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Product Descriptions That Actually Convert · eCommerce Podcast

• 0:09
  Well, hello and welcome to the eCommerce Podcast.
• 0:12
  My name is Matt Edmundson, and it is great to be with you today.
• 0:17
  Let's jump into it, shall we?
• 0:18
  Now, most eCommerce product descriptions, well, let's just say they are invisible.
• 0:25
  Can you tell me what the last product description you actually read said?
• 0:30
  Could you even give me the gist of what was said?
• 0:35
  I find this a particularly hard exercise, and it's not because I haven't seen any
• 0:40
  or read any recently, but because, let's be honest, they're just so forgettable.
• 0:46
  So we scroll past them, glance at them.
• 0:51
  That's about it.
• 0:52
  We never really remember them.
• 0:54
  So in this episode, we're gonna dig into how to transform your boring
• 1:00
  product copy into descriptions that actually stick in people's minds and
• 1:06
  ultimately drive our website sales.
• 1:09
  That's the aim, and I know this is a good thing to do because when we
• 1:14
  restructured product descriptions, uh, in one of our own e-commerce businesses.
• 1:19
  We saw conversion rate shift dramatically, and it's not just on my own sites
• 1:25
  that I've seen the benefits either because research shows that properly
• 1:30
  structured copy is, check this out, 42%.
• 1:35
  More memorable after 30 dates.
• 1:39
  That's after 30 days, right?
• 1:41
  And I appreciate 42% is a very precise number.
• 1:45
  Uh, but it's really good news for us, isn't it?
• 1:48
  Because if we can get our product copyright, then old man alive,
• 1:52
  could we maybe make a difference to the conversion on our site?
• 1:56
  But.
• 1:58
  We've gotta make those changes.
• 1:59
  So you can keep using the manufacturer copy, right?
• 2:02
  Which looks identical to your competitor's copy.
• 2:05
  Or you can explore what we're gonna look at today, which is something called
• 2:09
  narrative binding, which is basically the science of copy that converts and figures
• 2:15
  out how, and we're gonna figure out how do we apply this to our own products, right?
• 2:20
  Uh, but before we do.
• 2:22
  Let me tell you about 400 products and a copywriter named Beth.
• 2:27
  Oh, yes.
• 2:28
  Uh, I mentioned, uh, a second ago.
• 2:32
  That we restructured product descriptions on our own site.
• 2:35
  And that site at the time was Jersey Beauty Company.
• 2:38
  Uh, back when I ran it, I no longer do.
• 2:41
  Uh, but when I ran Jersey, I noticed right at the start, actually early on
• 2:45
  in the career of me running Jersey, that we seemed to have a problem.
• 2:51
  And that problem I see actually now consistently on quite a few websites,
• 2:57
  uh, working with eCommerce founders, uh, and operators, eCommerce like Q and Me.
• 3:03
  I see this problem all over the place.
• 3:05
  And we were selling, right, exactly the same products as half
• 3:11
  a dozen other websites, right?
• 3:12
  So we had the same products, we had the same images, we had the same sort
• 3:17
  of descriptions, which came from the manufacturer's copy that every other
• 3:22
  distributor was using, and we just literally copied and pasted it onto our
• 3:26
  sites without really thinking twice.
• 3:28
  Thought about the product copy.
• 3:30
  So the problem was we looked identical to all of our competitors.
• 3:34
  We may have had slightly different colored nav bars, but the pictures were the same.
• 3:38
  The description was the same.
• 3:40
  What that meant was ultimately we became like a commodity broker.
• 3:46
  We were selling commodities and I think the only way really to
• 3:50
  compete when you, when you sort of go down that road is on pricing.
• 3:58
  So you then have this scenario where you want to be the cheapest
• 4:01
  or you may glamorize it and say, actually I want to offer the
• 4:06
  best value as different language.
• 4:09
  And lemme tell you, I, we, we experienced that at Jersey and I wanted out of
• 4:14
  that race to the bottom strategy, we'd all just seem to have adopted.
• 4:19
  And if you guys are anything like me, um, maybe you are, maybe you're not, I dunno.
• 4:24
  But you have, you looked at your competitors and thought, well, man, alive,
• 4:27
  there's not much difference between us.
• 4:29
  Um, well, have you looked at your competitors for what?
• 4:31
  And if you have, how different are you?
• 4:33
  Right?
• 4:34
  Especially if you are selling the same products as them, you know, you've got
• 4:37
  the same suppliers, the same products, the same images, the same product copy.
• 4:42
  In that scenario, you've got to ask what makes a customer choose you,
• 4:48
  and I think it's a really interesting problem to try and get your head around.
• 4:52
  And so what we did at Jersey is we made a decision to literally rewrite everything,
• 4:59
  to rewrite every single product description, which was 400 products.
• 5:05
  Uh, we also redid the images, but that's probably a story for
• 5:08
  another podcast episode 'cause we're focusing on product copy now.
