How to Write Compelling Product Descriptions

By William Ballard

The truth is, writing an effective and compelling product description is an art form, and it’s your last line of defense, if you will, when it comes to closing the sale.

You see, you may have written the best sales letter of your life, but if the product description falls flat, you can kiss that sale goodbye.

And what if a potential buyer never takes the time to read your sales letter …

... and instead, just clicks over to the product description page …

​... how do you compel and/or persuade him/her to buy your product or service just from the product description page alone?

That said, what exactly makes up a good product description? How long should your product description be? And what are the essential parts to a good product description?
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These are some of the things we are going to cover in this article while considering a few examples. 

What is a Product Description? 

In short, a product description is the kind of marketing copy that is written to describe the features and benefits of a product.

​The purpose of an effective product description is to provide enough information to compel a potential buyer to purchase a product immediately.

To write a product description that converts you need to keep these two questions in mind:
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1. What solution does your product provide, or what does your customer gain from using your product?
2. ​What separates your product from those like your competitors?

Now, it’s important you don’t make the common mistake of writing product descriptions that only describe your product. By doing this, you fail to connect with the potential buyer, which can only be done when you bring them into the story of the product, which we will touch more on later. 
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Six Rules to Follow When Writing Effective and
​Compelling Product Descriptions

​​Rule One: Define your buyer persona.

If you’re not sure who your target market is you’ll never know what information you need to include or leave out, not to mention what tone would be most appropriate.

As I’m sure you’ve heard before, if you try to sell to everyone, you’ll end up selling no one. The best product descriptions are the ones written as if you are sitting down talking the with the potential buyer face-to-face.

That said, this also answers the question about how long your product description should be. In short, the length of your product description depends upon your target market and what kind of content they expect to receive from you.

Consider this example from Grand Cardone’s online store. Here we see a screenshot of Grant Cardone’s product description page for “The 10X Rule” book. As you can see there is a short quote from the book that then leads you to a short video (will talk more about that later). 
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As we scroll down, we see a list of bullet points for some of the topics you can expect to discover inside the book. 

​And when you scroll down from there, you’ll be taken to a section for customer reviews and ratings for the book (we’ll talk more about this later).

Relatively speaking, this is probably one of the shortest product descriptions you’ll find, and it is exactly the kind of length Grant’s customers expect from him.
 
Now, with that in mind, having a clear understanding of who your ideal customer is will let you know if he or she will appreciate humor within your copy or not. And it will also help you to determine which words your buyers may find offensive or repulsive.

Remember, your goal here is to present your product as appealing as possible, rather than as appalling as possible.

Keep in mind things like location, age (what generation your ideal customer is part of?), gender, interest, educational level, income level, etc.
 
Rule Two: Activate the imagination of your buyer with a compelling story.

As I’m sure you've heard before, emotions are what influence a buyer’s behavior. In other words, people buy based on emotion first, and then use logic to justify their purchase afterwards.

Although there should be some logic points scattered throughout your product description copy, it’s important to bear in mind that they have yet to purchase the item, and therefore, are still on the emotional side of the buying process.

That said, an effective product description copywriter knows how to write in such away that allows the potential buyer to imagine what it would be like to have the product in their daily life.

By telling a short story about your product, and by writing in such away that you bring your potential buyer into the story, the more likely you are to connect with them on an emotional level rather than just on a transactional level.

When you sit down to write the story of your product start by answering these questions:
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• What inspired the product to be brought into existence?
• What particular problem does it solve?
• What was the journey of making the product like?
• How would this product look in the buyer’s daily life?

Writing a short story like this will help a potential buyer picture the product in their daily life far better than a list of benefits and features could ever do.

​The more a potential buyer can see themselves with the product and visualize how it can benefit them throughout their daily life the more they are likely to purchase.
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Now, consider this example of a product description for Star Anise. 
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The first thing you’ll find is some imagery of the product and some brief copy describing the different packaging they provide for the product, as well as, what areas those types of packaging would be best suited in.

But as you scroll down, it is the section below that I want to draw your attention to. As you can see, this product description is a bit longer than that of Grant Cardone’s product description, but it is the length that is expected from the customers of this business. 

​Notice the different sections. There is a section for “Star Anise: At a Glance”, a section for “Cooking with Star Anise”, as well as, a “History and Origin” of the spice and so on.

It also answers the questions mentioned above. It talks about what inspired the product, as well as takes you on the journey of the product from cultivation to your dinner table.

As you read this product description you can see that there is a story being written about this spice. And you’ll also find that is written in such a way that it brings you into the story of the product and hits on those emotional triggers that compels a reader to want to buy.

