How To Engage Customers Through Product Copy: Product Copywriting Tips
- Have a deep understanding of your target audience.
- Craft compelling headlines to capture the audience’s attention and communicate the key benefits of the product in a clear and concise manner.
- Highlight the unique selling points that differentiate your product from competitors and effectively communicate its value.
In this Article
Effective product copywriting is not simply writing a detailed product description and adding a call to action. It is a learned craft that involves eye-catching techniques to make it more appealing and engaging to consumers.
Crafting compelling and persuasive product content is a crucial element in driving sales. It can improve customer engagement, enhance brand identity, and boost search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.
Product content writing is tricky, and a lot of writers, especially those with little eCommerce background, can easily turn it into a sales pitch and use the wrong technical terms.
So, to help you identify the difference and create an effective product copy, we’ll break down some of the elements and eye-catching techniques to help captivate your target audience and avoid common pitfalls of product content writing.
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Benefits of the Product Copywriting
A high-quality product copy holds compelling benefits and has the power to transform your business. Once you know what it can do for your business, you’ll be able to assess which part of product marketing you should focus on and what qualities you should look for in a good copywriter. Writing your product copy effectively can make your product or service stand out and appeal to your target audience.
Below we’ll dive deeper into some of its biggest benefits and ways it can add value to your marketing efforts.
Increased Conversion Rates
A well-written product copy gives customers a clear and direct message about the benefits and value of a product. That’s why when the message highlights how a product can address customers’ needs and solve their problems, then they are compelled to purchase. Consumers appreciate transparency and concise product information when they read it. It’s crucial to format and display your product in a way that grabs attention and persuades online shoppers to buy.
Skillful use of persuasive language with a strong call-to-action can evoke emotions or create a sense of urgency, encouraging consumers to make a purchase.
Some copywriters use the FOMO technique or the ‘Fear of Missing Out’ to give the readers a perception that they are missing out and urge them to make a purchase. Copy like this taps into the customer’s emotions and drives action.
By using these techniques and tailoring a good product copy, it can result in higher conversion rates and ultimately drive more sales. This is particularly true for an eCommerce site where the product page copy is vital for success.
Better Customer Engagement
Customer engagement involves three aspects: interest in the brand or product, loyalty to the brand, and a level of commitment to recommending it to family and friends. When you build strong relationships with your existing customers, you can reach other potential customers through recommendations or word-of-mouth. If you’re seeking a product that resonates with your audience, engaging copy is key.
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Studies, particularly in the healthcare and automotive industries, reveal that customer engagement can help increase cross-sell revenues by an impressive 22%, and generate an uplift in up-sell revenue by 38%. Great copywriting can also enhance email copywriting, leading to better customer interactions.
Copywriting can result in better customer engagement by first understanding the target audience, weaving an interesting brand narrative, using tailored messaging that addresses customer needs, and encouraging customer feedback. Using simple language and short sentences can also improve readability and engagement.
Enhanced Brand Identity
How customers perceive a brand can have a deep impact on the success or failure of a business. Brands have a unique personality that, when presented to the audience properly, can elicit feelings of trust and create expectations. You need to put effort into crafting a tone of voice that reflects your brand’s identity across all web pages.
Therefore, good copywriting can help build a connection between your brand and the target audience. But this perception cannot be shaped overnight. It is a long and continuous process that can be built over time with high-quality product copies. Highlighting unique product specifications in your descriptions can also reinforce your brand’s uniqueness.
To enhance brand identity through copywriting, the writer can use several techniques, such as telling a story to communicate the brand’s mission and vision and using words to build an emotional connection with customers. It is one of the best ways to foster a strong brand identity.
Improved SEO
Product copywriting can integrate SEO copywriting best practices to help boost organic visibility and increase SEO rankings. Copywriters can strategically add relevant keywords into the copy and add meta tags to improve product page SEO and to help search engines understand the content and rank higher in search results. Good copy can significantly impact your digital marketing efforts.
