When it comes to writing copy for ecommerce, there is a lot of advice that goes against each other. For instance, some experts would tell you to keep your landing pages short and create a sense of “FOMO” (fear of missing out) to boost sales.
On the other hand, some people will tell you that the devil is in the details and that you should put as much information as possible on your pages to show why people need your product.
The problem is that most of this advice is based on personal stories or decades of research into how people act. There is no way to know for sure that one strategy is better than another, and the real study doesn’t back up much of it.
What Does Ecommerce Copywriting Mean?
Ecommerce copywriting is the process of writing text or other written materials for an online business. Your writing skills can also help increase sales in places like headlines, category pages, product descriptions, promotional offers, and landing pages.
The goal of ecommerce copywriting is to describe the benefits of your products in a clear way and help your online business rank higher on search engines. To be successful, you must be a good communicator, be able to persuade with words, promote the voice of your brand, and understand what makes a customer buy.
How to Write the Best Copy for Online Sales
Ecommerce copywriting has a direct and positive effect on sales. Here is a list of some more tips you should think about when writing for your online business:
Know who you’re trying to reach.
To get your content just right, you need to know a lot about your audience and what they want. So, customer research is important for writing because it helps you get more specific and on target. Copywriters who work in ecommerce know how important customer testimonials are.
Here, if you haven’t already, you should make buyer personas that show who your ideal customers are. You can use these profiles to talk directly to the ideas, attitudes, interests, and motivations of certain parts of your customer base.
Tell an Engaging Narrative
The structure of a story may help customers connect with it more deeply, so they buy from your business more than once. This is because people like to hear a good story. It’s just the way people are. But what kinds of stories can you tell with your eCommerce writing?
This simple, useful formula could work for any product or service:
- The hero of the story is the shopper. (The most important person.)
- They have a problem that needs to be fixed. (The disagreement.)
- They haven’t found a way out yet. (The activity is getting worse.)
- Now, there is a way out. (This is sometimes called the climax.)
And they’ll be happy, so they can live happily ever after. (The last choice.)
Your ecommerce copywriting can also benefit from other useful and practical story techniques and formulas. But you need to find the right one based on the tastes of your audience. This will help you build a much stronger emotional connection with them.
Avoid Using Long Phrases
As we’ve already said, if your content is hard to read, it’s less likely to convert. Because of this, it’s best to leave out long, complicated sentences, especially ones that use business jargon.
If you want to know if your copy is too hard to read or understand, you can try reading it out loud to a coworker or your spouse. People often get used to reading quickly in their heads, but we should remember that it can be hard for people who are reading the content for the first time.
Focus on the good things.
Most of the time, product features are boring. For example, most people don’t care if their electric toothbrush has a lithium-ion battery, three kinds of thistles, or special pulse technology. (No matter what it is.) They only care about how these things will make their lives better.
Think about what Bon Bon Bon says about their Sugar Chai Crunch Tape in their writing. They don’t just talk about what’s in this one-of-a-kind chocolate treat; the text also talks about how it will feel when you bite into it and how much your crush would appreciate such a thoughtful gift. Smart and focused on what will help.
Use words that show action.
Action words should be in your copy if you want people to do something. What do action words mean? In copywriting, they are used to ask people to do something on a website. For instance, “Buy Now.”
These words and phrases can be used in places other than your buttons. To get people more interested in the text, start words with verbs that ask them to do something. On their website, The Mountain, for example, uses active language to talk about their face masks. (“Look good and stay safe.”)
Use keywords in your writing.
You can use interesting keywords on each page to try to move up in Google’s search results and get more people to your website who didn’t find it through a search.
You can use Google Ads Keyword Planner and other popular and useful tools like Ahrefs, Answer the Public, and Keyword Surfer to do basic research. Also, it would be helpful if you gave your ecommerce website a solid content marketing plan (like a blog) to get more traffic from search engines.
Product page bullet points
A big paragraph with a lot of information could be scary for people who want to buy a pair of sneakers. Instead, put your text into bullet points to make it easier to read and scan. This is very helpful when you want to draw attention to a long list of product details.
Other good things about bullet points are:
- They help you put ideas into groups and cut down on unnecessary words.
- They give your website some space and breathing room, which makes it look better.
- They are easier to read on mobile devices and make the user experience better than a big block of text that takes up the whole screen.
There are benefits to writing good Ecommerce copy.
What happens when you write perfect copy? Then, you can expect your online store to have more conversions, more sales, more customers helped, a higher ranking on search engines, and a stronger brand.
