Persuasivity: The word I just made up (ARGH!…nevermind, it’s all over the ‘net already) to describe what your writing needs to be to sell your possibly not very exciting product. No, not you lion-tamer-for-children’s-birthday-parties, not you pyrotechnics college, not you monster truck rental service; I’m talking to the vacuum cleaner sales and repair shop, data management software vendor, the cardboard box suppliers of the world.
If you’re selling a product or service that’s unique to your business then you should have no issues with cobbling together all your unique selling points and working the simplest angle: “This is the only place you can find this, the choice is obvious!” For the majority though, you likely offer something readily available, if not locally, then at least elsewhere online. In this case you need to give your product descriptions a bit of a pop, not bashing the reader over the head, not being too cutesy, but something that gives the reader all the necessary information without being too bland. I don’t think I have the space to put together a comprehensive writing class in this post, *ahem* nor would you want to sit through it, so let’s take a quick look at some of the biggest traps and simplest solutions for your product descriptions:
1. What does your cool thing do and to what awesome end does it do it?
It doesn’t get much more basic than this. Let’s say you’re selling running shoes – what is there to say about these shoes? Without getting into the hyperbolic we can safely say, “They cover your feet.” That’s a solid description, but will it shift many pair of these sweet shoes? How about we change it to, “They cover your feet in style.”
Boom, you just sold some shoes!
Explaining that a feature of your product saves time, saves money, turns a sandwich into a banquet, whatever it does, no matter how obvious you think it may be, is a nice reinforcement of what a terrific product it is.
2. Hmmm, how is your price so cheap on this item?
Especially when it comes to online sales, unless you’ve really built trust in your brand, people are skeptical of noticeable price breaks. It might not hurt to explain that you ordered too many, maybe the manufacturer had a closeout for that model and you’re passing along the savings, maybe your car dealership is too close to a baseball field/driving range – it’s worth mentioning this to ease any kind of customer concern.
3. Oh, cool, I didn’t know that.
If your particular item has any interesting background your average customer may not be aware of, throw it in. A good friend and former client of mine manufactured carbon fiber components for a wide variety of industries: everything from satellite components, to racecar bits and bobs, and hush-hush “defense contract” business. They also happen to produce barrels for paintball markers… now do you think their background might, just maybe, be a bit of a hook for the paintball market?
4. This Potatoes-In-A-Box mix reminds me of Mom…
If you’re up for it, consider latching onto your readers’ emotions. Now, watch it, you don’t want to get disingenuous with some over-the-top rhetoric about how if every household were to buy your blender, terrorism would end; maybe you want to start simple with something like, “Now you too can make margaritas like Grandma used to make with our stainless steel Blend-A-Whirl.”
Something to that effect…
5. PROOFREAD!
Oh yeah, it might not hurt to go back through once more to make sure the price you have listed is current, maybe the color, sizes, whatever it is the customer will want to know before adding to their shopping cart. Finding a listing that does contain the information they’re searching for is only a mouse click away after all.
Now, go out and write my pretties! Sell! SELL!
