Category Archives: Copywriting and Content Writing Tips

7 ways to supercharge your ecommerce sales with well-written product descriptions

Why it matters you create the right product descriptions for your ecommerce website?

You exude professionalism: Writing crappy product descriptions means you do not take your product listing seriously, and if you don’t take your product listing seriously, why should your customer?
You entice the right customers: Clearly-articulated and well-structured product descriptions attract the right customers – customers who are actually seeking information included within you description. There are no ambiguities and there is no miscommunication gap. They find in your description exactly what they need.
You increase your sales: When the right customers read the apt description, they are more prone to buying from you. Quality product descriptions can increase your sales.
You encourage social sharing: Lots of information is exchanged between prospective customers through social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. If you have product descriptions that are very user-friendly people can straightaway use them to recommend your products rather than having to write on their own.

How to create compelling product descriptions for your e-commerce website

When someone comes to your website she is very unsure whether she should buy from you or not. For instance, if I’m looking for a new HTC phone, why should I buy from you and not from another seller? There might be many factors – price, choice of colors, assurance of after-sales service, quick delivery and quick redress in case of some problem, proximity to the physical store, and so on – but the most important factor is, how you describe your product. You can either simply list the technical specifications and features, or you can actually have a conversation with your customer. When multiple vendors are selling practically the same thing, it’s your description that gives you the advantage. Here are a few things that can supercharge your ecommerce product descriptions:

Associate benefits and advantages with features and specifications: Simply saying that your phone comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, quad-core CPUs might not mean a lot to many, but if you can add that this means exceptional image capturing (even when you’re trying to click small kids and animals) and image manipulation, unparalleled 3-D gaming and one of the fastest processing chips in contemporary phones (which may mean you can install and uninstall apps basically indiscriminately without making your phone feel sluggish), it can help the customer decide whether she wants this particular device or not. The basic idea is, create a description your customer can relate to rather than bombard her with geeky jargon. I have taken example from technology, but this can be applied to any field.
Keep the most important things at the top: Although people prefer to read the descriptions of expensive products carefully, initially they normally browse. They don’t go through the entire thing. This is why it’s important that you mention all the things that may impact your customer’s decision in the first sentence of your product description.
Don’t repeat text: When the same sort of words appear in the descriptions of various products, their importance diminishes. Keep your content unique. If your ecommerce website lists scores of products and your customer often has to use the search feature, having similar-sounding descriptions may end up confusing her.
Follow a consistent pattern: Whether you have longer descriptions, or shorter, maintain a consistent pattern. If you normally have descriptions of say, 80-90 words, stick to that pattern unless it’s absolutely necessary to create a 200-word product description.
Use the language of your customer: It doesn’t mean you need to use every colloquial language in the world; use simple language your average customer can easily understand. Remember that you don’t intend to prove your literary potential when you’re creating descriptions. Yes, you can be imaginative and creative, but not at the cost of sales. Carefully go through all the words and expressions you are using in your product description and chuck out every bit of detail you think your customer won’t be able to understand or relate to.
Make an emotional connection: Purchasing expensive products is always an emotional decision for an average customer. When you’re going to purchase a $600 phone the phone is going to remain with you for a long time. You will get attached to it. You will store lots of your personal information on that phone. You will carry out professional and personal interactions via this phone. It may be the last thing you see before going to bed and the first thing to see when you wake up. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and then write accordingly.
Focus on the “you” part: Make everything about the customer because she is the one who is going to make the ultimate buying decision. Why should she buy your product? What sort of experience is she going to get out of it? What has been her history (suppose she is starting a new, ambitious business venture and needs a new mobile phone for that)? Talk to your customer as much as possible.

Creating compelling, unique and well-written product descriptions for an ecommerce website often takes a backseat because normally there are scores of products (I’m talking about a small-and medium-sized business) and it seems like an uphill task involving lots of effort and financial investment. But this is a strategic mistake because most of the buying decisions depend on the way you have gotten your product descriptions written.

How to find your content writing voice

Why is it important to find your content writing voice?

There are many reasons. The most important reason is that you are able to connect better when you write in a natural manner as if you are speaking to people. A holistic reason is that every person in this world is unique and we all have our unique ways of expressing ourselves. In order to stand out, you need to be unique (this sounds hackneyed, I know) and a great way of being unique is using your own writing voice rather than copying someone else. Just imagine, millions of webpages and blog posts are being added every day; how do people recognize you if you sound like everybody else?

