How to Write Product Descriptions That Sell

If you sell products on your website, simply listing their features in dry, mundane ways won’t do much to inspire sales. Instead, you need product descriptions that are engaging, persuasive, and captivating.

These six tips can teach you how to write product descriptions that are enticing enough to encourage sales.

1. Focus on the buyer

One of the most important parts of selling products is getting to know your ideal customer. Uncovering the demographics and psychographics of your typical buyer will help you understand what makes them laugh, what troubles them, how they talk, and what problems they need solved. It will become easier to position your product as the solution to their problems, or as a must-have item.

Another way to glean insights into your target audience is by communicating with them regularly. Engage with them on social media, or encourage them to fill out a contact form to understand what’s on their minds.

2. Highlight your product’s benefits

Even if you’re proud that your product is made from first-class materials or is produced using renewable energy, your shoppers are more likely to be interested in what a product does and how it can help them. Because of this, your product descriptions should focus on benefits rather than features.

For example, look at this product description from Method Home. Instead of focusing on the natural ingredients that go into this stain remover, this description touts the product by focusing on its stain-fighting power.

3. Make it scannable

Scannable copy makes your product descriptions easier to read. You can achieve this by using bullet points, increasing the font size, and using bold and italics in your post editor to highlight text. Great examples of scannable copy can be viewed within many Amazon product descriptions.

4. Entice with social proof

Reviews can be a great way to make the final push towards closing a sale. However, instead of relying on customers to actually click on your reviews page, you can include quotes or testimonials within your product descriptions.

On top of that, if your product has been featured by other online publications, include a link to the publication as further social proof.

5. Use sensory words

According to The New York Times, sensory words can increase your sales, as they invoke a unique experience for each reader. While this article focuses on restaurant menus, you can apply the principles it describes to almost any product description. Highlight sensory effects, such as sound and touch, and add vivid adjectives to elicit an emotional response.

If you need a little inspiration, take notes from chocolate maker Green and Black’s.

6. Optimize for search engine results

If you followed the first tip in this article, your descriptions are already optimized for search engines because you’re using phrases and words that your target customers would use. However, you can take this a step further by including keywords within your product title and your images’ alt text.

Write product descriptions that sell

The key to making an online sale is knowing your audience and engaging with them through vivid copy that highlights your product’s benefits. If you follow the tips above, you can convert casual visitors into happy customers.