Marketing

7 Tips on Creating the Best Product Descriptions that Sell

Want to write a product descriptions, but don't know where to start? Creating a product description that sells has never been easier with these 7 tips!

15 min read

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Table of Contents

Great product descriptions are key to selling products. Without effective product descriptions, it is unlikely you will generate the business you are seeking, even if you have the best products.

With that in mind, let's go over some tips and tricks on how to create compelling product descriptions for your ecommerce store or online shop.

1) When Creating a Product Description, Know Your Purpose

Creating great product descriptions will ensure your customers can find your products
Photo by Shopify Partners from Burst

It is crucial to decide which information you will include about the product before writing your product description. This will help you focus your writing and ensure that the most relevant product details are conveyed to your ideal customers.

No matter the product, remember that you must use clear, concise language in your product descriptions.

Do not overload the reader with too much information at once – they may lose interest if they are not able to understand the product quickly. You want to make their purchase decision easy and if you give too many technical details, it may turn them off.

Whenever possible, you should avoid using third person in your descriptions as it is difficult for the reader to relate to you. Instead, use first person and write as if you are talking to another person – this will keep your product descriptions personal and allow the reader to feel connected to you.

In addition, you should pay attention to the tone of your product description. For example, if the product is humorous or sarcastic in nature, you should use similar language to convey this tone so it can be understood by the potential customer.

Lastly, you must convey confidence in your product description. Knowing your product will help you explain the product benefits clearly to your customer without being wishy-washy. There is nothing worse than a product description that doesn't sound like the person writing it believes in their own products.

2) Know Your Product and Your Audience

When you write product descriptions, make sure to keep your target audience in mind
Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

Focus on Your Product

You should also know your products well before you write product descriptions. This means understanding exactly how the product is used and how it works. The more you learn about your product features, the easier it will be for you to write a thorough description. Not only will this make your writing product descriptions easier to write, but it will also allow you to convey information about the product more accurately.

Focus on Your Audience

While you are researching your product's story, you should also know who should use the product. No matter how much we want everyone to like our products, not everyone will want or need your product. By understanding your target audience, you will be able to focus your product description directly on the ideal customers that are interested and need your product.

Before writing your description, keep these questions in mind:

  • Who is my target audience?
  • What do I want my target audience to think about my product?
  • What is the desired outcome of this description (a sale, a click to your website, etc.)?
  • What features would my ideal customer care about?
  • Why would ideal customers recommend this product?
  • What is my product's unique selling point (USP)?

These questions will help you narrow down the relevant information you should include in your product description. Make sure that once you have a clear idea of what you are writing, that you never stray from the topic or include useless information. You want your potential buyer to not get sidetracked and risk them leaving without putting your item in their cart.

Focus on the Benefits of Your Product

Product description writing requires that you highlight the key benefits of the product. The best product descriptions focus on what makes the product stand out.

When writing a product description, keep your ideal customer in mind. The following questions should all be answered in your product description.

  • What makes it unique and why should someone purchase it?
  • What problem does this product solve?
  • What will the consumer get out of it?
  • What are the product benefits?

If you can answer these questions succinctly in your product description, you are well on your way to driving more traffic to your website or online store!

3) Get Inspiration from Other Product Descriptions

Writing product descriptions do not have to be hard when you get inspired by your competition's product descriptions.
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

When creating a product description, it is easier to determine what to write when you look at other descriptions for similar products. This does not mean plagiarize, but it will give you an idea of what to include in your own description, as well as what elements to avoid.

By taking inspiration from other product description examples, you can create a product description that is both informative and engaging.

You may find inspiration, including product description samples and product description templates, by looking in the following places:

  • Online stores
  • Google shopping search
  • Amazon
  • Forums and websites that review products

When writing a product description, remember to check your competition's product descriptions first before you begin writing your own content to learn how they are creating effective product descriptions.

4) Techniques for Creating Engaging and Interesting Descriptions

Best ways to add engaging product descriptions that sell
Photo by PNW Production from Pexels

There are a number of ways of writing product descriptions that people actually want to read. In order to do so, you need to use some creative writing techniques and find a way of describing your product so that it appears interesting and engaging.

List of Keywords

When writing product descriptions, start by creating a list of keywords related to your product. This will help you focus your description and ensure that it is relevant to potential buyers.

You should focus on the keywords that are most likely to bring potential customers to your website. Using keyword research tools will give you a good start. You should also search your competitors to see what keywords they are using in order to generate more.