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Additionally, a well-optimized product copy will provide valuable information to encourage social sharing and backlinks and further boost organic visibility. When you have a high global SEO ranking, potential customers will be able to find you faster and will be directed to your product listings. That gives you an edge over competitor products and eventually increases sales. Writing descriptions that are SEO-friendly can improve conversions on your eCommerce site.
The Essentials of Effective eCommerce Product Copywriting
When it comes to product marketing, choosing the right words to convey a product’s value can make all the difference. Mastering the art and technique of creating effective product copy holds the key to unlocking a host of benefits. Below are some of the essentials to help tweak your writing style to create enticing product copies. Answer any questions your ideal customers might have through detailed and clear copy.
Writing for Your Target Audience
Effective product copywriting involves understanding the needs, preferences, and pain points of your target audience. Essentially, you are writing information that the audience wants to read. You want your customers to feel understood and valued.
If a copy is easy to read, it can connect with audiences directly on a personal level. So it’s important to use language and tone that resonates with your target audience and make them feel they are understood. Simple language can make the content more relatable.
Some marketers use a model called the AIDA which stands for ‘Attention’, ‘Interest’, ‘Desire’, and ‘Action’. It is a framework that guides their communication strategies to address every stage of the customer journey. This model can be applied to any sales copy needs, whether you’re selling to consumers or businesses.
This marketing model can be effectively applied in product copywriting and is applicable whether you’re writing for consumers or business owners. To apply AIDA in your writing, the first step is to write an enticing title and introduction that will capture the interest of the audience. Then you establish desire by highlighting the best features of your products and making them want to buy the product. Wrap up your copy with a strong call to action to encourage them to make a purchase. What’s important is to guide your reader seamlessly through the process.
Crafting Compelling Headlines
Headlines and titles can make or break a copy. It should instantly grab the attention of the customer and entice them to look into the product further. Great headlines are essential for writing your product effectively.
There are several techniques to use to create a striking headline. You can use words or phrases that are strong, unique, intriguing, pose a question, or make bold statements that will make the reader want to read more. Effective headlines improve conversions by drawing readers in.
Create a sense of intrigue to pique their curiosity or tell a mysterious story around it without being clickbaity. This will entice them to click to find out more. Crafting headlines that display the product’s key features and benefits clearly can also be very effective.
Using Clear and Concise Language to Help Customers
Get straight to the point and stop using cliches and empty phrases. You only have 8 seconds to capture a reader’s interest. Otherwise, they will doze off and move on to the next reading material. Readers are smarter now and have shorter attention spans, so they don’t want long explanations or introductions. They want something quick, concise, and exciting that answers their questions immediately.
To make this possible, you need to use clear and easy-to-understand sentences while strategically incorporating words and phrases that elicit curiosity, desire, or FOMO.
To make descriptions clearer, you can also use sticky and sensory words to describe a product and make the readers “feel something” to make the product more appealing.
Highlighting Unique Selling Points (USPs)
When you highlight a product’s unique selling point, you differentiate it from other product competitors, bring forward its best features, and communicate its value to consumers. A strongly worded and highly optimized USP gives the product a competitive edge in the market.
What are the product features that you need to highlight? Choose the features that make them stand out, such as “organic,” “chemical-free,” or “scratch-resistant”. By showcasing its distinct features and functionalities, you position the product as unique and superior, capturing the attention of buyers that are looking for something “better” or give value for their money.
Creating a Sense of Urgency and Scarcity
Creating a sense of urgency is a powerful technique in copywriting that can prompt readers to make immediate purchasing decisions, but you need to be careful not to trigger the wrong responses. When you use this technique, you need to be fully transparent about the product to not create a sense of false value.
You can create a sense of urgency by giving product offerings and discounts for a limited time and using the FOMO technique to encourage them to seize the opportunity before it’s gone. Aside from this, you also need to increase the product’s perceived value by emphasizing limited stocks or exclusivity of the product to increase desirability.
Tips for Writing Product Copy That Sells
Writing effective product copies is a learned craft that gets better with experience but also requires a bit of instinct about the marketing landscape and some actionable insights. Fortunately, there are proven strategies and techniques that can serve as a guide.
