Mactavis

Category: Copywriting

  • How to Write Product Descriptions that Lead to Sales

    How to Write Product Descriptions that Lead to Sales

    How do you convince a customer to click the “Add to Cart” button on your e-commerce website? That is one question most webmasters have found trouble getting suitable answers too. Many people are looking for products and services online that fits their need. There are many websites that sell what you are selling, so why should anyone buy from you? The simple answer lies in the way you write product descriptions.

    A product description is a very important aspect of your online shop when it comes to conversion. It is the reason why some online shops sell more than others. Writing good product copy is not easy, as there is too much information to fit in so short a text.

    This article highlights 10 easy-to-follow rules about product description writing.

    Following these techniques and tips will help you write product copy that converts.

     

    Identify your target audience

    The very first thing you need to do when writing product copy is to define your target audience. By target audience, we mean the people that will be most interested in buying from you. Define the features that would interest your potential buyers. This is called a BUYER PERSONA. It is a breakdown of the characteristics of your potential customers.

    The following questions must come to mind when developing a buyer persona.

    • How did the person arrive at your page?
    • What are his or her interests?
    • How will this person describe this product to a friend?
    • What features or benefits would the person be looking out for?
    • Why would this person be interested in your website?

    When writing product descriptions, you must answer these questions. The buyer persona helps to specify what your customers need and want. With this in mind, answering these questions in your product copy is a way to make them buy what you are offering.

     

    Always focus on benefits rather than features

    Most e-commerce websites make the mistake of focusing on writing features rather than highlighting what the customer stands to gain by patronizing you. While features are good, benefits are better. They help sway the mind of the customer, as he or she is not necessarily interested in the mundane features of the product. They can always get that on Google. Writing about benefits tells the user how the product can benefit their day-to-day living.

    Before writing product descriptions, make an outline of the features and benefits of your product. Its aim is to increase pleasure or reduce pain points. Your product copy must reflect this.

     

    Use psychology in your product descriptions

    There is something called THE BUYER’S GUILT. It is the feeling of guilt when spending money to buy something, especially if it’s not particularly needed at that point. Use psychology when writing your product descriptions as it helps to eliminate this guilt.

    Write in a way that sounds reassuring, as you leave the customer with a feeling of happiness and satisfaction. It achieves two things which are: it helps you make a sale and also prompts a speedy return on the part of the buyer. A definite win-win situation for you. You can eliminate buyer’s guilt by letting them know it’s a one-time only offer, using words like “absolute bargain” and by making the product sound exclusive.

    You can also compliment them on finding such a bargain deal and also stating that buying the product will help them save money. Who doesn’t like saving money?

     

    Tell a story sometimes

    A product description is a perfect opportunity to elicit emotions. It should have an emotional angle as it helps them buy the product faster. Give out relevant details in a way that sounds like a story as this fills any gap potential customers may have about the product. Stories show that real-life people have benefited from using the product too.

    The story may be real or fictional, as long as it delivers a real-life perspective. It helps people connect with your brand on an emotional level rather than a transactional level.

    The following questions can help in writing a story :

    • Who made the product?
    • The inspiration behind the product
    • How would the product improve the buyer’s everyday life?

     

    Use natural language and avoid certain words

    Your potential buyer must read your products description as though they are having a real conversation with a real friend? If it does, you are one step closer to making them buy your product. Inject life into your words, rather than coming up with something that sounds like a computer-generated string of words.

    Having a natural tone will help your customer connect with your brand, as there are no sweeping generalizations or empty adjectives. Who uses those when talking to a friend? Your guess is as good as ours.

    Another thing you can do while writing product copy is to avoid the use of some words which would be highlighted below:

    • Actually, literally, honestly: These are gap fillers that people use when they can’t think of something else to say.
    • Get, got, gotten: Tell or suggest people to “buy” rather than use these words. They sound like you are advising them. You must be assertive in what you do.
    • Sorry: This just spews negativity.
    • Kind of, maybe: This word sounds as though you are not sure of what you are saying.

