A well-written product description can have a huge impact on sales. Any online purchase starts by getting the potential buyer to your product listing. That’s Objective One.
From there you need the potential buyer to convert to a sale. That’s where your product descriptions come in.
Good Product Descriptions = Higher Conversions
What constitutes a good product description?
A product description isn’t Dragnet. Remember that old black-and-white TV show? The guy used to say, “Just the facts, ma’am.” Good for police work, not great for product descriptions. The facts are needed, sure, but good product descriptions don’t stop there. More than simply size variants, colors and so on, a good product description speaks to the customer’s needs or their desires, leading to an agreement that it meets them.
Is there an emotional resonance for your product? What makes it worth buying? All but the most basic products have something that strikes a chord, whether the customer is directly aware of it or not. Knowing those deeper, driving factors can help you shape your description into something that leads shoppers to buy happily.
It is therefore important to thoroughly understand your customers, as well as the things they need which your product provides them. The best product descriptions address all the buyer’s purchase objections.
Product Descriptions 101
It’s more than just the facts. Got it. It might possibly even be something deeper, an emotional resonance that speaks to the buyer whether they realize it or not. Makes sense. Only …
Where do you start with something like that?
In most cases it’s simply a matter of considering your product from that emotional level. Let’s say you have a can opener. It’s a manual can opener, nothing too fancy about that. Everyone needs one in their kitchen. Can there be a deeper connection? Perhaps something about the style? Or maybe this opener does something different, like leaving smooth edges on the can, making it great for kid-friendly cooking projects.
Find that X-factor about your product that makes a connection with your customers, beyond simply fulfilling a basic need.
A valuable exercise could be putting yourself in the point-of-view of your ideal customer. Someone you’d want to be interested in your product. Go back and forth with yourself, thinking of questions you might ask as a customer, things you’d want to know, and answer those questions as the seller. As the seller you know everything about your product; take a good look at it from the shopper’s POV and imagine what they’d want to know, then use what you know to provide that info. You could even survey friends and family. What would make them want to buy?
Do it right, and in your product description you could even end up answering problems your shoppers don’t even know they have yet.
That’s a bit of the theory behind product descriptions.
How do you apply it?
How To Write One
Once you’ve gone through the above exercises, you’ll be armed with what to say. This is huge. Knowing what to say is the biggest part of your product descriptions.
How to say it is the final piece, and we have a few suggestions.
- Get to know what your customers are like. If it’s a niche product they may even have a specific terminology, or a way of talking about the niche. If it’s a more general product, like a can opener, you can write from the POV of a person needing to open a can. It may sound silly, but adopting the voice of the buyer to whom you’re pitching can have a dramatic impact on conversions.
- Review and compare similar products. This is kind of a no-brainer, but an important thing to do when writing your own descriptions. Not only does it give you tips for the way the most successful products are being described, it helps you get a better gauge for the features your audience is looking for.
- Make the product relatable. Find a feature of your product you know your potential customer will be looking for. Show them how it relates. This ties into the emotional connection, and can be a powerful “Go” button.
- Solve their problem. From your research you know what your customers are trying to solve. Show how your product does that.
- Give an example. This also helps reinforce the relatable aspect, by making you relatable. Demonstrate an understanding of their needs, such that you give them a great example of recommended use, or a situation for which the product is perfect. Again, you’re making a deeper connection.
If the results of your research are the clay of your product descriptions, the above suggestions are the tools you use to shape them.
Done well, your product descriptions become an active part of your business expansion.
Your Virtual Salesmen
In an online world your product descriptions become, in many ways, your salesmen. It’s true. You’re not standing at a rack of shoes to help the customer make a decision. You can’t be. The selling, therefore, has to be done by your product descriptions.
Which should make clear how important it is to take the time to create good ones.
In the real world, having someone in the store to answer questions about the shoes, demonstrate an understanding of the customer’s needs, offer suggestions …
That sort of attention leads to way more sales than a pair of shoes sitting alone on a rack.
Effective product descriptions lead to the same result.
To your success.
Your ManageByStats Team
