Product Pages that Turn Visitors into Customers
The purpose of creating product descriptions for an ecommerce website might seem pretty straightforward: it’s the text that accompanies a product (or service) with the aim to inform customers about said product. If only it were that simple (professional product descriptions writing services would be out of business).
Needless to say, there’s a lot more that goes into creating a product description, and it is crucial to have one which not only informs the reader of a particular product or service but also helps boost sales as well. Keeping that in mind, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the importance of a product page description is two-fold, and can make the difference between someone buying your product, or buying a product from the retailer across the street.
Online consumer sales are set to hit $520 billion by the end of 2020, in the U.S., alone, and up to 90% of consumers take product descriptions extremely seriously when it comes to buying products online. This can only mean it pays to invest in professional product descriptions writing services to make sure you get it right the first time.
Product Page Best Practices
Here are some of the top tips to make sure your customers don’t blanch at the sight of the product descriptions you use in your ecommerce store.
The Text
When creating a product page, you should avoid the cookie-cutter approach to product descriptions (and the $5-dollar freelancer). While it will cost you a bit more than $5 a pop to hire professional product descriptions writing services, it will pay off in the end.
Besides, going with a professional as opposed to creating the content for the product pages for your ecommerce site yourself means you get access to experienced copywriters that have been vetted on the basis of their expertise and know-how of product descriptions. This means that for an affordable fee, you can hire a professional copywriter who will not just write you a perfect product description but will use their creativity and finesse to encourage sales.
It is crucial for ecommerce businesses to be aware of the level of detail that is required in an effective product description. Normally, the more information key information you can include on the product page, the more it will help the buyer, who is then more likely to make a purchase since they’ve now found all the information they need regarding a particular product or service. On the flipside, product descriptions that provide insufficient information only result in less-satisfied customers and fewer sales.
A well-written product description will focus more on the benefits of a product. In other words, the product description doesn’t need to ham up a problem or situation. The consumer already knows that they have a problem, which is why they are on your product page in the first place. The product page you create is responsible for providing the consumer with solutions to their problem.
This is why you need to avoid any filler words and get straight to business. These benefits need to be easily scannable and preferably jargon-free. Use anything to get your point across, which is that your product (or service) is the best option for your reader. You can do that by using elements such as bold text, capitalization, bullet points, or colored text to help get your message across.
Creating product pages that “speak” to your audience is easier said than done. You first need to know your consumer. Understand their problems and concerns and identify their pain points (which your product solves).
Help the consumer envision how they can benefit from using your product. Answer questions like, “How your kitchen knife will help them cook better?” “How your alarm clock will make sure they’re on time for that big appointment/job interview?” etc.
While this might be too much to ask for a newly established ecommerce store, rather than depending on guesswork, you need to hire professional product description services who have their finger on the pulse by using search results and various other analytics to make sure your product description covers all angles.
Picture this: you’re selling product ‘A’ on your ecommerce site, and you’ve created a killer description. Now, you have product ‘B,’ which is a somewhat similar product, but from a different brand. You figure, “why not just use the same description for both products ‘A’ and product ‘B.’ right?” Wrong.
Google does not like duplicate content, even if it’s on a single ecommerce website. In fact, sites getting slapped with a penalty by Google for using duplicate content is not unheard of. The problem that many ecommerce businesses face, especially when they are offering dozens of products, is the lack of time for them to construct individual product pages.
Again, this is where hiring professional product description writing services can save you a lot of time, money, and effort. The right service will create individual and unique pages for each of your products.
The Imagery
Imagery plays a big part in the buying decision. The images you use to complement the text on your product page must be well photographed and clear. Hiring a professional photographer will ensure that you get crisp and clear, high-resolution images for every product page.
The images you use on the product page must work in tandem with the text, but that’s not all. You also need to optimize the images on your product pages by using alt tags that are used by screen readers to ensure your visitors have an idea of the product even if the image does not appear on the screen of choice of the potential buyer or for visually impaired customers.
Don’t Forget the Call-to-Action (CTA)
And last but certainly not least is the Call-to-Action or CTA. This is, by far, the most crucial part of your product description page and the one element you need to get perfect the first time around. Once you have laid down the key elements of your product along with its benefits and other crucial information, you need to round it all up by providing a clear Call-to-Action to the potential customer to give them that final nudge across the finish line.
To do that, your CTA needs to be in a prominent place on the product page where it will be easily recognizable. All too often, ecommerce websites make the mistake of focusing too much on bright colors and large product images (although that last one is great too) and do not focus much on the CTA. The result: either the audience ends up flitting through various product pages on your site and then bounces off, or they click away after they have found the information they need.
So, how do you remedy that?
Speed is essential (just ask Amazon). The online retailing giant offers one-click ordering and even Dash Buttons to simplify the purchasing process. Why? You ask. Well, because it speeds up the checkout process. The CTA needs to catch a potential customer’s attention and push them to take action, as in, purchase your product.
Some examples of a CTA you can use on product pages include “Buy Now,” which is a common CTA used in many ecommerce websites. Other options of a Call-to-Action include “Explore,” “Learn More,” or “Subscribe.” But, since we’re guessing you want your audience to make a purchase, you can go with the first option; “Buy Now,” “Purchase Now,” “Add to Cart,” “Get it Now,” etc.
While a well-designed CTA for your product page is certainly not the only thing you will want for your ecommerce website, focusing on the individual elements of a CTA can make all the difference for your product page. It goes without saying that the color and the shape of the CTA are going to make a big difference to your product page. In fact, it is widely considered to be one of the most powerful components of web design, and your product page is no exception.
Choosing the right contrasting color will make your CTA easily noticeable, regardless of the amount of text and images on a product page. While there are whole books dedicated to color psychology, a good rule of thumb when it comes to the color and shape of the CTA button is to use a darker button on a lighter background or a lighter CTA button on a darker background.
When it comes to the shape of the Call-to-Action button, it has been shown that going with circular edges give off a friendly and safe sensation, while going with sharp-edged buttons evoke the feeling of reliability and conventionalism.
Using larger CTA buttons can harm the UX of your product page while using normal sized buttons even on a darker background can be enhanced with the clever use of white space around the CTA button.
Now that you’ve decided on the CTA button you want to go with, the big question is where to place it. As mentioned, you will want to make sure that the CTA button appears at a prominent area of your product page, or else, it will be rendered ineffective.
Contrary to popular belief, the CTA of a product page does not necessarily need to be placed above the fold (or to the left-hand side of the page). While the effectiveness of the CTA is going to vary depending on a number of factors, the placement of the CTA should mainly depend on the product (or service) that you are offering, as well as its complexity.
For instance, if you’re offering a simple product, such as apparel, cutlery, etc., then you should place the CTA above the fold (and preferably toward the left-hand side of the page). But, if the product you offer is a bit more complex in nature, such as SaaS solutions, web development services, high-tech electronic devices, etc., that usually come with the need for a good bit of explaining, then you might want to allow your audience time to digest the information before you shove the CTA button in front of them.
You can also use several CTA buttons on a single page to break up chunks of complex information on a product or service. At the end of the day, you are going to need a professional product description writing service that can help you build the perfect product page for your ecommerce website.
Product Pages are Not a ‘Set-and-Forget’ Solution
While hiring content writing services can help you get the gist across to those who are interested in purchasing your product, to get the product page perfect, you will need to A/B test your high-performing product pages on a regular basis to see with clicks with your target demographic. This might take some time to perfect, but having a professional product description writing service by your side will take away a lot of the guesswork that goes into creating product pages for an ecommerce website.
