3 Critical Steps To Writing Product Descriptions That Sell

January 18, 2019 | Sean Foo

From selling a physical product through eBay or Amazon to online software sales through your website, it is the product description that will determine if the sale is won or lost.

Does your product description connect and resonate with your customer and compel them to place an order?

Is your fantastic product being marketed in a boring fashion with a long list of features and a superficial description of what it does?

The end goal of any product description, whether you are selling a candy bar in Singapore or a luxury car in Germany, is always the same:

Capturing the attention of your prospects, enticing them to read further.
Engaging them by speaking to their challenges and allowing them to experience the benefits.
Persuading your prospects to take action turning them into paying customers.

While there are many techniques to write killer product descriptions that convert, almost all of them follow the proven 3 step method I’m about to share with you.

By following this 3 step roadmap we have compiled, you can begin to craft fantastic product descriptions that will place you head and shoulders above the competition.

And yes, sell more products!

Step 1: Match The Right Tone Of Voice To Your Buyer Type

Who are the customers you are trying to sell to?

Are you trying to market to an 18-year-old teenage girl heading to university or a 40-year high-powered business executive with lots of expendable cash?

Choosing the right tone of voice will help you to not only relate better to your audience but show that you think and talk like them.

For example, if you selling a high-end dining experience or a $20,000 luxury watch, speaking in the 3rd person (passive voice) with sophisticated language with an attention to detail will be the better choice.

The luxury watch company Vacheron Constantin understands this well and matches the suitable tone of voice to their target audience: The wealthy and sophisticated.

While typically boring to the average person and might leave some readers scratching their head, the product description here is tailored to evoke a feeling of exclusivity and prestige by:

Focusing on the history of the watch and the process of creation
Using elaborate metaphors such as ‘expression of the watchmaking tradition’.
Highlighting the idea of personalised service, an experience loved by the rich.

Graze.com, on the other hand, is a healthy snack box subscription service that delivers nutritious munchies straight to your home.

Because their audience is from all walks of life sharing a common love and passion for health, their product description is geared towards highlighting the quick benefits, its popularity and wide range of snacks they have.

Notice the upbeat energy-filled language with exclamation marks?

Eating healthy is meant to be a happy affair and Graze fully seeks to inject this emotion to their customers through their product descriptions.

The first step before writing anything is to fully understand your customer.

The challenges they are currently facing & the problems they are desperately trying to solve…

The way they are spoken to and what type of messages seems more ‘natural’ and which manner of speaking seems too fake or ‘try-hard’…

And the emotional triggers that will get them to click that buy button.

Step 2: List Out Your Product’s Features & How They Will Benefit Your Customer.

If you have been paying attention to the things you buy, whether in person or online, the successful ones typically use a mixture of benefits and features in their marketing.

Most products out there (especially technology, software & hardware) focus on the features of what their solution does or provide.

While that might be great and shows the amount of innovation or value that is packed into your product, your prospects don’t really care about that.

They need to know what does your product do for them. How it can make their lives better and how it can remove a personal or business challenge they are currently facing.

At SpeechSilver, we follow a proven method to extract the true benefits out of any product or services that our clients present to us, it is actually quite straightforward and powerful.

Let’s say you created a trading app and one of your app’s key features might be an artificial intelligence algorithm.

Already, you might be scratching your head wondering what is the product even about!

So let’s quickly go through the 4 step process of extracting your product’s benefits:

Feature: ‘Contains an artificial intelligence algorithm’

Why it’s there: ‘Adds greater utility by adapting & customising the user’s information and what they see.’

What’s in it for them: ‘Keeps the things you read the most at the forefront when you are in a hurry.’

Emotional root: ‘Stay up to date on the things that add value to your trades and profits without wasting time from info overload or time delays.

Now here comes the awesome part – how can you use this information to craft a powerful product description?

Simple! Just reverse the sequence!

‘Up to 60% Of Your Profits Depends On Having The Right Information At The Right Time. Ready To Double Your Profits?

‘With our new trading app, you can cut through the clutter and get the right information you need in real-time.’

‘Containing our proprietary Artificial Intelligence Algorithm that learns your habits daily, get the most relevant news you need and begin your trading streak today!’

Now having a long list of benefits is great and appeals to the emotional side of your prospects, however, you will need to back it up with something tangible.

If something sounds too good to be true or just too incredible, you will need to back up that claim with your product features.

Take for example the Xbox One X gaming console for example(supposedly the world’s most powerful console)

Xbox uses a detailed explanation of their 12 GB graphic memory features and what it does, improving game performance, to justify their claim of delivering bigger worlds and further horizons.

Step 3: Take Stock Of Your Customers’ Doubts, Fears And Objections.

Anyone who goes shopping around isn’t 100% sure if the product they are considering is the best for them. They are filled with fears and doubts and as marketers, our job is to address these concerns in the product description.

While there might be a temptation to bury our heads in the sand and just let the awesome features & benefits showcase do the selling for us, that is not enough, especially today.

Depending on your product, its complexity and price point, your customers might have just a few questions lingering in their mind or a whole list of doubts concerning your solution.

While it isn’t practical to address every single doubt that they have, it is important to address the most popular and biggest objections that might have to maximise your conversions and sales.

Some of the ways to uncover doubts and uncertainties include:

Scouring and reading through Amazon reviews of your competitor’s similar products. (and your own reviews if you have been marketing them for a while)
Join forums and boards like Quora and Reddit and participate in conversations to truly find the pains and challenges that your customers typically face day to day.
Phone your past customers to understand their doubts before they purchased your product – an often-overlooked method that works.

What you seek is to find patterns and common doubts that keeps getting repeated by your customers. Those are the doubts and objections you will need to address in your product description.

Let’s say your two biggest doubts your prospects have are:

1) What if the product breaks down after a few uses, especially since it is expensive? > Built with the finest materials and made to last, we offer a 2-year warranty on each unit. We will happily replace and deliver a new product straight to your home in the unlikely event of a breakdown.

2) Is this product priced reasonable and of good value? > Discover the cheapest and best solution in Singapore. At only $99 a month, safe more than 50% while enjoying the best features your business needs.

Take Basecamp, for example, a project management software service.

Like most Saas products, there are two main objections that have to be addressed in the product description.

One – Must I pay upfront before I try out the app?

Two – Is this app working well for their existing customer base?

Basecamp addresses these two objections in a simple and straightforward manner.

By offering a free 30-day trial, they have effectively addressed the fear of paying upfront while the mention of 100,000+ happy paying customers helps assures prospects of their product’s effectiveness.

Conclusion

As digital marketing gets more competitive, an increasing focus is being placed in the copy of your product descriptions.

While this process could take hours or even days, the time invested from research to the actual writing of it is more than worth it.

After all, with a powerful product description, you won’t just be selling more products to your customers, you will also be maximising your advertising campaigns and get a better return on investment with every marketing dollar spent!