Tips For Writing Epic Product Descriptions In 2021

A flawless website with great-looking images only contributes partially to its success. Well-written product descriptions are a major aspect that many entrepreneurs and digital marketers miss out on while building their websites. Writing good product descriptions on your website boosts online ranking and helps in better conversions, contributing to a good customer experience. 

What is a Product Description?

A product description explains the benefits and features of an item while giving compelling reasons to a customer to purchase it. The intention is to provide all the information regarding the product attractively, unlike a product label. Product descriptions are a quick way to assess if the product is useful and if the brand is reputable. A good copy bridges the gap between the brand and the customer. 

According to a Salsify report, as many as 87% of customers feel that product content is very important while making a buying decision. Also, almost 50% of shoppers have returned a product they bought online since it did not match the given product description.

Let’s look at the below product description and image that instantly connects with customers. 

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What is the Importance of a Product Description?

Product description gives relevant data about the features and benefits of a product. It also helps enhance your brand value and makes your website look more professional. A good copy will anticipate all the questions that a customer may have while browsing products. For example, if you are a clothing brand and your customer wants to know the details of a particular fit. If this information is not available in the description, the customer is unlikely to purchase or visit the website again, leading to a loss of sales. 

Another major advantage of having a good copy is that it makes the product look legitimate and builds trust among website visitors. If the product description is bad, then the site looks spammy and untrustworthy. 

Did you know that 98% of shoppers did not buy a product because of incomplete or incorrect content? Writing a good product description gives you an edge over the competitors as it stands out from the rest.

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Tips for Writing Effective Product Descriptions that Sell

Product descriptions play an important role in a brand’s digital success, and hence, careful considerations have to be made while creating them. Some of the tips and tricks involved include:

Understand your target audience

The foremost thing to do when writing a product description is to understand your target audience. The content has to be based on who your ideal customers are. For instance, if you are selling diamond rings to women, the primary buyers can be women, but it should also appeal to men as they give it to women in the form of gifts. So the product description has to appeal to both genders. But how to understand who is your target audience? That can be done by answering questions like: 

• Who is going to buy my product?
• Whom will it benefit?
• What main points or problems will it solve?
• Why should the audience buy my product?
• What is the target audience demographics?
• What information will the audience be interested in? 

After determining who you are writing the product description for, learn your customer’s persona as that helps in highlighting benefits and areas of interest. Additionally, if you have different products that cater to different target audiences, choose a target persona for every product on offer.

Highlight the benefits that matter to customers

Displaying ‘What is in for the customers’ is more useful than only listing down all the features one by one. Often writers of product descriptions mistake feature for benefits and highlight them. This can go against the success of the product. There is a clear distinction between the two; a product’s feature provides technical information while the benefit tells how the product can help the buyer. 

Distinguishing between benefit and feature is sometimes not easy, and one of the ways of doing it is taking a feature and matching it to a benefit. That way, you are neither missing out on the feature or the benefit. It can also be something like the example below: 

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• Feature: Low calorie
• Benefit: No weight gain

Focusing more on the benefits helps achieve a visual depiction effect where customers can visualize the product. The product description should provide a brief outline of the benefits and features and how it helps reduce pain or increase pleasure. Converting the features into benefits will enable one to write a persuasive product description that will help sell the product quickly. 

Convey a story

An ideal way to talk about a product description is by telling a story. It is all about persuading the customer by writing compelling stories using all the facts and figures. A good copy will have an emotional punch and relevant details and benefits that persuade buyers to purchase. The product description should have features and benefits, but it should also have a key feature to create a story. This feature becomes the catalyst to the story, and the description should make it easy for the user to imagine the story, connect with it and make a potential buyer an actual buyer. 

Here are some of the questions to answer when creating and telling a story in the product description: 

1. Who is the originator of the product?
2. What was the inspiration behind it?
3. How was the journey of creating the product? 
4. How is this item likely to help the buyer? 

Answering these can help the customer have an emotional influence, and they are likely to make all the abstractness more concrete.

Mention all the key attributes of the product

Ensure that you mention all the key information of the product without missing anything. If you miss out on the key attributes, it can lead to a bad experience for the customer. Since the product images are the only things customers have to rely on, you mustn’t miss out on any key information. Enlisting all the information about the product removes any confusion and ambiguity. Every product will have different attributes, but most should have the following inclusions: 

• Materials: Mention the materials or content that the product is made of. Skipping this important attribute leads to misunderstanding and a lack of trust. Customers may think that there is something to hide in terms of quality. 
• The size of the product: Since the images can be quite deceptive when it comes to size, it is important to mention the actual size of the items. Especially the small ones and the large ones. That gives an idea of the measurements and whether it suits the customer or not. 
• Care instructions: Do not forget to add the care instructions as that builds trust among customers. It also helps build the product’s reputation as customers feel that they are cared for. 

Providing all the information to the users reduces the abandonment rate of product pages. Here’s a great example of how all product attributes like compact design, gorgeous looks, color options, and more are included in one description:

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Use the right language and tone

The product description should sound very real and like a real conversation that you would have with your family or friend. It should not sound too technical. If that is the case with your product description, then it needs a little life. 

Additionally, do not use unnecessary words like ‘great design’, ‘awesome looking’, etc., that do not fully explain the product. 

Always list features in bullet points. 

Use creative phrases and write benefits that stand out from other products. A good example of such a product description is below:

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Make it scannable

The attention span of consumers is reducing day by day, and hence, a product description should be written so that it captures their attention quickly. Making the content scannable by using bullet points and powerful words that sell is a good option. Look at how Kindle is promoting its product using bullet points:

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Draft SEO-friendly content

Like everything else on eCommerce websites, the product description should also be Search Engine Optimized. Writing the best SEO product descriptions can be done by performing keyword research for your product. Once you find the right keywords to use, it is recommended that you place those in product descriptions, titles, meta descriptions, and image tags. 

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Test your template

Now, create a template by implementing all the tips mentioned above. Since there is no one-size-fits-all solution for a product copy, try making your own template. While writing it, consider what problem your product solves, power words to include, what story to tell, what features, benefits, and images to add, as well as the tone of the story. 

Once you have created a template, implement it and test it. Check whether it is boosting the traffic and improving sales. If you see good results, then you have done a good job. If not, determine what is wrong and make changes accordingly. 

Still finding it difficult to create effective product descriptions, try Peppertype.ai, which can help you with creative product descriptions in a few simple steps. 

Conclusion

To conclude, product descriptions are not difficult to add provided you follow the above tips. It should not directly push the product onto the user but highlight how it benefits the prospective customer. A convincing product description with good quality images is sure to garner more traffic and increase sales. 

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