• 5:12
  Um.
• 5:13
  This was, lemme tell you, when we did this years before Chat, GPT existed, right?
• 5:19
  And this is where Beth comes in.
• 5:22
  She was our copywriter at the time.
• 5:25
  Beth is an absolute legend.
• 5:28
  And Hads actually, and still has, if I'm honest with you, a really good flare for
• 5:34
  bringing products that we were selling to life with really good descriptive content.
• 5:39
  We had this brilliant copywriter with Beth, uh, before Beth was Naomi, and
• 5:43
  we had these 400 products on the site, so you couldn't just do it overnight.
• 5:48
  You, you couldn't just transform 400 products 'cause
• 5:51
  it was not possible back then.
• 5:53
  So we started with our top 20 products.
• 5:56
  We then went on to, I say we, Beth, started on top 20 products,
• 6:01
  uh, and then moved on to the next 20 and so on and so forth.
• 6:05
  And it actually took Beth a fair while to do it, several months to work through
• 6:09
  them all from memory, because like I said, she was crafting each one properly.
• 6:13
  She wasn't just churning out words or slop.
• 6:16
  Well.
• 6:17
  What was the result of us doing this?
• 6:19
  What happened?
• 6:20
  'cause that's the important question and obviously something good
• 6:23
  happened otherwise I would not be recording this podcast right now.
• 6:28
  So the simple answer is we stopped being like everyone else.
• 6:34
  All of a sudden our sight had personality.
• 6:37
  We had a brand voice.
• 6:39
  We had become us.
• 6:43
  So was it all worth it?
• 6:45
  Was it worth the time, the energy, the resource, all of those months of work?
• 6:51
  Well, absolutely it was worth it.
• 6:54
  And if I'm honest with you, it then became part of a much bigger branding
• 6:58
  exercise where we wanted to take something in effect that was a commodity
• 7:03
  website and turn it into something that was really unique and that really
• 7:07
  connected with our customers and we had some really good successes with that.
• 7:11
  Now.
• 7:13
  You might be thinking, Matt, that sounds like an awful lot of
• 7:15
  work, an awful lot of efforts.
• 7:18
  And you know what?
• 7:19
  You are right.
• 7:21
  Especially 'cause we did, I, I cannot emphasize enough,
• 7:24
  we did not have AI back then.
• 7:25
  No.
• 7:26
  We had Beth, who's better than ai.
• 7:28
  Um, it was hard work, but it mattered.
• 7:32
  And let me show you why.
• 7:34
  Um, for example, I was shopping right online for a framing square last weekend.
• 7:40
  Now, for those of you who don't know, a framing square is a carpenter's tool,
• 7:45
  which is used for roofing and timber framing, and woodworkers, like me use
• 7:50
  it to get 90 degree angle marks amongst.
• 7:54
  Other things.
• 7:55
  Now, I appreciate this as a niche product.
• 7:58
  I really do.
• 7:59
  You might not care about this, but I needed one for a
• 8:02
  jig that I wanted to build.
• 8:05
  And I found the Milwaukee one that I wanted.
• 8:07
  And the reason I wanted this, this specific framing square, because
• 8:12
  there were cheaper ones out there, was because I watched a YouTube video
• 8:17
  showing me how to build the exact jig that I wanted to build, and the guy
• 8:22
  on the YouTube video used a really specific framing square for a very good
• 8:28
  reason, which I won't bore you with.
• 8:29
  Why that particular one?
• 8:30
  You have to watch the video.
• 8:32
  Um, but this YouTube video.
• 8:35
  Was a great video, well done, well produced, engaging, had over half
• 8:40
  a million views, so I was sold.
• 8:42
  I wanted that exact square.
• 8:44
  I knew what I wanted and I wanted to go and get it.
• 8:47
  So then I did what most of us do.
• 8:49
  When I wanted to buy one, I went to Google and I Googled the framing
• 8:53
  square, and that took me to the manufacturer's website, to Milwaukee's uk.
• 8:57
  Website.
• 8:58
  I found the Framing Square on that site, which then took me to
• 9:02
  seven different UK distributors, and I did what most people did.
• 9:07
  I opened all seven distributors in different tabs on my browser to
• 9:11
  just have a quick view across the seven D different sites to figure
• 9:14
  out who was I gonna buy from.
• 9:18
  So site one, they said it was a reinforced frame with laser etched
• 9:23
  markings, which provided superior visibility, which was great.
• 9:28
  Site number two said, reinforced frame with laser etched markings, provided
• 9:35
  superior visibility, and guess what?
• 9:37
  Sites 3, 4, 5, 6, and seven basically said, right.
• 9:40
  They all basically said the same thing, copied and pasted
• 9:43
  from the MA manufacturer.
• 9:44
  Some of them had tweaked them very slightly.
• 9:47
  And in some cases it was literally word for word copy, right?
• 9:51
  Zero differentiation.