It makes you imagine what kind of delicacies you could be making with this spice. And the kind of interaction you could be having with your family and friends at the dinner table while enjoying its sweet flavor.
 
Rule Three: Use images and mixed media.

Now, this brings us back to the short commercial video on Grant Cardone’s product description page.

In a scientific study conducted by researches Joann Peck from the University of Wisconsin and Suzanne B. Shu from the University of California, both observed, “For non-owners, or buyers, perceived ownership can be increased with either mere touch or with imagery encouraging touch.” 

Now, unlike face-to-face sales, your potential buyer is not able to physically hold your product in their hand, which means the next best thing is to see the product and imagine it being used in their daily lives.

Therefore, an important aspect of your product description is still the photo of the product itself. Of if you are using a product description to describe a service you offer why not consider adding a video of you providing the service to a satisfied client?

Like a short story of the product, quality images of your product can aid in showing off key features about the product and allows your customers to be able to imagine the product being used in their daily life.
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Consider this product image from my photography business, William Ballard Photography. 

​As you can see, there is a lot more you can do with your product descriptions than just with words alone. That said, it’s important to understand that images control feelings, and it is our feelings that drive our actions.

Moreover, there are some buyers who will skip reading your written descriptive copy altogether and would rather look at images or videos instead.

Again, that is why it's so important that you have a clear understanding of who your target market and ideal customer or client really is.

Lastly, as the popularity of virtual reality continues to increase, it might behoove you to consider adding some form of virtual reality to your product descriptions.

In other words, any way you can re-create the in-store experience and have your customers virtually “physically” hold your product the more you are able to increase that “perceived ownership” feeling that Joann Peck and Suzanne B. Shu talked about above.
 
Rule Four: Think more in terms of benefits than features

As a business owner, it is understandable that you are excited about the quality of your product and the specific features it has. However, your potential buyer is not necessarily as excited about these things as you are. Instead, they’re more interested in how your product can benefit them and improve their overall quality of life.

That said, before writing out your product description, make an outline of the features and benefits of your product. When doing so, think about how the product can either increase certain areas of pleasure or decrease certain areas of pain.  And when you write out your list of features, determine how a feature can directly benefit one of those pleasures or pain points in your potential buyers’ life.  

In fact, consider what Marquis Matson said over at Referral Candy Blog

​“If the feature is 100% Himalayan salt, the benefit is reduced allergies. If the feature is a 1.75-ounce candle, the benefit is that it can be used in small spaces, such as a nightstand, a bathroom, or an end table.”
 
Rule Five: Bullet points make your copy easier to scan

A study conducted over at Neilsen Norman Group, World Leaders in Research-Based User Experience, found that web users typically only read about 16% of what’s on a page. With that in mind, the best way to capture that 16% is by making your product descriptions as scannable as possible.

Now, as I’ve stated before, this is why it’s so important to be clear on your buyer personas. Yes, web users typically have shorter attention spans, but the clearer you are on who your ideal customer is, the better you will be able to determine how long or short your copy should be, as well as where bullet points should be placed or not placed.

Rule Six: Don’t forget the power of social proof.

It’s important to understand that we are all social beings. Buyers don’t want to feel as if they are being sold. They want to feel like they are in control of their own buying impulses.

You see, it’s important to understand that before a buyer purchases a product, they want to be able to validate their emotions towards that product. In short, buyers are attracted to that which is popular.

In other words, they don’t want to be the first to buy a product because of the fear that they might get made fun of for making such a purchase of something that is not so widely popular. Now, that doesn’t mean your product is not a quality product worth buying. It is just simply a psychological phenomenon.

Grand Cardone is a master at following this rule. If you go back to his product page for “The 10X Rule” book and scroll down to the bottom of the page you’ll find that there is a customer rating and a handful of serval positive customer reviews.

In short, the more you can provide social proof, the more you increase your chances of being able to make the sale. 

Final Thoughts

​Now, of course, there will always be exceptions to the rules, but for the most part, an effective and compelling product description should be able to provide just the right amount of information that your ideal customer needs to make a buying decision.

The main take away is that you should use the product description as a means to tell a story and help the buyer envision what it would be like to have the product in their daily life.
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Most of all, don’t be boring and don’t forget to write with enthusiasm. And share as much imagery (photos and videos) as possible without over doing it. 

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​William Ballard is the founder and CEO of William Ballard & Associates, LLC, where they specialize in equipping small business owners and entrepreneurs with the kind of authority positioning marketing copy and authentic, magnetic messaging that generates social capital & ​empowers companies to scale.