Guest blog post: How to write perfect product descriptions

The biggest mistake you can make is to start writing random, excessively long texts. Then again, if a text is too concise it also fails to achieve its goal. Visitors tend to read a product description only once, so it must be really convincing. Every word counts! So carefully consider what you’re offering and how you want to sell it. The step-by-step plan below shows you how to write the perfect product description. Let’s do this!

1. Determine your target audience and tone of voice

You are the owner of your online store. No one knows the products you sell better than you. This inside knowledge is very important when writing a product description. Visitors who are interested in your products really do appreciate seeing this expertise. Not only does it boost the credibility of your online store, it also prompts customers to place an order more quickly. But the question remains: who exactly are these customers?

You probably have a vague idea of who your customers are, but how do you encourage them to buy your products? Define your target audience and try to consider what they are looking for. What would they want to read? What triggers their interest? Once you’ve pinpointed this, you can gear your product descriptions to these factors and find the right tone of voice. This ensures that your product descriptions do not merely focus on the product, but also on your visitors. The end result has to be a fluent and convincing message that personally appeals to your visitors and ultimately convinces them to place an order – or more than one even!

2. Use the right terminology

The next step is to turn visitors into buyers and boost your conversion rate. In this view, you have to take account of various aspects:

• Do you go for formal or informal language? Now that you know exactly who your target audience is made up of, you need to consider which tone of voice they would prefer.
• Avoid using the passive voice! The active voice is more convincing and more likely to push customers to buy your products.
• Engage in conversation with your readers, answer their questions and show why they should place an order on your website.
• Use the right terminology. Visitors are often lured by words like ‘quality’, ‘perfect’, ‘new’ and ‘free’, which trigger an emotional response and quickly encourage them to buy your products. 

3. Make sure your content is easy to read and to find

Having good, unique product descriptions is a must for your online store, but they’re worthless if they can’t be found through search engines. Nowadays, Google is the search engine of choice. Make sure your products can be found through this search engine. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very important in this view. Find out what the most common keywords are for the products in question and make sure you use them in your product descriptions.

Many visitors tend to scan-read the product description rather than read it thoroughly. Bear this in mind when writing yours!

• Write unique texts. Repeating a paragraph here and there is OK, but don’t copy-paste the entire text for similar products.
• Come up with a clear title.
• Use 3 to 5 bullets, e.g. to list the advantages of your product.
• Don’t make your sentences too long and heavy.
• Put important words in bold.
• Include as all the relevant information, such as size, color, material and, if applicable, which way a lid opens, for example. A comprehensive product description boosts your ranking in search engines and also lowers the risk of products being returned by customers. 

4. Check and re-check your texts before publishing them

When it comes to writing, you can’t be careful enough, so check, check and re-check your text. Nothing is more annoying than a product description riddled with serious spelling errors. Take your time and revise your text several times. Are you sure you’ve used the right tone of voice? Is the text inspiring to your visitors? Are you sure there are no spelling and/or linguistic errors? Once you’re confident you’ve achieved your goal, you should have a convincing, targeted and easy-to-read product description, ready for publication! 

Let’s be honest, though. Writing a good product description is no easy feat. Use this handy step-by-step guide to become an expert at writing product descriptions. It will make things a lot easier and you will also be confident that your product descriptions are much more effective and result-oriented than if you had written them in a hurry, without giving it much thought. Remember that a good product description guarantees more visitors, more sales and consequently, more profits.