• 9:53
  No one mentioned, not a single one of them mentioned the YouTube
• 9:58
  video that had convinced me to buy.
• 10:02
  None of them mentioned the manufacturer's video, which was
• 10:05
  on the manufacturer's website.
• 10:07
  No one told me why this square was worth the extra money.
• 10:10
  No one gave me a reason to choose.
• 10:13
  Their sites over the other six sites.
• 10:17
  Not a single site did that.
• 10:19
  So how did I decide?
• 10:22
  Well, like everybody, pretty much in that place, it all came down to
• 10:27
  total price, the sales price, plus the shipping costs, and how easy
• 10:32
  it was to understand both, right?
• 10:34
  There was one site super cheap, couldn't figure out the shipping costs until
• 10:37
  you got all the way to the checkout, and I was just not interested.
• 10:40
  But anyway, whoever was the cheapest won and it was this race to the bottom
• 10:45
  again, and I bought my square from one of the cheapest supplier and
• 10:48
  actually ended up buying a few other bits and bobs, which I needed as well.
• 10:51
  So they won in the end based on price.
• 10:54
  Now the product copy, it didn't matter because nobody made it matter.
• 11:01
  And I wonder how often that's happening on our own websites too.
• 11:05
  Like are we making product descriptions that give a customer
• 11:09
  a reason to chewers, uh, chewers?
• 11:11
  No, they definitely don't wanna do that.
• 11:14
  Giving our customers a reason to choose us.
• 11:18
  Over our competitors, or are we also becoming a little bit invisible?
• 11:23
  Now, I've noticed that there are three default assumptions in e-commerce
• 11:28
  when it comes to product copy that I absolutely think destroy our conversion.
• 11:34
  See if any of these apply to you.
• 11:36
  Assumption number one is that we can just use manufacturer's copy, because
• 11:41
  that's what everyone does, right?
• 11:42
  It's been given to us.
• 11:43
  It's what we did on Jersey.
• 11:45
  Why do I need to redo it?
• 11:46
  I don't.
• 11:47
  They've given it to me.
• 11:48
  I know.
• 11:48
  It's good.
• 11:49
  Oh good.
• 11:49
  I know it's accurate at least.
• 11:51
  Um.
• 11:52
  It's just so much easier, isn't it, to put that on our website, to copy and to paste.
• 11:58
  But that's exactly why you look identical to everyone else.
• 12:03
  And I think then that's why pricing can become such an issue because
• 12:08
  all we've done is made our websites basically commodity websites and
• 12:12
  we become really good at that.
• 12:14
  Right?
• 12:14
  Which then becomes all about price because we're not standing out in any other way.
• 12:19
  Assumption number two is that product copy maybe doesn't actually really matter
• 12:24
  as long as the site look good, right?
• 12:28
  Does your site look good?
• 12:29
  And it becomes like the last thing really that we think
• 12:32
  about an afterthought or worse.
• 12:34
  And I mean, worse, we just throw it to Jet GPT with a prompt, like write a
• 12:40
  product description and then we copy and paste whatever generic slop comes out.
• 12:46
  That's what goes live.
• 12:47
  Really, really winds me up.
• 12:49
  You can instantly spot pure AI product descriptions.
• 12:53
  You really can.
• 12:54
  Or maybe it's just 'cause I work with AI so much as I can.
• 12:56
  Anyway, the final assumption, uh, assumption number three.
• 13:00
  Uh, and I think this one's a little bit sneaky, if I'm honest with you.
• 13:04
  It's that belief that nobody really reads the product descriptions anyway, and I
• 13:11
  think that's a very wrong assumption.
• 13:13
  Very wrong indeed.
• 13:14
  I think the people who actually decide whether to buy from you and buy
• 13:18
  from me, I think they do read them.
• 13:21
  I think they're, they're reading it, looking for a reason to say yes.
• 13:26
  Or a reason to leave, which is what I did on those seven websites.
• 13:32
  So what would happen if we gave our visitors something worth reading?
• 13:38
  Something that was fun, something that was enjoyable, something that was memorable,
• 13:42
  something that was unique to us.
• 13:45
  And this is where it starts to get interesting.
• 13:48
  Like I said, there's actual science behind why some copy works and
• 13:52
  why other copy gets forgotten.
• 13:55
  And in my quest to become better at product copy, because I realized early
• 13:59
  on in Jersey that this was a winner.
• 14:01
  So I've spent a bit of time looking at it.
• 14:03
  I came across some research from uc, Davis, um, and found so.
• 14:07
  Fascinating out about memory, the hippocampus.
• 14:11
  And I'm not a brain scientist.
• 14:13
  Uh, let me just preface everything, but I do know this, that the hippocampus,
• 14:17
  which is our brains memory center, actively binds separated events, right?
• 14:23
  So these separate events that go on in our heads, it will bind them
• 14:27
  together into unified narratives.
