We often write an eCommerce product description article on how to play with the mind of e-buyers and forget the truth that the consumers are just a step behind in understanding the marketing tactics. Writing a unique, informative and compelling product description for sure helps in increasing your eCommerce business sales. However, playing fair is the best way to convert your visitor into a fan.

A big fan base means boost in sales and less marketing effort!!!

With this in mind, let us have a look at 11 Incredible Techniques to persuade your eCommerce web visitors with unique and fair product descriptions that impels them to click that “Add to Cart” button right away.

1. Know your product

It is important to know the product background and details to get the information you need to deliver a compelling product description to potential customers.

Most of the products sold by an eCommerce website are from wholesalers and the product details they supply are sometimes incomplete or inaccurate. Make it habit to do a lot of digging (online and offline) to get the right product information, even if it requires calling the makers.

A Little Knowledge is Dangerous Thing

Do not forget specific details as it increases the chances of sale if a buyer is trying to choose between two products or needs something very specific. Ensuring that the product description answers all the needs and questions in a buyer’s mind is the key to success.

Validate the product description you write by either visiting maker website or a trusted source online or offline to avoid negative customer experience.

2. Understand Your Target Customer

Failing to know the target customer is a nightmare for a product description writer. The best way to beat it is, think like a politician, just don’t be one. Jokes apart, politicians are people with a sharp mind. They are good at cooking up the right words, with the right tone, at the right time to convince the masses. Just wearing that aura makes your brain talk to the masses in a convincing manner and prepares you for writing a tantalizing description. Try it!!

Now think:

• What is the use of the product?
• Who will be using it?
• What tone to use?

It will help you to know the target audience and the tone to use while tailoring the product description.

For example, you are selling baby products your target audience are parents, family and their friends, opt for a soft or a warm tone, assure their baby’s safety and emphasize on product quality. Chico a leading baby brand is good at it.

If you are, selling fashion that targets young generation, use a cool tone, emphasize on product style and how it fits the current trend. Tommy Hilfiger is a good example.

3. Use a Pragmatic Pitch

In the real world, no one likes a pushy and Halfwit sales person, the same applies in the virtual world. Deal with things sensibly and realistically, avoid being carried away while writing a product description.

Let us take an example:

Given below are a few lines from iPhone 6 product descriptions written by “Writer A” and “Writer B” from 2 different eCommerce websites, which talks about the camera in iPhone 6.

Writer A

Writer B

While writing about 8 Megapixel camera in the iPhone 6 Writer A is emphasizing on the unique feature of the camera, because Writer A knows that there are other phones in the market that have better cameras and people buy Apple because of its cutting edge technology.

On the contrary, the claims made by Writer B that no one can beat the iPhone 6 camera and that it is the world’s most popular camera, shows that Writer B lacks market knowledge, assumes that all e-buyers are novice and is in a desperate attempt to make the content unique. Avoid making Unrealistic claim because people prefer buying from a sales person with the right knowledge and customer understanding.

4. Blending the Golden Keywords

A brilliant product description can only reach a buyer if it ranks well on Google. By planning to write a unique product description, we already passed Google’s Panda test of duplicity, but we need to excel in it.

Following few best practices will not only make the product description Google friendly, but also help you convert visitors into customers.

Keywords play an important part in driving web traffic and having few keywords in your unique product description does create a buzz. Let say if you are selling “Aldo black formal shoes”, ideally you should add this keyword in the title and the body of product description like Jabong.com

For an accessory, the name of the product it compliments is also a keyword and requires equal treatment.

Repeating the keyword too many times is a bad idea as it looks unnatural and makes Google suspicious. Make sure you blend the keyword in the product description so that it does not look clumsy.

Introducing a separate “also known as” section on the product page helps blending synonyms of the keywords without confusing and distracting the visitors. Example: Apple Peeler also known as Pear Peeler, Or Vegetable Peeler.

Adding FAQ’s and allowing customer review to the product page helps in targeting the long tail keyword. If the product you are selling has a tough competition online, then consider hiring or consulting an SEO expert with a proper knowledge of eCommerce SEO.

5. Set right expectation

Don’t promise the moon when you are selling rocks!! Unoriginal, incomplete, deceptive and exaggerated product descriptions can hurt your business. The burden of refund, returns and exchanges is borne only by eCommerce business. Playing fair always saves you a couple of big bucks.

Most of the products sent back by customers few days after delivery is because they do not match the description, or the physical appearance is different, or expected things are missing. Let me sum them up in two words, they mean “wrong expectation”.

Big businesses strive to meet customer expectation. Do you want your eCommerce to be “Big”?

I am sure you do. To do that, set your standards high and ensure that you focus on the details while writing product description. List the things you as a customer would like to know about the product you want to sell and add them to your product description. To improve it more, question your friends or colleagues.

Cross check, the validity of information on the product page before making it live, respect the trust customers are showing by buying your product without even touching it.

