Semalt Advice On How To Write Perfect Product Descriptions
"The best garlic squeezer", "timeless design of a fly-catcher", or "the highest quality of garden chair workmanship". Such phrases are a thing of the past! If you want to sell, you have to stand out, and be based on specifics. Make the user aware of the benefits. Seduce him/her with a promise that you can actually keep. Descriptions of products and categories - how to create them to make them work? Here is a collection of tips and tricks for the e-commerce industry.
Do I need a product description?
Interesting, valuable and useful for the user content, will encourage him/her to buy. "By the way" - your site will go up the search engine rungs. Good product and category descriptions will allow you to present your offer and position your website at the same time. Also, if Google classifies the content on your site as descriptions, it will understand that it is an online store.
A good, creative product description is supposed to sell. The description gives you the chance to overcome any fears your customers may have when it comes to spending money. You need to clear your audience's doubts and convince them that your product offers them the value they expect in a specific way.
What should a good product description be like?
Creating descriptions of the products sold is not a piece of cake or peas and carrots. Here - details matter. Below I present you the most important rules thanks to which you will prepare effective descriptions for your online store.
The voice of the brand
The description of the product should reflect the tone of the brand's communication. This, in turn, depends on what values your company believes in and what and to whom it sells. It can be professional, informative language, playing with a free form of expression, and sometimes even content saturated with an absurd sense of humour. Professional product descriptions are therefore based on such fundamental questions as: "What does my brand represent?", "What goals does it have?", "To whom and how does it speak?", " What emotions does it sell?".
Remember that the tone of communication and personas are building strategies elements that do not exist without each other.
Talk to the persona
Ha, those famous personas! They should be provided with a separate and extensive article. Here I just emphasize that you need to know whom you are talking to. It's not just about the audience, but about the specific person, you want to reach. You need to know and understand your client.
Thanks to this you will learn:
- how to stimulate his/her interest and then the will to possess;
- how to dispel his/her doubts and overthrow his/her fears;
- how to talk to him/her so that he/she would understand;
- what references (primarily cultural) to use to create a relationship with him/her.
However, how to use the knowledge about the persona when creating product descriptions for online stores? First, it helps you know which language to use. You will communicate differently with Agniesa (58), a lover of gardening, and differently with David (29), an entrepreneur who does everything on the run. Second, it will allow you to determine what features of the product to pay attention to and how to describe them. One product can carry different values - depending on who is buying it and why they need it.
Focus on value
It is not enough to list the parameters and provide the technical specification. The customer will buy the product if he/she believes that it will meet his/her specific need or solve his/her problem. Therefore, match a product's feature with its value each time.
Highlight overarching values
How to create product descriptions in an online store to highlight value? Another way to do this is to look for benefits in the lifestyle that your product will bring the client closer to. Play on emotions but in a positive way. So, if you sell ovens, you can build a picture of a happy family spending time together in the kitchen. The kids get involved in kneading the dough, the parents prepare the ingredients for the sauce, and the pizza may not be in the perfect shape, but you made it TOGETHER!
How to create product descriptions? Technical Manual
As you can see, good product (and category) descriptions should be based on your marketing strategy. The key here is the persona and the tone of communication. So far, I have answered the question: "Whom to talk to and what to say?". Now let's deal with the technical side of the description.
Patterns of creating product descriptions
Just getting started and don't know how to create product descriptions for your online store? Ready-made "templates" for writing this type of content may be helpful. Here are the two most helpful in my opinion.
Model 3 x WH
Ask yourself 3 simple questions:
- What is this? What product, category, or service?
- What will it give the user? So: what are its advantages?
- What will the user gain from this? Benefits, Benefits and More Benefits!
Then expand the description with the remaining necessary information.
Model AIDA
This is one of the most-used patterns of writing about products and services.
A = Attention = bring the recipient's attention. Maybe ask a question in the first sentences of the description or indicate a unique feature.
I = Interest = keep the user with you and get him/her interested in the product. At this stage, you can relate to the benefits.
D = Desire = boom! Provide an argument that the client will not be able to resist. Instead, he/she will think, "Yes, that's exactly what I need!"
A = Action = encourage him/her to take action: purchase, ask a question, contact customer service, check other products in this category. In other words, do whatever you can to keep him/her on the page.
Describe the specific characteristics of the product
To do this, ask specific questions and answer them:
- What material is the product made of?
- What is its composition / what does it consist of?
- What is its size / what are its dimensions?
- What does it do?
- How to use it?
- Who can and should use it / for whom was it created?
- How exactly does it work?
It is worth appealing to the senses. For example, a product can feel smooth, velvety, coarse, warm, cold, etc. Do not only refer to the appearance, because the photos will reflect it. Describe what you can't see.
