Posts from September 2022

HOW TO WRITE A THESIS: Steps by step guide

In the academic world, one of the hallmark rites signifying mastery of a course or academic area is the writing of a thesis. Essentially a thesis is a typewritten work, usually 50 to 350 pages in length depending on institutions, discipline, and educational level which is often aimed at addressing a particular problem in a given field.

While a thesis is inadequate to address all the problems in a given field, it is succinct enough to address a specialized aspect of the problem by taking a stance or making a claim on what the resolution of the problem should be. Writing a thesis can be a very daunting task because most times it is the first complex research undertaking for the student. The lack of research and writing skills to write a thesis coupled with fear and a limited time frame are factors that makes the writing of a thesis daunting. However, commitment to excellence on the part of the student combined with some of the techniques and methods that will be discussed below gives a fair chance that the student will be able to deliver an excellent thesis regardless of the subject area, the depth of the research specialization and the daunting amount of materials that must be comprehended(RE: write a thesis or writing a thesis).

What is a thesis?

A thesis is a statement, theory, argument, proposal or proposition, which is put forward as a premise to be maintained or proved. It explains the stand someone takes on an issue and how the person intends to justify the stand. It is always better to pick a topic that will be able to render professional help, a topic that you will be happy to talk about with anybody, a topic you have personal interest and passion for, because when writing a thesis gets frustrating personal interest, happiness and passion coupled with the professional help it will be easier to write a great thesis (see you through the thesis). One has to source for a lot of information concerning the topic one is writing a thesis on in order to know the important question, because for you to take a good stand on an issue you have to study the evidence first.

• A good thesis must solve an existing problem in the society, organisation, government among others.
• A good thesis should be contestable, it should propose a point that is arguable which people can agree with or disagree.
• It is specific, clear and focused.
• A good thesis does not use general terms and abstractions.

• The claims of a good thesis should be definable and arguable.
• It anticipates the counter-arguments
• It does not use unclear language
• It avoids the first person. (“In my opinion”)
• A strong thesis should be able to take a stand and not just taking a stand but should be able to justify the stand that is taken, so that the reader will be tempted to ask questions like how or why.
• The thesis should be arguable, contestable, focused, specific, and clear. Make your thesis clear, strong and easy to find.
• The conclusion of a thesis should be based on evidence.

Types of reports

Reports can be further divided into categories based on how they are written. For example, a report could be formal or informal, short or long, and internal or external. In business, a vertical report shares information with people on different levels of the hierarchy (i.e., people who work above you and below you), while a lateral report is for people on the author’s same level, but in different departments.

The structure of a report depends on the type of report and the requirements of the assignment. While reports can use their own unique structure, most follow this basic template:

• Executive summary: Just like an abstract in an academic paper, an executive summary is a standalone section that summarizes the findings in your report so readers know what to expect. These are mostly for official reports and less so for school reports.
• Introduction: Setting up the body of the report, your introduction explains the overall topic that you’re about to discuss, with your thesis statement and any need-to-know background information before you get into your own findings.
• Body: The body of the report explains all your major discoveries, broken up into headings and subheadings. The body makes up the majority of the entire report; whereas the introduction and conclusion are just a few paragraphs each, the body can go on for pages.
• Conclusion: The conclusion is where you bring together all the information in your report and come to a definitive interpretation or judgment. This is usually where the author inputs their own personal opinions or inferences.

If you’re familiar with how to write a research paper , you’ll notice that report writing follows the same introduction-body-conclusion structure, sometimes adding an executive summary. Reports usually have their own additional requirements as well, such as title pages and tables of content, which we explain in the next section.

What should be included in a report?

There are no firm requirements for what’s included in a report. Every school, company, laboratory, task manager, and teacher can make their own format, depending on their unique needs. In general, though, be on the lookout for these particular requirements—they tend to crop up a lot:

• Title page: Official reports often use a title page to keep things organized; if a person has to read multiple reports, title pages make them easier to keep track of.
• Table of contents: Just like in books, the table of contents helps readers go directly to the section they’re interested in, allowing for faster browsing.
• Page numbering: A common courtesy if you’re writing a longer report, page numbering makes sure the pages are in order in the case of mix-ups or misprints.
• Headings and subheadings: Reports are typically broken up into sections, divided by headings and subheadings, to facilitate browsing and scanning.
• Citations: If you’re citing information from another source, the citations guidelines tell you the recommended format.
• Works cited page: A bibliography at the end of the report lists credits and the legal information for the other sources you got information from.

