E-commerce product sheet, how to write valuable and effective descriptions
Within the large SEO copywriting family there is a very specific niche that requires a particular focus: we talk about the production of texts for e-commerce sites and, in detail, the care needed to create effective and convincing product sheets, that can guide the customer in the sales funnel that we have planned and studied.
What are product sheets
The technical data sheets of the products are an integral part of the sales funnel of an e-commerce, because they are the part of text that serves users to inquire and remove the last, residual doubts before the purchase.
Wanting to offer a definition, a product sheet is a marketing copy that contains information about the key features and benefits of the product and its aim is to provide customers with information and specifications to encourage them to invest their money in the products and services on the page.
Why optimizing e-Commerce product sheets
As a general rule, stresses Ricky Hayes on Search Engine Watch, these descriptions should provide answers to questions such as
- Which problem the product solves?
- What does the buyer gain from using this product?
- What distinguishes the product from those of the competition?
By injecting the right amount of creativity and optimization work, we can not only improve copy marketing side, but also increase the conversion rate of e-commerce: since the online purchase does not allow customers to have a tactile shopping experience, the informative text can in fact be a lever to win over customers and show them that their product they are looking at is ideal for their needs.
Effective work in this sense brings concrete results and, the article points out, “creative descriptions of products provide lower bounce frequencies and a better conversion rate of e-commerce compared to shops that do not perform this step correctly”.
The key elements of a good product description
One of the greatest mistakes made by those who manage an e-commerce is in fact to think that the product cards are just a “obligation” (we also talked about the errors in optimizing the product pages): in fact, ideally these descriptions should represent a proposal of unique value and offer, at the same time, the perfect solution to an annoying problem felt by users.
There is a lot of SEO copywriting work behind the creation of an optimized product sheet, and in particular you have to pay attention to:
- Targeted use of keywords
Keywords “keep product descriptions visible in search engines”: the use of the right combination of keywords in the product’s copy” allows Google to provide results that direct potential customers to the pages of your products”, provided you find the right balance between “insufficient optimization leaves you invisible” and an over-optimization “that makes the text appear as mere keyword stuffing”.
- Customer engagement
A product description is winning if it demonstrates how the product meets a need in the customer’s life. On the contrary, a text that highlights only the technical characteristics of the product cannot involve the reader or increase e-commerce conversions, because it focuses only on generic elements instead of providing a real-time solution to customer problems.
- Highlighting specifications
Poorly written descriptions are generally boring and unattractive, and most often contain duplicate content (copied directly from text sent by the original article manufacturer).
Instead, an effective text provides clear (and possibly truthful) information about the benefits and functionalities of the product, answering questions from potential customers and also anticipating such requests.
- Frequent updates
Product pages should constantly evolve based on several factors, including page conversions, bounce frequencies and the latest trends. However, it is important to keep track of changes and adjust the copy of the product according to the insights obtained, with the aim of obtaining the best results.
Eight simple steps to write product description able to increase conversions
But there is another even more crucial issue, and that is the need to write original texts and not just copy/paste descriptions obtained by the manufacturer, that are likely to be found on multiple sites online and will complicate our way to the right place in Serps (in addition to exposing the site to the problem of duplicate content).
We need to understand that product descriptions offer us the opportunity to show the creative side of our business and to show potential customers that our products are ideal for them, because they have unique features, offer the best value for money and are suitable to solve their problem.
Given these premises, Hayes leads us to the discovery of 8 simple steps that allow us to optimize the process of making product sheets for e-commerce and to write, so, texts that are really effective and help us to increase conversions.
- Focus on target audience
Before writing product descriptions for our e-commerce store it is essential to know our target audience, the kind of audience to which we must and want to turn to.
Trying to write a copy pointing to a huge crowd of customers will inevitably result in out-of-focus descriptions and too generic to win attention and consent; In addition, the tone and language to be used in descriptions depends exclusively on the type of audience we write for.
