How to write an effective product description
Some product descriptions work against conversion rather than encouraging conversion. The tips below will give you additional inspiration to boost your product description and give your competitors the edge.
Highlights from this blog
- Customers read thoroughly only the first words of a sentence or the first words of a paragraph;
- Be sure to answer possible questions from your potential customers;
- Write as briefly and concisely as possible;
- Write your product description so that the customer knows her or his desire will be fulfilled.
How important is a product description anyway?
Whether people actually read product descriptions really carefully is debatable. There is evidence that people just scan the product descriptions and very deliberately look for what is relevant to them. Once they have found that, they will read the product descriptions thoroughly. Do you fail to captivate your potential customers quickly enough? Then they'll be gone just as quickly.
For example, there is an E-commerce study by NNgroup. They found that 20% of bounces on a product page can be explained in part by unclear and missing product information.
“Leaving potential customers with questions can cause them to leave the product page and even, in the worst case, the entire website.â One participant in the study indicated that due to the lack of the right info, he left the site and searched on Google for another provider. He found a product with a more compelling product description and a lower price.â€
The question now is whether you, as a (starting) business seller on bol.com, are doing everything you can to avoid this. A product description that is not appropriate for your item will cause the potential customer to look next door. 20% less conversion due to an inappropriate text is a huge waste. So it is important not to miss any opportunities.
Write creatively
Your product should solve a problem or make a wish come true for your potential customer. Writing texts creatively, helps with this. Creative writing is a craft but definitely learnable. For example, this article on Sumo shows how you could design your product description.
Instead of simply laying out only product specifications, the author immediately paints a unique picture for his end customer. Avoid just adding keywords and focus on creating an experience. Obviously, it is important to think carefully about your SEO and how you are going to implement it. Do not neglect SEO, but try to find a good balance between the keywords and delivering an experience.
in 2009, the project called significant objects was conducted to look at the influence of creative writing. Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn conducted an experiment in which they challenged 100 creative writers to post personal stories to 18 items that averaged $1.25 as the purchase price. These items were then sold on eBay. Together, they raised nearly 8000$.
The horse head below sold on Ebay for $62.96 each. Through creative product text from one of the 200 participating writers, Walker and Glenn managed to sell the product for a price 6258.58% higher than their purchase price.
Storytelling is powerful according to CXL. Most people approach product descriptions as something clinical. As if it should just be dry stuff and only be about specifications. Yet this example shows that creatively arranging your texts can make a lot of difference.
How large should my texts be?
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. What you can take away for your product ads on bol.com is that your texts should contain enough information to cover the most important information. In addition, your text should be short enough to keep it interesting.
The NNGroup also found that potential customers generally only scan a text. They too saw that potential customers generally only read the start of a sentence and the start of a paragraph thoroughly. So this is in line with the research of UX myths. So don't use unnecessary words and always include the most relevant information at the beginning of a text.
The NNGroup offers the following advice:
Don't waste your first few sentences on text that doesn't make your potential customer immediately understand the product. Even a sentence that doesn't directly contribute to what it does, or what the benefits are, can cause a bounce.
Ensure that fears and insecurities are addressed
According to CXL, fears, insecurities and doubt are the main reasons why people drop out of your article. You know they are interested in what you are selling, otherwise they would not have landed on your product ad. Try as best you can to understand what questions you therefore need to answer that come from the fears and insecurities. After all, people buy stuff to become a better version of themselves, and they'd rather not choose incorrectly.
You end up asking for money. That's where the friction is and that's what you want to take away from your potential customer. It's all about naming what the customer can ultimately do with your product. The customer will always ask the question, "Is amount x going to make me achieve goal y and therefore become a better version of myself?" When you are convincing enough with your product description, the gains to be made for the customer outweigh the friction of handing over the money to you.
Write activating and specific
Instead of using vague language, it is better to use specific and descriptive words. One study found that descriptive menu labels in restaurants increased sales by 27% percent. In general, we trust concrete language more than vague wording. To illustrate:
- "The fastest delivery company in the Netherlands" vs "We deliver your pizza within 10 minutes"
- "The best Italian food in Amsterda" vs "Our restaurant has been rated best five times"
- "The cheapest web hosting" vs "Our cheapest packet costs 20.95€"
In most cases, the concrete variant wins the customer's trust.
Best product descriptions think about readability
The NNGroup found that testing with different styles produced different results. A product description written to be easily scannable and worded objectively showed a 124% usability rate.
- Use bullet points or numbered lists;
- Set important pieces apart from the rest, or make the text printed or italicized;
- Use headings for easy scannable text;
- Use as many blank lines as possible to let your text breathe.
Conclusion
Potential customers don't read texts nearly as well as you probably think they do. They prefer to scan. To make sure you don't lose their attention, it's wise to consider a healthy mix between creativity and readability. Creativity is all about the feeling you give a visitor, what does it give them. Readability has everything to do with the layout of your text, so that your potential customer will take just a little longer to consider what is important. That's how you take away insecurities, fears and doubts.
