Create a Clear Product Description

from 10 Things You "Must Do" to have a Website that Sells.

If you want to sell things on the web, then there are several things you must do to make your website ready to sell. Here is the first...

1. Create a Clear Product Description that Emphasizes Benefits

Make sure your product is clearly defined. Make it obvious what you are selling, why prospective customers should be interested in buying it, and how they can buy it? Don't beat around the bush. Be clear and straight to the point.

Describe your product or service from the viewpoint of your customers. Think benefits -- "what's in it for me" -- rather than features. People do care about product features, but only after they can see the benefits and have decided they are interested.

It is a bit surprising how difficult it is for many of us to simply spell out what we do. We think it is clear until we sit down and try to define it. Try it right now. Create a snappy one or two sentence description of your main product or service. Try to make it sound interesting, and try to stay away from cliches like "We create ecommerce websites" or "We sell nutritional supplements".

These stock answers sound fine to someone who knows the jargon. But everyone else is going to have difficulty putting your description in a context that makes sense. You should provide the context -- possibly something like:

"We create websites for companies that want to sell their products on the web"

"We sell nutritional products like vitamins and minerals to people who prefer the convenience and lower price you can get when buying on the web."

Remember: try to think like your prospective customers.