List of Benefits

To make product descriptions fast and easy to read, you want to create a list of all the key benefits your product delivers. When you create a product benefit list, it allows your customers to scan the text and find key points about the product.

If a list is not feasible, try to include a number of short paragraphs and bullet points. This will ensure that the product description is easy to read, especially for online shoppers that may be distracted by other products or web pages. The goal is to show your target buyer the benefits using white space to help highlight your short paragraph or bullet point.

Be Honest

Whenever you write product descriptions, it must be completely honest. Do not try to hide anything from your customers because it will only lead to problems, including negative reviews.

By being honest and truthful, you will not only avoid problems, but your customers will be more likely to return because they know your business is trustworthy.

Tell a Story

You do not always have to include a lot of mundane features in your product description.

You can create an engaging and interesting product description by telling a story about your product. By creating a narrative, you can explain the product benefits while explaining the product's story.

For example, you can talk about the milestones of the company's history or include a story about how your product was created. You can also include fun and interesting anecdotes about your product.

People enjoy stories, and it will make them more likely to purchase the product because they want to learn more.

Create Emotional Appeal

People are more likely to purchase a product if it evokes an emotional response.

For example, if you sell handcrafted items, emphasize how much love and care you put into creating them.

Another great product description example is if you sell food products, talk about how it is made with care and with high-quality ingredients that are healthy and nutritious.

By creating an emotional response, you will make people more likely to purchase your product. They will feel as if they are buying an item that can improve their lives.

Write in a Conversational Tone

When you write product descriptions, avoid using overly formal language. If people see an overly formal product description, they may not trust the source and be more likely to leave your website.

When you write a product description, imagine you are talking to a friend. You want the tone of your product description to feel as though you are chatting with someone - friendly and conversational.

If you write a product description that people feel comfortable reading, you will get more visitors that want to buy your product.

Create Urgency!

People are more likely to click on a product if there is a sense of urgency.  

For example, if you are having a sale, include the dates in your product description. You can also highlight how many items are left in stock.

You can include a countdown clock and note that there are only a few left in stock. You can also link to other products, such as accessory items, for people to purchase to save on shipping fees.

Avoid Copying and Pasting

Lastly, you should never copy and paste your descriptions from other product descriptions.

Using a product description template is fine, but you must make sure you proof read it carefully. It will be difficult to get attention if your description matches another product, whether it is yours or someone else's product.

Make sure every time you write a product description, you make sure it is unique and appeals to your target audience.

Include a Call-to-Action (CTA)

In marketing, a call to action prompts a user to take a particular action.

When your audience is viewing your product description, the goal of a CTA is to have them add your product to their cart and ultimately make a purchase.

Whenever you have an opportunity, write a call-to-action in your product description because it will entice and encourage the reader to add the product to their cart.

If you are using phrases such as "shop now" or "buy now", it will make your product more appealing and people are more likely to add your product to their shopping cart because they will not need to think about what they need to do next.

When using a CTA, choose one and make it count. If you give the buyer too many options, they will be confused and not know what to do next.

5) Use Keywords, but Don't Spam Them

Keyword research is essential to create product descriptions for your creative business

When creating a product description, one critical consideration is optimizing your description for search engines.

Write for SEO Traffic

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

This means including relevant keywords and phrases, as well as formatting your product description to include bullet points and short paragraphs.

SEO is more about writing for humans than for search engines. When optimizing your product descriptions, think about what users would type in to find your product.

Include Power Words

In order to get your keywords to be effective for search rankings, do not spam all of your keywords together. You also want to incorporate power words into your description.

If you are effective power words, here are the top power words that people search when looking for products:

  • Best
  • Buy
  • Cheap
  • Discount
  • For Sale Now
  • Best Price
  • Brands
  • Cheap
  • Compare Prices
  • For Less
  • For Sale
  • For Sale Online
  • Free Trial
  • Lowest Price
  • On Amazon

These are just some of the power words buyers use. For more ideas, check out your competition and see what power words they are using. Once you begin using power words in your descriptions, it will not only help get organic search rankings, but also your target audience as well.

Utilize Keywords Effectively

Before you go ahead and type out all of these keywords into your product description, try and mix it up a bit with product keywords.

For example, if you are selling dog collars, then keywords like 'dog leash' would be a better choice compared to keywords like 'leash'.