Resource:

https://thesismind.com/write-a-thesis/
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-write-a-report/

What Is a Meta Description?

Meta descriptions are brief snippets of up to 155 characters that you see below post and page titles in the SERPs. They can tell you what you’ll find if you click on any given result.

It’s important to note that meta descriptions aren’t factors in Google’s ranking algorithm. Adding this custom text doesn’t directly boost rankings. However, a great meta description can convince users to click on your pages instead of the other options in the results pages. Even if your page isn’t ranked #1.

A good meta description provides the searcher with enough information to decide whether to check out a page or not. If you don’t add this text manually, search engines generate one directly from the beginning of the content. Usually, that means you end up with meta descriptions that don’t provide enough information, that are wholly out of context, or simply don’t make sense in snippet form.

You can also see meta descriptions that provide information without making it clear what the content as a whole will include. Take a look at these examples below. The meta descriptions tell you nothing that the search query and title don’t already, making them essentially useless for searchers.

Overall, though, most users do hoose search results based on rankings. In fact, the first result on a search page gets almost 30 percent of all clicks. As you move down the list, results get increasingly fewer clicks. It’s sad, but it’s true.

Fortunately, a great title paired with an informative meta description can prompt undecided users to choose your page over others. Plus, WordPress makes it easy to add meta text to your content, thanks to SEO plugins.

How to Write the Perfect Meta Description

1. Keep the description below 155 characters. Longer text can prevent users from seeing the entirety of the meta description.
2. Explain what users will see. The goal of a meta description is to provide information about the page. You want to be straightforward about the content’s true nature, instead of going for a “clickbait” approach.
3. Mention the benefits of the content. An excellent meta description lets readers know how they can benefit from the article they’re about to read.
4. Include your target keyword(s). If possible, we recommend including your target keyword in meta descriptions. However, the keyphrase shouldn’t feel forced (just as it shouldn’t elsewhere in your content).

Meeting all of those goals in 155 characters or fewer might seem challenging. However, writing great meta descriptions for SEO is a skill you’ll master quickly if you publish a lot of content.

That description has 139 characters, meaning it has some room to spare. It mentions the post’s essentials and explains what a searcher can gain from reading it. Moreover, it includes an effective Call to Action (CTA).

155 characters can be restrictive. Even Twitter bumped its limit to 280 characters from 140 because it was too limiting. If you’re working with in-depth posts that cover many topics, you might struggle to mention all of them in a meta description. Ultimately, you’ll have to decide what information is the most important to include.

We recommend using this tip to make your descriptions actionable: compel readers to check out your pages and posts using phrases such as “let’s talk about”, or “here’s how to”. These simple, action-based terms can entice readers to click on your content.

Meta Description Length: Make it SEO Friendly

In May of 2020, Google’s John Mueller answered a question about using multiple meta descriptions. He said, “So, if you’re including a second meta description tag on a page we will treat that the same as if you just extend the existing meta tag on the page. there’s no kind of bonus to using a second meta description tag on a page compared to just adjusting your existing one.”

SEJ reported that John Mueller stated Google can handle extra title and meta descriptions, but that publishers should stick to writing a single meta description and a single title tag per page.

However, in some instances, multiple meta description tags are used deliberately. The reason for this is to give a search engine additional options when it comes to displaying meta information that matches a user’s search query.

Purposefully Using Multiple Meta Descriptions

Naturally, these have two significantly different search intents but are inherently related to one another. The idea of having multiple meta descriptions is then to craft two separate descriptions that relate to each phrase.

Therefore, if a user queries “what is keyword research” search engines would display our result with the meta description tailored to the “what is keyword research” search query. Equally, if a user was to search for “keyword research tools”, the second tailored meta description would maybe be displayed.

It is worth noting that there is no guarantee that a search engine will adhere to picking your desired meta description so it is at your own risk to implement multiple descriptions.

How To Implement Multiple Meta Descriptions

This will add one meta description to your page. In order to add multiple, you must repeat this process, adding a second meta description between the tags. This would appear as follows:

To maximize the effectiveness of multiple meta descriptions, they should reflect the search intent of the highest volume keywords the pages rank for or are trying to rank for. This will then give search engines the opportunity to select the most relevant meta description for the user’s search.

