How to Write a Product Description That Sells? Examples + Template

Unpopular opinion: Your product description is terrible!

No matter the size of your online store or business, don’t underestimate the power of a well-written product description. Most focus on traffic, like getting those ads right, SEO, but forget actually selling their product.

“Shopify is used by merchants in over 175 countries around the world. And Builtwith.com estimates that of the 4.4+ million Shopify stores currently online.”
Spotify & Builtwith.com

Whether you like it or not, unless you sell products of a highly specific niche, most likely someone is selling the same product for the same (or even a better) price.

You might think at this moment, “Who actually reads the copy on my product page, anyway?

Well, according to an ecommerce study conducted by Nielsen Norman Group shows that 20% of unsuccessful purchases are due to lack of relevant information in product descriptions.

The biggest mistake you (and most business owners AND copywriters) make is writing product descriptions that simply describe your products.

That’s why in this post, you’ll get your hands on the exact answer to why this is wrong. In addition, you’ll go through a step-by-step process to write product descriptions that sell (and are optimized for SEO of course).

What is a product description?

A product description is a form of marketing copy that examples what a product is and why it’s worth buying. The purpose of a well-written product description is to supply the reader with important information about the features and benefits or the product so they’re compelled to buy.

Product descriptions can be one sentence, a short paragraph, and/or bulleted. You have a lot of creative freedom as there are multiple styles and ways to make product descriptions for your e-commerce store.

At the end of the day, you have to test out a variety of options to discover what works best for your audience. Don’t worry, later in the article you’ll learn the exact step-by-step process of how you can you it.

But in general, in order to write a product description, you need to answer questions customers have about your products:

What problems does your product solve?
What do customers gain from your product?
What makes it better than the competition?

Your product description should answer these questions in a fun and engaging way, like the following example:

How to write product descriptions that sell? (5 Tips)

There’s no doubt product descriptions can help take your business to the next level, but most business owners make the same mistake of mentioning product features when writing product descriptions.

There’s no doubt product descriptions can help take your business to the next level. But if you do create them, make sure you follow these guidelines:

Product Description Research
Set Goals and KPIs
Writing the Perfect Product Description (4 breathtaking techniques you HAVE TO know)
Prove Your Worth with Social Proof
A/B Testing

1. Product Description Research

This method is often used by journalists to provide facts in their story, but a lot of copywriters and marketeers this is the first step in crafting a product description.

Because writing a product description (copywriting in general) is 80% research and 20% writing. I can guarantee you, the more you know about your products and your audience. The better your product description will be and the more you sell.

To conduct proper research, here are 6 questions you can use today:

Who is your ideal customer? In other words, who is this product for? Knowing who your product is for is foundational to writing a good description.

Your target audience can be described by gender (i.e. male or female), age group (i.e. college students or retirees), lifestyle demographic (i.e. new mothers or car enthusiasts), or some other defined group of people with similar characteristics.

What are your products’ basic details (features)? Write out any attributes such as dimensions, materials, product features, cost, and functions.
Write out the benefits for each feature you can think of. So how and why can a feature help your ideal client? Try to include emotions and story to create strong benefits.

Example: feature: 16-hour screen time (phone – strong battery) – Benefit: Feel safe every night on your walk home from work, because your phone will still work with 16 hours of screen time.
When should someone use the product? Is it meant to be used during a certain time of day, seasonally or for a specific type of occasion? Just as important is pointing out if a product can or should be used every day or year-round. These details will help speak to the product’s long-term value. Highlight the ideal scenarios for when a customer should use your product.
Why is your product better than the competition? This can be anything from quality to value to features. Think about the product benefits to your customers and consider how images can complement your product copy.

Tip: Create a Google Doc so you can revisit and refer to it when you’re in the writing process.

2. Set goals and KPIs to measure your success

What does a successful product description mean to you? The overall goal of a product description is to move a shopper toward purchase. But how do you know if your descriptions are working or not?

That’s why it is vital for you to decide on a set of metrics to track your product pages. Defining these metrics will help you understand what product descriptions are working best and improve on underperforming ones.

If you’re new to setting goals and KPIs, here is a list of common KPIs you can start tracking today.

Conversion rate
Cart abandonment
Return rate
Support inquiries
Organic search rankings

You can then run different A/B tests using a tools, the exact tools and how you can utilize them will be shown later in this article.

