Story telling for your online business marketing - like Etsy shop

 Is story telling necessary in your product description for your online business marketing  success?

Why do you need to tell stories in your product description for your online business like Etsy shop?

Is it essential to spend so much time and energy to weave stories for describing your products ?

 I did not think so, and I  did not pay much attention.

Yesterday some thing happened that changed my view.

 An item from my Etsy store got sold and the buyer wrote me a message that the story behind the making of the jewelry intrigued her and she thinks my jewelry will  find a good home with her.

Galaxy Necklace- Knitted silver wire with antique crystals

Inspiration

 How touching.

I had been reading about the importance story telling  in the  product description and lately took some time to revise and rewrite the product descriptions of many of  my items  in my online Etsy shop. It was indeed a lot of work and I wished I could spend that time in designing and making jewelry. But now I am convinced that it pays off.

What I have learned in this process and from many valuable resources are:

* Basic description:

Yes, you need to give the basic description and dimension of your products, the colors and the exact information about  the materials used.  But with good pictures they may be obvious and redundant.  So you need to go beyond that.  

*Appeal to senses and emotions

Bring vocabulary from  all the  five senses, not just the visual one. Use delicious words to describe-  suggests Jessica Howard. For example use mango, or melon, instead of the ordinary orange to enhance the shade or the color of orange. The online customer can not touch or feel your products, so  give him these sensations with your words.

*Connect with the buyer.

 How  buying this product is  going to solve any of her problems or make her extra special owning it?   Can you convince her?   Hard, but give it a try.

Give her the feeling of owning it and why it is absolutely essential.  You have no other tools, nothing but words and yes, pictures.  So use them with care.

 *Answer in a nutshell – “What’s in it for me?”

 This is what the buyer wonders when she is browsing.

Yes, your online customers are pleased to know that you are passionate about your art, but how does that affect him or  benefit him?

Online shoppers have less time and patience.  So answer this basic question quickly. Brevity is crucial.

 How possessing your product can make him feel special or solve his problem?

 Wow them with your art, but grab them with your writing-  says Deanna Roux

So, in a nut shell you have to give your potential customers a compelling story about your product that will impress him enough  to buy.

“I think more people want to have stories about the things in their life” says Bradford Shellhammer- co founder of Fab.com. 

I hear the echo in  Ki Mae Henssner’ s voice  in the article How new commerce sites like Etsy, Fab.com...challenge mass production model.

Therefore, I understand that it is crucial to write a good story in a nutshell to impress the  online customers.  This is one thing you can do  that mass production can not do.

But then read the comments on theEtsy team forum about Marketing with your stories 

 There are mixed opinions and some are strong against telling stories for product description.

Many of them think that most buyers really do not care for stories and rather would  go for the facts of the products and that is what they are expecting.

So why waste time in telling stories in your product description?

What about you?

What do you think as a buyer or seller?  Is it that important?

Some business topics:

Why Niche Marketing is Essential
 Strategies to boost online business and sales in Etsy shop