How to Write an Effective Product Description on Amazon
How to Write an Effective Product Description on Amazon
Amazon absolutely dominates the online retail segment, claiming 38.7% of U.S. retail eCommerce sales. Compare that to the runner-up, Walmart, which takes just 5.3% of the market. It’s undeniable: Amazon is the absolute leader when it comes to e-commerce.
As an Amazon seller, you’re competing with a ton of other sellers, and you’re up against a huge inventory of similar products. To get yours in front of potential customers, you have to know how to craft Amazon descriptions.
In this article, we’ll cover the top three ways to make your Amazon listings stand out from the crowd.
Make It Highly Searchable
SEO optimization is important for your Amazon product descriptions, just as it is for your website’s Google rank. On Amazon, the more SEO-optimized the product description, the higher it will rank in search results, making it that much easier for customers to find what they’re looking for (i.e., your item).
Making your Amazon products SEO-optimized is about more than just guessing what customers want. Here’s a three-step approach to getting SEO right, now and in the future:
1. Go through the category or categories that are most relevant to the products you sell and list out the top 20 items that are trending. Carefully read the titles and descriptions of the products, writing down the short- and long-tail keywords that you notice.
2. Try different versions of long-tail keywords in your product titles and descriptions. For example, you may want to test out “travel coffee mug for car,” “spill-proof travel mug” and “to-go coffee cup with spill-proof lid.”
These blue light-blocking glasses have packed in a lot of keywords that people may use to search for this product:
P.S. Each of your products should have its own list of keywords to use in the descriptions. Yes, there may be some overlap from product to product. However, long-tail keywords are detailed enough that you should be able to create unique ones for each product you list.
3. This is the most important tip: regularly update your list. Keyword research is an ongoing effort. By updating your list regularly, you can test out new keywords, and you’ll also continually appeal to what customers want right now, not just what they wanted in the past.
Tell Buyers What They Want to Know
When writing Amazon product descriptions, you have to make them as thorough as possible. Think about what buyers will definitely want to know, and front-load the description with that information. That means putting the most important information first, like the benefits of the product, its size, and color, etc.
There will also be other information that not all buyers will need to know but that many will search for. Make sure to include that information, too. You have a lot of room to play within an Amazon product description, so use it to answer any and all questions customers may have.
This product description mentions both benefits and important specs in the main part of the description, addressing just about everything that most customers will need to know right away:
If you’re able to thoroughly address customer concerns and questions, you’ll do two things. First, you’ll save yourself from having to personally respond to the same questions over and over. Second, you’ll arm them with everything they need to make an educated purchasing decision — and to move forward with buying your item.
Not sure what buyers need to know? Look at similar products listed on Amazon and read through the reviews and Q&A sections. You’ll get a sense of what’s important to customers and the questions they ask if they’re not answered in the descriptions.
Convince the Buyer to Make the Purchase
The great part about listing products on Amazon is that you know where customers are in the sales cycle — they’re very close to making a purchase. People often head on to Amazon when they’re ready to buy, and by that point, they know what they’re looking for. If they find your product when they’re searching, they’re not far from taking the next step and going through with the purchase. They just need a slight nudge from you to do that.
Here are a few ways to encourage customers to take action:
Get to the point.
Assume that some customers aren’t going to read past the product title and the first few sentences. While you can flesh out a product description with as much information as you think some customers will need, keep the start of it brief. Write two to five sentences that accurately describe the product and its benefits.
Make longer descriptions easy to read.
After you get to the point at the start of the description, you may feel that more needs to be said. To make longer product descriptions easy to read, add bolded sub-headers and bullet points. Customers can find what they’re looking for if they decide to dig into the product some more, and they’ll be able to scan the information to research and make a decision fast.
The description section for this children’s magazine uses bullet points to make the must-know information a cinch to scan and digest:
Sell the product’s benefits instead of the features.
The features should definitely be included in the description — many customers are going to want detailed information about what they’re about to buy — but what’s front-and-center should be the benefits of the item. Customers care more about how their life will improve after they buy your product than they do about specs.
Write product titles the smart way.
The title is a huge part of the product description. Titles can only be 200 characters, so as you’re planning out your product descriptions, keep the titles to that length. And make sure that you fit in one or two (or more) long-tail keywords — that’ll do wonders for your SEO ranking.
Amazon offers a lot of potential sales to buys, but in order to succeed on the platform, you need to make sure your listings appear first to buyers searching for products. Keep the above tips in mind to give yourself the best chance of success as an Amazon seller.
Brian Meert is the CEO of AdvertiseMint, a Hollywood-based digital advertising agency that specializes in helping successful companies advertise on Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Tiktok. AdvertiseMint has managed millions of dollars in digital ad spends in entertainment, fashion, finance, and software industries. Brian is the author of the best selling, The Complete Guide to Facebook Advertising, a member of the Forbes Agency Council, and a thought leader and speaker.