Should You Use Multiple Meta Descriptions?

Unless you are purposefully trying to influence the search engine results as outlined above, then it’s generally considered best practice to only include one meta description for each post created.

Within a page that you are optimizing you should include your target topics & keywords, whilst also ensuring the content is 100% unique and satisfies the user intent of the top queries you are trying to rank for.

Meta Descriptions and SEO

Meta descriptions themselves are not ranking factors – that is to say, if you take a site that doesn’t have a meta description and add one, that alone won’t boost your ranking, or even change it.

Think back to those two hair salons we looked at earlier – which one do you think you’d be more likely to click? If you’re anything like me, the answer is almost certainly Bob and Page.

One of the most important ranking factors is click through rate (CTR). CTR is basically the number of people who actually click your link when they see it – those who want a technical deep dive on the subject can read this fascinating article about CTR as a ranking factor on WordStream.

You should also keep in mind that the whole point of SEO is to increase your CTR. The higher you rank on search engines, the more likely it is people will go to your website – a high click through rate creates a positive feedback loop.

What does all this have to do with meta descriptions? The answer is simple: if you’ve got bad copy, I’m not interested in what you’re selling. Your meta description is the copy people see when they search for keywords related to your site – it’s your elevator pitch. You’ve got one chance to entice people to come to your website – don’t waste it.

How to Create a Great Meta Description

Keywords and Location

You’ll want to do keyword research to determine what keywords or phrases you’re trying to rank for, and include those terms in your meta description. When a user searches for those terms, they may end up bolded in your description, which can entice users to click on your page.

Search engines are getting pretty good at what’s known as natural language processing (NLP). That means instead of simply viewing a word as a piece of data, they’re getting better at understanding language in the same way humans understand language.

Notice that in the examples provided above, the word salon is bolded, even though my search didn’t include the word salon. That’s because Google understands hair salon to be a synonym for what I’m looking for (a good haircut). In other words, you can use synonyms and terms that are semantically related to your desired keywords when you write meta descriptions. That’s a good thing, because keyword stuffing can actively hurt CTR – it makes for bad copy.

Location is simple enough: talk about the region, city, or neighbourhood that your page primarily serves. This won’t always be relevant, but make sure to include it when it applies (e.g. product pages catered to a certain location).

Use Active Voice and Make It Actionable

Sources:

https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/wordpress/how-to-write-the-perfect-meta-description-for-seo
https://www.semrush.com/blog/on-page-seo-basics-meta-descriptions/
https://firstrank.ca/local-seo-guide/what-is-a-meta-description/

How to promote your blog on social media

Whether you’re blogging for business or blogging as a hobby that you hope to one day turn into a business, odds are you work really hard on the posts you create. When you put all those hours and energy into writing and working to promote your blog posts, there are few things more devastating than getting little to no traffic.

Search engines also give more weight to the content shared on social media sites like Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. because it’s telling them the information on your links is valuable. This means that when people search for keywords that are included in your blog posts, those posts are more likely to rank higher in search results — meaning more traffic to your site.

13 Ways to promote your Instagram Page

1. Ramp up your content production

And speaking of which, that’s also why Instagram Stories are so valuable. Off-the-cuff content via Stories essentially allows you to “skip the line” and appear front-and-center in people’s feeds. Not only that, but you can freely post Story after Story without worrying about spamming your fans.

The takeaway here is that Instagram moves much quicker than it did a year or two ago in terms of content. Brands should ramp up if they want to keep up. To create content that your audience will love, make sure you have a comprehensive strategy in place and are using data to create more successful content. Download our Instagram marketing strategy guide to learn more.

A Guide to Instagram for Brands: Creating an Instagram Marketing Strategy

2. Cross-promote your Instagram posts across other networks

Although cross-promotion is a smart move, bear in mind that each social platform has its own best practices. For example, Instagram tends to go heavier on the hashtags while you might want to craft a slightly different description for images posted to Facebook.

Sprout Social’s Asset Library enables you to store images, videos and text in a centralized location for use across multiple social networks. Quickly find, edit and publish directly from the Asset Library to deliver engaging posts that are tailored to whatever network you’re using.

3. Focus on people-centric content

The popularity of selfies on Instagram speaks for itself, as does customer photos and pictures of people using products in real-world settings. Much of the appeal of Instagram is that brands are capable of advertising in a more human way without bombarding followers with messages that scream “BUY NOW!”