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A successful content writer must have a unique voice

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“Are you the same person who wrote content for your own website?” recently a client asked when he didn’t like what I had written, and I must admit even I wasn’t very proud of what I had delivered and was already contemplating revising it. “I hired you because I wanted my content in your style,” he continued.

It happens quite often that my clients hire me when they are impressed with what I have written and how I have written on my website. Even when new writers approach me I focus less on their writing prowess and more on their unique style. I believe that every content writer must have a unique voice, a distinct style of writing. Can it be possible, especially when you are writing for different businesses? After all, why would a particular business want YOUR voice rather than its CEO’s? A valid question.

When I say unique voice I don’t mean you get typecast. A professional content writer must be able to write on behalf of the business he or she is writing for and I will never dispute that. Voice means enlivening your writing. It must feel alive. When it is alive it engages your readers and when your readers are engaged they’re more open to doing business with you. Interestingly, your writing feels alive when you write in your own, distinct style. You simply let yourself lose and grow completely comfortable with your art. Of course before that you should be totally comfortable with the tool you are using, in this case, your command over the language. If you want to feel creative and authentic you must know your language inside out. I don’t mean you should be a walking thesaurus but you should be able to articulate yourself compellingly and convincingly. It is like, if you want to walk on a rope first you should be able to walk on the ground.

So how can you develop a unique voice as a content writer?

Keep improving. Keep honing your skill — this is most important. Never think that you have learned all. People all over the world write beautifully and you can learn from everybody. You don’t have to be perfect. More than being perfect you have to be fluent and you must be totally at ease with words and sentence formation. Amazingly, 80% of writers who approach me for assignments cannot even write a single paragraph without mistakes. I am not saying you have to be perfect or should have a PhD in language, but it really alarms me when someone says, “I would like to wrote web writing for you.”
Write every day. My classical vocal guruji (teacher) used to say that even the maestros begin to fumble when they haven’t practiced for a few days. So practice has to be regular, everyday. Write at the smallest pretext. Write at every opportunity. Even when you’re not getting paid assignments, keep writing. Maintain a blog or an online journal. Participate on online debates over social media and networking websites. Write for news websites. Have illuminating e-mail conversations with your friends and relatives even if they don’t reciprocate. Write as much as you can. The more you write the better you get at it. Of course this needs be combined with learning.
Have daily dose of reading. By reading I don’t mean visiting your favorite blogs (although there is nothing wrong in it), read the newspapers, read well-known columnists, read literary giants and whatever quality literature you can come across. You can sound as “cool” in your writing as you want later on but first you must get your fundamentals right. Only then you will be able to feel comfortable in your art.
Develop an opinion. Unless you have an opinion you cannot develop a unique voice as a professional content writer. Opinion gives you an attitude. It also gives you a direction. It gives you confidence (although overconfidence can be detrimental to your professional and personal life).
Develop an expertise. Merely being a better writer is of no value. You need some knowledge in specific fields. For instance, I am good at Internet marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing strategy and a little bit of web design and PHP programming. You might be good at math, interpersonal skills, Scientology, extraterrestrial life or biology. An expertise may not help you in your day-to-day content writing profession but it will give you a basic idea of what all it takes to properly know something. It gets you used to learning and acquiring knowledge. It also inculcates maturity in your writing and other communications.

I have seen people writing pretty well without having a unique voice but they are mostly copying styles. They seem great until you stumble upon the writing of a person they are trying to imitate.

Multiply your conversion rate immediately with compelling headlines

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Your headline is the first thing a visitor sees when he or she lands on your website or blog. A headline is not just the title of your page. It is not something that you need in bold and enlarged typeface just because straightaway starting with a paragraph doesn’t seem good. A headline presents the most compelling reason to go through the following text.

You must be wondering sometimes why there is so much hype around creating headlines when they just seem like the titles of the articles or blog posts proceeding them?

You must have often come across the expression “screaming headlines”. What are they? These are the headlines that often make you pick up a newspaper (I know, I know, not many people these days pick up the newspaper) or a magazine from a news stand. The entire newspaper and tabloid industry survives or thrives (as long as it lasts) on the ability of the headlines to draw people towards them.

The same happens on your website or when people come across your link on search engine result pages, other websites, and social media and networking websites. It is your headline that draws people to the actual page. If the headline is not compelling enough they are not going to click the link.

So how do we create compelling headlines?

