6 Methods for Creating Effective Product Descriptions

We've heard it said that "a picture is worth a thousand words." However, I'd argue that words can be worth a thousand pictures.

Good product descriptions should both inform and persuade your customers. In this hub, I've gathered some tips for spicing up these powerful selling tools.

1. List benefits, not features: Have you ever encountered a salesman who rattles off useless specs and features that you either don't care about or don't understand? Don't be guilty of this with your product descriptions. Suppose you sell a wireless phone that offers a wireless headset feature. Rather than boasting about "Bluetooth wireless technology" phrase the feature as a benefit. "Safe, no-wire hands free operation allows you to keep your hands free for more important tasks." For more suggestions on selling benefits, not features, checkout this post.
2. Let Customers Describe It: Allow your customers to review your products. The information they provide will be very valuable to customers considering a purchase. Visitors may trust a user generated review even more than your own product descriptions. With one of my clients who sells religious t-shirts, adding customer reviews had a tremendous effect on increasing organic search traffic as well.
3. Don't just sell, educate: When you educate your customers about your products, they feel like you are providing additional value for the price they pay. RadioShack does a nice job of this with their Research library.
4. Use Enticing, Image Oriented Words: Let your customers see, hear, taste, touch, and smell your products through descriptions that create powerful images in their mind. Here's a great comparison of 2 very different descriptions of the same product.
5. Proofread them Thoroughly: There's nothing more embarrassing than being told by a customer that your product description is erroneous or contains typos. Make sure your descriptions are proof read by someone other than the original copywriter.

6. Too Much is a Bad Thing: Don't overwhelm your customers at the outset with a huge, novel size product description. Crutchfield uses a JavaScript enabled "Read more" link to hide or show additional product information.

As always, please leave a comment if you have any more suggestions to add to these.