And on a related note, this is exactly why user-generated content such as customer photos are such a goldmine for brands. Not only do folks on the ‘gram love it when brands shout them out, but customer photos represent marketing firepower that proves that people dig your products.

4. Experiment with branded and industry hashtags

Beyond your own hashtags, you should try to promote your Instagram using more general, community hashtags specific to your industry such as #6strings (music) or #unicornhair (beauty). Tacking on extra tags essentially makes your posts searchable by tag-followers and instantly increases your reach.

As noted in our guide detailing how to use hashtags across every social network, engagement peaks at approximately nine hashtags. Although you can certainly use less (or more), the takeaway here is that you should at the very least add something.

And with Sprout’s Advanced Listening, you can move beyond quantitative data to find qualitative insights related to hashtags, allowing you to fully understand campaign performance and measure share of voice. Additionally, you can identify related hashtags to dive deeper into the brand-relevant conversations consumers are having on social.

5. Tag brands, followers and locations whenever you can

For example, you can tag other brands and accounts in hopes of a shout-out yourself. Given that notifications ping anyone who receives them, relevant tags are a subtle way to encourage promotion.

Likewise, it’s both courtesy and within Instagram’s best practices to tag anyone you might be regramming. Chances are they’ll be thrilled to be featured in your feed and will share the news with their own followers.

Part 2 – Blog promotion

In Part 2, we’ll take a look at the different ways you can promote each blog post. This is not meant to be an exhaustive checklist that you should follow religiously. Rather it’s a list of ideas you can try, and see which works best for you.

Note: Before you start, it’s a good idea to prepare a simple text file with information you can reuse on several platforms. This will speed up the promotion process. The following is an example of what we use at Blogging Wizard:

• URL – start with your standard blog post URL.
• Headline variations – write out 3-5 headline variations for your post.
• Short social messages – write out several short social messages for use on Twitter. These can be quotes, questions, or based on headline variations.
• Longer social messages – write out several slightly longer social messages for use on LinkedIn, and Facebook, etc. Popular copywriting formulas work well here.
• Contact information – mentioned a person or brand in the post? Include their contact info – Twitter account, email address, etc. You’ll want to let them know they’ve been mentioned.
• UTM tracking URL’s (optional) – use Google’s Campaign URL Builder to create a tracking link for each platform you promote your article on. This will help you track traffic more accurately.
• Shortlinks (optional) – tracking links can look messy. Using a URL shortener will tidy them up.

2.1 – Email marketing

Email your list

Emailing your list of subscribers is one of the best ways to start driving traffic to your latest blog post. But don’t leave it there. Ask them to comment, like, and share it with their community so that you can reach a wider circle of people.

Use an email signature

Include a link to your latest blog post in your email signature. It’s a simple and subtle way to promote your content. And you never know which recipient might click and read. Try WiseStamp for a professional email signature with links to your social profiles and latest blog post:

Email your contacts

Now and then, email your contacts (friends, family, etc.) and ask them to share your latest blog post. You never know how far the ripple effect will spread. Always ask politely and offer to help them in some way.

Ask a colleague to email their list

If you have friends and colleagues working in the same or a similar niche, then you could ask them to email their list. Perhaps you could agree to do the same for them in return. But again, don’t do this for every post you publish.

2.2 – Social media marketing

Sharing your content on social media is still an excellent way to get more visibility, and ultimately increase traffic and shares. But it’s not just a case of posting once on Facebook and then moving onto something else. You need to have a social media marketing strategy in place:

Popular social networks

Maintain a regular presence on your chosen social networks and post consistently. Don’t just turn up when you have a new blog post to share. Social media is a two-way channel, so engage with other people by liking and sharing their content.

Vary the message in your social media posts to suit each network. For example, tools like Blog2Social and Sendible allow you to tailor your posts per network by using a long or short message, adding relevant hashtags or mentions, and selecting a portrait or landscape image.

Reciprocal sharing sites

These next social sites all work by reciprocal sharing. You earn ‘credits’ for sharing other people’s content, which then allows you to post your content and get it shared by others.

