By Elise Dobson
Introduction
Selling products online is challenging. Potential customers cannot touch, smell, or see the product in a tangible way. Instead, they rely on the copy written by marketers to describe the product’s features, the problems it solves, and how it makes buyers feel – all to increase sales.
Copywriting is a skill that most e-commerce business owners have not spent time improving. You have other masks to wear, right?
However, strong copywriting skills have the potential to persuade more readers to click on links, sign up, or make a purchase. Excellent copy helps potential customers envision how they would feel about owning the product. They can picture it in their hands, solving a problem, or making their lives easier.
So, what does good copy look like? And how can you write with potential customers in mind? This guide shares with you the copywriting process you’ll need when crafting any text for your online brand.
Goal: Write words that reward you.
What is E-commerce Copywriting?
E-commerce copywriting is the process of crafting text that persuades your target audience to take a specific action. For example, you might convince your audience to visit your e-commerce site, join your email list, or purchase a particular product. It is often referred to as direct response writing or advertising copy for this reason.
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Benefits of E-commerce Copywriting
Strong, straightforward copy is key to increasing sales without investing more in acquisition; that’s why excellent copywriting across every touchpoint is one of the most effective ways to move prospects or buyers through the sales funnel.
Kayla Holatz, a freelance copywriter, says, “I helped Archer and Olive, an online bullet journal retailer, increase their revenue from $72,000 to $1.9 million in the first year of writing copy for their website. We refined the headline to highlight the eco-friendliness of their products. We reminded visitors of the brand features on product pages. While this growth can’t be attributed solely to copywriting, it played a significant role in their growth.”
Featured homepage copy on Archer and Olive, an online bullet journal retailer.
Where is Copywriting Applied?
No matter where you place this text, writing is a critical component of your entire digital marketing strategy. This includes:
- Homepage. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Strong copy should express what you sell and why it’s different, quickly and clearly, so users don’t leave.
- Product descriptions. Why should people buy the product you’re selling? Help the potential customer visualize owning, touching, or using the product through your product description copy.
- Category pages. Sometimes, site visitors arrive at your site hoping to solve a problem but are unsure which product will help them do so. Explain the grouping of products on the page and provide guiding snippets about individual products.
- About page. Site visitors want to see information about the company behind the site they are viewing. Make people fall in love with the brand behind the site through the copy on your About page.
- Headlines
- Email. Every type of email marketing campaign, including promotions, abandoned cart campaigns, and purchase confirmations, should be written with the customer in mind. The email text takes the customer out of their inbox and directs them to your site with a call to action.
- Social media posts. The average person spends about 2.5 hours scrolling through social media daily. By focusing on text in your social media posts, you can drive them away from social media and towards your online business.
- Direct mail. Writing newsletters and postcards gets customers in your local area to visit your physical store.
- Ads. Whether it’s a Google ad, a Facebook campaign, or a billboard, advertising is truly about the intersection of text and creativity. Pair eye-catching images with ad copy that keeps your target audience engaged long enough to influence a sale.
Superb web copy. Search engines pull these snippets from texts and display them on the search page. Text is the only medium here – there are no images or videos to influence the decision. Writing SEO copy can be the difference between someone clicking on your site or a competitor’s site.
Bison Coolers’ product description uses strong writing to make a mundane product (a cooler) sound more interesting.
Great brands make every word count, even on their shipping policy page. Freelance copywriter Summer Owais explains: “Whenever I want to gauge how serious a brand is about customer experience, I check the pages in their footer. FAQs, contact us, shipping and returns – these are the pages customers who are very interested in your brand will check.”
“Most brands treat these pages as an afterthought. Yes, very few site visitors will check them, but those who do will have a much higher chance of becoming long-term customers or brand advocates.”
The bottom line? If you are losing potential customers at a touchpoint before the product page, you could have the most amazing copy on it and it won’t matter.
