As a marketer if I could pick just one focus area it would be product page optimization. The product page is where the “moment of truth” happens.

Visitors engaged on the product page are telling us, “I see all you have to offer and this, right here, is what I’m most intrigued by.”

Shoppers enter your site looking to buy one item. Therefore, as far as they’re concerned, your entire site is one product page.

A different take on Product Page Optimization

Products are typically sold by talking about things like features and benefits, current price specials, glowing reviews, product photos, etc.

But these are table stakes (meeting minimum customer expectations), and not deal closers.

Fork in the road

Irrespective of how they get on the product page, the potential buyer chooses between 2 options:

If they choose “Let me sleep on it” there’s a 68% chance we’ve lost them. It’s going to kill our product page optimization chances.

As a marketer, it’s my job to make the business case, which is my product story.

What is a product story?

It is a special type of story in which your invention is the central character. This story is so compelling and relevant to the buyer it shakes them out of apathy and gets them invested in your cause.

Stories??

You might be thinking, “I run an eCommerce site, why the hell will I care about stories? I sell product.”

Turns out, there is an anthropological reason for this. Check the Additional Resources section at the bottom of the this article to learn more. For now, let’s look at how to use storytelling to increase your revenues.

The two aspects of a product story

1: “why we exist”
2: “why this product must exist”

We’re living in a world where shoppers have more choices than ever and their attention has never been more fragmented. “why we exist” and “why our product must exist” stories break through the clutter and grab the buyer’s attention.

Think of your site as a hurdle race where the shopper has to overcome hurdles before they are ready to use their credit card.

The first hurdle is “who are you and why should I care?” and this is what the “why we exist” section answers. At this point, we’re trying to get the site visitor over the unfamiliarity hump.

Your “why we exist” story really matters. KoMarketing did a survey where they asked “Once you’re on the homepage, what information do you want to see available?“. 52% said About / Company Information.

Once they’re sold on the “why we exist” story they move to hurdle 2: “I like you and understand why you exist but what makes your product the best?“

This is what the “why this product must exist” question answers.

I’d like to return to “why we exist” story for a minute. Think of it this way, “why we exist” fill all the space that isn’t taken by “why this product must exist.”

You know what, I’ll just make a video:

These 2 questions are central characters in the product page optimization saga. Nail them and experience a 20% sales bump.

Extracting “why we exist” and “why this product must exist” stories

In our experience working with clients, we find that while they have a really compelling story, they are often unaware of it -or- just too shy to talk about it. To overcome this natural hesitation we have a role-play exercise.

Fill in the blanks:

You are sitting at an upscale bar enjoying a delicious cocktail. It’s been a good week.

Someone sits next to you. You get talking and hit it off. You tell them about your business. They smile and lean in with interest.

Turns out, they’ve been looking for __________. This is a crazy moment of serendipity.

They’ve visited plenty of online review sites and seen plenty of products, but just haven’t found the right model. If anything, there are too many options out there, and now are paralyzed by choice.

They ask, “Mind if I play around on your site on my phone right now?”

You say, “Absolutely!”

20 minutes later, they are ready with questions:

These aren’t all the questions one can ask. These are just the most common ones. You’ll need to expand on this list to cover the topics you want to explore in your story.

You need to pat yourself on the back, you’ve pulled out the sole of your story. We need to use this to craft your product story masterpiece. That’s what you need if you want to generate a 20% sales lift.

You must be thinking: “We we” product page optimization!

Some marketers have misunderstood our emphasis on “why we exist” and “why this product must exist”. It comes off as being all about the seller. They argue, “why will the buyer care about how great we are?”

This is a valid concern. “Why we exist” and “why this product must exist” stories can be crafted how you want them.

Most retailers don’t even have a product story. So, given a choice between no story and a we we story I’d start with the latter. However, once the we we centric product story is live and doing its product page optimization job we can start making it more subtle by reframing it less from the perspective of the seller and more from the perspective of the buyer. Ultimately, this version will have the biggest product page optimization impact.

You must be thinking: “I see the importance of product page optimization but which product page should I focus on?”

Good question. Crafting a conversion-boosting product story isn’t easy and if you have a 20 product website it can be hard to know where to start.

So start with one of two of your most important product pages. The ones that drive the most net profits. Start there.

As results come in reinvest and start applying the product story treatment to your other pages. With practice, you’ll get quicker. Even if these secondary product pages don’t drive as much revenue it’ll be worth it because optimizing their product pages will not take as long.

You must be thinking: Long-tail distribution?

It’s possible you don’t have any one or two pages that drive the bulk of revenue. Your sales are divided between 50 odd items. Optimizing one or two pages will not cut it.

For this situation, I suggest focusing on the “why we exist” side of the product story.

The “why we exist” story is easier to craft because it doesn’t have to be written from the perspective of any one product. You can write it without thinking about your product. This story is your origin story.

The simplest way to test the “why we exist” story is to make a call-to-action button called “why we exist” and place it on your most visible pages. Set it so when a visitor clicks the button all other instances of the button get hidden. This maximizes button visibility without making it annoying for people who have already clicked it.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Here are some additional resources we’ve developed for you. Click on the link to learn more about these interesting topics that will help you increase your revenues:

If you want to learn about how returning visitors behave, when they choose to return at all, read this.

If you want to learn more about the magical power of storytelling, read: Storytelling In Marketing.

If you want to learn more about KoMarketing’s report on how buyers respond to eCommerce websites, read this.

If you want to learn how to use your product story to create a masterpiece that leads to a 20% bump to your product page’s conversions, read: How To Develop A Product Story.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Driving sales by increasing ad spend is easy.

Mad skill is leaving ad budgets untouched and still managing to boost star performer sales.

We (Frictionless Commerce) grow bestseller sales 20% for companies that have invented a better consumer product and do $2 to $15MM in Shopify revenue. And we do this within the first 90 days.

If you like doing the hard work yourself, our founder Rishi shares ecommerce conversion ideas on LinkedIn everyday. Connect with him here.

If you want to make your life easier and still increase conversions, let’s jump on a call.