Popular social bookmarking sites

Social bookmarking sites allow users to post their favorite stories, images, and videos, and use tags to organize them. Other users can take these ‘bookmarks’ and add them to their own collection or share them with even more users. Most of these sites also have a voting system so members can ‘upvote’ their favorite posts, which rise to the top and gain more exposure.

Niche social bookmarking sites

Social groups, communities, and forums

Online communities give you the opportunity to contribute, build relationships, and establish your authority. But, like Reddit, it won’t work if you only drop links. You have to provide more value by getting involved in discussions.

Note: Consider creating your own groups on one of these platforms. This will help you develop your online presence further. Facebook is usually the most popular option but there are plenty of alternatives to Facebook Groups. Remember: it can take a lot of effort to make your group successful.

Part 3 – Measuring your blog promotion

3.1 – Web analytics

Way back in Part 1 we mentioned installing and using some web analytics tools. Now’s the time to see what data they have for you. Whichever web analytics tool you use there’s going to be a lot of data to work through.

• Organic Search – Visitors who come to your website from search engines; e.g. Google and Bing.
• Direct – Visitors who come to your website without a traceable referral source; e.g. after typing your URL into their address bar or using a bookmark on their browser.
• Social – Visitors who come to your website from a social network; e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• Referral – Visitors who come to your website from another website by clicking on a link.
• Other – Visitors from traffic sources where the UTM_Medium parameter is incorrect.
• Paid Search – Visitors who come to your website from a paid search advert; e.g. Google AdWords
• Email – Visitors who come to your website after clicking links in your email marketing campaigns.

3.2 – Social media monitoring

As well as web analytics tools you can use social media monitoring tools to check how your blog posts are performing. Google Analytics is not brilliant at tracking social media. But there are plenty of other tools available so you can see which platform is best for promoting your blog content.

Sources:

https://www.godaddy.com/garage/how-to-promote-your-blog-on-social-media/
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/promote-your-instagram/
https://bloggingwizard.com/how-to-promote-your-blog/

Storyboarding and animatics for modern video teams. Get organized, produce your best work.

1. Do your research

The simplest way to write realistic dialogue is to write what you know. And that’s fine – unless you want to write about something outside of your day-to-day existence. In that case, you’ll need to do some research – and speak to some real people who know their stuff.

Take the Fast & Furious franchise. Maybe you want to write a screenplay for the fifteenth instalment. but you have no idea how to drive a car. In which case, you’ll want to spend some time talking to petrolheads. Preferably while sipping on a Corona.

2. Show, don’t tell

Sometimes the best dialogue is no dialogue. One of the common mistakes that first-time screenwriters make is churning out endless lines of dialogue, when all your script needs is a page of pedal to the metal action. Because action – not small talk – is what grabs an audience.

Take a look at this round-up of action clips from Live Free or Die Hard (aka Die Hard 4). As McClane and co. battle it out amid a series of explosions and gunfights, there are very few occasions where the characters actually use dialogue. After all, what needs to be said? Except for the occasional cry of “get down!” of course.

3. Use an outsider

A solid way to improve your dialogue writing is to use someone aside from the main character to give information. So instead of having our favourite boxer Rocky say “I’m better than that”, it’s much stronger to have his coach Mickey give a line of dialogue: “I think you’re a hell of a lot more than that, kid”.

Having someone else provide information makes it seem more like real life – as if there’s inside information that everyone in the story already knows. It’s a subtler way of getting your point across than making characters talk about themselves.

4. Write between the lines

How To Write Dialogue

While it’s fine to have only the spoken words in quotes, too many sentences like this can become confusing. Who just said what? You may wish to add extra information to let the reader know who is speaking. For example:

Note that only the words spoken aloud by the mother are in quotation marks. The informative tag at the end is not part of what she said, so it does not get quotation marks. You can also put the tag before a line of dialogue:

For internal dialogue, you can use quotation marks or italics to set it off, depending on the situation. Typically, first person works will use italics, but a third person work might use either.

Writing Dialogue Examples: Identifying a Speaker

When the tag comes first, it’s followed by a comma. After the comma is a space, followed by the quotation marks for the dialogue. Note that the punctuation at the end of the dialogue comes before the closing quotes. This is the order that dialogue punctuation always uses when the tag comes first:

Susan asked, “When will Daddy come home?”

I rolled my eyes at the thought of having to answer this question for the millionth time. “Soon, baby,” I offered in my most soothing tone.

