October 11, 2019

The Top 4 Ways to Improve Your Ecommerce Product Descriptions

After the busiest time of the year when online sales were crushing all-time records, we enter a brand new year. Many of us might be questioning how we can improve our product descriptions after such a stellar season. A lot of times we think that our product descriptions can’t get any more optimized for conversion, no matter the platform, and we get comfortable while we watch the sales chime in. There is, however, always room for some improvement and increasing conversions enough now can put us all in a better position to be able to order a second round of inventory for the upcoming year.

Are your product descriptions converting or can they use some help? Here are the top 4 ways you can improve your ecommerce product descriptions.

Optimize Your Product Descriptions With Keywords

I know what you’re thinking, “That is all you’ve got? I have my keywords optimized down to the last syllable!”

Before you go on a tangent and click off this article, let me expand a bit on a small segment you may be missing with your keyword optimization. Even though you have your keywords dialed in to a ‘T’, set and forgotten about, think about how there are new trends in every industry on a quarterly basis. For example: If there is a product in a specific industry that is being repurposed for another industry, you are going to want to dive into some new keywords that are relevant to that newly repurposed product and implement them into your product descriptions. You might even create entirely new product descriptions for that “new product.”

The brand Winterial sells an insulated water bottle which doubles as an insulated beer growler. This is a great example of utilizing keyword optimization to its fullest. As you can see in the title of the product description, there are more than just one relevant keyword listed: i.e. “Insulated Growler,” “Steel Water Bottle” and “Double Walled Thermos Flask.” Each of these keywords could be searched by consumers specifically, so this product description is optimized for all of them.

Optimized Amazon Product Listing Example

Optimizing your product descriptions with new keywords for your listing will increase your chances of ranking for the new keywords and, in addition, will wake up the Google and Amazon bots to your old listing and give it some new-found life. Do some research and see if your product is being used for different uses, or even better, think of a way how your product can be used differently and target the appropriate keywords.

Note: Check out this article on how to conduct effective keyword research, and this article can help you create optimized product descriptions.

Optimize Your Product Descriptions With Professional Images

Product photography and videography can (and typically is) the biggest deciding factor when a potential customer is cruising through your product descriptions. Your typical product descriptions have “photos on white” in addition to a few images that have graphics or words displayed on them. Today’s online shoppers are looking for more of an experience when browsing your product descriptions; they want to feel an emotional attachment to your product before purchasing. This can all be done through professional custom photography. Adding lifestyle and custom product photos of your product in its element, or at use, is ideal for any product description.

Many brand managers and ecommerce store owners get a bit stumped when figuring out where to create professional imagery for their product descriptions—especially in the early stages of product development and when launching their online business.

There are, in general, only two options to choose from when creating professional custom photography for your product descriptions:

  • One—typically the more expensive and time-sensitive option—is choosing to work with a local professional photographer to take your product photos.
  • The other is choosing to order the product photos online and shipping your products to a product photography studio such as Results Imagery. This is typically a more affordable route and can take only up to 7 business days for your product photos to be delivered.

Either way, you choose: It’s imperative to have professional product photos in your product descriptions to ensure that your customers can build an emotional bond that takes them all the way to the checkout page.

Note: If you’re interested in going the more DIY route, check out this article on The Ultimate DIY Guide to Product Photography for Ecommerce Businesses.

Get a Second Opinion on Your Product Descriptions

One of the strongest ways you can better optimize your product descriptions is simply by getting a second opinion on them. There are many “gurus” out there who may be more than happy to let you know whether they feel your product descriptions are optimized to their best ability. Typically, these “product description optimization gurus” will cost you a hefty fee, although they can be very helpful in improving your current product descriptions in addition to being a great way to bounce new ideas around for future product descriptions. In general, however, if you are looking to save money there are other options. The best option to receive a second opinion on your product descriptions is to utilize a product listing grader.

A product listing grader is a free automated tool that will grade your product descriptions and will give you a breakdown of how each part of your product description is performing, so you can identify and address weak spots. The benefit of using a product listing grader is every listing is based on the same criteria so there is no bias to influence the result. Utilizing a product listing grader is a great way to clean up your product descriptions and implement new ideas that may not have been evident to you before.

Create Assurance for Your Customers in the Product Descriptions

This may seem like an obvious factor in any product descriptions but at times we may get either over indulgent in “listing lingo” or we do not quite hit the mark when trying to get potential customers to fully understand why this purchase might be the right purchase for them.

Assuring potential customers that this purchase might be the right purchase for them can be done in a very easy way: Create easily digestible bullet points that start off with the main unique selling points of the product. This will be an “eye-catcher” for your potential customers and will quickly guide them to exactly what they’re looking for in your product descriptions. Whether it be durability, longevity or creativity, utilizing important words or phrases in a bulleted list can drastically increase your chances of making the sale.

Here is an example of how the company Driftsun utilizes their product’s unique selling points in bulleted lists in their products descriptions to assure any potential customers why it might be the right product for them to purchase:

Product Description Example

Conclusion

Improving your ecommerce product descriptions is an ever-changing process that can never truly be complete. As long as you continue to reinvest time and energy into refining your product descriptions in addition to focusing on the newest trends in consumer behavior and then implementing those trends into your listings, you’ll be on the right track.

The goal is to always create the best product descriptions in the eyes of the buyer: This includes understanding trends and how product listings across the web are commonly changing and being optimized. Studying larger brands in your industry is a great way to get started on optimizing and improving your product listings; in addition to applying some (if not all) of the tips shared with you in this article.

Note: Got your product descriptions down and now are ready to move onto the next step? Learn more about how to create the Perfect Product Page Design for Your Ecommerce Business here.
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