• 14:30
  Okay?
• 14:30
  Narrative binding.
• 14:33
  And this can go quite deep, right?
• 14:35
  Uh, it can go really deep.
• 14:37
  But when it comes to content, basically we need to create a story with causal
• 14:48
  connections between events, okay?
• 14:50
  That's what our product descriptions need to do.
• 14:52
  And if we do that, if we create this story.
• 14:57
  That's where this magical, 42% more memorable after 30 days compared to
• 15:02
  distant connected facts comes from 42%.
• 15:07
  More memorable, how they measured it, I have no idea.
• 15:09
  Right.
• 15:09
  But it's basically more memorable just from restructuring our words,
• 15:14
  doing it differently, not changing the products, not changing the price, just
• 15:19
  changing how we describe it, right?
• 15:23
  So this technical term, which is used in cognitive science, like I
• 15:26
  said, is called narrative binding.
• 15:29
  And it's a difference between a customer who forgets you the moment they close
• 15:33
  the tab, and one who remembers your brand days, weeks, even 30 days later
• 15:42
  when they're ready to buy, maybe.
• 15:44
  So there's a UK, uh, homeware retailer called Cox.
• 15:47
  And Cox.
• 15:47
  I've never bought from them, but I did discover, uh, in my research that they
• 15:52
  restructured their product descriptions using a proper narrative framework.
• 15:57
  The result for them.
• 16:00
  Was a massive 36.7%.
• 16:04
  Again, another very precise number, 36.7% increase in revenue per visitor.
• 16:11
  Okay?
• 16:12
  A 36.7% increase in revenue per visitor, not from a website
• 16:18
  redesign, not from new products, just from better words on the page.
• 16:24
  And I think this is the power of getting your product copy.
• 16:28
  Right.
• 16:30
  So enough of the theory.
• 16:31
  How do we actually do this?
• 16:33
  Well, there are three principles that make narrative binding work, okay?
• 16:39
  Which we're gonna go through.
• 16:40
  And don't worry if you are driving or out walking the dog and you can't
• 16:43
  take notes, just go to the website.
• 16:46
  There'll be a comprehensive blog post with all of this information in.
• 16:50
  There's gonna be a freebie, which I'll tell you about at
• 16:52
  the end, so you don't have to.
• 16:55
  Make up AI prompts, you can just literally use ours, um, and see our process.
• 17:00
  I'll talk about that more in a minute.
• 17:01
  But just wanted to say, we're gonna get into some stuff.
• 17:04
  If you can't take notes, don't worry.
• 17:06
  Just literally just go to the website, find the blog post, copy,
• 17:10
  paste it, put it into Claude, put it into whatever AI platform you
• 17:13
  use, um, and dissect accordingly.
• 17:16
  Okay, so principle number one is causal sequencing.
• 17:21
  So causal sequencing, um, would mean that we don't just list features.
• 17:28
  Okay.
• 17:28
  But what we actually want to do is show very specific causal chains.
• 17:35
  So the features should lead to benefits, which should lead to outcomes.
• 17:41
  So in a very simple way, how would we do this?
• 17:44
  For example, going back to my framing square where all the websites were saying
• 17:49
  the exact same thing, like reinforced aluminum frame, what would we do?
• 17:55
  Well, that's an interesting question.
• 17:57
  So we could say something like, it has a reinforced frame.
• 18:04
  Or a reinforced aluminum frame, should I say, because that was important to me.
• 18:06
  It has a reinforced aluminum frame, which means it won't bend mid cut.
• 18:11
  So your measurements stay true even after years of heavy use.
• 18:17
  Can you see the difference between the two?
• 18:19
  Right.
• 18:19
  Because a reinforced aluminum frame is a feature, but a reinforced aluminum
• 18:25
  frame where we take that feature.
• 18:31
  Then look at the benefit, which is it won't bend, mint cut, and then we throw
• 18:36
  in the outcome, which is your measurements will stay true even for years to come.
• 18:42
  Now we've got a story.
• 18:43
  Now we've just, within one or two words, we've gone beyond
• 18:46
  a spec sheet, haven't we?
• 18:49
  So principle number two is character continuity.
• 18:54
  And this is where we want to include people in our descriptions because we
• 18:59
  just vibe better with people, don't we?
• 19:01
  Like, we wanna include maybe the maker or a typical customer, or even the reader
• 19:05
  as the protagonist in their own story.
• 19:09
  So with the Framing Square, just a simple sentence like.
• 19:15
  It's popular with professionals, which is written on most sites,
• 19:19
  is dull and dreary, isn't it?
• 19:21
  So how do we take that, throw in this idea of character continuity
• 19:26
  and jazz that up a little bit, right?
• 19:28
  Uh, like Hannibal from the A team, if you're a person of a certain age, you will
• 19:32
  know that Hannibal is on the jazz, right?
• 19:33
  This is what we're doing with our product descriptions.
