A picture is worth a thousand words, but you still need to write descriptions to accompany product photos. A great product description will persuade a prospect to make a purchase, even if they did not have the intention to buy anything. A bad product description will deter even a decided customer.
Great product descriptions build relationships between brands and people, and make prospects lust after a product and want to buy it. When thinking about your marketing strategy as a whole, you must include product descriptions together with sales letters, landing page copy and other similar pieces of content.
But how do you take your product descriptions from “meh” to “wow”? How do you make sure that every one of them has the same powerful effect on your readers? These are the key tips to teaching yourself to write high converting product examples:
- Speak Like Your Customers
The first key aspect of a winning product description is the tone of voice and choice of vocabulary. You must address your target customer in the way they usually talk to each other and to you. Just think how teenagers talk and how 35-40 year olds speak. The difference is easy to spot.
But how do you really know how your prospects talk? That’s simple: from the way they interact with you on the social media, in comments to your blog articles and replies to your polls and surveys. This is why you should always pay attention to what your followers and prospects tell you: among other useful things, you learn how they talk.
- Use Action Verbs Instead of Adjectives and Adverbs
When you write product descriptions, consider that you are writing a script for a movie. Each actor needs to be told what they have to do. Your readers need to feel involved in this action. It is not a “warm and comfortable sweater to be worn in the cold season”. You tell your prospect that “when you put on this sweater on a cold morning day, you will feel warm and comfortable throughout the day”.
The subtle difference in approach turned the viewer from a passive reader into the actor of the scene, actually imagining doing what you tell them. That’s one big step ahead towards a purchase.
- Repeat after Us: Features Are Not Benefits
The top mistake in product description copywriting is confusing product features with benefits. When these features tend towards the technical end of the spectrum, things get even more complicated. People are not looking for X number of megapixels, self-cleaning lenses and anti-vibration technology when they are shopping for a camera. They want to take beautiful, crisp photos during their vacation, even when there is high wind or their hand is shaking a little.
As a general rule, do not try to sell the features of the product; sell the experience people will have using it.
- Tell a Good Story
Why this product? What makes it special? Storytelling is the best tactic to create familiarity with the product, create the desire to buy and persuade people that your product really fulfills their needs. Some brands take storytelling to the top, they craft stories which compete with pure literature. One such example is J. Peterman Company, retailers of vintage style clothing for men and women. The brand embraces the romantic mood of vintage style to perfection in every single product description.
- Eliminate the Buyer’s Guilt
Almost all of us feel the twinge of guilt when satisfying our caprices and hobbies. Every non-essential item placed in the shopping basket is accompanied by the question: “but do I really need this?” To ease the buyer’s guilt, these are the top tactics used by copywriters:
- Let clients know this is a special offer
- Congratulate them for finding the best price for the product
- Make them feel that they will actually save money by choosing your product (long lasting, no need to buy another one soon)
- Give the sense that it is an exclusive product at a bargain price
Last but not least, remember to proofread your product descriptions before uploading them to your website. A typo will ruin the shopping mood faster than you can say “checkout”.