How to write product descriptions and influence people

You don’t need me to tell you how important it is to present your products in a way that is attractive and tempting for prospective buyers. But sometimes it is difficult to pinpoint how exactly that is achieved – especially if you are a small business, inexperienced start-up or one person Jack-of-all-trades. Here are some of my tips for professional product presentation and how to boost sales organically.

1. What makes you ‘add to basket’?

Think about your competitors and brands that you like. What is it that they do well? What is it about their products that makes you want them? Maybe it is the packaging or the name. Maybe the way they are described sounds authoritative or funny or effortlessly cool and you want a piece of that. Now think, what do you want to achieve for your brand?

Do your research and make notes. Ask friends what they like about their favourite products and brands. You should create a mood board of key words and images that sum up how you want your brand to be portrayed. And then you need to keep this in mind with each decision you make going forward.

2. Keywords for SEO

I am not saying that keywords aren’t important as far as getting traffic to your website. They are. However, you do need to be careful that it is not at the expense of the quality of your product descriptions and web content.

I have worked with a digital marketing agency previously, who helped us with SEO but when it came to updating the web content or writing blogs, their manic determination to fit those keywords and phrases into every second sentence drove me nuts. As a creative writer, I always fought for engaging prose over keyword saturation and I believe your audience will most definitely pick up on (and be put off by) stilted phrasing.

I understand that it’s not all about beautiful words. After all, who is going to read them if no one visits your site in the first place? But I think you need to find a happy medium. You can’t ignore the fact that keywords help your Google ranking. But you need a writer who can subtly include keywords so that they are effective, without compromising the tone of voice that you have spent time perfecting and will need to consistently portray.

You want your customers to buy into and fall in love with your brand. And I believe that is done through creative and engaging text rather than by being bombarded by repetitive keywords that just make your text jarring and clunky.

3. Images

We love visuals. We want to be sold a story and a lifestyle and images are the easiest way to successfully achieve this. So it is no surprise that the images you select are probably the most important aspect of your product pages.

You first need to consider the basics: good lighting; clear images; no rogue shadows. You may need to show scale by placing other relatable items in the shot. Images should be consistent; if you have used a filter – is it the same filter on all images? Where have you snapped the images? Do you have any unwanted items in your background that need editing out (kids toys, unfolded laundry,... the family dog)?

After you have tackled the basics, it is your time to shine. Here is where your mood board comes to the fore. What brand image do you want to portray? And do your images give that impression you seek? (If you are not sure, ask some trusted friends.)

This is your chance to go all out and demonstrate how your products are used; what kind of people use them (target audience); and what are the effects of using them? Sell us a story that we envy and can’t resist. We must be compelled to add to basket.

4. Words / TOV

After you have hooked your customer with your on-brand images, the second port of call will be the product descriptions.

These need to be informative but maintain a consistent, on-brand tone of voice that is rolled out through the website.

Go back to your mood board. What did you want to achieve? Your words need to sell a story and lifestyle and appeal to your target demographic. For example, if you are selling lawnmowers, you probably don’t need to go to town on the whimsical anecdotes and poetic tonality. Concise, informative details highlighting the key features and USPs will suffice. If you are selling mascara – there is a very striking difference in tone depending on the target age bracket, for example.

If adapting your tone of voice is not something you have previously had to contemplate then it might be here that you consider enlisting the help of a professional writer. They will be able to achieve that consistent tone of voice that is required and probably in a lot less time than it would take you to do it yourself. It is such an important aspect of your website that really can’t be compromised if you want to boost sales.

Finally, proof read. I cannot stress enough how important this is. Even if you haven’t hired a writer for the bulk of the text, having someone check spelling, punctuation, grammar and consistency of TOV is a must. If your descriptions are littered with errors and look like they were written by a 6 year old, it’s not something any customer will consider a serious option.