For every rental business with an online store, product descriptions play a crucial role in getting customers. If your product descriptions are effective, they can help boost your traffic and entice people who may be on the fence about renting from you. In addition, they could mean the difference between someone renting from you and renting from a competing business in your area.
You could stand out by being technical, having fantastic imagery, telling a great story, or including social proof. Nielsen Norman Group found that 20% of unsuccessful conversions result from poor product information, so great descriptions are essential in getting more bookings. Ultimately, they influence renting decisions and can help to increase conversion rates.
What is a product description?
A product description is the content used to describe a product and explain its benefits to potential customers. It can be found on every product on your website and provides the information a visitor needs to know if they are making the right decision. They can be one sentence, a short paragraph, or bullet points.
The information should be located on your product pages and must include a brief description and imagery. It is essential for them to be scannable and have strong readability so customers can make a decision quickly. There are many ways to do this, and they can be more influential than you might think.
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How can you measure the success of product descriptions?
When beginning to create or improve your product descriptions, it is crucial to determine goals for measuring their success. Of course, the process of writing great product descriptions could take some time to get right, but you need to know how you will see if they are or not. So, you can set out goals that are achievable and measurable.
Some examples may include:
- Increase in conversion rate
- Decrease in cart abandonment
- Fewer calls or emails from customers
- Improved rankings in Google Search
- More reviews from customers
In this blog post, you will see examples of great product descriptions and the techniques they use to create them. In addition, samples from multiple industries are included, so you should determine how to improve your product descriptions.
How can you write great product descriptions?
Writing a great product description is about who, what, when, where, why, and how. This is a similar method to the one journalists use when providing facts in their articles. It is the first step on your journey to creating a product description that works for your rental business. So, let’s break this down into answering each question.
- Who is the product for? You need to determine the target audience for the products you rent out. This could be broken down into gender, age group, lifestyle demographic, and other categories used to define your customers.
- What are your product’s basic details? This can be as simple as the dimensions, materials, features, and functions.
- When would someone use the product? Are the products on your store meant to be used for specific purposes, depend on the season, or be used year-round. Getting specific with these details can help someone decide whether it is suitable for their use case.
- Where can the product be used? This might seem silly, but some products are intended for indoor or outdoor use. Letting customers know can be the difference between satisfaction and disappointment.
- Why should someone rent the product from you? You need to convince potential customers that you’re the right company to rent from. This could include what makes your business unique from others in your area.
- How does the product work? This may not be essential for every product but for specialist equipment, you may need to include details of how they work and even link to the manual if it requires some learning.
Now that the foundations are in place, it’s time to look at the different ways you can write your product descriptions. This will include formatting, imagery, getting technical and exciting ways to make your product descriptions stand out from your competitors.
Formatting your product descriptions
When it comes to wiring the perfect product descriptions, it’s crucial to follow a format that caters to your audience. For example, if your product has many features, it might be best to use bullet points. Customers don’t want to read through giant paragraphs; bullet points will help them scan your description for the features they are looking for.
Of course, bullet points alone can’t tell the whole story or convince someone to rent a product. They can come off as cold and clinical if an engaging paragraph does not accompany them. This is why it is essential to use prose alongside bullet points to appeal to more customers and satisfy their pain points.
Your paragraph should be no longer than three or four sentences about the product and should set the scene for why a potential customer needs to rent a specific product from you. It may seem daunting, but it will so become second nature and even fun to write. This is your opportunity to be creative and establish your voice.
Choosing the right imagery for your product descriptions
Sometimes text isn’t enough to describe the products on your online store; sometimes, people want to be excited by beautiful imagery. You can usually get away with just using product images for cameras and lighting equipment, but for weddings and events, among other industries, you need to get fancy.
When people search for furniture and decorations for their events, they are not just looking for products. Instead, they want to be inspired by products, which means dressing them up and having a photoshoot - which is always very fun. These photos could be as simple as a mock dinner set up or even extend to photos with models to sell the experience.
Of course, events aren’t the only businesses that can take advantage of fantastic imagery. For bike rental businesses located in a scenic area, it can be great to have action shots of people riding your bikes through idyllic landscapes or challenging trails to sell the experience you are helping customers achieve.
However, if you don’t have the time or budget to create beautiful images to accompany your products, you need to make sure you use high-quality imagery. These can usually be found on manufacturer’s websites and press packs and will be much higher resolution than you could capture yourself.
Extra details that can make a difference
The final factor that could make the difference between potential customers choosing to rent from you rather than a competitor is the extra details. It would help if you made your rental business stand out, and there are a few days to do this. Some are simple, some are more complex, but they are all worth doing.
One way to stand out is to include a guide or manual in your products descriptions. For example, if you rent out bikes in a scenic area with lots of routes and trails, you could share a link to a guide to the best ones that you’ve created. If you rent out something technical like a camera, you could include a manual for getting the most out of the equipment you are renting out.
Another way you can make a difference is by introducing video to your product descriptions. The video could be a review of the product, a guide to setting it up, or even a short promotional montage that gets people excited to use the products you rent out. As we have seen with the rise of YouTube and TikTok, videos are a potent tool for marketing your business.
