eCommerce Copywriting: How to establish trust and persuade purchases

Content, content, content. It’s an essential part to any eCommerce store. Yet, it is often done misguidedly. Many store owners often not even realising that poor content is the culprit to their low conversion rate.

Quality product copy can transform eCommerce conversion rates and increase search traffic drastically — creating a compelling opportunity for all you savvy eCommerce store owners.

Essentially the main goal of web copy is to get a visitor to perform an action. In the case of getting them to make a purchase there are two objectives that your copy needs to achieve — firstly, you need to anticipate the needs of your visitors so that you can convince them that your product is right for them — and secondly, you need to convince them that your company can be trusted to provide those excellent products.

Persuasion and creating trust might be difficult to achieve with words alone, but it’s not impossible.

In this article, we’ll give you some key tips that will hopefully help you learn how to create distinctive and appealing copy that sells.

The Ground Rules

Here are a few basic rules to keep your writing as simple and readable as possible.

Formatting

Opting for a combination of paragraph and bullet points can be great for simplifying content and effectively communicating key product details and benefits.

Flawless Copy

As an obvious way to establish trust — if your copy has spelling and grammar mistakes visitors may think you careless and incompetent, and won’t invest the time and money on your products.

Avoid Bulky Content

Long sentences and bulky paragraphs are usually hard to digest, therefore visitors are less likely to take the time to read it. Make copy as simple and specific as possible, only putting the information that is needed to make the decision.

Avoid Jargon, Fancy Words & Meaningless Phrases

Using irrelevant and elaborate language will either sound like you’re trying too hard or lead to confusion. Achieve clarity by using simple, concise and well-known copy that will aid, not hinder a visitor’s decision.

State the Obvious

If a customer is uncertain about any of the purchasing details they won’t buy your product. You want to state the obvious and put all unique selling points at the forefront.

Active Voice

Write in active voice. It’s clearer and makes it easier to persuade your visitors to buy your products.

Common Mistakes

Avoid these simple mistakes and always ensure that your website achieves its potential.

Empty Space

Copy on product pages are a vital tool to building trust and persuading visitors to purchase from you, so why not take advantage of it? Having no copy can have a worse effect on visitors than having slightly badly written copy.

Inconsistent Tone

With different writers and no defined tone of voice, it is very easy to lose consistency across all pages. Every page, down to the checkout page, should all be written in the same tone.

Exaggeration

Don’t exaggerate in order to make the product more desirable, this will cost your website authenticity and trust. It is important to keep product descriptions primarily informative and not overwhelm your visitors.

Stick to Convention

Consumers have built-in notions of how to shop from their collective experience across thousands of websites. Using creative wording that is contradictory to this can have negative effects when a visitor wants to make a purchase. Stick with the humble “add to basket”.

Forgetting about SEO

To achieve the most from your copy incorporate primary target keywords in such a way that they aid your message or credibility.

Reinforce

Use vivid, useful and powerful product images that strongly reinforce your copy. This will make an impression on your visitors, keep them on your site and convince them to buy your product.

Writing great product copy can make a big difference. Use these tips when working on your eCommerce copywriting strategy and you will create a better and more persuasive experience for your visitors.

Not convinced? Learn about Significant Objects: How to transform insignificant objects into significant ones.

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