• 19:36
  I appreciate half of you, like Matt, I have no idea what you're talking about.
• 19:38
  That's fine.
• 19:39
  That's okay.
• 19:40
  We'll get back to back to the story character continuity.
• 19:43
  So what, what about us changing it to something simple like join the
• 19:47
  2000 plus carpenters who've made this their go-to Framing Square.
• 19:54
  Simple.
• 19:55
  But now what we've done is create a tribe.
• 19:57
  We've introduced people and there's a sense of belonging and a story
• 20:01
  the customer wants to be part of.
• 20:03
  Right.
• 20:05
  So that's principle number two.
• 20:06
  Principle number three is thematic consistency.
• 20:09
  I love these names.
• 20:10
  I really do.
• 20:11
  It's brain science, isn't it?
• 20:13
  Uh, it's definitely not Matt's naming of things.
• 20:15
  Uh, so we've got, uh, causal sequencing.
• 20:18
  We've got character continuity.
• 20:19
  And finally we've got this idea of thematic consistency.
• 20:24
  And this is where we basically weave like a golden thread.
• 20:31
  Throughout the description, it could be something simple like craftsmanship
• 20:35
  or adventure or self-care or provision, whatever fits your brand or product.
• 20:39
  And we put that in all in our descriptions with the other principles.
• 20:44
  So when we add all three principles together, our product descriptions
• 20:49
  become like a mini story instead of just a boring specification sheet.
• 20:54
  So let me show you what this looks like when you put all three principles
• 20:59
  together on a single product.
• 21:01
  Now I'm a big fan of fountain pens.
• 21:05
  In fact, I have this one from Tom's studio right in front of me.
• 21:09
  Love this fountain pen.
• 21:10
  Can highly recommend it.
• 21:12
  Um, how would I, how would I use narrative binding for something like a fountain pen?
• 21:19
  Now most websites would describe a fountain pen in a very typical way.
• 21:25
  So let's say it's called the artisan fountain pen.
• 21:29
  So we've got the artisan fountain pen.
• 21:31
  It's 95 pounds.
• 21:32
  It's handcrafted stainless steel nib for smooth writing.
• 21:36
  It's got a premium resin body, provides perfect balance and comfort available in
• 21:41
  midnight, blue, burgundy, or forest green.
• 21:44
  It's a medium nib size a.
• 21:46
  Cartridge converter is available and the weight is just 28 grams now.
• 21:53
  I mean, okay.
• 21:54
  It's an interest.
• 21:55
  It tells me what I need to know, and we've tried to jazz it up by
• 21:57
  introducing the word, um, premium.
• 22:00
  Describe the resin board.
• 22:01
  Basically, it's expensive.
• 22:02
  We start throwing the word premium about right.
• 22:04
  Uh.
• 22:06
  Or we throw in handcrafted to try and jazz it up a little bit.
• 22:08
  I'm, we're talking about something a bit more than that.
• 22:10
  So, because it's, you know, it's accurate, isn't it?
• 22:12
  It's informative, but it's, it's completely forgettable.
• 22:15
  How many of you can re just recall what I just said, right?
• 22:18
  Not many.
• 22:19
  So, what would happen if we take that same description, the same pen, the same
• 22:27
  fountain pen, and use narrative binding principles when creating the product?
• 22:30
  Uh, the product copy.
• 22:33
  What about something like this?
• 22:35
  The Artisan's journey turns a blank page into a written legacy.
• 22:40
  Every writer knows that moment, staring at the blank page, waiting
• 22:45
  for inspiration to strike, and that's where the Artisan Phantom Pen.
• 22:50
  Begins its work crafted by Master Penn Smith, Thomas Fletcher, who spent 20 years
• 22:57
  perfecting his technique in Florence.
• 22:59
  The artisan transforms the simple act of writing into something utterly profound.
• 23:06
  As your hand grips the balanced resin body, you'll feel the same
• 23:10
  connection to your words that Thomas felt when creating the pen.
• 23:14
  Many of our customers report that their writing changes when using the artisan.
• 23:19
  I started writing letters again, says Rebecca from Bath.
• 23:23
  The pen became a bridge between my thoughts and the page.
• 23:29
  Choose your companion in midnight blue for professional correspondence or burgundy
• 23:34
  for that creative writing or forest green for personal journeying, uh, journaling.
• 23:42
  Each color carries its own story and it's waiting to become a part of yours.
• 23:49
  Now, I dunno what you think about that.
• 23:52
  I felt a little bit like Jack, you know, again, I'm showing my age
• 23:55
  reading the story on a podcast.
• 23:57
  Um, but it's interesting, isn't it?
• 24:00
  How the two different descriptions have a very different feel and how
• 24:03
  one provokes emotion and you are getting carried into the story.
• 24:09
  It's the same pen, it's the same features, but there's just
• 24:13
  a story attached to it Now.
• 24:16
  And you can see how it works, can't you?
