Simple Ways to Optimize Product Listings to Maximize Sales and Profits

Finding your ideal customers in today’s cluttered marketplace can be challenging for online sellers. Your potential customers are constantly being pulled in different directions by shiny objects. To keep their attention, you must differentiate yourself from your competitors.

All products for e-commerce businesses require a good product title, description and image to increase customer conversion. Most online sellers do not know how to create a great product listing. It is not enough to list your products for sale, you have to stand out from the rest and then compel customers to follow through and buy what you're offering.

Here are 3 ways for online sellers to optimize product listings to increase customer conversion:

Finding And Choosing The Right Buyer Keywords

So what exactly is a keyword? A keyword is a particular word or phrase that you type into Google or any other search engines to search for either products or information. There are two kinds of keywords: buyer keywords and information keywords. As an online seller, you need to focus on the buyer keyword to optimize product listings.

Google keyword planner is a great tool to determine monthly searches for selected keywords. Once you have determined your buyer keywords, remember to insert them into your product listings. But don’t overcrowd your product listings with keywords to the point where it appears spammy. Put yourself in the buyer's perspective and ensure sentences flow smoothly and are easy to understand.

Writing Winning Sales Copies

By definition copywriting is the art and science of writing sales copy that promotes and sells your product and convinces potential customers to take action. It is vital that you understand and follow the 10 core components of copywriting to optimize products listings...

Headline: Your headline is one of most important factor when trying to sell to your market. A great headline will capture customers’ attention, enticing them to want to read more about your product. Tip: Google “writing catchy headlines” and use the examples that come up as a guide to help you craft your own unique headline.
Describe the problem: You want to describe the core problem customers are facing (that your product can solve) with a compelling story that they can relate to.
Provide the solution: Once you have described the problem, you want to provide a solution to your potential customers. State your product claims as well. For instance, a $30 portable charger will keep your phone fully charged for 3 days.
Credibility: You want to establish credibility for your products so that customers feel comfortable purchasing from you. Be sure to include any awards, certifications, studies, etc. to build trust with customers.
Benefits before features: Next is to state all those benefits customers will gain when they buy from you before listing out the product features. To figure out the benefits, ask yourself, ‘What can my product do for my customers?’ Keep in mind that customers buy benefits and not product features.
Social proof: Product reviews are important to remove any doubts customers might have in their mind. Before making any purchases, customers will check the product reviews to ensure that the product has less or no major complaints. You can quote expert or customer reviews in your product description to further endorse your product.
Your offer: What will your customers receive when they make a purchase? Are you offering any seasonal promotions or discounts? Or do you offer product bundling when customers make a purchase? This is one of the important factors to customers so be sure to include any offers you might have in your product listing.
Guarantee: Who doesn’t love a promise and security? By including a solid guarantee, you can remove all risk from buyers AND stand out in a cluttered marketplace. This can mean a warranty or simply providing a flexible return policy for customers not satisfied with their purchase. These guarantees make the decision to buy that much easier.
Scarcity: We live in an ever-procrastinating society and you need to tell your customers that they shouldn’t wait any longer to make a purchase or else the promotion will end or your product may run out. Let them know if you only have a limited quantity available for sale or if this price is only available until a certain date. But be sure you are always honest when making claims so you are not caught in a line and seen as being a cunning (read: untrustworthy) sales person.
Call to action: Last but not least, you need to tell your customers exactly what to do right now. Please do not assume that customers know what to do, most of the time customers need you to point them to the right direction so do shine the torch towards making the purchase.

Optimizing product images

Product images play an integral role in compelling customers to want to click through and find out more about your product. You must consider how you are showcasing your products. At the very least, images should be clear, precise, large and in high definition. And you should show your product from many angles. Orchestrate a product shoot that utilizes lighting and many different perspectives. There are photographers that are trained in this specific area and there are also great tutorials online (search: "how to take product photos" on Google and YouTube). This helps to answer your customers questions about your product. 3D rendered images of your products are also a great inclusion and can be worth investing in to optimize product listings. They communicate important product information and are glossy and professional.

As the late Bruce Lee would say, ‘Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.’ Now that you know the how part, it’s time to execute these strategies and bring in more sales.

Guest blog post by Eugene Cheng of freedomprofitsblueprint.com.