Considering that the difference between success and failure often rests on how well e-tailers are able provide convincing descriptions for the products they sell it’s surprising how often one still runs into poorly written, and what’s worse, poorly conceived PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS.
Rather than bitch and moan about it I figured we might as we’ll dedicate a post to a few simple tips that, should you choose to implement them with dedication, will make a world of difference to how your customers perceive your offerings and will ultimately improve your conversion rates (CVR) and online sales figures.
So here goes:
Sell BENEFITS instead of features
People Buy BENEFITS, not Features
Probably the most commonly made mistake in marketing is the attempt to sell a product on its features alone. Here’s an example of two descriptions for a fictional health care product that should help illustrate the difference between selling on features and selling on benefits:
FEATURES:
“Doc Darnell’s Potent Poultice is made of the finest ingredients known to modern medical science and is served in a durable, yet beautifully crafted, travelling vial. Composed of only the finest herbs and extracts this wonder drug not only solves aches and pains of all sorts, but is guaranteed to solve baldness too!”
BENEFITS:
“Are you suffering from Aching joints? Headaches? Baldness? – Doc Darnell’s Potent Poultice will heal your pain instantaneously!”
As odd as this may sound initially, when we think about it the fact this mistake is so common makes perfect sense:
Marketers tend to be very well versed in their products and hope to impress consumers into a purchase by sharing their expert knowledge, whereas consumers are much more focused on simply understanding how a product will SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM.
People Expect Details
Online customers are usually devoid of any opportunity to interact directly with a salesperson. In most cases they have no one to turn to with the questions and worries they have about their planned purchase.
What they do have at their disposal is the opportunity to click “Back” and seek another provider if they don’t feel their questions are fully answered on any particular vendor’s site.
E-tailers that want their audience to stick around and spend money on their site MUST make the effort of providing detailed product descriptions and great product images to have a FIGHTING CHANCE to make a sale. We at Treepodia also have some very convincing statistics on how effective adding videos into one’s product listings is in terms of increasing sales…
Ecommerce and product video's immediate ROI
People Believe People
Whenever possible it’s always a good idea to provide a story illustrating how your product gave value to your customers. The best way to do this is by offering clients an opportunity to submit reviews and testimonials about the products you’re offering. This might require a volume of traffic that you’ll find difficult to reach, so another alternative is to actively solicit feedback from customers you know bought your product, and to get their approval for posting their testimonials on the product’s page.
When soliciting feedback of this sort always aim to understand how the product helped your customers improve their life and stress these points in the testimonial.
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Image Credit: apdk