Tapping Into Emotions
Copywriters need to learn how to write product copies with an emotional appeal. This means using words that trigger emotions and connect with buyers at a personal level. You can address their problems, meet their desires, understand their pain points, and create an emotional resonance that prompts them to answer your call to action.
When writing to tap into emotions, capturing the audience’s attention should start from the title and continue on to the body of the copy. Use evocative language and adjectives that trigger emotions and even anxiety.
Using Social Proof to Build Trust
Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is the consumer’s tendency to rely on the opinions of other satisfied buyers to validate their shopping choices. This can be seen through feedback, ratings, reviews, case studies, and social media validation.
Copywriters can make use of positive feedback by showcasing them, usually in the form of screenshots of actual conversations or product ratings, and giving assurance to potential buyers that the product delivers on its promises.
Showing social proof is one of the most powerful ways to build trust and credibility. When potential buyers see that others have positive experiences with the product, it establishes brand reliability.
Leveraging Power Words
The use of powerful words is the secret to strong copywriting. It can evoke emotions, enhance descriptions, grab attention, and consequently influence decision-making. Powerful words can make a copy more enticing to read and convey strong imagery when writing product descriptions.
There are many resources with lists of powerful words you can use for your copies. Familiarizing yourself with these words can help make writing copies faster and more effective. Add a compelling call-to-action, and your product copies will surely have a strong reader impact.
Focusing on Benefits Over Features
Features describe the specifications and attributes of a product, such as size, color, weight, dimensions, etc. These are typically physical features and attributes that add value to the product. Benefits, on the other hand, explain how these features make life easier for the customer or how they can help solve problems.
When creating product copies, there are different ways to highlight product benefits. You can address customer needs and position your product as a solution to their problems. You can also demonstrate a product’s value by articulately specifying how it can benefit their lives.
Incorporating Calls to Action (CTAs)
Adding a call to action in strategic parts of the product copy can encourage customers to take the next step in the buying process. eCommerce copywriting examples of Calls to Action are phrases such as “buy now,” “order today,” “add-to-cart,” and “subscribe today.” While these phrases may sound imposing on their own, a good copywriter should be able to incorporate them in sentences with a more friendly and enticing voice.
A more effective CTA is one that also incorporates a sense of urgency, such as “available today only” or “only 5 items left, buy now” to encourage customers to take immediate action and make faster purchasing decisions.
Common Mistakes to Avoid Using the Product Copywriting Techniques
If you are not yet an experienced product copywriter, it can be easy to confuse certain aspects of product copywriting. Mistakes are very common that even experienced copywriters sometimes fall prey to them. These mistakes, however, can hinder the effect of a product copy.
It is important to take proactive measures to identify these common pitfalls so you can steer clear of them. Below are some of the most common mistakes in product copywriting that you need to avoid.
Overuse of Jargon and Technical Terms
You may think it’s going to make the copy sound more professional, but it actually doesn’t work that way. The goal of product copies is to be understood by a vast number of potential customers of various backgrounds. The only way to communicate with them is to keep the writing style clear, simple, and easy to understand.
While you can insert a few technical terms here and there, you should only do this when it’s absolutely necessary to be mentioned in the copy. If your copy is filled with complex terminology, it can create a barrier between your message and your audience.
Lack of Differentiation from Competitors
One of the most critical mistakes to avoid in product copywriting is failing to differentiate your offerings from those of your competitors. Online marketplaces are crowded, and buyers will have numerous options available to them. That’s why it’s crucial to highlight what sets your product apart from the rest.
When you miss the opportunity to highlight your product’s benefits, your product becomes mediocre and won’t appeal to customers. It also weakens your brand identity, and your product will get lost in the sea of product listings.
Neglecting to Proofread and Edit
Proofreading and editing are essential steps to ensure clarity, accuracy, and professionalism in your posts. When customers see errors in spelling or inconsistency in product details, it gives them the impression that the product is either fake or substandard, which results in a loss of trust and sales.