For example, if we run an online toy store, the descriptions should sound fun and joyful; if instead we sell fitness supplements or any other type of medicine, it would be better to maintain a professional tone.
The process begins by imagining our ideal buyer, trying to find out the best words and phrases that the target audience regularly appreciates and uses.
- Selling an experience
Another mistake made by e-commerce store owners is to focus only on the advantages and characteristics of individual products: in fact, according to Haynes, potential customers “are more interested in the advantages of each feature separately”and so the trick is to “highlight the benefits of each of the product’s features, talking about specifications that will help buyers feel more productive and happy”.
In general, the goal as a marketer is to “sell an experience and not just a product”.
- Do not include yeah-yeah sentences (obvious fillers)
Writing creative product descriptions is not a piece of cake, but a skill that requires owners to create a copy that immediately attracts the attention of their customers.
Unfortunately, the author notes, “most online sellers write descriptions because they believe it is part of the entire process” and “especially when they are stuck with words, they try to incorporate terms and filler expressions, such as high quality products, premium products and the like”.
In the world of e-commerce, these are defined as “yeah-yeah” sentences, as this is what the visitor thinks in reading them, considering them obvious and trivial: in fact, no one defines the quality of his product as lower than average or bad.
To avoid this reaction, just stick to a few basic guidelines: try to be as specific as possible and highlight the technical aspects of the product, rather than just boast and praise their quality and self-styled advantages.
- Provide concrete proof
Flocking the text of superlatives is useless if we have the evidence to support them and to demonstrate how and why our product is actually the best.
For example, “if you deal with electronic products, you can talk about patents, construction, quoting quality certifications and so on,” explains the author.
What matters is “giving readers the impression that there is something special in your offer”.
Otherwise, if we do not have concrete references “to prove that your product is a real deal, you have to mitigate the copy” or, alternatively, “quote a customer’s testimony to show that there are people who think that your product is the best thing they have experienced up to that point”.
- Including sensory words
According to the expert, studies suggest “that sensory words engage more processing power of the brain and help improve the conversion rate of e-commerce”.
These are descriptive terms, which explain “how we live the world using our five senses”.
For example, if we run an online chocolate store we could write a product card in which we use sensory adjectives such as smooth, crispy, velvety, sweet, aromatic and crispy, to amaze the reader and involve his senses during reading.
In addition, people tend to trust brands that have high quality images included in their products, and at the same time terms like “you”, “new”, “guaranteed” and “free” are powerful and make descriptions more effective in convincing customers.
- Think about the text design
The content is not just writing, it is one of the cornerstones of the content experience, which considers the page as a complex unit to be treated in every detail to ensure the reader a positive experience. This means, for product cards, that we not only have to write a string of words without organization and graphic construction, but that it is important to dedicate time and energy to the creation of texts that are readable in every way, organized and professional.
In practice, we need to make product descriptions more decipherable, because the ease of reading will allow customers to better understand the associated benefits: and therefore, we need to use white spaces to interrupt the flow of words, exploit listed titles and bullet points to separately highlight the benefits of each product, use the right font to improve readability, do not forget to emphasize the main terms with bold and so on, with the aim of not straining the customer’s eyes, making the text clearer and increasing the chances of conversion.
- Testing the effectiveness
To increase the ability to write the right text for the right users it is important to perform various tests, which allow you to better calibrate the description of the product sheet.
A simple and valid tool is the A/B test, also known as split test, which allows to compare two different variants of the same thing to determine which works best in a field test: we can thus verify the effectiveness of descriptions by varying formats, Text length, fonts, and more, and leverage the information you get to optimize product pages and increase conversions.
- Including all details
The goal of writing a convincing copy for a product description is to provide potential customers with all the details, specifications and relevant information they may need to make a purchase.
For instance, if we sell shoes or clothing online, the product page should include every possible detail, including size tables, care instructions, material information and other details to help customers choose the right product for themselves.
Similarly, if we sell food products we must highlight all the details and report, in particular, the list of possible allergens among the ingredients to improve the user experience.