• 24:17
  So you've got casual, uh, sorry, casual, causal, causal sequencing.
• 24:22
  Um, so the feature becomes the benefit, which becomes the outcome.
• 24:25
  You know, the sort of the handcrafted becomes this beautiful, handwritten
• 24:30
  legacy at the end of it, and it affects how it feels, which
• 24:33
  influences the writing experience.
• 24:36
  Which changes how customers approach writing fundamentally.
• 24:39
  And then we've got character continuity.
• 24:41
  So you've got Thomas Fletcher the craftsman, Rebecca the customer, and her
• 24:45
  testimonial, and you as the protagonist reading this on your own writing journey.
• 24:51
  And then we've got thematic consistency.
• 24:54
  So the from blank page to written Legacy, this golden thread runs
• 24:58
  through the entire description and it was just two paragraphs, right?
• 25:02
  So the reader isn't just buying a pen anymore, they're buying an experience.
• 25:06
  They're buying the beginning of countless pages that will
• 25:10
  carry their legacy forward.
• 25:11
  You might think it's OTT, but let me tell you, this stuff works because
• 25:16
  this is narrative binding in action.
• 25:20
  Now, some of you may know that I recently acquired a company called Seven Yays.
• 25:24
  I've talked about this before on the podcast.
• 25:26
  It's a gift company.
• 25:28
  And whilst, uh, gifts are, well, they're a competitive industry, um, I think what
• 25:32
  Seven Yays does with its packaging is actually really clever and really smart.
• 25:38
  They've got a lot of fun gift products.
• 25:40
  I think it's a really great concept.
• 25:42
  I think the guys that started it did a great job.
• 25:44
  Um, but again, one of the things that I've noticed, um.
• 25:49
  Now we've started to work through the site and we're starting to
• 25:52
  use our framework, jazz, things that we always start at product.
• 25:56
  Um, started to look at product copy, right?
• 26:00
  And we have a problem with the product copy on the website,
• 26:02
  which we need to work on.
• 26:04
  And this is really interesting because this is a, a gift.
• 26:06
  So we're gonna talk more about this a little bit in the next episode,
• 26:10
  uh, of the eCommerce Podcast when we jump into brand story.
• 26:13
  Um.
• 26:15
  But what I see on quite a lot of gift sites, like seven years, like the
• 26:18
  one which we now have, is that the descriptions of product copy are written
• 26:22
  for the person buying the gift, right?
• 26:25
  They are in effect, the gift giver.
• 26:28
  Like this is a fun gift that makes people smile.
• 26:31
  It's perfect for birthdays and Christmas, and whilst that might
• 26:35
  be technically accurate, it's.
• 26:36
  Utterly forgettable, isn't it really?
• 26:39
  And there's one blindingly obvious problem that we have to think about.
• 26:44
  The description is written for entirely the wrong person.
• 26:49
  'cause on a gift site, the copy shouldn't necessarily be directly
• 26:53
  written for the person buying the gift.
• 26:56
  It should be written in a way that includes the story of the recipients.
• 27:01
  They're the person that they're buying the gift for.
• 27:04
  Right.
• 27:05
  So let me show you what I mean.
• 27:06
  One of the, I wish I had one on my desk, but I don't.
• 27:08
  Um, but one of our popular gifts, believe it or not, is a
• 27:12
  little USB disco light, right?
• 27:14
  You, uh, you stick it into the bottom of your phone, and when you play music,
• 27:20
  the LED light creates like a little disco ball effect in time to the music.
• 27:25
  It's quite a fun little gift.
• 27:26
  And so the standard copy would say it's a fun little disco light
• 27:30
  that plugs into any USB port and creates colorful light effects.
• 27:35
  Great for parties, right?
• 27:36
  I mean, it's a tiny light.
• 27:37
  I'm not sure how big that potty is, but anyway, let's move on.
• 27:41
  It's fine, isn't it?
• 27:42
  It's generic, but it's utterly forgettable.
• 27:45
  So what if we changed it?
• 27:47
  What if we thought about the person that the.
• 27:52
  Gift giver is buying for What if we help them see that person in the story?
• 28:00
  Character continuity, right?
• 28:01
  So what if we changed it to something like for the friend who turns every kitchen
• 28:06
  into a dance floor, the one who puts on ABBA while making pasta and doesn't care.
• 28:12
  Who's watching this tiny disco ball plugs into any USB port on any
• 28:18
  phone and says, yes, you should.
• 28:21
  Absolutely have a spontaneous Tuesday night dance party.
• 28:26
  So the gift giver, right, reads that and thinks, that's my friend.
• 28:30
  That's exactly her right.
• 28:33
  So that's when they click add to cart.
• 28:37
  And so we're actually running a project right now on seven Yays,
• 28:40
  transforming all of our product copy amongst a whole bunch of other things.