3. Writing The Perfect Product Description

Amazing, you’ve already completed 80% of the work! Now, it’s time to create a product description that persuades (and sells). The first step in the writing process is determining the structure (this is different for each business and audience).

If you just starting out or you want to upgrade your existing product description, then take inspiration from the following proven and tested product description formula:

Start by writing a paragraph (or multiple) about the product. This is where you can use the right words to set the scene and help your shopper discover why your product is the best in the world. How would you describe your product at a party to friends so that they would understand how great it truly is?

(Later you’ll learn 4 unique techniques about how to do this consistently)
After you have set the scene, it might be helpful to use bullet points that cover the most important product details and its most beneficial features.

Important: Don’t overthink it. If bullet points only work for you, just do it (like Huel), that’s why it is important to test out different variations.

Conversational paragraph-long descriptions to engage fans and ideal customers can work as well as quick bullet points with need-to-know specs to concisely convey the most important information for online shoppers.

Product Description Example Huel — Product Description Huel

3.1 Focus on your audience

Understanding how to write product descriptions requires putting yourself in the shoes of your audience. When you write a product description with a huge crowd of buyers in mind, your descriptions become wishy-washy and you end up addressing no one at all.

The best product descriptions address your target audience directly and personally. Ask and answer the questions as if you’re having a conversation with them. Last but not least, to personalize your description, the words your ideal buyer uses and use the word “you.”

When it comes time to write product descriptions for your own ecommerce business, start by imagining your ideal buyer. Ask yourself the following questions and try to discover how your product can bring value to them in their life. This is the exact moment you revisit your research.

What words do they use?
Define their current situation and what their desired situation is? (What are their dreams, hopes, and problems)
How can your product help them get from their current to desired situation?

Now you should have a bunch of valuable information. Highlight what you want to use in your product description and use it to complete the description.

Tip: When you write your product description, consider how you would speak to your ideal buyer if you were selling your product in-store, face to face.

Now try and incorporate that language into your ecommerce site so you can have a similar conversation online that resonates more deeply.

3.2 Entice with benefit-rich bullet points

When we sell our own products, we get excited about individual product features and specifications. We live and breathe our company, our website, and our products. But the biggest mistake business owners make is focusing on features, instead try to focus on what benefits your products give to your audience.

Consider the benefit of each of your features. How does your product make your customers feel happier, healthier, or more productive? What problems, glitches, and hassle does your product help solve? Include emotions in your benefits because emotion is for every human being the same.

Don’t sell just a product, sell an experience.

Product description - example feature benefit structure — Source: SimpleGreenSmoothies

3.3 Use storytelling to persuade

Does your product have a backstory that’s particularly special to you? Chances are it will be particularly special and endearing to your audience, too. Use that story in your product description to add more character to your item, engage your audience and win hearts and minds.

Storytelling is in marketing one of the most powerful superpowers a human being can possess. Because it creates an emotional connection between a company, its products and its customers.

Effective storytelling increases engagement between a brand and its audience, which helps drive conversions and, ultimately, revenue growth.

People are more likely to engage with ads that tell a story. Think of customer testimonials or your own story, the most important thing you should do it to craft a story that relates to your target audience and highlights the benefits of your offer.

Use this #1 Storytelling technique to persuade

A great storytelling technique you can use today to improve some of your product descriptions is: let your reader imagine what it would be like to own your product.

As a matter of fact, studies have proven that when people hold a product in their hands, their desire to own it increases.

In the online world, things work a bit differently (Or you have the superpower to teleport things), but through crystal-clear pictures, videos, or a great storytelling technique you can help them imagining them using your product.

The technique is called ‘Future Pacing’, with this technique you let your audience imagine how it is to use your product, then you make the story relatable for them, so you can finish by telling them how they can make it their reality (by using your product of course).

To practice this technique, start a sentence with the word “imagine,” and finish your sentence (or paragraph) by explaining how your reader will feel when owning and using your product.

3.4. Use power words in your copy:

Power words are like a “cheat code” for boosting conversion rates…

Sprinkle in a few and you can transform dry and lifeless ad into a masterpiece that evoke strong emotions and catches attention instantly.

