 "Easy & Effective Shopify Optimisation: Part 3 Product Copy")
Today we continue our Easy & Effective Shopify Optimisation Series with Jamie Willmott, blubolt’s resident optimisation guru. Over four instalments, we’re sharing advice to help you optimise your eCommerce site. Specifically, we’ll cover optimising pop-ups, product discovery, product copy, and delivery and returns.
In parts 1 and 2 we discussed easy Shopify optimisation for pop-ups and product discovery. Part 3 below covers Shopify optimisation for product copy.
Pitch perfect: how to optimise your product copy.
A plea from an optimisation manager to ecommerce managers everywhere: please, please review and test your product copy!
So often retailers scramble to write product copy in time for launch and then never look at it again. But product copy is one the most important elements of your website! It’s an opportunity to grab your customers by the heart and lead them to the checkout.
So in this post, we’ll explore:
how to choose which products to focus on when upgrading product copy,
what good product copy sounds like, and
how to test and further optimise your copy.
Let’s get started!
Eyes on the prize: choosing which products to focus on.
Wynter, the B2B buyer intelligence tool, claims that research shows product copy is twice as influential as design in why visitors convert. So with most eCommerce managers pushed for time, it’s important to take a strategic approach to upgrade your product copy rather than attempting to do everything. That is, before embarking on mass updates, identify which products and product categories will deliver the best return on your investment of time and effort. Here's how to do it!
1. Highest entry product pages.
While retailers often focus on their homepage, product pages are also key entry points. The downside of this is that a user can arrive on your site without knowing anything about your brand. This is particularly the case over sale periods and with shopping adverts. As a result, product pages have to work harder, not only to create a great first impression but to give the user a sense of the brand, its USP and where it fits in the market.
Check your website analytics to identify your most popular entry product pages and upgrade those first.
2. Top revenue drivers.
Do you know how much revenue your top 10% of products bring?
It’s worth checking your sales data as you may find that the top 10% bring in 90% of the revenue. As such, any improvements to the product pages of these top items is likely to significantly influence your conversion rate and disproportionately (in a positive way!) impact revenue.
3. Top new customer drivers.
Every brand needs to recruit new customers to continue growing. Identify which products and product categories are most popular with first-time buyers and add those to your priority list. While these may not bring in the most short-term revenue, they will provide a good base for long term growth.
The devil’s in the detail: what does good product copy sound like?
Now that you know how to decide which products to focus on, what should your new product copy sound like?
1. Deliver clarity over cleverness.
Customers aren’t going to spend hours (or even minutes) pouring over your product page copy so you need to ensure your message is quickly understood. Therefore, streamline your copy, use plain English and ensure key product details are crystal clear.
2. Mirror the language of your customers.
Spend some time mining your website search terms and customer reviews. This will help you uncover words, terms and phrases used by your customers to describe the features and benefits of your products.
3. Identify your audience’s pain points.
Through your wider customer research, what have you identified as major issues or pain points for your customers? And how does your product solve these? Incorporating this messaging into product copy will resonate with your customers and encourage conversions.
4. Highlight product benefits, not just features.
It seems logical to reel off a long list of impressive product features to your customers. While this information does matter, you also need to appeal to your customers' emotions with a convincing pitch of the product’s benefits. So the customer question you need to answer is, “How will my life be improved by buying this product?”
CASE STUDY
BushWear: Hitting Target With +13% Conversions & +23% Revenue
blubolt client BushWear had a large proportion of paid traffic arriving directly onto product detail pages (PDP) via Google Shopping Campaigns. However, our analysis showed that the majority of traffic from this segment came from new users. These users were unlikely to have previously heard of, or shopped, with BushWear.
As such, the challenge was to identify ways to improve the conversion rate of new users, and also generate higher revenue per user. Our optimisation team recommended reviewing and testing new PDP copy.
Read our full recommendations and the impressive results here.
Test and further optimise your copy!
With your new product copy in place, it’s time to test and optimise!
Tests can vary from rapid testing, which is a quick and low effort resource, versus onsite testing A/B testing, which typically takes more time and resources.
For rapid testing, you can also try out copy testing tools from specialist suppliers. For example, Wynter provides qualitative insights on your messaging from verified audiences. Their pitch is finding out what your target customers want and how they think, plus how your marketing and product messaging is landing on them.
Other tools include user research platforms Maze and UsabilityHub. Their platform gives you the ability to test everything from website messaging to product copy with real users and get feedback on things like clarity, tone of voice, and overall perception.
These tools are also great for Figma prototype tests, first click and navigation tests, design surveys, preference tests, and five-second first impression tests. Many tools provide access to a huge panel of users, so you can be specific to your audience demographic, for example, age, gender, language, and household income.
CASE STUDY
Three Spirit Drinks: In High Spirits With A +48% Add-To-Basket Rate
blubolt client Three Spirit Drinks was eager to enhance the user experience for customers and grow the business online. The initial conversion review by our optimisation team identified Three Spirit’s product detail page (PDP) as the biggest problem and, therefore, the biggest opportunity for improvement.
One of our recommended solutions was creating compelling product copy to explain how the product tasted and how the drink made you feel. Read about our recommendations and the fantastic results here.
Tried & tested: your optimised product copy.
You’re now set up for success with our top tips for product copy optimisation! To recap, we covered:
how to choose which products to focus on upgrading product copy,
what good product copy sounds like, and
how to test and further optimise your copy.
In the final part of this Shopify optimisation series, we’ll cover delivery and returns so stay tuned! Subscribe to our social channels to be alerted as soon as posts go live.
Have your own Shopify Plus project?
We're a personal & proactive Shopify Plus agency that designs, builds & optimises beautiful eCommerce solutions to help your brand grow faster. Explore our expert Shopify services and browse our client work for Shopify inspiration. Alternatively, get in touch to discuss your requirements. We would love to help!