When you are walking through a local market you often come across signboards on top of the doors of the shops. Every shop tries to attract you through the signboard and the words present on it. They may simply mention the service or product they are offering. They may also highlight the most special offer they have got for you. If they are offering a discount or there is a sale going on there is 100% chance they will have a banner proclaiming the irresistible bargain of the day. They even sometimes have moving advertisements or banners and posters at various prominent locations from where they can be easily viewed. But mere words don’t attract you towards them. It is the offer that catches your eye.

The same psychology applies to your website or blog headlines. Whatever you are writing, draw from it the most exciting reason why people should go through your content and formulate the headline from that reason. For instance if you are going through this blog post you want to know how you can increase your conversion rate tremendously by creating compelling headlines. This may not sound like a very exciting headline but there are many people who are quite desperate to improve their conversion rates and they will definitely want to check what I am trying to say here even if they are not very much impressed.

Address the main pain point in your headline

When I look at your headline I should be immediately able to know what you’re trying to offer. Of course you cannot tell me everything in a single sentence but this will definitely want me to read further. Suppose I am suffering from an old backpain. If your headline goes something like — “this revolutionary technique will definitely cure your backpain no matter how old it is” — I am definitely going to read this. Similarly, if you are looking for an effective content writer “content writing service that actually boosts your sales” may catch your attention more compared to “best content writing services on the Internet”.

Include the most important keywords or key phrases in your headline

This works well both in terms of getting targeted search engine traffic and influencing your visitors in a positive manner. All major search engines take headlines very seriously; in fact for them they are so important that they use your headlines as anchor text when they show your link on the search engine result page. It has been established beyond doubt that there is a greater probability of search engine users clicking links that actually contain the search term they have just used. This shows them that your link contains information about the exact phrase you are looking for. So using your primary key words and key phrases within your headlines definitely increases your search engine rankings.

Using keywords within your headline also increases the overall conversion rate of your copy because people immediately want to read the finer text if the headline uses the same language that they have been using in order to arrive at your page.

Create buzz on social media and networking websites with your headlines

The social media and networking scene is similar to a crowded marketplace: everybody is shouting and there is lots of noise and jostling. Everybody you are following or befriending has interesting stuff to post and whatever you post may fast scroll down the timeline. If you create a headline that cannot be bypassed it increases your chances of getting more traffic from websites like Facebook and Twitter.

Considering the importance of headlines I often spend and ample amount of time trying to come up with headlines when I’m working for my clients. OK, I also try to create decent headlines when I’m writing for my own website.

Does your content tell a story?

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We all love stories don’t we? They excite us, engage us, attract us, fascinate us, antagonize us and motivate us. Whenever there is a story we have readers and listeners. Why do stories captivate as so much?

We can relate to them. They strum the chords of our emotions, attitudes, sense of wisdom and life experiences. We share the emotions present in the story one way or the other. That is why we all have our own indigenous folk tales, anecdotes and historical stories; they bind us together.

Stories can exist in any form. They don’t always need to adhere to a particular form of narration. Even a journalistic account of some event unfolding can be a very engaging and enlightening story. This is precisely why free press is curbed by authoritarian and repressive regimes — effective storytelling can move people into doing things they otherwise would never do.

The same concept can be applied to content writing and copywriting. Whenever you are writing you are trying to move people, you are trying to make them do something. Create a story around the product or service you are offering or describing so that people can empathize with you and really absorb its importance.

When you tell a story instead of a monosyllabic harangue about how great your offer is you get your readers’ undivided attention because whenever we are reading a story we always want to know what happens next. Remember the last time you read a page turner? How eagerly you wanted to know what lay ahead.

Of course not all of us are storytellers but describing a product or service in an interesting manner can be easily achieved by creative content writers and copywriters. Your story needn’t always have esoteric characters; you just need to have a theme and you can center your writing around that theme.

When I’m looking for a solution, frankly, consciously, I am not interested in reading a story. I want to know how this particular product or service can solve my problem that I am facing in my business or in my personal life. A story can definitely help me visualize. It gives me a three-dimensional picture of exactly how your offer can make my life easier — it has a live example I can relate to.

Another great benefit of creating a story is that it has a beginning and then an end. The beginning can be the initiation and the end can be a business transaction that takes place between your visitor and your organization. By storytelling you can change the event of buying a product or service into an experience. It is difficult to remember events and it is difficult to forget experiences.