Congratulations, you’ve started your dropshipping website or launched your online store. You’re ready to advertise your products and are about to write insane product descriptions for your inventory.
Do you just slap a title to a list of your product’s features? No, you don’t. You have to put more thought into your product description, even if you’re offering the best thing since sliced bread.
A 2020 Statista survey indicates that only 2.17% of e-commerce visitors convert to buyers. That’s a pretty low number. But you can do better by writing intriguing yet informational product descriptions that nudge your potential customers to that purchase button.
And no, you don’t need to be a master copywriter or have a way with words, you can write product info that converts easily. All you need is a little effort, some helpful steps, and valuable product description examples. Luckily, we’ve got you covered on the steps part.
Here are 10 ways to write killer, high-converting product descriptions for your e-commerce website.
Table of Contents
1. Visualize your buyer
Before you type the first word in your product description, ask yourself;
- Who am I writing this for?
- Why are they here?
- What problems can my product solve for them?
- What words would make them buy my product?
This process is called building a buyer persona.
You need to put a face to that unknown person staring at your product and wondering if it’s worth the trouble. A great way to do this is by imagining that you’re face-to-face and you’re telling them about your product.
Mind you, we said telling, not selling. A product description that sounds too sale-sy may put off your visitor.
When visualizing your buyer, you should also pay attention to your tone. Would your potential customer appreciate humor? What emotions do you want them to feel when they read your product description?
For instance, the tone you’d use for a product description for beard oil wouldn’t be the same as the tone you’d use for cat toys. One may be more playful than the other.
So, build your buyer persona before anything else.
2. Simplify
You have an extremely technical product whose features contain a lot of trade jargon. Do you just copy and paste these niche words in your product description? After all, the people who want it know what you mean by “circumaural with coaxial digital input.”
Again, this is wrong.
There are more than 2.14 billion buyers on retail sites worldwide, and not everyone knows what your product is about. If you want to convert new visitors, you should tone down the industry jargon. Try to make the description simpler for newbies without underselling your product.
However, if dumbing down your product’s features would do it a disservice, there’s another way to go around it. List the technical feature, then add the benefit in simpler terms.
That leads us to the third tip.
3. Focus on the benefits
Even though it’s called product description, it goes beyond just describing your product. Yes, your product is great and all, but what does it do for me? Why should I spend my money on it?
Make your copy centered on how your product can help your customer, and not how great it is. Visitors to your store know you’d always hype your product’s fabulous features, but how do these features make their day easier.
Like we said earlier, you can present your product’s benefits by placing them alongside your features.
Pro tip: Benefits can go beyond the obvious ones. You can even package an experience or emotion as a benefit. For instance, holiday sweaters don’t just keep you warm during winter; they also bring back sweet nostalgic memories. Sell that.
4. Don’t waffle
If you aren’t confident with what you’re selling, how do you expect us to buy it? Gain your reader’s trust by assuring them that your product is what they need.
We repeat. Don’t waffle.
Avoid using filler words like “excellent,” “actually,” “really,” or “very.” instead of saying something’s “very nice,” find a powerful synonym like “divine” or “breathtaking.” Make sure it fits your product though.
Use active words. Be bold.
5. Tell a story
Sometimes a story is all the persuasion you need. Introducing a human angle to your product can be all it takes to convert visitors.
It could be real-life narrations of the history of your product or its key component. It could also be fictional imagery that’d stir up emotions in your visitors.
Testimonials from previous buyers can work too.
6. Get Great Pictures and videos
A product description isn’t complete without quality pictures that show off your potential purchase in all its glory.
Blurry, low-quality pictures can put off shoppers and increase your bounce rate. Large pictures that load slowly are also frustrating. So be sure to pick the best mobile-friendly images for your site.
You can also add a video. You read right. Video.
A 2019 Google survey revealed that 55% of shoppers use videos when making purchase decisions.
This means that people, of all ages, refer to a video before deciding what product to buy.
Imagine a shopper searches for videos of a razor kit, and you already have a demo/tutorial video of that product on your online store. There’s a higher chance they’d buy yours.
Yes, videos are expensive but they can be worth it.
Pro tip: Don’t forget to include your product keyword in the alt tags of your pictures and videos.
7. Don’t forget SEO
People can’t buy your product if they can’t find it.
It’s possible to have a product that doesn’t exist—internet-wise. If your product description doesn’t rank well in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), people might not know it exists.
This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in.
Most people who buy products online start with queries on search engines like Google and Bing. These search engines provide a list of answers to those queries.
Several factors determine your rank on this list. They include;
- The authority of your website
- Age of your domain
- Natural backlinks to your store from other websites
- Optimized website content.
It’s hard to rank based on the first three factors, but the last is attainable with a little keyword research.
Find what words shoppers type when searching for your product, then include them in your product title and description.
The catch is that other sites are gunning for the same keywords. What do you do?
You become more specific. Instead of using general words like “ essential oils,” you can go a step further to indicate what kind of oils you sell—“cold-pressed carrot oil”
This way you reduce the number of sites competing for that keyword.
Warning: Do not keyword-stuff. Let your keywords sit naturally in your product description. Shopify recommends that an ideal product description should use a focus keyword in these places:
- Once in the page’s URL
- Once in the product description title
- Once or twice in the body copy
- Once in the alt image tag
In summary:
Writing a product description that converts isn’t rocket science. The key is to make your shopper the basis of your description. Let it serve them and not you. Ultimately, your product description should have;
- An attention-grabbing headline
- Benefits-focused body: This could be a descriptive paragraph or a list of features and their benefits. Better still combine both.
- Extra info: douse any doubts with testimonials, ratings, reviews, or FAQs. Then finish with a confident CTA.
