So you’ve taken your photos, done your keyword research, optimized your titles and tags and filled out all the information in your Etsy listing draft. Now what goes into the description? How long should it be? Does it even matter all that much?
The answer is YES! Very much so. Here’s why.
Etsy shoppers want to know the story behind the product.
Your images, titles and tags bring the customer in, but your description closes the sale.
People shop on Etsy to find something unique, handmade – something with a story behind it. Using the right copy to describe your item and sharing all the reasons why it’s awesome helps seal the deal for a customer. Give them a little insight into you and your business as well – how you learned to make whatever product you are selling, your favorite part about running the business, etc.
It gets seen on Google!
Spend the time to optimize your descriptions, because other search engines outside of Etsy (Google! Yahoo! Bing!) use this as the meta description for your listing in their search results. They crawl product descriptions to display shopper’s search results – and only show the first 150-160 characters. This is why in the beginning of your description you should add the name of your item, your shop name, and a description containing your top keywords you want to rank for. For example, “Personalized family reunion forest green cotton t-shirts custom printed by LauraDesignsShirts”.
People want to know ALL of the product details.
Answer all of potential customers’ questions before they have to ask! Someone wondering if you do custom print hats may not take the time to send a message to find out, but if you put in your listing “We take custom requests! Just send us a message with details and we’ll get back to you with a quote asap” they might do just that. Someone wondering what size t-shirt they should buy is more likely to click “add to cart” if the exact chest, waist and length measurements for each size are listed out clearly (along with washing instructions, fabric content and anything else you can think of!)
You can link out to similar products or shop sections.
You have an opportunity to loop people back around to another product in your shop they might be interested in, even if they don’t want to buy the listing they are on. Adding a “See our other sweatshirts here” link not only shows customers their options, but gives you a better chance at making a sale.
Build your social presence or your newsletter list!
Include a list of places people can find you online, or a discount code for signing up for your email newsletter. Make the most of this space and show customers a little more about why they should buy from you.
You can walk customers through the ordering process, especially for custom or personalized pieces.
Don’t expect customers to immediately know they should choose their color option from the dropdown or enter their custom text into the personalization box. Explain the process clearly and make it as easy as possible for the customer to order from you!
Lastly, lay out your description sections with titles above to make it “skimmable” (ie. Product Details, How To Order, About Us), and keep them consistent across your listings! Of course personalize it to your own shop and each product. Make your descriptions fun and informative and close out those sales!