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7 Proven Tips for Writing E-commerce Copy
Good e-commerce copywriting is relatively easy to learn, but difficult to master. Great writers test and measure their copy to ensure it delivers real results. It takes time to be great.
The first mistake in copywriting is writing without research, but we’ve already covered that in detail. The second mistake is making obvious blunders. Here are eight more steps for writing great copy.
1. Mirror Your Customer’s Tone
What good is your research for writing copy if you’re not using it to inform your writing?
Go back to your research table and pull out the terms your customers have used in reviews, interviews, or surveys. Each demographic or persona likely has specific vocabulary. Including the same vocabulary on your e-commerce site builds trust. Customers arrive thinking, “This brand gets me.”
Harper Wilde is a great example of this. Throughout her e-commerce site, you will find phrases her target audience is likely using (or at least familiar with) – like the idea that her bras are so comfortable “you won’t believe it’s not butter.”
2.
Sell Benefits, Not Features
It’s hard not to fall into the trap of advertising your product features. While you may think this showcases your products in the best light, the truth is that most purchases are driven by emotions.
The fact that your comforter has 400 thread counts doesn’t evoke the emotions necessary for a purchase. But a luxurious and cozy duvet cover that makes you fall asleep instantly? That’s the deal.
Your copy and user experience should work together. There are many ways to summarize the quick facts customers care about – using icons, badges, or bulleted points – without boring them with the detailed features of the product. So, every time you list a feature, follow it up with a benefit.
Eight Sleep highlights the unique selling points of its mattress by listing benefits alongside the product features.
This leaves you more space to use valuable real estate, especially headlines and product descriptions, for selling instead of telling.
There are many benefits you can leverage in your copywriting; each one depends on why customers are buying the product. Does it solve a problem? Does it increase happiness and enjoyment? Does it make people feel part of a community?
For example, you might have an oven with a quick heating system. This feature makes a person more relaxed about getting dinner on the table on time. This benefit is an increase in enjoyment (the feeling of relaxation) and makes cooking less stressful (removing the pain of pressure). It has been experienced that these feelings of joy and anticipation enhance the performance of the e-commerce landing page.
Identify all these features and benefits before you start creating your product pages. Planning what you need to write helps you craft more persuasive copy faster.
The homepage of Kettle and Fire directly displays the benefits of using the product.
3. Sprinkle Text Without Bias
Imagine you’re browsing two websites. The first is written by a copywriter extolling how great the product is. The second site does the same, but some of the text is written by happy customers who can vouch for what the writer is saying.
Which one are you more likely to engage with? It’s likely the second. It uses social proof – reviews from other happy customers – to make you trust the product more.
Social proof is the kind of content that makes the copy seem less biased. Testimonials, reviews, and user-generated content are some of the most impactful commercial marketing assets, and they have been shown to increase sales page conversion rates by 34%.
Surely uses social proof with the headline “Over 20,000 customers love the wine” above a scrolling showcase of positive customer reviews.
4. Avoid Empty Words
Words like “market leader” and “innovative” are used so frequently that they’ve lost much of their impact. They have now become mere filler – taking up space without adding meaning.
Put on your critical thinking hat and ask yourself about every sentence and every word, ask yourself: What does this mean? If you can’t provide a specific answer right away, cut it or rephrase it until your copy is precise and meaningful.
Empty Words: Innovative office chairs from a market-leading company.
Try Instead: Office chairs with back support used by over 150,000 offices in the United States.
Empty words distract your reader and make them feel bored. In contrast, facts and figures boost your credibility. Whenever possible, include numbers and write them as numerals (7) instead of words (seven) because numbers stop the eyes from wandering.
5. Restrict Adjectives
Adjectives help us explain our products’ appearance (looks), what they do (features), and how they make our buyers feel (benefits).
Gradually,
descriptive traits be helpful. They assist customers in visualizing what the product looks like, feels like, or smells like – often your unique selling point. However, overdoing it can create a headache for the reader, as it makes the content difficult to read. Take this sentence for example:
This is a beautiful, romantic, and extremely comfortable kitchen set, with a unique yet completely classic appearance, resulting in something perfect for your kitchen.
