What is the true purpose of a product description? Is it there to boost your on-page SEO? Is it there to tell people more about the product than they can see from the photo? Or is it there to turn a casual viewer into a shopper? It is all these and more.
Product descriptions are your voice – your own sales agent pitching a potential customer or even cold calling and making that sale. The ideal product description is a perfect blend of logical benefits and emotional appeal. It talks to both sides of the brain and it makes people feel that they absolutely need to have that product.
That sounds really impressive, doesn’t it? It is even more impressive when you think that all the above needs to be achieved by a piece of text which fits next to your product photos without scrolling down. Does this mean that the perfect product description is something unattainable? Not at all. It simply means that you need to work hard, and write and edit it carefully until you have shed away every unnecessary word.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when you are writing your product descriptions.
- Create a Sensory Experience for Your Potential Customer
Surveys and psychological tests indicate that people are extremely likely to buy a product once they have held it in their hands, touched and felt it. However, this experience is quite impossible when people are browsing an online store.
It is your job to create this feeling through the words you use in the description. Use as many descriptive words as necessary to recreate the feeling of interacting with the product. Do not simply tell people that your scented candles smell like freshly bloomed lilac. Make them imagine walking by a lilac tree and actually smelling its delicate fragrance. Once a person can create this sensation in their mind, they are one huge step closer to making a sale.
- Soothe the Shopper’s Guilt
Most people feel somewhat guilty when they make a purchase. They are hovering with the mouse over that Add to Cart button wondering if it is a good idea to spend money on this item. The product description should allay this doubt and make people feel justified in their purchase.
Make your offer sound unique – a one-time bargain they can’t miss, a chance to have a product which in time will help them save money, a limited time offer for something they actually need and this is the best price for it.
- Use Action Verbs
Too many adjectives make your description look difficult to read, pompous and false. What you want to create is an action – the purchase. In order to get people there, guide them with action verbs throughout the entire text of the description. Make them see themselves using the product and reaping its benefits.
- Be Consistent with Your Unique Tone of Voice
Your average customer has already read millions of product descriptions by now. Either in print catalogues or online, they have already been exposed to every standard jargon in that marketing, non-committal corporate tone – and they are quite tired of it.
What really makes them stop and read a product description is a fresh and original tone – a casual or even humorous approach. They can imagine what it feels to ride a bike (even if they are shopping for the first one). What they need is the feeling of excitement, even the funny side of getting up on your bike after you fell from it, and the great time they will have riding with friends and exploring their city or the countryside.
- Do Not Mix the Features with the Benefits
Many marketers mistake features for benefits. They think that a potential shopper is excited about the powerful CPU in a brand new smartphone or the number of megapixels in its camera. Actually, what the customer wants is a phone which works smoothly, takes great photos, does not run out of battery overnight and does not freeze while they play their favourite game.
Last but not least, remember that your product descriptions should be addressed to your target customers: do not try to attract everyone, but those people who are most likely to buy your products.