You are staring at an image of this plain white tee on an ecommerce website, wondering if you really need it.  Beside the image, the word ‘versatile’ catches your eye and you decide to read. Here is how it goes – ‘This versatile, white t-shirt is a must-have in your wardrobe. An everyday essential, this simple round-neck t-shirt is cut from the finest cotton with an extra-soft feel. A straight fit, it has a ribbed round neckline, short sleeves and neat stitched edges. Wear it under a casual shirt or pair it with denim shorts and loafers, the possibilities are endless.’ Sold.

Content and content marketing is all about offering value to your customers, keeping them engaged and giving them all the necessary information they need to make an informed buying decision. Ecommerce content is every form of write-up that goes into building an engaging ecommerce website. It includes Home page content, keyword optimized category and sub-category descriptions, SEO blurbs, product descriptions and blogs, newsletters and editorials about the latest trends. The content needs to be creative, crisp, original and engaging because compelling content is always a competitive advantage. It is important to capture the customer’s attention and hold it just long enough to convince them to take the buying decision. In fact, content marketing generates 3 times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing, but costs 62% less (see infographic below).

To be able to sell your product, you need to first have SEO friendly descriptions that will target the right kind of customers for the right kind of products. Next, your description must convince the buyer that he/she “needs” the product and that it would be a worthy buy.

Here are some tips and tricks, dos and don’ts to help you write great ecommerce content:

1. Be Simple and Relevant – Always keep your sentences simple and short, and your grammar impeccable. Assume the reader has very little time and patience, and keep your writing crisp and fluff-free. Sell style, sell quality, sell trust.
2. Do Keyword Research – Learn the basics of SEO. Use properly targeted words. Think about the consumer that you would like to convince to buy. Decide what you would want them to feel.
3. Think USPs – What makes the product special? When writing about this, follow an order, macro to micro and top to bottom. This allows for easy and quick reading by the buyers.
4. Put yourself in the buyer’s shoes – Why would he/she want to buy this product? Emphasize on how this product will add/improve the buyer’s lifestyle. If you’re describing household items like bedsheets, for example, mention how well it would go with that bedside table and the wooden finishing of the bed.
5. Don’t exaggerate – Remember, it is all about trust. Your words should match the product image and be consistent. If any feature isn’t matching, the buyer will get confused and just go buy something else or end up buying something that he or she didn’t want or expect.

To sum it all up, good content will engage the right audience and boost sales by making the products more appealing. The content on your website is your voice – authoritative and confident. It should list high up on your marketing and sales strategy.

Thoughts? Questions? If we have missed anything, do let us know!

Bonus: To learn more about what content marketing is, how it can benefit your organization and how to get started using this technique to promote your company, check out the great infographic from Demand Metric :