• 28:44
  Like I said, taking it through our framework and over the coming
• 28:47
  months, 'cause it's gonna be a big project, you will see us extracting
• 28:51
  a lot of these principles and implementing them on the site.
• 28:54
  Stay tuned to EP and uh, if you're not yet a member of Cohort.
• 28:58
  Can I encourage you, come and join the Cohort groups.
• 29:02
  Um, we'd love to see you in there.
• 29:04
  Uh, I was talking to Mike the other day.
• 29:05
  He is one of the Cohort members.
• 29:06
  Mike, if you're listening, legend, good to see you, man.
• 29:08
  Um.
• 29:10
  And he was saying that before he joined, he was like, what,
• 29:14
  what does Matt get out of this?
• 29:15
  Is this just like some fancy sales pitch and, and genuinely it's not.
• 29:18
  Um, I just love getting together with other e-commerce and we just
• 29:22
  shoot the breeze about e-commerce.
• 29:23
  I will be totally straight.
• 29:24
  I do get work out of it, that's fine, but I don't pitch anything
• 29:28
  and we just have a great time and everyone thoroughly enjoys it.
• 29:31
  And the reason I'm mentioning Cohort is because if you're
• 29:35
  in there, I will be sharing.
• 29:37
  Uh, in much more detail, the stuff that we're doing on the seven Yay
• 29:40
  site as we go forward, getting your opinion on it, getting your
• 29:42
  thoughts on all that kind of stuff.
• 29:43
  So, um, yeah, come follow us in Cohort if you wanna find out all the juicy details.
• 29:48
  But let me give you one more example and it was, uh, back in a podcast
• 29:53
  episode 2 36 where I was chatting with Matt Anderson from Dragonfly ai.
• 29:59
  And I, I gave the example of someone who approached me about their Airsoft website.
• 30:04
  Right.
• 30:05
  And I remember sitting down and talking, uh, with that chap, Matt, his name is,
• 30:10
  and I took one of, I, I, I took a look at one of the product descriptions.
• 30:14
  Um.
• 30:16
  The bestselling product, and I just read through the product description and
• 30:19
  it was just the manufacturer's specs.
• 30:23
  It was their copy, it was bullet points, and it was fundamentally boring, right?
• 30:28
  And so we were like, you've gotta think about who your customer is.
• 30:30
  Again, something we'll get into much more in the next, um, solo episode of EP.
• 30:36
  So the one towards the end of February.
• 30:39
  Um.
• 30:40
  But you gotta think about your customer rights.
• 30:42
  So they're 30 somethings who secretly want to feel like they're international spies.
• 30:47
  That's who does Airsoft, right?
• 30:49
  They're not just buying tactical gear because they need it.
• 30:53
  They're playing airsoft.
• 30:54
  They're not going to war for crying out loud.
• 30:56
  But they wanna do something which is fun and exhilarating.
• 30:59
  Exhilarating, and something that makes them feel like James Bond.
• 31:03
  In fact, I think we use that in the podcast title.
• 31:06
  Um, so I showed him.
• 31:08
  Uh, the chapter on the site, a simple way to transform that
• 31:12
  tactical vest description into what I called a mission briefing.
• 31:17
  Okay, so before the product description, read X tac 500 tactical vest.
• 31:23
  Constructed with 600 D polyester.
• 31:26
  It's got a webbing system, six magazine pouches.
• 31:28
  It's available in black olive and desert.
• 31:30
  10. I mean, I don't even know what half of that stuff means, but
• 31:33
  it's, it sounds really dull, right?
• 31:35
  So happens if we sort of throw that into the mix, the whole idea of, well, what
• 31:39
  would we write to someone who wants to be James Bond or Jason Bourne, or you
• 31:44
  know, like a Navy Seals platoon leader.
• 31:48
  Um.
• 31:50
  Which is probably, again, you know, not stereotype, but when I
• 31:54
  go play paintball in, in Airsoft, this is who I am in my head, right?
• 31:57
  I'm, I'm a kid.
• 31:58
  It's in essence.
• 32:00
  So why was, if we change it, something like mission briefing, the X TAC 500 field
• 32:03
  operative vest, agent status, eyes only.
• 32:07
  Your upcoming extraction into hostile territory requires specialist equipment
• 32:12
  intelligence has secured the X TAC 500.
• 32:14
  The same vest relied upon.
• 32:16
  By our operatives in the Stan operation last winter.
• 32:20
  Choose your configuration wisely agent, all of a sudden, right?
• 32:25
  We've got the same product, the same features, but a very different
• 32:30
  emotional response and I'm, I'm getting sucked into this, right?
• 32:34
  The reader goes from, that's a vest with pouches to I'm Jason Bourne, which.
• 32:41
  Let me ask you, which version version do you think is gonna sell better?
• 32:44
  Right?
• 32:44
  And here's the good news, and this is genuinely good news, guys.
• 32:49
  You do not need to write 400.
