The eChic guide to writing better product descriptions
Posted on
August 04, 2014
by
Belinda Cameron
Writing effective product descriptions is key to ensure the visitor to your site becomes a customer.
To do this it is vital to ensure that all their potential questions are answered. They won’t buy if they have unanswered questions no matter how great the product and site looks.
Here are a few key considerations when writing your descriptions:
Provide all the information the customer may need about that product either in the product description or by providing links to other pages on your site or websites.
A good start is to find someone who doesn’t know your product well (i.e. a family member or a friend) and brainstorm with them, writing down all the questions they have about the product. This will provide a great starting point for your products. Also, review the description without the image and make sure the description makes sense without it.
If you are providing outside links (ie. youtube, etc) make sure you don’t lose that customer and they actually return to your site.
Use a chatty friendly writing style.
Customers generally respond better
Don’t write long descriptions with long paragraphs. Customers often give up half way through.
Keep paragraphs to 3-4 sentences
But, keep sentences short
Use everyday words. You don’t want anyone to need a dictionary when reading your descriptions
Get specific with details:
- sizes, weights & dimensions
- fabric descriptors
- software/hardware versions
- colours
- age suitabilities
- resolution
- anything else that reduces uncertainty
Don’t be afraid to use bullet points & numbers - they make it easier for the customer to find the details they are after.
Ensure that all formatting (fonts, spacing, use of headings) for descriptions are the same across your site. Customers will feel happier and more comfortable navigating your site with consistent formatting.
Provide a “Call to Action” at the end of the description - i.e a gentle nudge the customer to act
Provide easy links to testimonials. But always make sure you have permission from customers to use their comments even if they have tweeted or blogged them.
And lastly and very importantly, for multiple products make sure your descriptions are different and individualised for each product. Google doesn’t appreciate a cut & paste effort and potential customers will like the attention to detail
Writing effective product descriptions is key to ensure the visitor to your site becomes a customer.