Every page in your store—from the “About” page to the “Contact” section—needs great, consistent copy. This copy establishes trust, encourages customers to engage with your brand, convinces shoppers that your products are right for them, helps your store be seen, and ultimately makes shoppers buy.
Here’s what you will want to shoot for when writing persuasive content for your online store.
Building trust
At the crux of it, if your customers believe your brand is there to help them, they are more likely to make a purchase. People trust brands who show empathy towards them, who care about what they care about. In fact, a whopping 64% of shoppers want brands to connect with them on a personal level.
This means you will need to identify what problem your customer might be having and clearly explain how your brand is going to improve their life. Your online store copy needs to come across as understanding and aim to help educate your customers. Once a customer fully understands what role your brand can play in their life, they will be more likely to be loyal to it.
Additionally, making your customer support or contact information visible on all pages goes a long way in building trust among shoppers. In fact, 51% of shoppers trust brands who make it easy to contact them. Again, if customers feel that you are really there to help them, they will have more confidence in investing in your products. Doing this can be as simple as adding a sentence at the bottom of each product page saying something like, “Have a question? We’re here to help” with a hyperlink to where your customers can reach out to you.
Get your unique selling point across
Shoppers aren’t just looking to purchase products—they want to connect with your brand. Ask yourself: Why would a customer choose to buy from you and not a competitor? The answer to this should be a simple sentence that clearly states what sets your business apart, also known as a unique selling proposition. A good USP is assertive in it’s claim so it sticks in a potential customer’s mind, but also defensible. Obviously you should be able to back up any claims you make.
A great exercise in trying to define your USP is to start by asking yourself why your online store exists. You might start with a broad answer along the lines of, “to sell my product”. Then ask yourself why, answering each time until you arrive at an answer that is the essence behind your ecommerce business. Once you have this, you can work it into a sentence along with what your business offers your customer and you should have the basis for a great USP.
Once you’ve nailed it down, write all your website content through the lens of your USP.
Know who you're writing for
Sketching out profiles of your ideal customers will help you craft more tailored and persuasive copy that speaks to their particular needs and interests. Spend the time researching and defining the demographics and behaviours of your ideal customer, and let that buyer persona influence all of your marketing.
What would they want to know about your brand? What details about your products would be most important to them? Is there an aspect of your business, like charitable donations or eco-friendly practices, that would appeal to them? By getting in your customer’s head you’ll gain a better insight into what they really need to know to connect with your brand and ultimately convert.
Don't beat around the bush
Good writing gets to the point. Make it easy for your customers to read and understand your online store by forgoing flowery language or anecdotes in favour of short punchy sentences, subheadings, and easy-to-read font sizes.
You might also want to include bullet points in places where you’re listing a lot of different information, such as in your product descriptions, to make it easier for your customers to scan the content.
SEO is important
Search engines are the key to being found online. Search Engine Optimization is the practice of using relevant keywords or popular search terms in your website copy to improve your store’s searchability and bring in valuable traffic.
Shopify makes it easy to fine-tune your SEO by customizing your meta description, blog post URLs, collections, products, web pages, alt text, and title tags. Learn more about how to take advantage of these features right here.
Keep in mind that SEO is not a “set it and forget it” situation. Trends change and competition evolves, as will your business over time. Make sure you update your SEO keywords regularly.
Triple check everything
There’s nothing like a typo to make a customer question your brand’s professionalism. Make sure you check everything multiple times, even having someone else read it all over, before publishing it live. If you’re not the most confident writer, or you’d like someone with great writing skills to check over what you’ve created, don’t be afraid to ask for help from freelancers.
Find more helpful articles in The ultimate guide to starting an online store.