    Never duplicate content

    It is bad practice to duplicate copy or content. Make sure your copy is 100% unique, even if you are sure you wrote it yourself. The same copy can be online already on a different platform. Apart from having plagiarism issues, using the same content that others have used paints a picture that you don’t know your stuff and it can actually ruin a business.

    Copyscape.com helps you verify that your copy isn’t on a different website. If your copy is on another website, you have to edit it.

    Use power words and never stuff keywords

    According to Jon Morrow, power words are words that naturally elicit an emotional response in humans. When you use the words and phrases, you can convince them to take the leap and make a purchase. Words that have positive connotations such as amazing, happy, jaw-dropping, jubilant, wonderful, surprising and excited are examples of power words.

    While using power words, keyword stuffing must be avoided. Keywords stuffing is the art or practice of using too many keywords in a line or paragraph of text just to rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). You must use your keywords in a systematic way so as not to fall foul of search engine regulations. It’s good practice to identify these keywords (what your buyers are most likely searching for) before writing the descriptions.

    You can do your keyword research with tools such as MOZ Explorer and Keyword Planner. A good product description infused with keywords help your site SEO rankings as more people see your product when they search for these keywords on Google and other search engines. You can optimize your product’s SEO by placing your keywords in your page title, meta descriptions image tags (alt tags).

    Read our earlier post on how to optimize your site’s SEO.

     

    Capture the imagination of the buyer

    In the movie Gifted Hands, Ben Carson’s mum told him that, “Everyone’s got an imagination”. She was right, and you can tap into this for your product descriptions. Write in a way that stirs the imagination of the reader. User words that conjure up images in the buyer’s mind. Doing this keeps them coming back as you want them to feel like they are buying a lifestyle rather than a product.

    Sell in a way that doesn’t feel as though they are being sold to but like their dreams can be achieved with your product. You can do so by mentioning an event, using adjectives, or pointing out a celebrity that is using the products.

     

    Use Good images

    While being adept at writing product descriptions is good, one sure way it can lead to sales is to make sure you have high-resolution images. Images rather than text are the first attention-grabbers on a page, so you must invest in good images.

    Research has shown that a product image is more important than description or reviews from previous users. Quality images show the customer to imagine having this product in his or her life and also shows all the key features of the product in a way that text or words couldn’t have mustered.

    In using images, one key trick is to use people using the products or the products in action. It shows them that real people are already using it.

     

    Make it short

    Your product description must be able to capture the attention of people in the shortest possible time. People have very short attention spans, which implies that you should write your copy in a way that the buyer finds information quickly without wasting time.

    Make use of catchy headlines bullet points, and short paragraphs. Ideally, these paragraphs should contain a few sentences, lots of white space, and different size fonts.

    You are more likely to lose a potential customer if you have long lines of text.

     

    Final Words

    Product descriptions are all about giving reasons why the product will improve your customer’s life. The main aim of writing product copy is stepping inside the head of the customer while adhering to Google guidelines. Following the aforementioned points can help you increase sales.

    If you liked this article, you can drop messages in the comments section. Let us know what you think. You can also add other things that can be done to boost sales through product descriptions. You can check out our previous articles to join the conversation. We do hope you can learn one or two things from them.

    Get in touch with us and connect with us across social media platforms @MactavisDigital. We are a digital agency that has built expertise in web design and development, mobile app development, content production, Search Engine Optimization and other digital services. We will be glad to hear from you.

  • Understanding Copywriting And Content Marketing For Your Website

    Understanding Copywriting And Content Marketing For Your Website

    Copywriting and content marketing have become very important in the digital space. The amount of potential customers online is mind-boggling, therefore having content that gravitates people towards your brand is important. Copywriting and content marketing are intertwined, but they don’t mean the same thing. That said, what is copywriting?

