Before we can talk about product page optimization we need to establish why product pages matter so damn much:

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.

The Magic 🪄 of Product Page Optimization

The product page is the last stop in the window shopping experience. Our hero knows what happens beyond the Add to Basket button:

Not every element on the product page matters– one element matters the most. Read on.

5 Product Page Optimization Levers

Your product page has 5 basic building blocks:

1– Price

Reducing price does lift conversions but is a race to the bottom. Best to leave price untouched.

2– Product Reviews

Product reviews really matter but …

You could have 5,000 five ⭐️ reviews and if the latest four are negative your conversion rate will dip. Little you can do about that.

3– Product Photos/Videos

Expensive to do a reshoot.

4– Page Design

Page redesigns are expensive as hell and require input by a committee, which is a nightmare.

5– And …

The last woman standing is your product description. Updating the description is 5x easier to do 🆚 a redesign. It’s also way more impactful.

Now that we know where to focus our effort there’s one more detail that needs to be discussed.

Do you have a few star bestselling products or are your sales divided across a large number of products? The answer to that question will determine the flavor of product page optimization we use. That’s covered next.

Find Your Center of Gravity

Some sites have a clear bestseller. Bose.com carries dozens of audio innovations but I’d imagine this QuietComfort 45 is their bestseller since it’s what Bose is iconically associated with:

But that’s Bose. Your site might not have a clear bestseller– just a large collection of products that drive overall sales. If that’s the case you need to think about improving conversions at the product page template level because it doesn’t make sense to construct a sales pitch for any one product. That strategy is covered in this important article: Maximize Conversions With “Why We Exist” Story.

Now, if you do have a standalone bestseller where it does make sense to invest 100 hours of optimization time for a 20% lift, then the next section is for you.

How to Think About Your Product Description

Think of your product page as a Sales Pitch.

The Entrepreneur’s Mistake

Marketers Make Two Big Mistakes With Product Descriptions

Mistake 1: They use the Product Description page (PDP) to simply state features and benefits. The reality is that your:

Mistake 2: Keep the description short and to the point.

Your product page is your sales pitch and once it’s been constructed it needs to be presented to shoppers. These shoppers will discover it as micro-improvements and as a long-form sales pitch, which is described next.

Your Product Page Is Visited by Two Characters– Skimmers and Diggers

One can segment shoppers in a variety of ways but only two segments matter– Skimmers and Diggers.

Skimmers like to skim. They want quick information. They are in a hurry. “Just the facts for me, please.” says the Skimmer.

The Digger is the opposite. He’s the type of person who can spend a whole afternoon researching a topic online.

To dominate your space you need to figure out a way to talk to both of these segments. Learn those secrets in this post: Tell Me More About Skimmers and Diggers.

Deconstruction

Is the methodical process where a page is broken down into its smallest elements. It might seem counter-intuitive, but it’s remarkable what deconstruction does to the potency of the idea that emerges at the end of this process. Learn more in this article: The Magic of Deconstruction.

Selling Angles

Sales pitches are constructed on top of killer Selling Angles. The Selling Angles help the marketer to prioritize the key details that need to be focused on. It’s the basis on which our main sales pitch is built. Learn more here: Conversion Secret: Selling Angles.

Micro-improvements

At the end of the Deconstruction process, the marketer fully understands what the Control (the baseline state of the page we’re planning to improve) is all about. We understand what that page has to say about the product and how to say it. We need to understand this before getting into making micro-improvements.

What are micro-improvements? Micro-improvements are enhancements designed to improve clarity and provide more without changing the plumbing of the page. You can learn all about them in this post: Product Page Optimization Secret: Micro-Improvements.

Write Your Long-Form Sales Pitch

If micro-improvements are appetizers long-form sales pitch is the entree. Without a doubt, it is the beating heart of our conversion rate optimization process and it’s yours for free here: Write Your Long-Form Sales Pitch.

Feedback Beacons

Once the steps above are complete we need to add feedback beacons to the micro-improvements and the long-form sales pitch. Feedback beacons help us understand if individual elements of our Sales Pitch, especially our main Selling Angles, resonate with the shopper. These beacons are quick, interactive page elements that allow you to collect feedback from actual hot prospects as they are consuming your sales pitch.

As discussed in great detail in this post: How Using Feedback Beacons Is Basically Cheating.

Building An Effective A/B Testing Strategy

You should be proud– you’ve reached a stage very few marketers reach. You’ve gained access to ideas that will help you make the competition irrelevant. But one question remains– how do you orchestrate all that we’ve learned into a successful test outcome. Clearly, you aren’t going to get to the promised land after the first test (86% of A/B tests fail), so what you need is an A/B testing plan that directs you to the winner as quickly as possible: Building An Effective A/B Testing Strategy.

Recap

So we’ve reached the end of Chapter 4 and this also concludes our story. We started by talking about conversion rate optimization, then dove into the incredibly beautiful topic of buyer psychology, then went into conversion copywriting, and then got into product page optimization.

For the sake of readability, we have simplified a few details. But these ideas absolutely work as you can see from our 16 case studies.

You could absolutely follow this process yourself but if you don’t have the time and if your Shopify site is doing over $4 million in annual sales or if your bestseller is doing over $1 million in online sales then may want to consider talking to us. The benefit of working with us is that we’ve done this process so many damn times we can do it in our sleep.

I’m happy to jump on a call.