Categories
Etsy How-to

How to Write a Great Product Description

Product Description

You have a great product to sell, but you don’t know how to draw buyers in. Your product description has a lot to do with how your product is presented to potential buyers, so it’s important to get it right. There are a few key elements to include in a well-written product description. Follow these steps, and you’ll be on your way to more sales in no time!

1) Start with a strong statement of what your product is

Don’t beat around the bush. Buyers want to know exactly what your product is and what it does for them, so lay the essentials out in two or three sentences. Also, search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Google only show the first one or two sentences in search results, so you have to make a strong impression within that short amount of space. Be concise and persuasive.

writer2

2) Make the rest detailed

Once you’ve got your customer’s attention, it’s time to really let them know all the amazing features of your product. Perhaps you have a knit hat for winter time that you want to sell; be specific about the product. Make sure to tell them how warm the alpaca wool is that you used to make it and that it has a special button for adjusting the hat in the back. Use good descriptors – really let your language flow. The only thing worse than no product description is a boring one.

writer1

Related: 4 Elements of an Excellent Product Photo

3) Use a first-person perspective

Your customers want to get to know you a little, so don’t be a robot. Use “I” statements that show you’re personable; it helps the customer connect with you. Talk about what your inspiration was for your product. It makes an interesting story of how the product came to be and the hard work that you put into it. Failing to show your humanity to customers will leave them feeling like you’re the cold corporate type who’s just there to make some money (although you are looking to make some money, to be fair).

writer

4) Include links to relevant products

You know that scrolling list of items on Amazon that says “Other Items You Might Like”? People will buy more products from you if you suggest complementary items to go with the one they’re purchasing. They’re buying a bar of homemade soap from you, so why not suggest a handmade loofah or rag to go with it? It’s easy to put hyperlinks to your other products in the product description, so make sure to include ones that complement one another.

Loofah-Soap-Round

5) Use keywords

Put keywords in your product descriptions not so buyers can more easily find them, but you’ll actually assure your buyers they’re looking at the right listing if you carefully place them throughout your product description. Things like “handmade dog collar” or “hypoallergenic mittens” may be what users are searching for. Take a look at your Shop Stats to see what keywords pop up the most and use those in your product descriptions to drive even more sales.
tagused

You have a great product to sell, but you don't know how to draw buyers in. Your product description has a lot to do with how your product is presented to potential buyers, so it's important to get it right.

Follow us on Twitter!

9 replies on “How to Write a Great Product Description”

This is great advice. I’m going to start writing in the first person again and include more links between products. I do link to the shop section, but never to similar items. I find descriptions so hard. I want to explain the product, but I don’t want to present the customer with a wall of text :S

Gaby ♥

Great article! Just what I needed and also Marmalead, I am so happy I have found you. I have two questions in addition to the answers I got from your article. Just started my shop and I have some sales. However I am still strungling whit what to put in the shop description. I read somewhere that you should also take care that a description is readable on a mobile device, which means being even more concise and to the point. More and more people are buying on a mobile device. One third of my views is from mobile devices. Second question is: some people just copy past the product title in their description because that helps you to be found. I think it looks a bit blunt and impersonal. But still I wonder whether I should do that too… Could you tell me how you deal with mobile device readability and copying the product title in your product description? Would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Liefke! You’re spot on about more and more purchases coming through mobile. Etsy tells us mobile makes up over 60% of all sales. We recently talked with Jade in another podcast and while the conversation was about branding in general, you may get some good ideas from her about what to put in your shop description (https://blog.marmalead.com/episode-62-jade-marmalead/). It’s really about telling your story and making a personal connection with your customers. As far as adding your title in your description, I’d leave it out. Etsy doesn’t look at descriptions at all for SEO so don’t worry about including your keywords in them. Instead focus on some other things mentioned in this article. Hope this helps!

So many ecommerce pages are let down by poor descriptions. We’ve seen so many examples of this across all the big ecommerce platforms. I suppose on the one hand it’s unfortunate that so many sellers are not seeing the conversions their products deserve – but that means there is huge opportunities open to people who are prepared to put in the effort to really sell their product.

Thanks for the write up!

Leave a Reply