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eCommerce Copywriting: 3.5 Keys to Unlock More Sales
First, What in the World Is Ecommerce Copywriting?
Ecommerce copywriting refers to the skill art of writing copy that appears anywhere on an online store. It can be your product descriptions, your homepage heading, your collections page descriptions — you get the idea.
Below, we’ll talk about the 3 keys to better ecommerce copywriting and, of course, better conversion rates.
Key 1: Know Where to Direct Your Effort
We can spend an eternity trying to convert every single visitor that reaches our online stores.
That’s a serious waste of time and money.
Before you even think about writing one word, you need to determine where — who — you’ll focus your efforts on.
If given the choice between the following 3 groups of people, who would you try to convert first?
- Cynical shoppers who question anything and everything.
- Shoppers who aren’t questioning any of our claims and already have their wallets out.
- Shoppers who are extremely close to buying, but are stuck due to a confusing claim, an unanswered question, or something else along those lines.
Right now, most marketers are splitting their attention across each of those groups.
In my opinion, the better choice is to target that third group. I call these shoppers healthy skeptics. These are people who are very close to making a purchase, but there is just one thing (or a couple things) giving them pause.
These shoppers maybe make up no more than 25% of your audience. But your efforts to improve conversion rates will be more rewarded if you place far more attention on converting them.
Focusing your ecommerce copywriting efforts on healthy skeptics follows the domino effect:
Key Takeaway
Your ecommerce copywriting efforts should be focused on converting these primed and ready shoppers called healthy skeptics. Take a look at your copy and ask yourself: “What could be confusing the buyer? What questions could the buyer have?” Then write copy that addresses those concerns.
Key 2: Understand That Ecommerce Copywriting and Conversion Copywriting Go Hand in Hand
It’s not enough to answer questions or clarify the meaning of confusing details and claims.
Instead, your ecommerce copy needs to be written in a way that also engages and persuades the shopper. This is called conversion copywriting.
It doesn’t matter if the copy you’re looking at is SEO copy or a product description. Ultimately, all copy has the same goal: to increase sales.
So don’t waste a single word on just providing information. Every word is a tax on your shopper’s attention — make sure that tax is worthwhile.
Key Takeaway
Ecommerce copywriting isn’t just about informing your shopper about features and benefits. The ultimate goal is to convert them, which means you need to write copy that excites them and makes it clear that buying your product is an absolute no-brainer.
Key 3: Know the 9 Truths About Online Shoppers
We all like to think we’re unique individuals. To a certain extent, that’s true.
But behind the details that are unique to each of us are fundamental truths about all people: we have skin, cells, brains. These are undeniable commonalities we all share.
I’m not a doctor, but I am a marketer who has run countless A/B tests for clients around the world and across an endless range of industries.
What I discovered is that online shoppers share a set of fundamental truths as well, which I have simplified into a list of 9 truths.
Your ecommerce copywriting cannot realize its full potential without you first understanding what these truths are. Once you know these truths, you’ll have a better grasp on the psychology of the buyer, as well as on the steps you can take to anticipate and react to their thoughts and actions.
Key Takeaway
Ecommerce copywriting greatly benefits from the copywriter having a better understanding of buyer psychology.
BONUS Key 3.5: Use Effective Copywriting Frameworks
Many copywriters find it useful to map out their angle of attack with a proven copywriting framework. We wrote an article about some of these approaches and how they work.
