How to Write Product Descriptions That Boost Conversions

Writing effective eCommerce product descriptions can make or break an online merchant’s success. While it’s true that most customers’ buying decisions are influenced by the images of a product, having a good product description is also extremely important. You certainly don’t want your potential customers to walk away empty-handed because you didn’t offer them enough information in your product descriptions!

eCommerce product descriptions go a long way in conveying the value and benefits of your products, meaning that it’s crucial that they’re well-optimized. Good product descriptions can potentially increase sales, reduce return rates and, just as importantly, improve customers’ trust levels in your brand.

This article offers you some unique product description tips that can help to give your online store that extra boost it needs, including 10 product description writing best practices to keep in mind!

What is a Product Description?

A product description is a written copy that describes most of the features and benefits of a given product to customers. In writing such copy, the goal is to ensure that customers are given adequate information that would further motivate them into buying the product. In order for your description to be persuasive enough, it should include certain elements.

The best product descriptions outline the solution the product offers, what the customer stands to gain from using it, what makes the product unique and other information that makes it easier for customers to make buying decisions.

How Long Should a Product Description Be?

eCommerce product descriptions should typically fall between 350 and 400 words in total, with a maximum word count of 600 words, unless the product is especially complex.

Using this general rule of thumb, your product descriptions can convey the details and benefits of the product without being overly long.

How Do You Write a Good Product Description?

In order to make sure that your product descriptions convert, there are certain strategies and best practices you should adopt. A few of these to keep in mind include:

1. Get Creative: Avoid the temptation to copy and paste a manufacturer’s description, as it could get your website penalized by Google for duplicate content. Get creative and take a stab at writing unique content all your own, putting your own personal twist on the product to better convey its details, benefits and value.
2. Understand Your Target Audience: Look closely at the data from your digital marketing tools such as Google Analytics and SEMRush to better understand your audience. If they’re well-educated professionals, for example, write in a tone that’s suitable for them. You may also want to inject some humor in your eCommerce product descriptions, if appropriate, to make them fun and memorable for your customers to read.
3. Give Them Storylines: It could be that there was an incident where this particular product saved the day. Go ahead and tell your customers the story and convince them that your product can solve the same problem for them, making sure to highlight the benefits of the products when used. Get creative and try to entertain the reader!
4. Make It Easy to Read: Most online shoppers don’t like to waste time when learning about products. Your product description writing, therefore, should include only a couple of scannable sentences and multiple bullet points. This way, they’re able to easily and quickly scan the information and immediately decide if they want the product or not.
5. Optimize the Content: This entails using SEO best practices and keywords that are relevant to the products on your site. It’s also generally a very good idea to include product names as part of the keyword. For example, if you sell designer wristwatches, you can include the name of the brand, materials, color and other important information in the product description.
6. Prioritize Important Information: A smart eCommerce product description writer always features the most important details of the product at the beginning of the description. The goal is to catch the reader’s attention and retain it.
7. Highlight Key Details: There are certain features of a given product that are bound to draw a customer’s attention. Look for these features in your product and ensure they’re highlighted in its product description. For example, if the jewelry you sell is “nickel-free”, you should highlight it so that your target customers who have metal allergies will know that such jewelry is a great choice for them.
8. Check for Errors: Proofread multiple times and use tools like Grammarly to ensure that your product copy is error-free. Poor spelling and punctuation tells the customer that you simply don’t care about your own products - exactly the opposite message that every online merchant wants to convey!
9. Test and Test Again: Test different eCommerce product description lengths, formats, tones, words and the like. Use what works going forward for the best results!
10. Use Sensory Words. Sensory words - descriptive words that apply to the senses - are known to increase sales, so be sure to work them into your product descriptions. Make your product descriptions to-the-point, but also imaginative and engaging with relevant sensory words in the copy.

Write Product Descriptions That Convert

Becoming skilled at writing awesome product descriptions requires lots of creativity, dedication and testing. When you understand your target audience, get creative and drop them an interesting storyline, you’re already paving the way for increased sales and fewer returns.

As with anything, practice makes perfect. Start writing more creative, engaging eCommerce product descriptions today and see if it helps your online business!