Sales went up
The words you use to market your online business and items have a direct effect on how much money you make. This is why so many small businesses try to improve their chances of making a sale. Instead of spending money to get more people to your website, you can try to get more of them to buy something.
Customers are in the know.
Ecommerce copywriting is all about telling customers what they need to know about your products. You can choose what information to put front and center for customers, when to show it to them, and how much detail they need.
SEO of the site gets better.
Your ecommerce site should be optimized often so that it ranks higher than other online businesses, like those on Amazon and Shopify. Also, you need to make important changes often to make it more visible online. To do better than your competitors and be the first thing people think of when they think of your business, use SEO copywriting and specific keywords.
sets up your brand.
Every time a customer does something with your online business, it affects how the brand sees them, and your text is a big part of that. Don’t let the quality of your writing slip. Also, having a consistent tone would help make experiences that people will remember long after they leave.
Common mistakes to avoid when writing copy for e-commerce
At first glance, writing copy for ecommerce may seem easy, but if you’re not careful, you could run into a number of problems. So don’t forget to watch out for these common mistakes that first-time writers make.
Use of Too Many Adjectives
Adjectives always make your writing better, and you can think of them like tequila shots: a few go a long way, but it’s probably not a good idea to use too many. Also, stop using too much flowery language in your copywriting. You’ll end up making your sentences harder to understand, slowing down your readers, and losing some of the power of your words.
Instead, use fewer strong and sensible words to paint a clearer and more interesting picture in your audience’s mind.
The lack of uniqueness and flavor
No one likes dry, academic writing that just gives facts and sounds like it was typed by a machine. Instead, you should add a personal touch to your copy to make it more appealing to customers.
When you have a strong brand personality, it will make sense. But if you don’t have one yet, start by asking yourself, “If your brand were a person, what would they sound like?” Your personality should match your brand and position in the business. It could be charming, funny, honest, stylish, or sarcastic. Imagine a real star that your company could hire to represent it, and then look into how they talk or communicate. Pay close attention to what they say and use some of their styles in your copywriting.
About 10 minutes to make.
One of the most common mistakes people make when writing copy for ecommerce is thinking they can do it quickly. You shouldn’t just throw it together on the edge of your desk as an afterthought. Instead, make a plan and set aside some quiet, productive time to copy each new page of your online business. (Otherwise, hire a professional ecommerce copywriter to handle your business and come up with content for you.)
Keep track of how your work is being used and how it is growing. Also, keep trying out different headlines and descriptions to see which ones help you improve it the most. Copywriting is something that everyone should know doesn’t happen right away. It takes months, if not years, to get good at it.
Word Soup and Fluff Words
Have you ever worked hard to get your school essay to the right number of words? When I was in school and had to do this, I looked for paragraphs I could “bulk up” by going into too much detail about arguments I had already made or by adding unnecessary background information.
Even though this might be okay in high school, you should avoid it at all costs in ecommerce. Copywriters usually call this “fluff” or “word soup” because it isn’t very useful. People who read online already have short attention spans, so if you try to fill the page with text that doesn’t make sense or isn’t worth reading, they’ll likely click away.
Too much attention on products
I know it’s hard to hear, but most people who come to your store don’t care about you or your items. (Gasp) It is true that they only care about themselves and the problems they are trying to solve.
When writing the text for an e-commerce page, you should always write from the customer’s point of view. Talk to them about their aches and pains, worries, fears, and disappointments. Show that you care and focus on what your product can do for them.
Not the Same Tone
As your online business grows, you may find yourself working with other team members on ecommerce copywriting. First, make sure your language is consistent and fits the personality of your brand, no matter who wrote it or where it appears.
Then, as your business grows, I suggest making brand voice guidelines to show new employees or people who are just starting out what the tone of voice should be. This will help you stay consistent and keep your customers from getting confused or offended.
Last Words
Even though machine learning has come a long way, a robot still can’t write a landing page as well as you can. If you combine your knowledge of marketing with the above facts, you can make your ecommerce copywriting more likely to get people to buy. Don’t forget who your ideal customer is and what you sell in your online shop.
This information can be used to try out different landing page versions and see how they affect your ecommerce key performance indicators (KPIs) and customer statistics. If you want to find out more, you can also look at the blogs of dropship-empire. In their whole study, you can learn more about e-commerce tips (as well as statistics for increasing online business sales) and benchmarks, such as what makes a good conversion rate on your landing pages.