Writing engaging product descriptions

To write engaging product descriptions, consider applying any or all of the following tactics.

Focussing on your ideal customer

Imagine your ideal customer or your target audience when you're writing your product descriptions, and address them directly. Ask and answer questions as if you’re having a conversation with you ideal customer, rather than writing generically to no one in particular.

Consider asking yourself some of the following questions:

What kind of humor do your customers appreciate, if any?
What words do your customers use? What words do they hate?
What questions do your customers ask that you should answer?

You can try to incorporate that language into your store so that you can have a similar conversation online that feels more realistic and genuine.

Enticing customers with benefits

Highlight your product’s benefits so that your customers know how it could help them. You might want to organize your product features and benefits in a bulleted list, and include any technical details.

Consider the following questions:

How does your product make your customers feel happier, healthier, or more productive?
What problems, glitches, and hassles does your product help solve?
What are your product's basic features? Write out any dimensions, materials, functions, care instructions, and details about the fit if you’re selling clothing.
When is the product best used? Is your cozy blanket perfect for cold winter nights with a cup of hot cocoa by the fireplace? Or is it more for a brisk autumn evening as the sun goes down? Highlight the ideal scenarios for when a customer should use your product.
What makes your product special? Think about the unique benefits of your product and why it’s better than that of your competitors.

Avoiding generic statements

Be specific in your product descriptions. Product details add credibility and help to sell your product. Writing something vague like “excellent product quality” doesn’t tell your customer anything substantial, and it might cause them to become skeptical if you don’t provide evidence.

Giving evidence for product benefits

Make sure that any claims that you make about your products are factual. If your product is the best in its category, then provide proof for why this is true. Otherwise, tone down your product copy, or quote a customer who says your product is the most wonderful thing they’ve ever used.

Appealing to your customers’ imagination

If your store is online, then customers can't hold the product in their hands. Help your customer imagine what it would be like to own your product. Try starting a sentence with the word “imagine,” and finish your sentence or paragraph by explaining how your reader will feel when owning and using your product.

Using mini-stories to connect with customers

Include mini-stories in your product descriptions. Stories allow customers to relate to your brand and connect to the product.

When it comes to telling a story about your products, ask yourself the following questions:

Who is making the product?
What inspired creating the product?
What obstacles did you need to overcome to develop the product?
How was the product tested?

Including sensory words

Engage your readers with vivid product descriptions. Adjectives that describe a sensory interaction with the product can help your customers to experience the product as they're reading.

For example, if you’re selling food products, then think about words such as “velvety,” “smooth,” “crisp,” and “bright”.

Include customer testimonials or a social media feed so that potential customers can read about previous customers' experiences with your products. If you’re including customer testimonials, then try to include an image of the customer using the product to add credibility. When you share examples of real people using your products, potential customers can feel more confident in their product choices.

You can use a customer reviews app to capture product reviews on your website and integrate others from third-party sites such as Google or Facebook.

Making your description scannable

Make sure your product descriptions are clear and scannable so that they're easier to read and more appealing to potential customers.

Consider the following areas to focus on when you're writing your product descriptions:

Entice your web visitor with headlines.
Use bullet points for lists.
Include plenty of white space.
Increase your font size to promote readability.
Use high quality product images.

Setting goals to measure success

Decide on a set of metrics to track on your product pages to understand if your product descriptions are leading to more sales. Defining these metrics helps you understand which product descriptions are working best and then improve upon the underperforming ones.

Some common metrics to monitor are:

conversion rate
cart abandonment
return rate
support inquiries
organic search rankings

You can run different A/B tests using a tool such as Neat A/B Testing, resulting in higher conversions and more sales for your ecommerce website.