Keywords are essential, as they can help you get the search results you want for your product. Be sure to include keywords throughout the product description so your customers can find your product in their search results.

For example, if you have a product that helps people lose weight, include keywords such as "weight loss," "fat loss" and "dieting." This will make it easier for your customers to find your product.

Write for the Customer, Not SEO

SEO is required to properly index your product descriptions, but if you are not writing for your audience, your customers will be turned off by your product description. To effectively write SEO content, it should not read like it has been optimized for SEO traffic.

When you are creating a product description, you want to make sure it reads well, so that it keeps the customer interested in the product.

You also want to be sure to use appropriate keywords in your description. But make sure it reads for your audience so your audience can understand your product.

Include Relevant Product Information In Your Description

Give your target audience some reason to continue reading your description.

Although it is necessary to optimize your product descriptions for online searches, you must ensure that your reader can understand and gain value from it so they will make the purchase.

Users are often just skimming over your content. Therefore, use short paragraphs with bullet points that include the relevant details your customers are looking for when shopping for your products.

Be sure to include keywords several times throughout the description, using keywords as often as possible without making it awkward or difficult for buyers to read.

When writing the description, you might want to consider making a clear distinction between what your product can do (features) and what your product can do for the user (benefits). By emphasizing the benefits, you are giving potential customers a glimpse of how your product can improve their lives.

With a great product description, your customers will feel as if they have to have your product. To hook your customer, you need to make the content interesting and useful so that they add your product to their cart.

6) Search Engine Optimization in Your Titles

Creating great titles for your product description helps SEO find your products

The title of a product description is perhaps the most important part of the product description. It will determine how likely people are to click on your product. So how do you make an interesting title that will get clicks?

Create Catchy Titles

A strong title should not only grab the attention of readers, but it should entice them to click on the link.

For example, if you are selling a product that helps people lose weight, consider making the title "Lose 30 lbs in 7 days!"

Titles should also emphasize the most relevant aspects of the product. You can include words that are very specific to your product in the title.

For example, if you are selling a vintage yellow raincoat with red stripes, you could call it "Vintage Women's Yellow Raincoat with Red Stripes, Size Large".

Use Keywords in Your Titles

You should also include keywords in the title of the product. Titles are necessary to identify the product you are selling, and it will help the buyer decide whether they want to read the product description.

However, you want to make sure that your target audience will show enough interest in your title to click. The product description or photographs will not be viewed if the product title is only stuffed with keywords.

Therefore, remember when you create a title for your product, it must be short and accurate, relevant to the product, and easy for your customer to understand.

7) Include Relevant Product Images

You want to make sure to include relevant product images to your product descriptions so customers know what they are buying
Photo by Brooke Lark from Unsplash

There are plenty of ways to make a product description pop, but one of the best ways is to include product images.

If your product can be visualized, you should try including some form of imagery. Whether it be a drawing, a photograph or an infographic, visuals can make your product description stand out from the crowd.

Besides the title, your audience are most interested in your product images. Therefore, what you describe in your product description is what you should include in your visuals.

Your product images need to describe the size, shape, texture and color of the product. If you are including a visual of your product, make sure to use accurate measurements.

When including images, make sure to rename the image using relevant keywords. Rather than naming the image "IMG1234", name it "vintage-yellow-raincoat-red-stripes.jpg". This way, you are giving your image a name that is descriptive of the product.

8) Write Your Own Product Descriptions!

By using these simple techniques when writing product descriptions, you are sure to create one that will engage readers. When people are interested in what they read, they are more likely to purchase your product over your competitor.

Remember, when creating product descriptions, start by creating a list of keywords related to your product, as well as a list of the benefits of your product. Once you have the information needed, write a description that is honest, written for your audience, and one that creates urgency.

You should also tell a story that will help your customers visualize the benefits of your product. Try to make it as engaging as possible by making sure your description is clear and concise so that it is easy to understand.

Lastly, don't forget to use keywords to optimize your product pages so you can increase your ranking in organic search results. Make sure to use keywords that will help search engines understand what you are selling. This includes not only your description, but also your title and product images.

Remember, the best product descriptions will help improve your sales because they will engage customers and appeal to their interest in a specific product. By providing your customers with all the information they need to make a purchase, you are fulfilling their expectations and they will become happy customers.

Next up, find out how to pick the best images for your products that will reflect your brand. Make sure to sign up for our Crafty Starts newsletter, which is packed with tips, advice, and resources to help you start and grow your creative business.