Succeed on online marketplaces - Part 1. Product Description

Product description

Todays' consumer is smart and an expert on doing research, thus, having a clear and detailed product description today is vital. This is where you answer all the questions the consumer has about this product. This is where you should convince the consumer to add your product to their shopping cart and fulfill the purchase.

I still don't see the value in this, nor do I have the time to write detailed descriptions. - Well, then the consumer may google this product for further information, end up at another page with better and more information about this product. And then what? Well, you lost the sale.

Another advantage to bear in mind, the longer the description, the longer it takes to read it and thus the consumer will stay longer on your product listing. In other words, this is good for your SEO.

Think about it yourself for a moment, would you buy a product online that has 1 sentence in the product description?

Done thinking and ready for writing a kick-ass product description that will convince the visitor that they need your product? Good.

We will go through our main tips on what to bear in mind when writing a great product description.

Target Group

Don’t write for everyone. Focus on your target audience and find out what they are interested in and make sure to adjust your text in accordance with that.

You want to write as if you are writing directly to the customer. Hence, it's important to know your customer. What language do they use? Do they appreciate a more formal or a more humorous tone? Communicate in the same language as they do.

Try to make it personal, as your not getting that personal face2face contact as you would have in a physical store, you need to insert some personality to your text.

Informative

You want your product to fulfill a need right? Then don’t leave potential customers with question marks if your product will fulfill their needs. ANSWER to these questions in your product description.

If we take a facial cleanser as an example. Is it for younger/older people? Men/Women? Is it good for acne? Or is it super-hydrating? How do I use it? How often should I use it? What should I not use together with this product? What are the key ingredients? Does it contain SPF? And so on.

Let's take another example, clothing. The return rate on clothing can be quite high compared to other products. Hence, you want to make sure you provide the customer with as much information as possible, especially the size of the product. A great tip here is to add the model's height and size to your description. For e.g. "The model on the image is 172 cm tall and is wearing size S". In this way, the customer can see how that size looks on an actual person, and hopefully be a bit more sure of which size to choose.

Keywords

Include your keywords in your description. Again, what are your target audience searching for? Make sure to include these search terms in your description.

For some marketplaces such as Amazon, which works almost like a search engine but instead of asking a question, the customer searches for a product they are looking for, it becomes even more important that you have your keywords in your title/description. If not, how do you expect your target customer to find your product?

Selling

What is it that makes your product better than your competitors? Why should your target audience buy your product? How can your product give them value?

Play with imagination here, make them imagine how your product can provide them with more value. A great tip here is to go through your customer reviews. How has this product provided them with more value?

If we take the facial cleanser as an example again, let's say it's super hydrating and consists of ingredients that can give you that Hollywood glow. Then you could write something like:

"This cleanser consists of carefully selected ingredients which are proved to calm your skin and leave you feeling super hydrated with a maximized glow.

Ingredient A helps reduce fine lines and works anti-aging. Ingredients B and C are xxx and work as an xxx that gives your skin a more even and glowy look.

This product is free from xxx and works for even the most sensitive skin. You can use it both in your morning and evening routine, before applying xxx and after applying xxx."

IMPORTANT. Don't lie to your customer. Only write down proven facts. In other words, don't write something that your product doesn't do just to get more sales. Just like bad karma, it will get back to you.