How To Write Great Content For Your Online Store

Øystein Winje Arntzen

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Published: March 6th, 2019

You’ve finally done it. After spending all the hours and resources building a beautiful e-commerce website, spending on online ads, and engaging followers on social media, your website traffic data says you should have lots of customers. And yet, your actual number of customers is nowhere near a significant percentage of the number of people landing on your pages and checking out your product. What happened?

This situation occurs too often. Customers would journey all the way up till the point of purchase and then they leave without buying anything. This is due to at least one of the following: customers felt they didn’t know the product enough, didn’t believe in the need for it, or just didn’t feel compelled to make the decision at the moment, instead of putting it off indefinitely. In short, the lack of quality content on your website is hurting your business.

Most of us are not aware enough on just how important quality can be for business. In the absence of a ready client-facing salesperson, content acts as the opener, presenter, and the closer. It guides customers in the most critical parts of their buyer journey and is the difference between a new customer and another lost opportunity.

Take this product description as an example:

“Amazing jacket looks comfortable to wear, and it fits you. Color is great match anything.”

It speaks good things about the product, but it does not describe it well. It does not give the information that customers would need, and it has grammatical errors. Even if it has beautiful photos of the product, customers will not feel comfortable trusting the business with their money because of how the content was written.

Defining top quality content

Top quality content is the use of various media, written or otherwise, that makes a customer attracted to, engaged with, and ready to purchase a product or service. It does not diminish the trust of the customers, rather it raises their confidence and gives the business the best shot at acquiring more customers.

Some aspects of content include verb usage that will create a feeling of movement, easy to read sentences that provide short bursts of information, and the use of adjectives that are sensory.

How to differentiate top quality content from poor quality content

Good content writing balances between information and inspiration. Yes, the customer needs to know the facts, but it’s also a well-known fact that most customers purchase with their emotions as much or more than with their logic. Writing content for a product that would have to sell may seem complicated, so we listed some tips for you.

Good content:

Determine your target audience

Good content begins with clearly selecting an audience you will tailor-fit everything to. If it’s not yet set in your business’ marketing plan, the best way to choose whom to target is by listing the different types of customers your product or service would be most relevant to.

Whether your customers are businesses or consumers, create clear segments by including holistic details about your customer. For example, instead of saying your target audience is “executives”, you can focus your target audience as “HR executives from the finance industry in London”.

Learn about your market’s needs and interests

Now that we have a clear audience, it’s time to understand them more deeply. You can assess patterns from previous customers or you can immerse yourself in a day of the life of your target audience. What’s important is you get to understand what they prioritise when making decisions, what language they use to communicate, and what problem they’re trying to solve.

As you get better at putting yourself in the shoes of the customer, the more you can speak their language, the sooner they’ll resonate with your message, and the more effective you will be in positioning your product as the solution to their problems.

Recognise what makes the product different from others

Once you’ve understood the customer’s point-of-view intensively, you can start writing content that will make customers like you for sure. However, being liked is not enough. There are many competitors out there offering the same product with the same understanding of the customers. Your business needs to be preferred.

There are two steps you can take to do this. First, whatever advantage your competitors may have, make sure you point out that your business has it too. Even if the competitors really do have the advantage in that aspect, you need to make it a point to show that you’re “good enough” in that aspect as well.

Second, now that you have neutralised your competitors’ advantage, highlight your own. What makes your products and services even just a little better than the rest? Make a big deal out of it. This is what would help customers categorise your business in theirs. Is your product more premium or more cost-effective? More practical or more luxurious? More functional or more beautiful?

Describe benefits, not features

Even if your product is made with the highest quality materials and has the best features, it wouldn’t matter to customers if you are not able to communicate why it matters to them. Knowing their needs and interests, combined with how your product differs from other similar products, you can incorporate the benefits of your product in visual and written content to help your customers understand the true worth of your product or service. It answers the unvoiced question of your customer: “What’s in it for me?” Look at Apple’s description for iPhone XR below for example.

Make it easy to understand

Focus on the important aspects of your product or service and say it straight to the point. Don’t go too technical in the product description and instead put the specifics in the product specifications. See how Apple’s texts are easy to understand on this Smart Keyboard description.

Keep it relevant

After everything you’ve read, you might have the urge to just put everything to make sure you don’t miss out on anything. However, too much information would overwhelm and confuse customers. Focus only on the content that the customer would need at a specific time. There are many steps in the customer journey, and as they go through the process, there will be the right time and place for each piece of information to be communicated to the customer.

To provide some contrast, we included a list of some factors that result in bad content.

Bad content:

Ignoring all the previously mentioned tips for good content

Writing can be a tedious process, but it creates a positive impact on your business if done well. Whether you are just starting out with your business or have been selling for years now, there will always be room for improvement with how you can do things. If you’ve been having a hard time selling online, you might want to reevaluate the quality of your online content, especially the written text you use to sell your products.

Forgetting to explain the link between the product and its benefits to customers

Some content just informs customers about its features without relating it to their audience’s needs. Take a look at the below sample from a product description of a toy truck. It gave some of the toy’s features, but it does not relate how it can be beneficial to its potential customers. To improve on this, at the beginning of your text, include a product description where you highlight first how your product is relevant and beneficial to your customer, and use simpler words, before showing these features and technicalities as product specifications in the next section of your text content.

Not announcing special offers

Promotions and special offers that are well-timed and rooted in the typical behaviours of your customers will gather their attention. Do not forget to let the word out if you have offers that will attract your customers to purchase your product right now, rather than putting it off. If your brand has a freebie for the current season, remember to include it in your content. Create visual content with easy-to-understand icons showing the promo to catch the attention of your customer, and write the specific promo mechanics in your text content.

Knowing how your market behaves, you should also be able to identify how they communicate. Once you know this, how you communicate through your writing must match their tone of voice. You must remain consistent with this tone throughout your content. On the example below, it started with a formal tone. Then, it changed drastically towards the end. This is a bad sample of a product description.

“Product First Aid Kit will prepare you for any emergency either at home, in school, or on the road. The essential supplies included are ideal for treating scrapes, cuts, and pain and swelling. I’m not so sure about other brands but this first aid kit is the real deal!”

Implementing high-quality content

If you’ve made it to this part, this means you’re ready to get into some details on implementing high-quality content, particularly in formatting and laying out:

Use subheadings

Subheadings will attract attention and lead your audience to read your content by giving them a glimpse of what to expect.

Short sentences and paragraphs

To make your content readable, shorten your sentences and paragraphs. This helps your audience to easily absorb the information you’re trying to convey.

Include bullet points

Bullet points, such as these, make it easy for readers to digest big chunks of information.

Add suggestions and reviews

What is more important to any customer than knowing the product has been tried by someone else? Including customer feedback helps in making potential clients consider buying from you because of social proof that your product is good. Sometimes, reviews may even answer questions you didn’t know yet that your customer needs answers to. Knowing the suggestions from previous customers can be used for improving your product as well.

Here is a good example of high-quality content from Mountaineer Brand that follows the points above.

Choosing top quality content for your business

Content will make or break your ability to close a customer through your website. Nowadays, designing and implementing compelling and well-written content is no longer just a nice-to-have, but a must-have for every business. It may seem tedious for some, but the risk and rewards are tremendous. Don’t just settle for high web traffic. Invest in top quality content and watch your conversion rates improve and your customer base grow.

If you’re looking for a partner in helping you produce high-quality content for your business, Topcontent.com is specializing in developing descriptions and landing pages that are sure to make the best impression to your customers.