E-commerce has been on the rise since it allows anyone to run their own online store and sell products that they are passionate about.
Unlike traditional brick and mortar stores, an eCommerce store needs to appeal both to search engines and their visitors if the store owners want to secure more sales.
Many eCommerce stores focus on product descriptions and images to show their products. However, a copy is one of the most essential parts of a successful online store.
This is because an eCommerce store needs to do everything at once to be successful, from serving as a catalog, marketing tool, and online information, your eCommerce store needs to drive more qualified leads to your site if you want to close more sales.
Since copywriting is essential for your online store, we should look at six common mistakes that eCommerce owners have on their site that can cost them sales and profits.
1. Not Focusing On The Benefits
While it may seem counterintuitive, the truth is that you want to focus on the benefits that your products offer more than the focus on the product itself.
It is easy to focus too much on the products that you provide on your site, and while this is normal, it can have a negative impact on your eCommerce store.
Your buyers aren’t interested in the features and specs of your products until they understand how those products will help them.
One of the best ways to position your product and establish the value of your products is to highlight the problems that your customers are trying to solve and how your store can help your audience live a better life.
While it is easy to only focus on the specifications and other technical details, the truth is that your audience won’t give you the time to convert if you don’t show the value and benefits your products offer.
Ugmonk does a great job of showing the benefits of their product. For example, they use descriptive terms to talk about their modular organizer that helps consumers cut through the clutter.
Instead of starting off with specs and technical details, they talk about what the product does and then dive into the details later.
2. Ecommerce Copywriting Mistakes: Lacking Social Proof
Consumers are hardwired to be skeptical of online products. The truth is that your audience is more concerned about making the wrong purchase than they are about not making a purchase at all!
You can use the power of social proof to help your audience overcome their distrust of your eCommerce store, and this approach can help you guide your customers in the direction of conversion.
You can use signals through the social proof to apply peer pressure and build trust with your prospects since many people believe that products are valuable if other people confirm this assumption.
AlwaysRiding has great social proof front and center on all of their product listings.
Their star rating system helps to reinforce the value of the product, and their “Rider Reviews” helps build trust with potential customers.
3. Not Including Questions & Answers
Your audience asks a question every time they type something into Google.
This is especially true for eCommerce stores since you sell physical goods meant to address the needs and issues of your customers.
If you want to harness the power of organic SEO while driving qualified leads to your site, then you should use questions and answers in your eCommerce product pages.
You can also use this approach to eCommerce copywriting in long-form pages like guides and overview pages.
Often times using exact-match questions in your H2 tags is a great way to get found by Google and provide context to your audience as they read through your content.
You will build trust with your audience as your readers see the exact questions they were asking in Google on your site, and your answers will guide them towards the products and solutions they need to meet their needs.
Newegg has a great Q&A section at the bottom of each product page where customers can ask and answer questions about each product.
Along with the standard FAQ section, they also use the questions throughout their content to rank better and provide their customers with important information so they can make an educated purchase.
4. Not Building Long-Form Content Pages
eCommerce copywriting is unique compared to other types of website content because you can build different kinds of information like Category pages, guides, and product pages.
Each type of material serves a different purpose, and you should approach every kind of content in a specific manner to get the most out of each content type.
Category pages tend to rank higher than other types of content on an eCommerce store, and most site owners should focus their attention on category pages when they first launch their site.
If you set up your eCommerce site correctly, you will have a secure site architecture that drives traffic from your category pages to your product and guides.
Most eCommerce stores do not have long-form content category pages, and this can pose a problem for ranking and conversions.
Instead of relying on short-form content, you should use long-form content on category pages by answering common questions, offering testimonials, and building out your pages around the needs of your customers.
focuses on writing long-form content for their customers.
Not only does this approach help with ranking in Google, it also helps answer questions and keep readers on their site for longer periods of time.
Together, these benefit the site and help customers make better choices when buying from their site.
5. Not Speaking To Your Target Market
Your products are not meant for everyone, and you should spend most of your time writing compelling content for your eCommerce store based on your ideal customers.
Most eCommerce stores sell specific products to solve specific needs, but site owners fail to realize they should only write for a demographic that is likely to buy from them.
You can use some tried and true tactics to understand your ideal customer, but you should always start with the needs of your customers and write content for your audience then optimize for search engines.
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- Review customer data. Start by looking at all purchase history data (if you have any), so you can see the age, location, sex, and other demographics of your past consumers. This information is vital to understand who is buying from you so you can optimize content around those types of consumers in the future.
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- Look at analytics. You can look at Google Analytics or other tools to understand where, when, and how people search your products. You can set up special eCommerce tracking tags to provide further insight. All of this information can give you vital insight to optimize your product offerings and site architecture to improve your online rankings and drive more sales!
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- Survey your customers. Business data is a great way to understand who your target audience is, but the best way to learn about your audience is to send out surveys and conduct interviews. This approach works best if you have an email list and other ways to contact your customers. You can also install a survey tool on your site for your customers to engage with you directly when they are on the online store.
- Put everything together. After a while, you will start to piece together lots of data and insight from your customer interviews/surveys. Always be on the lookout for ways to improve your eCommerce store so you can drive more qualified leads to your site and boost conversions today!
Reebok has rebranded themselves as the go-to apparel line for Crossfit and other activities.
The Reebok brand is an edgy, emotional brand that uses strong imagery and minimal content to show the benefit of their products.
6. Not Including Enough Images
Your audience is driven by visuals, and since a picture can tell a story, you should always make sure to include high-quality pictures and videos for each product.
Including images and other media for each product, you offer means that you keep your focus on your customer and not the product which will result in more conversions.
Images can help your customers understand the benefits of each product, and this emphasizes the need to answer questions and address the needs of your consumers.
A person is not going to spend their money on a product if it doesn’t have what they need, and an image of people using the product can help bridge that gap for interested consumers!
Haus offers housewares that are minimalist and beautiful. Since this company has a strong understanding about who their target audience is, they use engaging photos to show the products and reinforce the lifestyle that their customers are looking for.
Drive Your Store To Success!
Whether you are just launching your eCommerce store or you have been running a store for a while, you can rest assured that there are always ways to improve your copywriting to drive more sales.
Your starting point should always be your target audience, and then work backward to help show your products with engaging photos, SEO copywriting, and personalized experiences for all of your customers.
You can use the above tips to get found online and drive more sales today!
Featured Image: Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash
