A small business owner-slash-Etsy shop owner asked me about writing product descriptions for his Etsy shop. This biz owner’s products were getting a healthy amount of hits on Etsty, but he wasn’t seeing the sales he’d hoped for from the views. Here’s a quick snippet of the advice I gave him.
———-
Hey —
I read through your copy on Etsy a few times. Below is a mix of my thoughts and advice.
You’re giving the features of your product, but you’re not showing the customer the benefit. Here’s an example:
- Feature: V12 Engine
- Benefit: Smirk as you burn past those family men driving 55mph in Dodge Caravans. You know the ones: they bought a van with a spoiler. They fought with their wives over that spoiler. That spoiler is all they’ve got left. Yeah, those guys. Leave them, their kids and the dog in a trail of smoke that smells like your freedom.
- Okay, I had too much fun writing that. It’s a little long, but you get the point.
OTHER POINTS:
- Tell the reader why they should want this item.
- You should break up your paragraphs for easier reading.
- Bold a few key phrases to lead the reader [through the description].
- Make sure you’re using your key words to get found. (Lots of discussions in the forums about Etsy SEO.)
- Print your descriptions, read aloud and check for typos. I saw a few small ones like ‘form’ instead of ‘from’
- For items with directions, reduce the number of steps. You don’t want it to sound hard!
- Another big thing. Your description is almost 700 words–waaaaay too long for Etsy. That’s like writing a blog post! Try something a little shorter.
———-
Expect a longer post about this later. It’s Memorial Day weekend, so I’m keeping it short and sweet. Who gon’ check me, Boo?
