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All dropshipping entrepreneurs understand the importance of regular sales, building their customer base, and retaining it.
However, one corner of successful dropshipping is often overlooked: copywriting.
High-converting sales and marketing copy can make the difference between someone clicking through to your website, signing up for your mailing list, or even making a purchase.
In fact, good copywriting can increase revenue by as much as 240%!
As such, poor-quality written content that lacks personality and detail won’t cut it. If anything, it will turn customers off.
So, how can you enhance your dropshipping business with great eCommerce copywriting?
Let’s take a look. But first, a bit of background:
In a nutshell, eCommerce copywriting is any written content that promotes your brand, the products you sell, and/or communicates your brand personality.
More specifically, eCommerce copywriting often aims to:
Of course, the above isn't an exhaustive list, but hopefully, you get the gist.
With that said, it will come as no surprise that eCommerce copywriting includes a range of text on your online store and digital marketing collateral, for example, your:
...and more.
So, what are the hallmarks of good eCommerce copywriting?
It might be easier to imagine what bad copywriting looks like. I.e., bland, poorly written, and lacking personality.
You need to create the opposite to influence customers to invest their trust in your brand.
So, to help you achieve that, here are our top ten tips for writing high-converting eCommerce copy:
Before you start writing, you have to understand who you’re writing for. Otherwise, your copy will seem generic and disorganized.
Ideally, you would have already identified your target audience when setting up your store, including their average:
...and more.
All the above information is a good starting point for creating tailored content that resonates with your customers. However, it would help if you also understand your audience’s psychology. Not only do you need to know what they like and dislike, but you also need to understand what causes them to buy from you.
In other words, know your audience persona.
Once you've outlined your target audience, the simplest way to gain deeper insights into their persona is to list all the products you sell and determine who would benefit from them.
Once you understand who benefits the most from what you’re selling, you'll have a better idea of who your audience is and how it thinks, making it easier to write copy explicitly aimed at them.
With that information at the forefront of your mind, visit where they hang out online. Check out which social media platforms they use, what they like/comment on, and what they share.
Note the kind of content they engage with and use your findings to fuel copy that's better suited to their tastes.
In addition to browsing social media, you can use the following tools to flesh out your audience's persona:
The more information you have about your customers, the easier it is to write a copy that converts.
Assuming you know your brand, its personality, and who your target audience is, now it's time to develop a writing style that engages your ideal customer while expressing your brand's ethos.
As mentioned above, always consider your target audience when writing eCommerce copy. Just as when you speak face-to-face with someone, your choice of words on the page will make all the difference in how you come across.
Points to remember when establishing your tone of voice include:
If your audience is confused about what you're selling, they’ll click away and go elsewhere. It’s that simple.
That’s why every sentence you write must be unambiguous. To achieve that, you need to be crystal clear about what you're selling and who you're selling to.
For example, let's say you want to write a product page with a product description outlining your product's benefits.
In this scenario, we'll use sports clothes as an example.
To write about the benefits of your clothes, you need to know what your customers' "pain points" are.
In this instance, they might be:
...and so on.
If your product solves your customer's issues, mention this in your product description.
Not only does this provide a "why" for why they should buy your merchandise, but it also shows you know what they need. This builds credibility and works wonders for engaging your audience, piquing their interest in what you have to sell.
Building on point three, people won't bother to plow through your text if it's difficult to read. So, here are a few pointers to help boost your copy's readability:
Remember, your audience is busy. They don’t have time to wade through tons of rambling text that takes them nowhere. That said, conveying your brand’s energy, love, and enthusiasm for what you sell is also essential. So, be sure to get the balance right!
Pro Tip: If in doubt, take a step back. Revert back to the audience persona mentioned above, and imagine yourself as a customer looking to buy. What do they want to know about your product before buying it? Apply that to your writing!
Knowing how people engage with copywriting allows you to optimize your text for maximum effect.
So, here are a few stats on how people read online:
Of course, your audience’s online reading habits may differ.
However, if you haven’t operated long enough to accumulate this kind of data, use the above findings as a good starting point for fine-tuning your copy for the utmost engagement.
Here’s a big one.
Yes, your copy must address your target customer. However, you stand a better chance of people stumbling across your website if it appears higher in online searches.
