As an online business, you know the importance of product descriptions.
Potential customers need to know exactly what you’re offering and your messaging needs to be done in an intriguing way so they’ll buy from you — and not from a competitor.
Think about how you shop online for a new product. You don’t choose the first product that comes from your search results.
You take your time and research different products by reading through product descriptions, looking at images, and interpreting customer reviews.
This gives you the confidence to make a final decision on what product to purchase.
As you can see, product descriptions fulfill a basic marketing purpose while having a major impact on your potential customers and your overall conversions.
In this article, we will discuss why product descriptions are important, how to write them, and best practices to keep in mind.
Product Descriptions Can Make or Break Your Sale
In short, a carefully crafted product description can help increase your conversions.
If you don’t have a compelling description that appeals to your customers, chances are they’ll go somewhere else to buy a product.
Well-written product descriptions give your customers the confidence they need when shopping and deciding on a purchase.
In addition to advertisements, product descriptions are one of the most seen marketing tools your potential customers will interact with.
It is important that you take the time to write descriptions that will make them remember your company and product.
Furthermore, product descriptions not only impact your bottom line but help educate your customers, which in return can help build trust.
How to Write a Killer Product Description
So, how do you write an informative and creative product description?
Research target audience
For starters, you need to take a step back and research your target audience.
Who are they? What messaging do they like and dislike? What do they value?
Contrary to popular belief, you can’t just write a basic product description for anyone.
Instead, you need to define your target audience by creating buyer personas and then write for those personas.
Think about the types of people that will be purchasing your product and appeal to them.
Write down your buyer persona descriptions so you can refer back to it and refine them when necessary.
Find what makes your product one-of-a-kind
Next, when crafting your product description you’ll need to answer the following questions:
- What will a customer gain from buying your product?
- What issue does your product solve?
- How does the product work?
- What makes your product unique to competitors?
This is the specific angle your product description needs to help convince your customers that your product is superior to your competitors.
Format your description in a creative way
Now comes the actual writing part.
When drafting your product description, make sure to do so in an easy to understand format.
This includes writing in bullet points, short sentences, and short paragraphs. A block of text isn’t easy to read and the last thing you want to do is drive your customers away with a hard to read product description.
In addition, determine the voice you want to establish with your product description.
Do you want it more or less casual than your sales funnel messaging? Or are you shooting for a voice similar to your advertising copy?
Again, look back on your buyer persona notes to determine what voice best relates to your customers.
Write several descriptions and choose the best
Similar to writing headlines, your first product description may not be your best.
Take your time and write several descriptions so you have more options to choose from when making your final decision.
You may find yourself taking parts of different descriptions and piecing them together.
If you’re struggling to narrow down product descriptions, you can split test them to see which one is the best for your sales funnel.
Add in social proof
Once your product has been on the market for a while, add in social proof to your product description.
It not only educates your customers but is a great persuasive tactic. Customers like to read how others have benefited from the product.
Amazon is a great product description example of implementing social proof.
Additionally, social proof can help establish trust with customers and your brand.
Other Tips For Writing Product Description
1. Use online writing tools
Need to polish your writing? Below are some helpful online writing tools:
- Hemingway App: Pinpoints lengthy, complex sentences, and other grammatical errors
- Write URL: Writing collaboration tool — a good option for teams working on product descriptions
- Grammarly: Proofreading tool that can also catch awkward sentences
- Readable: Helps improve the readability of your writing
- Cliche Finder: Highlights cliches to help you avoid overused expressions
2. Tell a story
Customers should envision themselves using the product, and what better way to do that than through storytelling?
The goal with storytelling is to help fill in the gaps for your customers.
There are many ways you can go about doing this — you can begin your description with a story to set the scene; you can tell a story of how this product will solve a current problem the customer is facing; or you could tell a story of the product’s benefits.
The key is to show the customer what their life would be like with the product and thus, draw them into your sales funnel.
3. Optimize
Implementing basic SEO tactics, such as inserting primary keywords, secondary keywords, and TF-IDF is a great way to get your landing pages to rank and become more visible to people searching for your products.
The key is to implement these keywords naturally into your product descriptions, so your customers can’t tell what you’re trying to rank for.
Another way to optimize and decrease bounce rates is to make your descriptions scannable.
As mentioned earlier, your descriptions should be comprised of short sentences, paragraphs and bullet points, if possible.
You want to capture and keep the attention of your customers for as long as possible, and by making your description scannable, they can learn of your product faster.
4. Get detailed
Again, any good description dabbles in product details.
You want to be as specific as possible about why your product is better for the customer than a competitor.
Detailing the features of a product is an easy way to better educate the customer.
5. Brag
Do you use award-winning technology with your product?
Or did your product make a Best fill-in-the-blank list?
This type of information is vital to your product description and it’s something your customers should know.
Don’t be afraid to brag about your award-winning product — it’s another way to help build credibility within your industry.
6. Use powerful words
When writing your product descriptions, be sure to use words that evoke an emotional response.
What words do this? Jon Morrow at Smart Blogger compiled a massive list of powerful words. Here is a sample:
- Amazing
- Blissful
- Daring
- Eye-opening
- Fearless
- Jaw-dropping
- Mind-blowing
- Sensational
- Spectacular
- Uplifting
- Wondrous
You can view the full list here.
7. Double check your work
Finally, like with all of your messaging within your sales funnel, be sure to proofread your work before publishing.
You lose credibility and trust with customers when there are glaring spelling and grammar errors in your product descriptions.
An easy way to double check your work is to print out your typed descriptions and edit with a red pen or find a friend who can copy edit.
All in all, the more effort and time you put into creating a product description that relates to your audience, the more payoff you’ll see.
How ClickFunnels Can Help
In order for your product descriptions to truly thrive, your business needs reliable sales funnel software.
ClickFunnels is a great sales funnel tool to use for your business.
We make it simple for any entrepreneur to build their own sales funnels in just minutes, all without needing to rely on a team of techies.
With Clickfunnels, you’ll build high converting and clean sales funnels.
Everything you need to build and launch your funnel is pre-developed and automatically pieced together for your company, so you have a seamless and fast set up.
What has your experience been with writing product descriptions? What tips and tricks work the best for you? Sound off in the comments below!
Hi John!
Great post!
And thanks for reminding us that it's important to remember who you are writing to.
So often, our product descriptions are more about our cool product than the person and how it helps them.
By remembering who you're writing for, you can describe your product so that they know it solves their problem.