Writing a good product description is more than just throwing together a few adjectives, it’s about defining your product or service. An excellent product description is a well written piece of copy that not only describes what you are selling but accurately reflects its value to the customer.

A great product description shouldn’t just show off the product, it should also show off the business itself. Descriptions should include three facets that should accurately showcase the product itself and help clinch the sale: value proposition, features and benefits.

The Big 3

Value Proposition

What does your business do? Who does your business help? What kind of value does your business provide? Now, how about the product itself?

The formula to figure out your value proposition is simple: “We help X do Y by doing Z.” You could also say “We help (noun) do (verb) by doing Z.”

Say you are a company that helps small businesses by monitoring those pesky credit card processing fees. When you are trying to plug in your values for X,Y, and Z you would do so as follows: “We help small businesses save money on credit card fees by providing them with a credit watchdog service.” This would be your company’s value proposition.

This is a long way of saying that your value proposition is simply who you are helping and what problem you are helping them solve. This is an important thing to understand as a business owner and an even more important thing to get across in a product description. Alway reinforce this value to your potential customers because that is what they came to you for!

While you are writing your description you must keep this value proposition in mind because this is why a customer would end up on a page for one of your products or services. This is why they would be reading your description

Product Features

When we are writing about a product or service we are proud of we’re usually excited to list out the different features to show off what we are selling. But are we doing it in the most effective way for the customer?

Customers care a lot about the features but they don’t just want to hear about what the product can do, they want to know what the product can do for them. Bells and whistles are just bells and whistles unless you explain why they aren’t.

So instead of making a list of what the product does, take the time to explain a little bit about what use each feature serves and how someone can get value from it. Context, in this case, matters quite a bit, which plays nicely into the last facet…

Benefits

Features and benefits work in tandem in a product description because if you are fleshing out your features correctly they will naturally become benefits.

A benefit in a description is taking the feature of the product or service and giving it the added context to explain how it will add value to the customer's life. This is where you answer the question “why should I buy this?”

Explaining the benefits is an important part of the sales message because it educates the customer about your product and reinforces your messaging one last time while their cursor is hovering above the “add to cart” button.

Putting Pen To Paper (Kind Of)

Being able to craft great product descriptions is one of the most critical skills a copywriter can possess. The sale depends on the reader connecting with the product in either an emotional or a practical way. Rarely are you going to get a customer to click on that buy button with just a photo and some specs! Even if they are already on the page they will still need a little convincing.

What is it that makes people want to buy a product or service? What made you want to buy the last thing you purchased online impulsively?

Getting to a product or service page indicates the prospective customer has decided to trust you enough to look at your products, services, and prices.

While they have decided to consider you, that doesn’t mean they’ve committed to spending any money or even giving you their email address. You still need to win those. Remember that you are not really selling the product or service…. You’re selling the benefit your product or service can bring to a customer’s life.

Beyond the three facets discussed above there are still so many things that can go into a product description that can make or break a sale. Simple things like writing style or punctuation can irritate a customer into passing on by!

Here are a few other things to consider before you sit down at the computer and write product descriptions...

Other Things To Consider When Writing Copy For Product Descriptions

Refrain from using clichès & known phrases

Cool it on the clichès. Also avoid phrases that are already associated with well-known brands. “The world's best” and “not your mama’s” are all used up. You know what the other ones are. Remember that catch phrases probably were once just extemporaneous words that MANY people related to. IF you use these too much you are associating yourself with another company’s product. That is the exact opposite of what you need to do.

Keep it concise

Reread your product description and task yourself with getting rid of all the extra words. The more understanding you can garner with a glance will translate into more sales. More words is not always more descriptive.

If you feel like you can’t possibly part with any of it try sending it to someone else and have them read it and make suggested cuts. Sometimes you need a second opinion.

Don’t be afraid of emotions

How will using this product make me feel? Add a sentence or a few adjectives explaining what positive emotion your product can bring into the customer's life. Coffee makes you feel “energetic”. Maids help their clients feel “relaxed” at home. More computers are sold because people think they are “fun” than functional.

Remember who you are selling to

What is your demographic? Be honest, not hopeful. Write to who will be reading your product descriptions, not who you hope will read it. If your customers are usually 50+ , using a bunch of Gen Z lingo will not be super helpful and will probably be pretty alienating.

Copy description focuses on obvious sales. Branding campaigns with unique copy can be generated for new niche sales.

Tuck the dimension and specs at the end

Keep the boring stuff at the end! If you need to give physical dimensions for a product make sure it’s at the end of your paragraph. This info is for people who have decided to buy and want to make sure your product will fit into their home or space. It’s still important, of course but you want people focused on the features and benefits first.

Avoid words that can have multiple meanings

Someone will always misunderstand or get confused. Count on it. “cheap” is the obvious one. While people often use that word in Google searches, due to semantic broad term searches, it garners nothing for the product. Inexpensive will get you to the same place without making your product or service seem inferior.

List your price

Many companies want to leave their product or service costs off their site hoping that they can win the sale over the phone or through email. This is a lost trust issue. Online shoppers tend to be hyper reactive to anything that smells fishy. If you think you are pulling a fast one over on a customer, you aren’t. No pricing listed either means it's too expensive or varies so much you don’t want to promise anything. Neither of these options is good.

Offer Customer testimonials

Testimonials are more important than you think and not used nearly enough. Customers will always trust other customers more than they will trust a business. This is just a fact.

If you don’t have space to add on-page testimonials of some kind then make sure you add a hyperlink that is visible.

Sales requires pride

If you don’t believe in a product you shouldn’t write a description for it. Authenticity is hard to define, yet easy to sense. if you don’t have it, you won’t close the deal.

Final Thoughts

Product descriptions are the last place you really have to make that final push to a sale, so use it wisely! Slapping a list of features and pecs onto a page just isn’t going to cut it if you want to make more sales -- you have to be thinking about the customer.

Always think about what value the customer will get out of purchasing your product or service and start from there. If you are writing with the customer in mind first and foremost you will be able to convey why they need your product more effectively.

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Writing Great Product Description Copy