The problem with having too many adjectives is that they slow the reader down and confuse them. What about simply saying:
This is a romantic kitchen set that suits most kitchen styles.
When using adjectives, follow these basic practices:
- Use only one adjective before a noun. Instead of “comfortable and romantic kitchen set,” choose “romantic kitchen set.”
- Don’t use adjectives to mention obvious things. Don’t describe the product’s appearance if you are showcasing it in a picture.
- Choose sensory or emotional words. Words that evoke senses or feelings make the reader feel something. Words like “good” or “effective” are somewhat boring. Instead, choose “enjoyable” or “delightful” or “exciting.”
Check the balance of text writing on Studio Neat’s product page between descriptive adjectives and focusing on benefits.
6. Tell stories, not facts
When potential buyers read stories, they forget that they are buying something. Any pre-existing barriers to your sales messages diminish, and your content becomes more engaging and persuasive.
Facts increase the credibility of your product description, but facts alone do not make your content persuasive. Facts are cold. Facts lack spirit or brand personality.
The most compelling product descriptions include both story and facts. Stories engage the reader and help justify the purchase. Our brains are wired to think in stories. For this reason, helping the customer visualize the product in their life is the hidden essence in crafting direct response copy that drives them towards the sale.
The story can be very short. Imagine you are selling an office chair with back support. You could tell a simple story about a customer who tried many chairs and continued to feel back pain.
A simple story can help prospects visualize the benefits of your products – especially if they are complicated. But stories also add personality. You can tell stories about product development, testing, or availability to enhance the perception of high quality or increase awareness about it.
So, how can you weave these little stories into your online store? Here are three quick tips:
- Learn from investigative journalists. Dig deep to uncover interesting details. Talk to your suppliers and current customers. The more you listen and learn, the more stories you have to tell.
- Keep your stories simple and focused. Center your story around just one simple idea.
- Avoid obvious things. Tell unexpected stories to capture attention, entertain, and sell.
For example, Meow Meow Tweet offers its new subscribers a short story about the brand’s history in their welcome message.
Sometimes, there are certain things that must be mentioned on the product page in light of laws or compliance. In a study conducted at Harvard University in 1978, researchers found that using the word “because” increased compliance from 60% to 94%. So, when stating facts that need to be known, tell people why they matter. For example, “This type of adhesive is great because it’s legally required.”
7. Have a strong point of view
Many large e-commerce sites seem the same: big companies without a soul. They do not communicate, do not engage, and do not sell the value of the products they offer. They only provide bread, butter, beer, and toothpaste.
But nobody likes talking to a faceless company. Nobody enjoys calling a soulless call center. So why would you write copy that sounds like a boring company?
That could…
Changing great texts can alter people’s thinking about a particular idea or problem, along with the role your product plays in the solution.
To connect with your readers, you need a touch of personality on your e-commerce site. Think about the brand voice – if your site were a real seller talking to a customer, how would you want its voice to sound? What stories could it tell? What jokes could it deliver? What words could it choose?
Remember to picture a single buyer and write as if you’re talking to them in real life. Get rid of corporate jargon and use text that feels more realistic and like a conversation.
GREATS uses phrases that its ideal customer knows, including “friends with benefits” and “drop us a line” and “get priority first.”
An Intensive Course in E-commerce Copywriting Research
Writing copy is like a crossword puzzle where your answers are the words your customers use to describe their problem. To write effective copy, you need to research – you need to understand your customers’ motivations and obstacles.
This is very different from how many merchants see copywriting, where it often relies on the belief that creative copy wins first place.
There’s a four-step process that professional writers use to craft compelling copy and increase conversion rates – you can steal it and use it yourself
Source: https://shopify.com/blog/7131764-4-magic-words-that-increase-sales
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