4 Methods to Jazz-up Product Descriptions (with out Hype)

In response to Karon Thackston, writer of Amazon Benefit: Product Itemizing Methods to Increase Your Gross sales, profitable ecommerce retailers keep away from hype. Furthermore, Amazon’s official phrases of service for sellers forbid using empty advertising phrases and over-excited language in product listings.

Thackston, president of Advertising Phrases, which makes a speciality of Amazon, eBay, and different ecommerce copywriting, supplied me with a pair of bullet-point examples for instance what Amazon is referring to.

• Unacceptable: #1 BESTSELLING WATER BOTTLE ON AMAZON! Superior options make this the one water bottle you’ll ever want. Take a look at our evaluations and see that this new water bottle beats all of the others palms down!!

• Acceptable: No-Dribble Mouthpiece Design: In contrast to extraordinary water bottles which aren’t constructed to suit your mouth, this [brand] bottle presents an ergonomically designed, no-dribble sipping spout for added consolation.

Discover that the primary instance fails to supply any particulars about what shoppers would truly be getting on this water bottle — simply numerous enthusiasm. The second instance presents factual and helpful specifics in an easy but participating tone.

Even in case you by no means promote on Amazon, the excellence between hoopla and useful copy is significant. You don’t need consumers to click on away to a different vendor looking for the main points they should decide. You don’t need prospects to fall for hype after which return merchandise as a result of they weren’t what they anticipated. And also you definitely don’t need needlessly dissatisfied prospects posting unhealthy product evaluations.

Hype

Let’s have a look at components to keep away from in your product descriptions to maintain them helpful and toned-down for consumers.

• Unsupported superlatives. Whenever you merely name one thing “one of the best,” “probably the most stunning,” or “the cutest,” readers might surprise why. Who says? If a reputable third social gathering, equivalent to an trade blogger, a widely known determine, or a named buyer mentioned so, attribute the quote to her. If there’s an goal purpose for saying one thing is “finest,” cite that purpose. In any other case this type of language comes throughout as sizzling air.

An excerpt from Google’s posted AdWords insurance policies exhibits the ban on superlatives. It reads, “The next shouldn’t be allowed: Promotions that comprise the superlatives and comparatives “finest,” “higher than,” or some other equal claims the place that declare shouldn’t be supported by third-party verification on the touchdown web page.”

• Exclamation marks. Go straightforward on exclamation marks. Higher but, keep away from them altogether in your product descriptions. They’re a lazy author’s determined try and convey emotion. To the reader, they evoke a man yelling right into a megaphone.

• Not possible claims. Together with issues that aren’t true, or outcomes that nearly by no means occur, might arouse need — for instance, “you’ll shed kilos with out weight-reduction plan or train” or “the blender that provides your greens four-star style” or “a scent that no man can resist.” Nevertheless, such guarantees are sometimes big exaggerations or outright lies. Keep out of authorized sizzling water and create lifelike expectations by writing solely what you can again up in court docket.

• Pleasure with out info. Many product descriptions are stuffed with adjectives. Some adjectives are actually informative and others merely emotional. Descriptions like “miniature,” “sturdy,” “tender,” and “up to date” assist the patron perceive variations between these merchandise and others. In distinction, adjectives equivalent to “wonderful,” “superior,” “thrilling,” and “fascinating” say little or nothing particular. The identical goes for phrases like these within the “unacceptable” pattern Karon Thackston cited, above: “the one water bottle you’ll ever want” and “beats all of the others palms down.”

4 Methods to Jazz-up Product Descriptions

With out hype, your advertising copy doesn’t need to be a dry monotone. As an alternative, enliven product descriptions by sprinkling within the following 4 components.

• Sensory language. Embrace phrases that feed the reader’s visible, auditory, or tactile creativeness. It’s even higher if there’s an emotional tinge to your phrases. For instance, calling a stuffed toy “snuggly” as a substitute of simply “tender” or “cottony” implies that somebody will really feel comforted by cuddling with it. A “whisper quiet” fan invitations the patron to think about simply how laborious it’s to listen to when working.

When Patagonia describes its boxer shorts as “snug towards the pores and skin” and “tender to the contact,” slightly than simply “snug” or “tender,” the patron imagines how the shorts would really feel when worn.

Imaginative eventualities. Assist consumers perceive how a product will work of their lives. Inform them that the ergonomic grip of a stapler means their hand received’t get drained stapling 100 flyers for his or her children’ college. Or how the outer compartments of a backpack enable them to seize what they want throughout a fast cease on the path.

This vivid description of a ladies’s hoody from Moosejaw locations the product into the patron’s life-style by describing it as “a comfy wrap for cool espresso mornings or heading to yoga on the downtown studio.”

• Surprising vocabulary. As an alternative of describing the above hoody as extending a sure variety of inches under the waist, Moosejaw wrote “tunic size to cowl your legging-bottomed tush.” As an alternative of “long-sleeved to maintain you heat,” it mentioned “lengthy sleeve to maintain the goosebumps at bay.” Different blurbs on Moosejaw.com for cold-weather gadgets use jazzy phrases equivalent to “able to entice heat air subsequent to your physique,” “whereas it’s busy maintaining you toasty heat,” and “will tackle the weather from rain to snow and even sleet and wind.”

• Conversational tone. Strive ditching an impersonal method for a pleasant, informal method. Use “you” and “we,” questions and sentence fragments, and roundabout or casual methods of getting a degree throughout. As an example, “You know the way friends by no means know the place to sit down at dinner events? With our kooky place playing cards, your shindig kicks off on a enjoyable be aware.”

British etailer Loaf writes the best way a chatty furnishings salesperson would speak to a consumer, with expressions like “easy-peasy,” “No problemo!” and “Name us to seek out out extra.”

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King Arthur Flour provides this high-end bread maker a down-home nickname (“Zo”) and describes it in a next-door-neighbor voice.

Present Stable Data

At a minimal, maintain your advertising copy freed from over-promising, exaggeration, and pointless bragging. Be sure you’re offering stable data for potential patrons. Then, if you’d like, jazz-up your wording to intensify rapport.