“Fun fact: Did you know that power words can boost your conversion with 12.7%?”OptinMonster

Examples of power words include “limited time,” “exclusive,” “proven,”, “amazing”, and “free.”

4. Prove your worth with social proof

Social proof is the evidence that other people have purchased your product and found value in it. This form of worth-of-mouth marketing is powerful because people are more likely to buy a product that others recommend. In fact, 75% of customers say that recommendations are a critical factor in their purchasing decisions.

There are different types of social proof you can implement in your product description. All of these different tactics help build trust, convey value and improve conversions. The most commonly used forms are testimonials and customer reviews.

Product Description Example Ad Outreach 1 — Ad Outreach social proof example 1

But if you’re selling a service-based product or affiliate for a business that sells a service. You can utilize the power of social proof to become that trusted authority. This is how +8-figure E-commerce business Ad Outreach (Video Marketing Niche) shows their authority by showing ‘Featured in’ and their ‘Inc.5000 Rankings’,

Product Description Example Ad Outreach 2 — Ad Outreach social proof example 2

So in order to get the most out of social proof. Get in touch with your customers and ask for their feedback, try to include an image of the customer to add credibility to a quote. This will make your online business more approachable and relatable.

Pro tip: You can even integrate a social media feed filled with user-generated content that shows real people sharing success stories about using your products.

Most buyers are attracted to buying something that’s popular. When it comes to your ecommerce website, highlight the products that are customer favorites.

5. A/B Testing

Every audience responds differently to various calls to action. There is no guarantee that one call to action will outperform another. That’s why it is important to test your Call to Actions and A/B testing is a great way to do it.

That’s because this process will eliminate any guesswork and give you data-backed information that helps you optimize for CTA’s with the highest conversion.

“A/B testing (also known as split testing or bucket testing) is a methodology for comparing two versions of a webpage or app against each other to determine which one performs better.”
Optimizely

Now simple translated, A/B testing is experimenting two or more variations of a piece of work to determine which variation performs better. Examples are subject lines, emails, and part of pages.

Test what call to action, feature/benefit structures, and headlines help your product convert better. Examples of AI tools are VWO testing (Some free tools), Salesmanago (ecommerce + Free Trial).

Template – How to create a killer product description? (5-step process)

Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all product description for you. Every business, product, and audience is different. And that’s OK because you want your product descriptions to be uniquely your brand.

If you’re stuck on writing a product description, here are a few prompts that can help you build a product description template that works for your products and business.

Use the information you’ve gathered in the first step, then use the following template to write out your product description:

Step 1. Create a headline that grasps the attention (Attention Phase)

The main goal of your headline is to hook attention, so make sure you include the unique solution your product offers in your headline. Scarcity and specificity are tools you can use to lure attention.

In order to create outstanding headlines, grab a piece of paper and write everything you can think of. Then take the 3 to 5 best headlines and try to improve them.

Step 2. Craft a short paragraph (Interest Phase)

After you’ve got the attention from your headline, create interest through storytelling or describing the product in a fun and compelling way. Look to the examples above to get inspiration for writing an entertaining description.

Step 3. Add a benefit-rich bullet list (Desire Phase)

Human beings love bullet lists. Bullet points should generally be used for specs (like dimensions) or short phrases (like features) so they are quick and easy to read.

Create 3 to 5 benefit-rich bullet points to create desire. Add any specific technical details if you need to. The aim is to create desire by mentioning the features + the benefits that your customers can expect after consuming your product.

Step 4. Add social proof (Desire Phase)

Did you know that customer reviews are your #1 Salesperson? Customer reviews can come in different forms, like testimonials, comments, or the number of past users.

Don’t underestimate the power of customer reviews, in fact:

93% of customers will read reviews of local businesses to determine their quality.
72% of customers won’t take any buying actions until they’ve read reviews.
For every one-star increase that a business gets on Yelp, they see a 5-9% increase in revenue.

But that doesn’t mean you can bombard your website with positive reviews as 95% of customers get suspicious of a rating if there are no negative reviews. But what if I told you there is a way you can benefit from

Step 5. Finish with a Strong Call to Action (Action Phase)

A call to action (CTA) is specifically designed to tell the viewer to take a specific action. In the case of a product description, the CTA is typically written as a command or action phrase, such as the usual ‘Sign Up’ or ‘Buy Now’.