Add a Feedback Box to the product description page. Be receptive and quick to customer feedback. Leading eCommerce store Flipkart has added multiple feedback boxes with assurance throughout their product page. They even have a feedback box for reviews, which shows how much they care about customer remarks.

6. Add Social Proof to Product Description

Adding Social Proof to your product description for Psychological Persuasion is one of the most effective techniques. It not only tells the truth about the product, but also increases the confidence of e-buyers.

Social proof is a phenomenon that communicates to an e-buyer that real people like your products. Consumers are net-savvy, search engines and wisdom of the e-crowd empowers them to easily get information and reviews about products and brands before “Buying” them.

ECommerce Social Proof is a topic in itself, the part that contributes to product description includes displaying Product achievements, Media box, Product rate meter, Professional advice, Customer review & Social followers.

For example, “Age” is an important factor in wine industry, tienda.productosg20.com mentions age related Product achievements to prove genuineness and sell alcohol products.

Popular eCommerce furniture store, Made.com, adds media box as social proof in product descriptions. Including cutting from the press in product descriptions adds credibility to the quote and shows product popularity.

Similarly displaying product rate meter, professional advice, customer review & social follower count in product description attracts a buyer to buy something that is popular.

7. Club product Features and Benefits

Smart sales people always use product benefits in a sales pitch. They know that consumers do not care about detailed features and specification of the product. All they are interested in is “What’s in for me”.

People don’t buy the product, they buy the experience!!!

To strike the right cord for sale, you need to intrigue visitors with benefits of product features in your descriptions. That is why highlighting the benefits of each feature is important.

Always keep in mind that potential buyers are already aware of the primary features and you need to take your product descriptions to a whole new level. You need to put in a lot of effort to create a realistic, compelling, and result-oriented description.

In the U.S. Mercedes Benz allows customers to buy cars online and like their cars, their product descriptions are a class apart.

Their product description makes you feel “AMG GT S” features like design, aerodynamic, rear wheel drive, seats, console and instruments.

8. Make sure you use high quality photos

I know you will say what a high quality photo is to do with writing product description. You will get your answer. Have a look at these photos.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, adding right words will make it worth a million.

Now see them again.

Product photography should be an accurate representation of the product. It should be clear, well lit and concise, so that a buyer can feel it. The more images you add, the better it is.

Always consider including daily use items in a product image (Like mobiles, Portable, or cereal box, etc.) it helps in conveying the size of the product. If you are selling an accessory that compliments another product, make sure you have photos of both of them together on the product description page.

9. Proofread before going online

Human errors occur when you are writing too many product descriptions. It is always wise to get proofreading done before going online. On an eCommerce website, even a small mistake makes you look unorganized, careless, inexperienced and can result in losing a potential sale.

Tips:

• Take a break between writing and proofreading (15 minutes, a day).
• Prefer printout.
• Cover up the lines below the one you are reading to avoid skipping a mistake.
• Read aloud.
• Double-check the details about your products.
• Use the search option to find habitual mistakes.
• Use a spelling checker
• Ask a friend or colleague to read over the descriptions to check spelling and grammar.

10. Check for Readability

Everyone likes an easy, well-organized and understandable write up. Good Readability is an article saver. If you are reading this line that means I have written my article well :).

Once past the first few lines of a product description a customer’s tends to read more. Making the title, the tagline and the opening of description as readable as possible increase the chances of selling a product.

Readability is about making your writing easy and understandable for masses.

Nixon.com  provides a good example for readable product descriptions.

Use the following to improve readability:

• A compelling headline
• Short or Broken Sentences
• Large Font size
• Scannable Bullet Points
• Well distinguished Font Colours
• Connective or Linking words
• Easy to follow writing style
• Plenty of white space
• Simple words instead of Jargons
• 52 to 100 characters per line
• Left-alignment
• Preferably, double spacing
• Phonetics for compulsive technical word

11. Tell a story

Telling a story does not mean writing a fairy tale. Always be close to the real world because consumers are smart and will move on if they don’t find your product page useful.

Every good story has a main character. While writing a product story, ask yourself

• Is the product unique?
• Is there some interesting history behind the product?”

The answers to these questions will help you decide the main character. If the answer is yes, choose “product” as the main character and if the answer is no, choose “customer”.Never choose “the maker“ as the main character because you are not selling the company.

Neuhaus a premium chocolate company knows when to focus on “product” and when to focus on “customer” in its product description.

Main Character: Product

Main Character: Customer

“A nice story always sells” Always keep that in mind.

Conclusion

Compelling, unique and honest Product descriptions take your eCommerce business to a whole new level. They not only increase the traffic of potential customers through top rankings on search engines, but also help in building brand image and customer loyalty.

Convincing and selling a product based on the description is tough, yet achievable. Always remember a result-oriented Product description requires hard work and customer centric approach. Once you master the art of the product description, you will see your sales grow.