According to research, 20% of sales failures are a consequence of unclear or missing product information. Besides, if you simply describe your product, you won’t help your target audience make a purchasing decision. Given that your product page should sell, product descriptions shouldn’t just provide information. After reading your descriptions, people must have a clear understanding of what makes you better than your competitors, and what unique advantages you can offer.
We’ll focus on writing product descriptions for social media. But our tips will be useful for any other type of media platform.
Author of the text: Dominic Beaulieu, an expert writer and reviewer in Pick TheWriter.
What Makes a Good Product Description
The quality of your product description may depend on various factors. Some people might think that it depends on the length and word choice, but the truth is that these aspects might be not as important. The main purpose of your product descriptions is to explain what your product is, and why anyone should buy it.
Therefore, if your product is somewhat self-explanatory, like a t-shirt or a mug, you don’t need a lengthy description filled with sophisticated adjectives. You also don’t need to make your description too detailed when people already know what kind of product they see, and how to use it. In contrast, if your product is innovative or unique, you might need to explain what it is, and how people can benefit from using it.
At the same time, your descriptions must be tailored to your ideal customer’s persona and correspond to your brand image. If you want to increase your sales, you should maintain brand consistency in all types of content, especially on social media, and product descriptions are no exception. You should stick with a consistent brand voice and brand image. This is the main reason why successful brands invest in hiring experienced copywriters who are familiar with their niche and the specifics of their products.
Let’s take a look at some tips that will help you create amazing product descriptions.
How To Write Description That Sells
- Focus on your ideal customer
If you lack a clear understanding of who you write your description for, you may end up writing for no one in particular. Effective product descriptions address specific types of audiences in a direct and personal manner. You should use the words your target audience would use. For example, you may stick with a casual tone or use industry-specific jargon popular in your niche.
Imagine your ideal customer. What are they looking for? Do they appreciate any sort of humor? What words do they use in their everyday conversations? What questions they might have? To better understand your target audience, you can conduct surveys and use web analytics. This way, you’ll learn more about your audience’s demographics and interests.
How to find your target audience
- Focus on benefits, not features
Given that you know a lot about your product and your industry in general, you might want to approach writing from a technical point of view and focus on specific features. However, this approach is not always effective. Especially when we talk about social media: it is casual by nature and it has influenced the way people consume content.
An average visitor doesn’t want to read about specs and features. They want to know how they can benefit from these features. You should communicate how your products are related to your customers’ pain points, and how they can make their lives easier. For example, if you’re selling security systems, you should focus on the way they can keep your customers safe, rather than the complex technical details. If you don’t consider yourself as a talented copywriter, you can visit custom writing review websites like Writing Judge and hire experienced freelance copywriters for your product descriptions.
How to become a better copywriter
- Avoid clichés
You might feel tempted to write that your products have “excellent quality,” but you should keep in mind that your target audience will see the same when reading product descriptions on any other website. Nobody says that they have average or poor-quality products.
You don’t want people to read your product descriptions and think: “Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” Be specific about what makes your products great, and how exactly they can benefit your customers. For example, instead of saying that your product is good, explain why it’s more effective than other similar products, give facts and numbers, true reviews. Besides, you should stick with your brand tone. Reinforce your brand’s beliefs, stick with consistent sentence structures, and vocabulary. This way, you’ll be able to avoid clichés and to be authentic (i.e. unique and genuine). Authenticity is key when it comes to social media marketing, first of all because of high competition.
- Use trending keywords
Not only should you make sure that your product descriptions are appealing to potential customers, but you should also make them appealing to search engines, as well. Therefore, we recommend that you keep in mind SEO when writing your descriptions. SEO optimization will help your products rank higher in search engines.
Use relevant keywords in headers, subheadings, and the main sections. Optimize your images by adding short descriptions and ALT tags. At the same time, you must make sure that your descriptions are informative and not overstuffed with keywords.
Besides, automated targeting algorithms of social media personalize ads based on the keywords that people use when interacting with search engines. For example, if someone searches for “lightweight sneakers,” they will likely see ads with such products on social media in the near future. As a result, keyword optimization can also help you reach relevant audiences on social media.
- Use the right calls to action
Last but not least, the effectiveness of your product descriptions depends on the proper choice of calls to action. Calls to action are a proven marketing tactic that can help you lead website visitors to a specific action. For example, you can use simple and common calls to action like “Contact us now and get a discount.”
When it comes to calls to action, you’re only limited by your creativity and the specifics of your niche. We recommend that you stick with short and clear calls to action that will bring out a certain emotional response from your visitors. To achieve it, you can use the fear of missing out (FOMO), mentioning time-limited offers and benefits. You can also emphasize the additional benefits of your products or the fact that purchasing from you can help your customers save money.
Everybody writes a product description to sell, but not all of us manage to write descriptions that actually accomplish this goal. Although the main purpose of product descriptions is to inform readers about the features of your products, you should keep in mind that your customers are looking for benefits, not features.
You should also make your descriptions unique and authentic. Besides, they should be SEO-optimized and compelling. We hope that our simple tips will help you write descriptions that sell, no matter whether you’re selling products on your website or social media.