How to Write Product & Service Descriptions That Sell - Without Being Salesy

Have you ever felt stuck trying to write a product or service description that actually makes people want to buy—without sounding pushy or overly salesy? Whether you sell physical products, digital courses, or coaching programs, your product descriptions can make or break your sales. A bland, feature-heavy description can turn potential buyers away, while a well-crafted one builds trust and gets them to take action. 

In today’s episode, I’m breaking down how to create high-converting product and service descriptions for both traditional eCommerce businesses and course creators or coaches. You’ll walk away with clear, actionable steps to craft descriptions that connect with your audience and drive sales—without feeling like a used car salesperson. 

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Chapters

• 0:01 Crafting High-Converting Product Descriptions
• 13:28 Improving Product Descriptions for Success

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:01

Have you ever felt stuck trying to write a product or service description that actually makes people want to buy, without sounding pushy or oversellsy? Whether you sell physical products, digital courses or coaching programs, your product descriptions can make or break your sales. A bland, feature-heavy description can turn potential buyers away, while a well-crafted one builds trust and takes them into action. In today's episode, I'm breaking down how to create high-converting product and service descriptions for both traditional e-commerce businesses and course creators or coaches, as the techniques are the same for both. You'll walk away with clear, actionable steps to craft descriptions that connect with your audience and drive sales without feeling like a used car salesperson. So let's dive in.

Carrie Saunders: 0:50

Welcome to the e-commerce made easy podcast. I'm your host, k Saunders. When we started this business, all I had was a couch, a laptop and a nine month old. My main goal to help others. Now, with over 20 years in the e-commerce building industry and even more than that and web development, I have seen a lot. I love breaking down the hard tech into easily understandable bits to help others be successful in their online business. Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce veteran or just starting out, you've come to the right place, so sit back, relax and let's dive into the world of e-commerce together. Welcome back to the show.

Carrie Saunders: 1:24

Today we are honing in on our descriptions of our products and services, but before we jump into the do's and don'ts, I want to talk about why your descriptions are so important, and you may know some of these points already, but let's go through them in case there's something new to you. And I find when we hear things over and over again, it really helps bring it in to our existence really, so that we can act upon it. So your product descriptions are your silent salespeople. Unlike a store employee, you're not going to be there in person to sell and your words have to do the heavy lifting for you. So that's why it's super important that we make sure that our words are on point when we are trying to sell our products or services. They act like our salespeople. They also help customers see the value of your product or service.

Carrie Saunders: 2:13

People don't just buy products and services, they buy solutions and outcomes. Especially in the modern day, they really are wanting the solutions and the outcomes to those products and services, so that's what they're looking to buy. They also help influence search engine optimization and visibility. A well-written description isn't just persuasive, it also helps you rank higher in search engines. This is something we have worked with our clients on for over 20 years. That product or service description is really key to making yourself found online, because it's a great place for you to not only speak to your customer, but if you do it in a manner with search engine optimization in mind, you're also going to speak to the search engines as well. So, no matter what you sell, a compelling description makes all the difference in whether somebody clicks buy now or just clicks away.

Carrie Saunders: 3:07

So there are three core elements of a high converting product or service description. So the first element is we want to speak to their desires, not just to the features. We've already alluded to this. Some already Customers don't anymore want to just know what it is. They want to know why it matters to them. They want to know why would I need this product? That speaks to them first. Features speak to them later, after you've got their attention.

Carrie Saunders: 3:35

So instead of saying this coffee mug is 16 ounces and double wall insulated, you're going to want to say something like start your mornings with a sleek heat, retaining double-walled coffee mug that keeps your coffee hot for hours. That speaks to what they want. They want something that is going to keep their coffee hot for hours. Sleek could imply it's beautiful, it holds in their hand. Properly. You use your own words here when you're making this up, but you can see that we're talking to the benefits of it instead of the features of it. Just being a 16 ounce double walls mug, right, and so for a course, coach course or coach creator example. Instead of saying this course includes six modules and 10 workbooks, right, and we and we tend to do that even with more words than that sometimes but instead you could say something like get a step-by-step system that helps you launch your online course stress-free, with plug-and-play templates to guide you. You're hitting on a few key points there. Okay, it's a step-by-step system, nobody wants to be lost. It helps you do what you're trying to do launch your course and it has plug-and-play templates to guide you. So they have really great examples of templates to guide you. So we are speaking towards saving them time and effort and creating their online digital course. So we're talking to the benefits more than the features at first. So we're talking to the benefits more than the features at first. So, like I said, we want to start with benefits and then we can support them with features later. Myself personally I like to see the benefits first, but I am a detailed person, so I do want to see those features later. But you've got to pique their interest first with those benefits and then we want to make sure it's easy to scan.

Carrie Saunders: 5:26

Nobody really reads anymore, especially on the internet. I mean, yes, if you have a book you're going to read, but most people skim almost everything we approach. Whether it's a road sign, whether it is ingredients on a box or whether it's a product description, we skim it. We don't read it until we are interested in it and then we might read it. We don't read it until we are interested in it and then we might read it. So your description needs to be visually engaging as well.

Carrie Saunders: 5:51

We want to use bullet points for the key benefits. We want to keep paragraphs short and digestible. We also want to make sure that we're writing at about a third to fifth grade, maybe seventh grade level. But we want to keep our words at a very simple manner so it's easy to scan. That's why we don't want to use big words here. We also want to bold or highlight important words or phrases so that their eyes, when they're scanning, it will drop onto those words or phrases and read them as they're scanning, because they're reading them really fast, right, and really draw them in to the other words around it too. So, for example, you can do what you'll get Six self-paced video modules with actionable steps Again, we're talking about the benefits here.

