Copywriting is a big business, and there’s a reason for it: words invoke emotions. Emotions help John Doe buy.
Not everyone can hire a top-notch copywriter, so you’d end up writing most of the copy yourself. If you are an ecommerce entrepreneur, you’d have to work on your static content, blog posts, product descriptions, and all those updates on social media. You might also work to compile resources and aim to be an educational hub on the niche your products relate to.
We are getting too far there, stalking all of content marketing. So, let’s take a few steps back and talk about product descriptions – the staple of ecommerce stores. How do you make your product descriptions standout?
You don’t know what they are thinking
Designers are designers. Copywriters are copywriters. Customers, I hate to repeat myself, are customers. You know what? You don’t know what they are thinking. Your marketing is a huge experiment that lights up like a Christmas tree. As Tommy Walker writes for ConversionXL, customers come with cognitive bias. It’s hard to get them from under the bottom of the curve where they go “I’ll not buy”.
Since you don’t know what they are thinking, your product descriptions can never be etched on stone. You can’t possibly write a description and wipe your hands off it. Just like marketers tend to experiment with A/B testing for emails, website pages, and for landing pages, you’d have to put your product descriptions to test.
Go test your product descriptions.
Write with personality
There’s a reason why Noah Kagan (of AppSumo fame) has a humongous email list and is a popular entrepreneur: he writes like he talks. He addresses one person in his writings. He doesn’t go overboard with his claims. He just writes what he believes in. His writing, apparently, is working.
Subscribe to his newsletter and maintain a swipe file. See how he create subject lines, email copy, and check out his posts on OkDork.com.
As for product descriptions, they don’t have to be like this:
“Our wooden kitties are made with highly-polished sandalwood, and then treated with whatever domine to prevent attacks from moths….”
You can write that as:
“You love kitties. Admit it. How about wooden caricature kitties that you could put up on the table-stand? Our wooden kitties last longer than your furniture.”
“Buy iPhone 5s – latest processor, long battery life, and the best of apps from Apple app store”
Yawn, that’s boring. Instead, you could write:
“There’s a reason why Apple fan boys put up a fight with the rest of the world: the brand invokes such loyalty. The products are still the best. The new iPhone 5s is sexy, efficient, slim, light weight, and can still make heads turn. Of course, you can get lost in the world of apps (you do know that already, don’t you?)”
Let others do the talking
Goad, persuade, prod, and stick to your schedule of making your customers talk. Have them leave reviews. Call them up to hear directly from them (let them know that they’ll be mentioned on your blog or on your product page). Do what Amazon does with reviews.
Further, go ahead and reach out to influencers to try your products first. Then, get them to talk.
Making others stand up for your product gives your product descriptions an immediate boost. It lends credibility to your writing.
How do you write your product descriptions?