Finding What Your Customers Want/Need & Build Upon It
Your product listing, including both photos and description, is not just used for describing what you sell.
It is a sales pitch. In that short amount of time, you need to say what your customers want to hear the most first. In other words, say what 'clicks' with them so that they have a better chance to buy.
In the previous section, we talked about some of the biggest drivers of why customers buy. Now you can look at your own products and see how it can be applied to your products.
- What positive feeling can your product bring?
- Does it solve a specific problem?
- Does it transform your customer in a positive way?
For example, customers may not care much about the weight or the technical name of a fabric, but if you state the benefit of such fabric, they would pay attention. You can say it is a “with our lightweight cotton, you can float through your summer days with this floral dress feeling cool and breezy”.
Bringing Benefits & Features Together
After gathering all the selling points that appeal to customers emotionally, it’s time to tie them in with the features of your product.
Customers need to understand what the product actually is in addition to the emotional appeal. Information you can include:
- What is this product?
- What does this product do?
- What are the features of this product?
These are essential information that customers are looking for to justify their purchase. They themselves may not be what catch customer's attention, but they are great for tapping into the logical side of customers’ minds so that they are easier to justify their purchase.
Using some examples, let's see how we can combine the features with benefits to make captivating selling points:
- This 8x8cm small plant pot can fit onto a window sill of your apartment, letting you explore the joy of gardening without taking out precious space
- Weighing at just 205g, wear this pair of sneakers and walk lighter in your daily life
- Reinforced stitching makes this a durable and long-lasting bag, saving you money in the long-run
Another example from Lush about their bath bombs:
"Calm the storm as you unwind amongst clouds of mint and oakwood; you can almost smell the weather turning. Fair Trade, organic, cocoa butter and organic shea butter melt together in a serene softening pool as red and blue bleed together and bay oil warms."
You can see how Lush mix the emotional appeal and the relevant facts together. The words like "calming" and "serene" paints a relaxing picture for the customers, and those selling points are supported by facts/features like the ingredients.
Compare That With What Your Competitors Are Doing
Understanding your competitors is crucial for crafting your compelling sales pitch. Even if your product has amazing features, if your competitors are offering the same, shoppers are likely to choose them because:
- Experienced sellers have built reputation and credibility through sales and reviews
- Bigger shops appear more dependable
The key is to identify and emphasise on what makes your product unique. Look for opportunities where your competitors fall short and highlight these differences. One of the best ways to do that is to read your competitors' product reviews.
Reading Product Reviews To Understand What Customers Care About
A good method is to go to the review section of your competitors. The customers who buy from your competitors should be very similar to your potential customers.
For positive reviews, pay attention to their feeling and experience, and how the product benefits them. Consider these as part of your 'baseline' product offer - something that your competitors offer so shoppers may be expecting them:
On the other hand, negative reviews are also important, if not more so. They reveal opportunities for your product to step in and be better. A customer may complain that the tote bag handle is too rough for the shoulder, or the vase turns out to be too big, etc. Negative reviews that are objective will be the most useful.
Look for reviews that are in the 2-4 star range. Those reviews tend to be more constructive in terms of understanding what customers are looking for.
The features/benefits developed by checking these 2-4 star reviews can help give your potential customers a compelling reason to choose you instead of your competitors. So emphasise them in your listing photos and description to improve the conversion rates.
Exercise
Now it's your turn:
Go on Etsy. Search for your competitors’ product reviews. Pay special attention to the ones that talk about their feelings and how the product benefits them (e.g. bringing a positive change, reducing stress, etc).
Other ecommerce platforms like Amazon and eBay are goldmines for knowing your customers.
You can also go to forums and see what people are talking about to get more potential ideas In Google, type “inurl:forum + (your product/your product category)” and it will show you forum posts where your customers talk about your products, like this:
List out the selling points that tap into your customers’ emotional needs. And add supporting evidence to them, which include the facts and features of your product.