Carrie Saunders: 6:38

Again, even though we said there's six modules in here, the benefit is actionable steps, proven email templates to sell your course effortlessly Again, benefits we're saving them time by giving them email templates. A private community of support and accountability Again, we're giving them benefits here. They're going to be having feeling like they're not alone. They're going to have support and accountability with it. So this structure works both for physical and digital services. The key is clear, scannable and a valuable, driven content.

Carrie Saunders: 7:13

And then we want to use emotional triggers and storytelling. People buy with emotions and then justify with logic. So, for example, on an e-commerce example instead of this candle smells like vanilla. We obviously wouldn't do quite that simple, but sometimes we'll all find descriptions that are kind of along those lines. Then you can try. Instead, create a cozy, comforting atmosphere in your home with a warm, inviting sense of vanilla, perfect for unwinding after a long day. That evokes a lot more emotion than just simply saying the facts that the candle is vanilla. That evokes a lot more emotion than just simply saying the facts that the candle is vanilla. Maybe you say how many ounces it is, whether it's in a glass jar, you know. Things like that aren't going to speak to them nearly as much as you know they're going to relax and unwind from a long day with this beautiful, scented vanilla candle. So a course creator, a coach, example could be instead of. This course teaches you marketing and maybe you can add some more features behind that. Right? Instead of saying something like that, let's speak to their emotions. No-transcript. Now, that really talks to emotions.

Carrie Saunders: 8:21

Nobody wants to spend all day on social media trying to sell their products or services, and it is speaking to them and helping them build confidence as well around promoting their business too. A lot of us don't feel confident in promoting our own business, so it's speaking to their emotions. We want to use words that paint a picture of the experience your buyer will have to use words that paint a picture of the experience your buyer will have. This takes some skill and some practice to do, but I challenge you to try to start doing that today with one of your products or one of your services. We want to try to paint that picture of experience. So then there's some common mistakes to avoid and let's go over those.

Carrie Saunders: 9:00

Next, so focusing we alluded to this one already focusing too much on specs and features. Don't just list the details, explain why they make life better, why they help the person out. Save those features and specs for later, down in the page or on, maybe, a separate tab, if you have an e-commerce system that has tabs available and you can use features and specs as a separate tab for those people who really do want that part as well. We also want to avoid using jargon or industry lingo. We want to speak in our audience's language and, like I said earlier, we want to use words that are very simple. We want to use somewhere around third and fifth grade level words when we're writing our products and descriptions, because we want to make them scannable and easily, to easily relate, and then we don't want to make our product descriptions too long or too short. This is going to help you not only for capturing enough emotion and attention of your potential customer, but it's also going to help you with search engine optimization, if you have it, the right amount of length. We want to aim for about 100 to 300 words that highlights the benefits and features and has a call to action. So having enough meat behind it I want to say having enough words behind it is going to help you for search engine optimization, because then the page isn't thin and that is one of the words that they will use to describe it. So a thin page doesn't have very many words for them to determine what's really important on that page. And then we also want to make sure we're not skipping a call to action. It's always guide them to the next step, whether it's a buy now, enroll today or start your free trial. Something very clear and direct, and make sure you always have it there. All right.

Carrie Saunders: 10:49

So let's go over some actual steps to improve your product or service descriptions. Today I want you to pick one of your products or services and work on it. You could either pick the one that you think is going to be the easiest to adjust or the one that's most important to adjust. You're the best guide as to which one's the best one for you. To start with, because we all our brains work differently. Some of us need to pick the easiest one to practice on. Some of us just want to jump right in and work on that one. That's the most important, brings us the best revenue and return on the product.

Carrie Saunders: 11:24

So first off, pick one and let's work on it. So first, let's rewind it using today's formula. I want you to see how you can adjust it. Lead with benefits. You can even ask chat GPT to give you a hand here. You can say that they are the best you know product description writer out there here's the current product description you have and that you want them to adjust the wording so that it talks to the benefits of the consumer instead of the features. And I bet it's going to give you a pretty good rough draft that you're going to be able then further refine from there. So if you get stuck, feel free to ask chat GPT. It's pretty great I've have found at revising what you already have, the ideas you already have.

Carrie Saunders: 12:11

And then I want you to make it scannable. Add in those bullet points where necessary, add in bolded text to highlight some key benefits and then work on using emotional triggers. You can also ask ChatGPT to help you with this as well, if you get stuck. So have it. Work on some emotional triggers Now, and these are not emotional triggers to trick anybody. These are emotional triggers to help them visualize what it's like using your product or service. And it's a benefit to them because then they're going to get a better sense of what's actually going to do for them. We're not trying to trick them or manipulate them, we're just trying to help them visualize what it's like to have your product or service. And then, finally, I want you to add a clear call to action. Make sure it's clear, not clever, like we talk about in the podcast a lot. Let me go over those four bullet points real quick again, just so we get those in our head, because I did a little explaining with each one of them. So first, rewrite it by leading with benefits, make it scannable, use emotional triggers and have a clear call to action on the page. Could have it multiple places if it's long, and test and tweak it. See how your audience responds to it.

Carrie Saunders: 13:25

Nothing's ever perfect or set in stone, especially on the internet.

Carrie Saunders: 13:28

We're always needing to refine our products, our services, our descriptions. So pick that one product or service that you want to work on today and I challenge you to set a date on when you're going to work on it if you don't do the actual work today. But today, after listening to this, I want you to pick one and then pick a date on when you're going to actually work on that and improve your product description and see how well it really helps your business boom. All right, so that's all we have for this week's episode of the e-commerce made easy podcast. I hope you totally enjoyed it and I hope it helps you bring your product descriptions better on point and better speaking to your customers and with your customers. If you think this episode was helpful, or our podcast in general, we would love it if you'd share it with a business friend so they may get some of our help as well. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode and we will see you next week.