Editing enhances readability and flow, which helps readers understand your message better. A well-edited piece of product copy is easier to read and effectively conveys the key selling points of your product.
Ignoring Customer Feedback
Customer feedback is a great source of insight and information about your product that can help you improve its quality to meet your customers’ needs. If you ignore feedback and fail to adapt to customer preferences, you can risk falling out of touch with your target audience. You can also damage customer relationships and consequently damage your brand reputation.
To avoid this mistake, actively seek out and listen to customer reviews and feedback. Engage and respond, and let them know that their input is valued. When you show interest in your customers, they will genuinely return their interest in your business.
Being Too Salesy
When you come across as overly promotional, it can turn off potential customers and hinder the effectiveness of your copywriting efforts. Sales talk is old news as the buying crowd becomes even smarter. You need to give them something fresh and new to catch their attention.
Customers usually appreciate authentic and genuine communication. If your copy sounds too salesy, it can feel forced, lack emotional connection, and lose your product authenticity.
To avoid being too salesy, focus on presenting your product’s features and use language that informs and educates. Strive for a balance between highlighting product benefits and maintaining an authentic, customer-centric tone.
Key Takeaways
Good product copywriting skills are crucial in today’s eCommerce landscape. It plays a vital role in engaging customers and driving sales. An effective product copy can help enhance brand identity and improve SEO rankings.
To write an effective product copy, it’s important to focus on benefits over features, leverage power words, tap into consumers’ emotions, and use social proof to build trust.
Finally, product copywriting is a learned craft that takes experience to master. Even the most veteran copywriters can make common mistakes, which are the use of too much jargon and technical terms, being too salesy, lacking differentiation from competitor products, and ignoring customer feedback.
With the ever-changing eCommerce landscape, there’s no set formula for writing effective copies. You just need to know your audience, be intuitive, and follow best practices.
If you’re looking to streamline your product content writing process and take it to the next level, consider exploring Catsy’s comprehensive PIM and DAM systems. Catsy offers a range of tools including PIM Software and DAM Software and other features to simplify and optimize your product content management. Schedule a demo today to see how Catsy product information management software and digital asset management software can revolutionize your product copywriting and help you achieve outstanding results in the competitive eCommerce market.
A product copywriter is more than just someone who writes product descriptions and marketing materials. An effective copywriter needs to learn the market trends and understand the behavior of the target audience to gain intuition on what will be the most effective writing strategy to apply for every copy.
It is the responsibility of the product copywriter to maintain consistency in the brand’s voice, showcase a product’s unique selling points, and ensure an error-free copy before releasing it for publication.
Copywriting is a key component of marketing but more specific to eCommerce. Marketing, on the other hand, encompasses a broader range of activities aimed at promoting and selling. Copywriting is an essential tool for marketers to convey a brand’s message.
To develop strong writing skills, you can try taking an online course from other successful copywriters to get inspiration and learn valuable techniques. You should also practice writing different types of copies to learn to apply the different writing techniques.
There are many challenges to copywriting, including ensuring the copy is informative but concise and creating a strong ending with a unique call to action. Another big challenge is how to capture and maintain audience attention without sounding too salesy and clickbaity.
Striking the right balance between creativity and persuasion can be difficult, but a good copywriter should be able to find the best blend.
Here are some of the skills you need to develop and master if you want a career in copywriting:
- Writing – Having a strong command of language, grammar, and writing techniques.
- Creative thinking – You should be able to develop unique and innovative ideas with the ability to think outside the box.
- Analytical thinking – Copywriters should be able to analyze complex information and ideas and craft a simpler version that’s suitable for product copies.
- Research skills – Strong research skills will allow them to gather enough information to create a comprehensive but concise product copy.
- Visual thinking – Good copywriters create vivid images in their minds that they are able to describe and translate into writing and transfer this imagery into the readers’ minds.
- Effective communication – The ability to listen and understand other people’s needs and wants in order to write a more effective copy that will serve those needs.