Organize the information
You can apply the inverted pyramid scheme. Remember that you only have a moment to grab and hold your customer's attention. Therefore, provide the most important information at the very beginning, rather than dosing it. The first paragraph of the product description can therefore be a kind of summary.
Avoid embellishments
Get rid, in your descriptions, of words that don't mean anything. "Outstanding Service", "Very Good Product", "Amazing Performance", "Top Quality", and "Outstanding Value" - these phrases tell the user nothing. For example, the last one, "excellent value", is a kind of truism. After all, no seller will say that what he/she has in his/her assortment is actually worth little.
When creating content for your services and products, pause for a moment on each word and consider whether it carries specific information and whether it really helps the user in making the choice. If you decide it doesn't, delete it.
On the other hand, remember that the content on your website should result from your strategy. If you are toying with different storytelling techniques, for example, you can ignore my advice.
Don't write about your products in superlatives
The point is not to point out the shortcomings of the offer. However, creating songs of praise also makes no sense - no one will believe it! So, avoid too much advertising language and empty promises.
Instead, refer to the unique features of the product and the already mentioned benefits (WHAT can it do, provide what it can do!) And explain how it will improve the user's quality of life. For example - the chair is ergonomic, which means that it will provide your client with the correct posture and take care of his/her spine.
Write clearly and legibly
Set aside long and complicated messages. Avoid multiple sentences. Use a period instead of a comma where you can. Just like in the previous three sentences.
Also - make short paragraphs. Avoid text walls as it tires the recipient. Make the text visually attractive. Use headings, bullets, and bold the most important information.
Don't use the passive voice
The passive forms are… passive. Instead of "the surface has been covered" write "we covered the surface". Instead of "pressing the button, the meal will be heated", write "you will heat the meal". It is not some mysterious and undefined existence that is responsible for the features of the product, but the manufacturer and your client will use it.
In addition, active verbs introduce dynamics and lightness of expression.
Write directly
We need to change our passive habits because the way we communicate with the client has changed. We don't keep it at bay anymore, instead, we try to build a closer relationship. Therefore, address the user directly in your product descriptions. Use messages for "you". So, do not write, for example: "An ergonomic chair will help to reduce back pain", but rather: "An ergonomic chair will make your back stop aching."
Encourage action
Do you know what a Call to Action is? It's literally a "call to action". Encourage the potential client to do the following: "make sure how easy...", "check", "try", "read more about...".
Product descriptions and SEO
Create SEO product descriptions. All the content on your website should be attractive, valuable, and optimized for the requirements of the search engine. If you use key phrases skillfully, product and category descriptions will contribute to a good position of the e-store on Google.
Use keywords naturally and freely. Don't overload the text with them. If you write a product description, all you need to do is insert SEO phrases several times. In the case of a longer description of the category, correspondingly more.
Do not forcefully stuff phrases that look caricatural in their basic form. Try it! Try to use a hyphen or a comma.
In addition to words in the nominative, use them also in conjugation. Use singular and plural. Synonyms will also be helpful.
Distribute them evenly throughout the description.
Pay particular attention to the phrases in the headings (use words in their basic form here) - if the description is long enough to do so.
Formatting product descriptions and categories
Besides, remember that proper formatting is also very important for positioning. It is about the:
- structure of headings (headings H1*, H2, H3 etc. - their number depends on the length of the text);
- bullet points;
- polishing of the most important information;
- short, multi-sentence paragraphs.
* The H1 header should contain the product name and the key phrase.
Professional product descriptions - alone or with an agency?
Do you think that you will best reflect the spirit of your brand, that through accurate comparisons you will pay attention to unique product features, subtly refer to memories and associations, and that your customer will then click the "Buy" button? If you are also able to analyse and choose the best keywords for your products and categories, there is nothing to stop you from creating content for your website yourself.
Or maybe the decision to carry out descriptions on your own results from the fact that you are the one who has the most knowledge about your offer? I don't argue that that's the way it is! That is why a detailed brief is so important in cooperation with an SEO copywriting agency which has powerful SEO tools such as the Dedicated SEO Dashboard to analyze and choose the best keywords for your products and categories. If you prepare a team of copywriters a set of information about your brand, tone of communication, products, recipients, market, and benefits and suggest what they should pay attention to, the chances that they will prepare descriptions that will sell will dramatically increase. You can also prepare an example of a description that will serve as a reference.
Besides, remember that the secret to good cooperation with an agency is honest communication. Do not hesitate to pass on your constructive criticism and suggestions, if you only see room for improvement in the prepared content. Thanks to such joint work, the final effect can be really good.
Interested in SEO? Check out our other articles on the Semalt blog.