The reason we get into business is to sell goods, right? However, as you and I both know, there’s a whole lot of other stuff that goes into running a creative business, including writing product descriptions for our online shops.
- Do your homework: Read, read and read some more. Cruise through Etsy, Ebay, Artfire and lots of other shops and sites and read descriptions. Make notes of what you like, styles, descriptions and other elements related to product descriptions.
- Use your analytics: Go through your shop or site analytics often and look at the search words people are using to find your site or shop. Pretend you are a shopper and type search terms into a search engine or site toolbar. What comes up? Is it anything like the products you make? Also, make note of the suggested keywords that show up. You might just find a word you hadn’t thought of. Be sure to use the words that result from these searches in your descriptions.
- Boil it all down: Write your description without thinking – just get the ideas and words out on the page. Next, go back and boil it all down. Remember that today’s shoppers are ultra busy and may be checking email, making dinner and shopping for a gift all at the same time. Your product description attract the attention of such a busy person if you keep it short but to the point. Be descriptive and be unique. A highly descriptive word or unique turn of phrase can get tons of information across and encourage a shopper to stick around long enough to hit the BUY button.
- Use your own voice: Be sure to take the time to cultivate your own unique voice and point of view. Let your style, passion and personality shine through in your descriptions. Do you have a wacky sense of humor or a poetic way of looking at the world? Let that shine in your descriptions. Write your product descriptions just as you would say them to a face-to-face customer. In fact, record a few conversations with customers and use some of the language you used in your interaction.
- Include physical descriptions: Of course you’ll need to describe your product as well as you can in a physical way. After all the customer isn’t there to pick the item up and look it over so you need to be the eyes and ears for your customer. Include physical measurements but also be sure to describe the length, weight or size in a way that most people can relate to. If you describe an item as being 2.5″ long but the shopper doesn’t have a ruler nearby, they won’t get an idea of how long that is. But if you say it’s about the length of a pointer finger then you also have a visual that goes along with your measurement. Also, try to stage at least one photo in a way that shows the comparative size of an item by adding in a coin, ruler or other common item.
- Get a second or third opinion: Ask your family, friends and online fans to read your descriptions (maybe you could offer a discount code for their assistance?)
- Edit, edit and then edit some more: Once you’ve been through all of these tips go back through your description and edit it. Let a friend or two read it without an image or idea of what you are describing and see if they can get a feel for the item being sold. Be sure to check for spelling and grammar mistakes. You may want to include a lot of information such as return, payment or shipment policies to reduce the amount of questions you get but make sure to put that toward the bottom for the shopper to read AFTER you’ve gotten his or her attention.
What’s your best tip for writing product descriptions?
By: Vicki O’Dell, The Creative Goddess
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My best tip for writing product descriptions is to pretend you’re describing your item to someone over the phone. You want to paint a “word picture”.