Running an online store is a rewarding venture, but it’s also a lot of work. There are a number of different things you need to make sure you’re doing in order to keep ahead of the competition, and one way to do this is by making sure your product descriptions are well written. A product description is quite simply an explanation of what your product does, and what it’s like. It should give enough information for the user to form a realistic idea about what they’re buying. Because it’s such an important feature, there are a few key things to keep in mind when writing a product description.
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1. Use Tech
Using all the tools at your disposal is always a smart move, but especially so if you’ve only recently entered the world of e-commerce and aren’t certain about how to write product descriptions. There are a number of words that have been coined for this purpose, and using them will allow you to attract more people as they’ll be able to tell what your product is from its name. Using a Shopify product description generator – an AI tool that will write the description for you based on keywords that you input – is a smart move if you want to use technical language without having to learn about it yourself. Most of these generators are pretty intuitive and user-friendly – providing a link to the product and the keywords will ensure that you get a few versions of the copy you can then place on the product page. All you’ll have to do then is take what you’ve written and adapt it slightly so that it fits into your existing site style, but doesn’t feel too different.
2. Choose The Right Style
The writing style you settle on should depend on a number of factors. You want to make sure it’s attractive for your target audience, for starters. In other words, if your early adopters are millennials, you want to use words that they’ll be able to relate to and keep it short and sweet. Additionally, you want to make sure it’s clear and easy for your readers to understand. The language you use should also reflect your brand’s identity. You’ll also need to keep in mind that different styles work for different products – this largely depends on what the product is and who your target audience is. For example, a tool used by a construction company will probably need a totally different style from a children’s toy. A good way to go about this is to create a customer’s persona – this is a fictitious character that represents your ideal customer. Using the information you have about your customer’s demographics, their online habits, and what they’re likely to want from your site, you can outline who this persona is. From there, it should be easy to pick out certain traits that are relevant when considering how they would view your copy.
3. Focus On The Content
While choosing the right style is important, the meat of the matter is the actual content of your product descriptions. This can be broken down into two parts – what you say about the product, and how you position it in relation to its competitors. The first part relates to the product itself- what it does, the features that make it unique, as well as the general description such as the size, material, and other specs like that. The second part relates to how you sell it – this will be influenced by your customer persona as well as the style you’ve chosen. You want to use the buzzwords that will resonate with your customers and fit into their lifestyle. For example, if you know that your customers are against animal cruelty, you can mention that your products are vegan. Additionally, you should try to position your product as being superior in some way to other similar products on the market. You can do this by simply talking about how it’s better value for money or that it comes with additional features that others don’t have while retaining the same core function.
4. SEO Guidelines
The days of stuffing your product descriptions with keywords to make them look better in search engine results pages (SERPs) are long gone – you’ll be penalized for it. Instead, you need to write a copy that’s informative and engaging and highlights the unique selling points of your products. When it comes to the best SEO practices related to product descriptions, you’ll want to think about your keyword placement. You should include the chosen phrases in your product descriptions as well as any subheadings you use – this is considered to be part of your on-page SEO. You also want to make sure that there’s a good balance between keywords and general text. You can do this by keeping an eye on the word count – you don’t want to put too many keywords in one paragraph otherwise it will look spammy and your readers will get bored, while you also don’t want to be underselling your products. Furthermore, make sure that the words you use are relevant to how your products are categorized in the online store, and that they easily relate to your product category. For example, if you have a line of women’s yoga pants, you want to use words like ‘comfortable’ and ‘flexible.’ Using too many words that are unrelated to the product category can lead to a lower click-through rate, which means you could get lost in the SERPs.
5. User-Friendly Formatting
Most mobile users expect longer product descriptions that are easy to skim on their small screens, which means it’s important that you format your descriptions properly. There are some suggested ways of doing this – one is to use bullet points and indentations. This makes it easy to see what the product does, while also highlighting its features and how they can benefit your customer. Additionally, whenever possible, you should use images and videos to highlight your product. Some retailers, like Amazon, will even let you include hosted videos in the product descriptions to show off how it works. This not only helps with converting customers, but it also provides much more information than just text. If possible, using a combination of both is ideal.
Running an online store is rewarding, but it’s also a lot of work. You need to make sure you’re doing everything you can to stay ahead of the competition, and featuring well-written product descriptions is a big part of that. Using these five tips will help ensure that your product descriptions are informative and engaging while highlighting the unique selling points. However, it’s a good idea to get professional feedback on all your work so that you can fine-tune the copy before you put it live.
