5. Use the Voice of Your Brand

How does your brand voice your product? Does it sound professional or casual? Does it seem far distant or relate to the audience?

You must use your brand’s voice while delivering through writing. The speech may vary, but the tone won’t. So, keeping the brand’s voice in mind, use different versions of your copy and figure out which one captures your targeted audience’s attention.

Here, you must take into consideration your product, the purpose, your client’s emotion, etc. For example, the tone of cold drinks’ description will differ from a liquid cleaner even though both are liquids.

6. Be Reasonable With Superlatives

To describe a product’s capability, we sometimes see manufacturers use superlatives. You can do so, but don’t just keep putting ‘it is the best’; rather, show the answer to why it is the best; otherwise, it may sound bluff.

Let’s talk about this product description example; more or less, we all are aware of its pain-relieving efficiency.

This pain-alleviating ointment uses a superlative “fast and long-lasting,” and to highlight the statement, they are adding the benefits that users will get relief from inflammation, joint pain, stiffness, sprains, and sciatica.

The purpose of superlatives is to show the potential clients about the advantages through indirect comparison. Therefore, justify your superlatives while using superlative terms like- best, strongest, easiest; make sure your advantages are describing that part well; otherwise, it may look insincere.

7. Appeal to Your Clients’ Imagination

Though online shopping has bestowed many advantages upon us, the fact is we don’t have the advantage to touch or feel the products that are being shown on e shop displays. However, if you can play with your words right, it may pique your potential consumers’ interest to explore your product.

There are many effective ways; some marketers choose storytelling, some use personification, and some choose sensory words to create fantasy. Here is an example-

This is a light. In this product description, they are telling in a way so that people reading this well imagine how their room will look and have a cozy feeling after buying these products. Even if not for them, they can buy it as a gift for their loved ones.

What about your product? You can apply these theories to your product as well. Make your potential clients relate what it will feel like after owning your product- create a sense of possession.

8. Structure a Scannable Description

For your product, you will find shoppers who are going to purchase and who are going to check. But, regardless of whoever they are, one thing is certain, they are willing to find out the beneficial gists from your product description. So, if your product is short and scannable, you are to get their attention.

Take a look at this bicycle description of Merida Bikes, in this description; instead of telling what technologies they use, they showed- which I find pretty clever and impressive. Prospective buyers will find this easier to understand.

For your product description, you can do something like this, or use bullet points, number them, change the font size, include white space- any means are fine as long as your targeted audience can get the information within the shortest possible gaze and time.

9. Always Write Unique Description

Each product is unique. Similar categories of products may have the same ingredients; even so, the purpose can be different. Therefore, make your description unique- so that what purpose your products are going to serve becomes visible.

Use realistic language. Exaggerating won’t do any good. Fake or impossible solutions are a super-flop approach. Simply put, don’t take misleading steps.

You can use power or influential words, for example- Amazing, Hurry, Introducing, Expire, Limited, etc. Such words create a sense of urgency, an urge to possess. If you find any such relevant words, do use it.

What more uniqueness can you add to your product? A social proof. Social proofs are a type of approval or support with speech, reviews, testimonials so that it encourages others to buy. This works as a psychological stimulation in potential buyers’ minds to confirm a certain matter is correct.

If you have celebrity endorsement, certification, stamp approval, earned medal or testimonials, reviews- these will work just fine.

10. Use Eye Catchy Product Images

There is a writing technique, ‘Show, don’t tell’, literally do so- use images for your product.

Mostly you can tell a lot by showing an image only. For example, a company that is selling electric massage chairs to show how the chair functions posted a picture of a remote that controls the programs.

So, when we are talking about using images for your product, we need you to straighten your back here. You can’t afford to be lax at this point.

In case you want to know- 63% of consumers prefer your images. While using images for your product, make sure the images look professional and eye-catchy enough to magnetize your viewers. Add different shots (front, back, angle), lifestyle images, or infographic images.