• 32:52
  Product descriptions, or you certainly don't need to rewrite them, which is
• 32:55
  what I had to do at Jersey by, well by hand, by somebody sitting down and
• 33:00
  rewriting them because I think this is where AI has completely changed the game.
• 33:05
  Okay.
• 33:05
  And we can use that.
• 33:06
  But, and this is crucial, and we've said this a lot on.
• 33:09
  EP AI without direction produces generic slop.
• 33:14
  We all know it's true, yet we all take the generic slop, right?
• 33:19
  The reality of it is we've got to invest time and energy into those prompts.
• 33:23
  The prompts matter.
• 33:25
  The framework matters.
• 33:28
  And so all I've done is I've put together something which I should really run
• 33:33
  through some kind of title generator.
• 33:34
  'cause the title just defies everything that I've just sold you.
• 33:38
  Uh, it's called the product description AI Prompt Pact.
• 33:44
  Ah, Matt, take your own medicine fella.
• 33:47
  Um, but it, I mean, as boring as it sounds, it's got the
• 33:49
  exact prompts that I use.
• 33:52
  Okay.
• 33:52
  So it's got the narrative binding master prompt there.
• 33:55
  Um, that applies.
• 33:56
  All three principles automatically.
• 33:58
  It's got a specific prompt, like the, the prompts that I use for the gift site that
• 34:02
  we're gonna be using on the gift site.
• 34:03
  You'll see those.
• 34:04
  They may change.
• 34:05
  They're what they are right now.
• 34:07
  Um, we've got star variations for different types of brands.
• 34:10
  There's a mission briefing for technical gear, Origin stories,
• 34:13
  maybe for handcrafted products and prompts we use for the problem.
• 34:18
  Uh, the PAS problem aware solution problem, agitate solution.
• 34:23
  Structure, sorry.
• 34:24
  PAS structures for practical items as well.
• 34:26
  So that's all in the freebie, right?
• 34:28
  And there's obviously a little checklist in there which you can
• 34:31
  use as well to make sure you've got your product descriptions nailed.
• 34:34
  It is completely free and the link is in the description below.
• 34:40
  If you're watching on YouTube, if you're listening to this on the
• 34:42
  podcast, that's also in the show notes.
• 34:44
  Um, but honestly, the easiest way to do it is go to eCommerce Podcast dot
• 34:47
  net and hit the resources link on the top and you'll see it in there.
• 34:52
  No problem at all.
• 34:53
  Or just find this episode on the EP website.
• 34:55
  There'll be a link, uh, to the download at the bottom of that episode.
• 34:59
  Um, but it's free.
• 35:00
  Totally get it and use the AI prompts that we've spent ages figuring out.
• 35:04
  Start with your top 20 products, right?
• 35:06
  The ones that drive your revenue the most.
• 35:09
  You know, the 80 20 rule, transform those first.
• 35:13
  See what happens.
• 35:14
  Do a bit of AB testing as is Matt talking nonsense.
• 35:17
  Go figure it out, right?
• 35:18
  Don't just take my word for it.
• 35:20
  Tweak, find, and figure out what tone of voice, how it works
• 35:23
  best for you and your brand.
• 35:25
  And like I said, I'm doing exactly the same project, um, on the seven years.
• 35:30
  Sites I say I, I genuinely, I need to stop doing that.
• 35:33
  It's the team, the team and I will be doing this predominantly the team.
• 35:38
  Uh, and we'll be sharing the results as we go in e-commerce Cohort.
• 35:44
  Um, and I'll be talking about it in coming and episodes, like
• 35:48
  I say, over the coming months.
• 35:48
  But if you wanna know more details, do come join us in Cohort and you get
• 35:51
  to say exactly what happens when you.
• 35:54
  Or when we implement, uh, this whole strategy.
• 35:58
  But that's it.
• 35:59
  Hopefully this has inspired you to go and rewrite your product descriptions.
• 36:03
  There really is a lot of goodness in there that we can use.
• 36:07
  And with AI now with the right prompts, there's no reason at all.
• 36:11
  We have no excuse to have rubbish product descriptions.
• 36:15
  Um, we genuinely don't.
• 36:17
  So, uh, hopefully this has inspired you or challenged you
• 36:20
  or both to go and sort that out.
• 36:22
  And of course, if no one's told you today.
• 36:24
  Lemme be the first.
• 36:25
  You are awesome.
• 36:26
  Yes, you are created.
• 36:27
  Awesome.
• 36:27
  It's just a burden you have got to bear.
• 36:31
  So let's just make sure our product copy is also awesome and we'll kill it.
• 36:36
  Let me know how you get on, make sure you can connect with me on
• 36:39
  social media at Matt Edmundson.
• 36:41
  Love to see you on there.
• 36:43
  Uh, let know how you're getting on.
• 36:44
  Love to hear your stories.
• 36:45
  But that's it from me.
• 36:46
  I'll see you next time.
• 36:47
  Bye for now.