    Copywriting involves making content attractive to the extent that customers move past the reading phase to the purchase phase. Informative blog posts, insightful case studies, how-to guides and entertaining social media snippets help provide value for your audience.

    This article highlights essential tips and skills that are essential in copywriting. Let’s dive in.

     

    Copywriting vs content marketing

    Don’t be afraid. This headline is not an advert for an upcoming boxing match. We just want to highlight the difference between content marketing and copywriting. Imagine this. Books, pencils, and erasers are all grouped under the term, “Stationery”. All these items are part of a larger category. It’s the same for copywriting and content marketing.

    Copywriting is a form of content and marketing. Content marketing, according to the Content Marketing Institute, is “a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing value, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience – and ultimately, to drive profitable customer action”.

    Content marketing is an umbrella term that covers any content you create and distribute. It includes blog posts, social media posts, emails, print copy, press releases and so on. Copywriting involves three ultimate aim of attracting sales. A blog post which may be written just to educate may not be termed as copy, but can be referred to an example of content marketing.

     

    Why is Copywriting Important?

    Every successful content marketing strategy must have copywriting at its core. Its idea is to inform rather than promote that puts you as an authority in your niche or industry. Most people don’t really appreciate when they are being “directly advertised” to.

    You most create copy or content in a systematic way without overly promoting your products or services which converts a fair portion of readers into potential customers and followers. Think of copywriting as a Call-To-Action: but on a much larger scale.

     

    Essential Copywriting Skills

    Every good copywriter needs a skill set that puts them at an expertise level when it comes to creating sales-inducing content. Some are listed below:

     

    Your headlines must attract

    Headlines are very important when it comes to copywriting as they must make the reader want to keep reading until the article is completely read. The reader must be excited about reading the rest of the content. To do that, having a headline that hits people once they see it is advised. Famous copywriter, David Ogilvy put it aptly when he said, “Five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy”.

    Simply put, if a headline isn’t compelling enough, there is a higher chance that the rest the content will not be read. Research and recent studies have proved that 80% of viewers read the headline but not the body copy. Headlines must be direct, short and unique. Simply put, no one is going to read content unless they feel drawn by the headline.

     

    Your writing skills must be top-notch

    Copywriting involves having excellent writing skills. Use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling must be mastered by a good copywriter. You must also be able to create easy-to-read content and make complex topics simple. Writing great transitions and crafting compelling conclusions is also a must. Since copywriting involves writing compelling content, you must use the correct style and select the best vocabulary words within a specific content.

     

    Your audience must be able to relate with your content

    One thing you must be able to do when writing good copy is to put yourself in the mind of the reader. Understand their pain points, so you strive to create content that can solve their problems. You must listen to the needs and desires of your audience, and research on the language they use.

    Doing keyword research is very important, as it helps you understand what your customers are searching for online. By writing in a way that the reader can relate to, you can lead them to do what you want. You must highlight their problems, and also give solutions to the challenges. You must focus on benefits, not features. Good copywriting should speak to the reader in human terms.

    Be direct in the way you write things instead of using exaggerated language to drive home a point.

     

    A good copywriter must specialize

    The task of content creation is only possible from someone who has deep experience and interest in a niche. While some writers can learn quickly about an industry and produce wonderful content, it is important to have experience and interest. Specific content needs writers that are well versed in that particular niche, otherwise, there is a high probability that a low-quality content will be churned out.

     

    Don’t go yet, read this.

    We do hope this article helped you understand what you need to do to become a better copywriter. Content marketing strategies keep changing, so self-development, a fresh set of understanding, and skills are needed to improve. Do you need a digital agency that can attend to all your copywriting needs? Look no further. Mactavis is a digital agency that has worked with different websites and brands on their copywriting needs.

    For your comments, suggestions or inquiries, please contact us or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @MactavisDigital. You can also check out our portfolio to find out what we have done in the past. We would be happy to hear from you. Really.