As the online business doesn’t let us see or touch the products directly, the only option left for us is the product image. With images of your product, people assume a lot. If it is of good quality, the assumptions will be positive.

You may not always have good photos, but taking a photography post-production service may save the day. There are a number of agencies providing professional photo editing services to carry out your burden.

11. Description Optimize for Search Engines

Now it is time to check if your product description is SEO optimized or not. I have segregated the optimization in the following 2 processes-

A. Content

With the purpose of writing a good product description for your online store, keep the SEO in mind. Your content needs to be optimized for search engines. The work starts with keyword placement. Adding relevant keywords to your product page and content helps rank your page up in search ranking.

I searched for a waterproof polaroid camera on amazon, and this product was the first one to pop up.

As you can see, they put their keyword ‘waterproof’ in the headline as well as several times in the content body.

Where do you place your keywords? Shopify recommends these 4 places as the primary spot to place keywords-

•  page titles
•  meta descriptions
• ALT tags
• a page’s body content

Keywords that are the most relevant for the product, you can find them by using different keyword finding tools.

When your eCommerce product description includes keywords (targeted keywords, long-tail keywords, and short keywords) effectively, google will validate your product page. Also, your potential clients will have an easy finding. Even if this strategy doesn’t always work, it’s way more effective to make a difference than to do nothing.

B. Images

According to Hubspot data,

“Photo and imagery posts
are the most-used content type
to increase audience engagement.”

A good piece of the product description is not enough alone to help augment sales while you are out there fighting online competition. You have to make sure that your images coupled with your content are optimized as well.

While we are at it, let me remind you again, there is no alternative to high-quality images; such images play a vital role as online shoppers can neither touch nor feel the product. The images you display are the only remedy for their sense of uneasiness.

Then again, high-quality images take time to load, and online shoppers won’t give you that much time; they will just slide or swipe.

Your images need to highlight the vital features of your product, maintaining the accurate size so that users with any device can see instantly. Consider getting photo editing services from reliable company.

If your product is something complicated, then you can demonstrate it by adding a video.

12. Split Testing for Product Description

After you have prepared a copy the way you want with the required suggestions we have made, go for a split test. It is also known as A/B testing, split-run testing, bucket testing, multivariate testing, etc.

To demonstrate split testing, it is a marketing and promotional type of research method for customer’s preferences. The general aspect is that, to create 2 versions of a variable and test which one performs better to approach clients.

Ecommerce business people use this strategy to compare 2 web pages, advertisements, emails, pop-ups, hero images to find the type of upshots and to figure out which one is suited for the best pick. This applies to the product description page as well.

While doing so- the word formations, structure, length, images, optimization take every change into consideration. Such testing is proven to bring positive results in business conversion rates.

Product Description Writing FAQs

Q: What should be in a product description?

With a proper plan and focus on the product, a description should include credible benefits and scannable descriptions. There are more to follow, which have been described above.

Q: How do you write an SEO-friendly product description?

To create an SEO-friendly product description copy, make sure your keywords are properly implemented in the content; you are using supreme quality images and optimizing both of these for search engines.

Q: How do you know if it is the best product description template?

If your product description includes everything mentioned above, you are sure to have a perfectly structured template.

Q: How do you write jewelry product descriptions?

Jewelry is one intricate product. While writing jewelry product descriptions, make sure you include every notable feature, including material, size, color, stones, etc.

Q: How do you write clothing product descriptions?

While writing clothing product descriptions, make sure you include the fabric, color, zipper/button, sleeve & collar, design, use, washing type, care- etc. Though it seems like a lot, it’s essential.

Final Verdict

Ecommerce field is dynamic and constantly rotating; nothing remains stagnant. Every day new products are being launched; as a result, competition is soaring up.

That’s why you need your product description well-written, well researched, SEO optimized, scannable and approachable to clients. I hope the above-described guideline will help you form an excellent copy of your product.

But don’t limit yourself. If you have some other ideas merging with these, do so. Because to keep pace in this competitive business world and to achieve targets, some risks are worth taking for.