How to Write Amazon Product Descriptions Like a Pro

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Published: Mar 12, 2020
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Competition among online retailers is at an all time high. With over 100 million products listed on Amazon it can be hard to stand out. Writing the perfect Amazon product description is an often-discussed but rarely mastered skill. Thankfully, we’re here to help.

Amazon is an online retail juggernaut that’s become so prevalent that we can scarcely go a day without running into it somewhere. Whether it’s the Prime delivery truck down the street or the grocery truck dropping off your delivery from Whole Foods, Amazon’s everywhere.

In order to survive the rise of online shopping, retailers have to be resourceful, and that often means listing products on Amazon.

However, simply listing your products is not enough. To achieve success on Amazon, you’ll need to master the art of writing Amazon product descriptions.

Focus on Your Customer

First things first: who is your ideal customer? This might seem like a simple question, but it often has a complex answer. Many businesses come up with an idea of who they’d like their typical customer to be, only to find that the reality is completely different.

Sometimes products end up getting used in new and unexpected ways. Ever heard the origin story of Play-Doh? The beloved staple of children’s playrooms everywhere began its life as — wait for it — wallpaper cleaner. An extreme example, maybe, but it demonstrates the importance of embracing adaptability.

Take this lesson to heart! Do your research to figure out who is buying and using your product, and why. This will shape your approach to writing product descriptions for Amazon.

If you haven’t taken time to identify your core audience and implement customer segmentation based on factors like demographics and behavior, we highly recommend you do so. This will inform everything about your Amazon product descriptions, from the language you use to how you frame your product’s story.

Places to conduct customer research include:

  1. Amazon reviews — who buys products like yours?
  2. Blogs — what is your core audience interested in and what do they need?
  3. Social media — if you’re running ads anywhere, check your demographic data.
  4. Email lists — who signs up for your email newsletter?

Crafting the Right Product Title

Think you know how to write a product description on Amazon? Think again. There are a variety of standards and best practices to follow that will not only affect your product’s clickability, but also your search ranking.

Let’s start with product titles.

Chances are that you already have some idea of what search terms best apply to your product, but research never hurts. Conduct a full content audit of your site to determine which terms see the most traffic and conversions.

It’s vital to ensure that you’re not throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. Don’t cram your title full of every search term under the sun. Be smart and selective. While ranking for terms is important, you ultimately want to draw the customer in with the first 80 characters.

If this sounds a bit like SEO advice, there's a good reason. You want to hit a balance between search terms and relevance. Amazon will notice if your product draws a lot of clicks but few conversions, and they’ll ding you for it.

In the image of LUVBOD coffee scrub above, notice how the description begins with the product name and relevant information (type, scent, and size) before launching into relevant search terms such as “best arabica coffee body scrub” and “exfoliator”.

For this company, it’s clear that they know their audience is most interested in the ingredients and scent of the product, as well as the problems it solves. It gives that information right up front.

For a quick and easy way to get an idea of how Amazon’s search system works, experiment with your own searches. Enter a relevant search string in the search field and see what recommendations come up. Above, you can see that a search for “dog chew” results in all sorts of specific search terms, including “dog chew ropes for aggressive chewers” and “dog chew toys for puppies.”

Bullet Point Best Practices

When a product page opens on Amazon, the shopper is immediately greeted with product images and a list of bullet points. These bullets are the key to giving potential buyers the exact information they need in a concise and compelling way.

You only have a few seconds to get a customer’s attention before they move on to the next listing. Choose your focus wisely! This isn’t the place for long-winded descriptions and info-dumps. Give them the relevant bits. The customer should be able to easily find the size, contents, and intended uses of your product. Of course, just because these details are short and to the point doesn’t mean you can’t be creative.

Cards Against Humanity never fails to disappoint. Not only do they give customers the pertinent details of their products, but they also display their signature sense of humor while doing so.

This is another example of how knowing your audience is crucial. For technical products with technical-minded buyers, you’ll want to give them the stats they need right away. For beauty products, language and creative adjectives matter. For children’s toys, descriptions of how the product can be used and how it enriches the child’s life go a long way.

A good rule of thumb can be found in the Amazon product description guidelines. Discuss features and benefits, focus on the unique properties, and highlight the product’s best applications.

The Key to Amazon Product Description Writing

Once you’ve decided on your title and bullet points, it’s time to work on your product description. Make sure your description is honest, concise, and written in your company voice. It should highlight all of your product’s best features and let the customer know exactly how it will solve their problem.

A strong Amazon product description should cite important details about your product while incorporating some degree of storytelling about your product or company. It should also make it clear to potential customers why your product is best suited to their needs.

Take note of Teavana’s approach. They tell the customer what they’re getting (a good-tasting tea with “bright botanicals” and “real fruit flavors”) as well what sets them apart (they never use artificial flavors and they source their ingredients from “regions known for their excellence”). They close with specific examples that drive their point home.

Consider things from the customer’s point of view. When you’re browsing Amazon and selecting a product to buy, what about the description draws you in? At what point do you click the buy button? Be mindful of what appeals to you and apply it to your own descriptions.

Mastering Amazon Product Description Formatting

You’ve crafted excellent copy and are ready to implement it. Great! Now how do you format that product description?

Amazon allows some basic HTML in their product descriptions, although their guidelines state otherwise. You’ll want to pay attention to what you can and can’t use. For example, bolding with the <b></b> tag will work, but italics with the <i></i> tag will not. Amazon will notify you of an error if you use any invalid HTML.

The most important tag for you to know and use is the break tag, written as <br></br>. This will allow you to break your description into smaller paragraphs, which are much easier to read than a large block of text. This will allow you to keep your paragraphs short and sweet.

Bear in mind that browsing shoppers are quick to click away if they don’t easily find what they’re looking for.

Above, we see how a large company (Android) has formatted their Amazon product description into bite-sized chunks.

Once again, note that the descriptions give product information in an engaging way. This description is clearly targeting families — parents in particular — with its choice of language and images. It uses coded words like “gentle” and “delicate.” The images are soft in color and tone, emphasizing children.

This is an ideal example of knowing and appealing to your audience through your product description. It also includes exact product details for easy comparison.

While your message should be clear, it’s important to use tact. The description for the Android tablet isn’t as blunt as, “this is a good way to entertain your child for five minutes while you get stuff done,” but the implication is there.

You’ve Got This!

This primer on Amazon description writing should give you all the tools you need to create effective, engaging product descriptions. With the right audience research, search engine optimization, and quality ad copy, you’ll be turning out excellent product pages in no time.

This article was written by Compose.ly writer Stephanie Wargin.

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