The answer to this is SEO.
For the uninitiated, SEO stands for search engine optimization. This is the process of improving your online store to enhance its visibility in search engines like Google and Bing.
Interestingly, the text on your website has a significant bearing on your SEO. More specifically, we’re referring to incorporating keywords shoppers search for into your product titles, descriptions, and other website content.
So, before you start writing, you’ll need to research which keywords drive the most traffic.
There are free tools to help with this:
Pro Tip: It’s worth considering long-tail keywords, i.e., phrases comprising 4+ words. Typically, the longer the keyword, the less traffic it generates. However, long-tail keywords tend to be more specific and convey the user's intent.
If you can pinpoint long-tail keywords that drive 100+ searches a month and also convey a clear intent to purchase, these are ideal!
So, for example, if you sell soap, instead of optimizing a web page for the keyword: “handmade soap,” try “handmade eco-friendly soap.”
Or, rather than just adding “shoes” as a keyword, be more specific, such as “vegan leather shoes,” and so on.
Of course, you’ll need to do some keyword research using one of the tools mentioned above to validate whether the keywords generate enough searches, but hopefully, these examples give you a better idea of what we’re talking about!
Start creating a list of keywords and naturally incorporating them throughout your website. Don’t overstuff content with keywords; Google will penalize you for that.
Instead, include the keyword you’re looking to optimize your web page for in the following places in a way that reads intuitively:
Plenty of guides exist on creating SEO descriptions, so check these out before diving into your SEO keyword endeavors.
Storytelling evokes emotion in people, enabling customers to better connect with your brand. The stats bear this out: On average, people retain only 5% to 10% of information from statistics alone. However, when they hear a story, they remember 65% to 70%!
What could this mean for boosting brand recognition?
If you’re wondering how to utilize storytelling, your ‘About Us’ page is the best place for it.
You may find the following prompts helpful:
How did you come to launch your business? For example, did you start as a solopreneur but now employ team members who feel like family in your successful dropshipping business? Did you start out in college and move from strength to strength?
What’s your brand’s ethos and values? Interestingly, one study found that 83% of customers are willing to pay more for ethically sourced products. So, say you’re selling garden furniture; if it’s made using eco-friendly materials, tell the story of that product’s journey to your store and why you chose to sell it.
Here are a few other questions to ask yourself:
We touched on this higher up and can’t stress enough that if you walk in your customers’ shoes, you’ll offer them the content they need.
Instead of taking a reactive approach to providing customers with information, imagine what customers want to know and include it on your website.
You could incorporate an FAQs section on your product pages to pre-preemptively answer customers' concerns.
Pro Tip: Whenever a customer messages with a question, note this down and add it to your FAQ section. There’s a good chance they’re not the only ones with similar queries!
Your online store should be peppered with ‘calls to action.’ These are buttons or links that prompt users to take a specific action, such as "Buy Now" buttons.
With that said, here are a few tips for writing high-converting calls to action:
What about your longer-form content? There’s no point in having a blog on your store if it’s boring, repeats the same idea over and over, or is unrelated to what your brand sells.
No one can teach you to think laterally or be creative, but you can generate blog ideas by researching your competitors and trying to think outside the box.
For example, let’s say you sell jewelry and watches. Instead of writing great long blogs about the benefits of each product type, consider the following:
…and so on.
Other inspirations for blog posts include:
If you’re still stuck for topic ideas, you could use tools like Semrush’s Content Ideas or head to Google, where you’ll find tons of blogs offering ideas or tips on how to find ideas for your blog.
This is not an exhaustive list of eCommerce copywriting tips for dropshipping entrepreneurs, but hopefully, we’ve provided enough advice to set you in the right direction.
Telling interesting, perhaps amusing, and uplifting stories about your products and your brand will help you retain your customers’ attention and create an emotional connection with your brand.
Copywriting needn’t be intimidating. Ultimately, you don’t want to bore your audience into leaving your site! Remember to avoid plagiarism and, above all, have fun creating high-converting copy!
Rosie Greaves is a professional content strategist specializing in all things digital marketing, B2B, and lifestyle. In addition to Spocket, you can find her published on Reader's Digest, E-commerce Platforms, and Judicious Inc. Check out her website Blog with Rosie for more information.
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