Why You Should Write Your Own Product Descriptions

[caption id="attachment_3378" align="aligncenter" width="220"] Photo credit: jbcurio / Foter / CC BY[/caption] Many distributors face this dilemma: whether to write their own product descriptions or to use the manufacturer's original descriptions. While using the manufacturer's descriptions may save you time, there are several compelling reasons to write your own:

• Google penalties: The Panda updates to the Google algorithm penalize sites that use content that already exists on other sites, and that includes product descriptions. If you take descriptions that are already on the manufacturer's site and put them on your own, there's a good change that you'll get slammed by the almighty Panda.
• Better content: Writing your own product descriptions gives you the opportunity to add value to them. People buy from your company because they trust you. By writing product descriptions in your brand's unique tone and voice, you can tell your audience why they should buy the product in a way that connects with them. The first rule of content marketing is 'know your audience'; use your product descriptions to show just how well you know it!
• Optimization: The manufacturer's descriptions may not be optimized for search engines. Writing your own lets you add the keywords and keyword phrases that will bring potential buyers to your site.

Which Products Should We Write Descriptions For?

If your online catalog has thousands of SKUs, it might not be realistic for you to write unique descriptions for every last one. Philip Thune from TextBroker suggests following the "80/20" rule. Most companies make 80% of their income on 20% of their products. Identify the products that you sell the most of and write unique descriptions for those. I would go one step further and say that you should also identify the products that you want to sell more of, and write unique descriptions for them.

How Should We Write our Product Descriptions?

There's no one way to write product descriptions. If your company has a style guide, you should follow it. A one hundred word description followed by bullet points is a good start, but it is by no means the be-all end-all. The most important thing is to make sure the description provides all of the information that your customers need, and speaks to your customers in a language they will understand. In other words, you know your audience, and product descriptions should reflect that.

Things to Avoid

There are a lot of entities out there offering writing services for dirt cheap, and it can be tempting to outsource your work to them, especially when you want descriptions for hundreds of SKUs, Take it from me: this is a huge mistake. Other companies have done this, only to receive sub-par work from bargain-priced vendors. They ended up having to hire other writers to fix the work that the cheapo writers did. If you do decide to outsource your product descriptions, choose a writer who has experience writing product descriptions. Ask to see a portfolio, or have him/her/them take a copy test. Or have our experienced copywriters take on the work. By hiring a writer that you've vetted up front, you'll get far better results. And you won't have to pay for the same work twice.