“But, he said he would be home for dinner,” she wailed, “and it’s past dinnertime!”

“In life, you’ll learn there are many things that are out of our control,” I retorted through the massive wails. I continued, almost to myself, “But, we have to just carry on.”

When you choose to place your tag after the line of dialogue, the comma comes at the end of the spoken words, before the closing quotation marks. In this case, following the dialogue with a comma lets the reader know that there’s more information to come. After the comma comes the quotation marks to end the dialogue, then a space, then the tag, followed by a closing period to complete the sentence. For example:

“We were having a lovely dinner,” Michael prompted.

Doug made a short, chortling sound. “Yeah, until he showed up.”

“What’s the matter with Scott coming around?” I asked, rather astonished.

Michael dropped his fork and aimed daggers at me. “Are you kidding me, Jill? He’s a miserable, sarcastic punk.”

I blinked at him, astonished. “Well, yes,” I said. “I know that. But you two always carry on with him like you’re best friends.”

“Girl, please,” Doug retorted. “We thought you wanted us to keep the peace. Now that we know the misery he’s caused you…” He paused, seeming to search for the right words. “He’ll never walk through those two doors again.”

Note that the only exception to using a comma before the tag is when your quotation must end with a question mark or exclamation point. In this case, that punctuation replaces the comma:

How To Format Dialogue Examples

“I don’t want to go home,” said Julia. “I like it here at the zoo. The animals are all so funny.” She began to cry and then wailed, “I didn’t even get to see the elephants!”

“I know,” replied her father. “Don’t worry. We’ll come back another time.”

“The zoo is now closing. Please make your way to the exit,” came the announcement over the speaker.

Note that when Julia’s father speaks, a new paragraph begins. Another paragraph is introduced when the announcer speaks. This makes it easier for the reader to keep track of who is saying what because the new paragraph is a strong signal that someone else is speaking.

“You must know I’m very upset,” I snarled. “I even paid extra to insure the package!”

“Ms. Sullivan, please lower your voice,” the agent drawled. “I’ll search the system now.”

“Sheila Sullivan? Is this your package?” I didn’t know where the man appeared from, but I wanted to reach over the counter and give him a big, fat kiss. I’d never been so happy to see a cardboard box.

The only exception to this rule is when a character makes a long speech. In this case, you may wish to break up their dialogue into paragraphs as they change subject, just as you would in standard writing. When you do so, you begin each new paragraph with quotation marks to remind the reader that someone is still speaking, but you don’t use closing quotation marks until the speech has ended.

“I want to make sure everyone is ready for the field trip next week,” the teacher said. “That means you’ll need to pack your lunches the night before and make sure that you bring plenty of water and a bag that is comfortable to carry.

“It will be hot the day of the trip, so wear light, comfortable clothing and layers that you can remove as the day goes on. You will also need sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses.

“Finally, make sure you have fun!”

In the example above, the teacher’s long speech is broken into paragraphs to keep topics well organized. Notice that only the final paragraph of her speech has quotation marks at the end of the quoted text. When a paragraph of dialogue does not have closing quotes, it lets the reader know that the same person is still speaking.

Resource:

https://boords.com/storytelling/writing-dialogue
https://examples.yourdictionary.com/dialogue-examples.html

What is a product description?

A product description is the marketing copy on each product page that explains what a product is and why a shopper should buy it. The purpose of a product description is to give your customers any important information about a product that they are interested in buying, along with any other reasons they should purchase the product.

An ecommerce sales tool

Your product descriptions can act as a valuable sales tool for your business by helping you directly target your ideal customers. Take time to evaluate how you want to come across. Make sure that your copies are error-free to establish trust and credibility. Like a good sales pitch, the copy should capture the tone and personality of your brand and the products you sell to help you connect with potential customers.

Describe product features and benefits

Good product descriptions should cover two main aspects: features and benefits. These are the bread and butter of your product page copy. A feature is a quality or a function of a product. For example, “This laptop bag is waterproof” describes a feature.

Be as specific as possible with your product copy and make sure you are clearly describing features and benefits. Don’t just say a product is high-quality; let shoppers come to that same conclusion through the product features and benefits.

How to Write Product Descriptions That Convert

1. Do a Detailed Competitive Analysis

2. Begin by Finding Your Transactional Keywords

With SEO becoming one of the best ecommerce marketing channels to drive traffic and sales, you need to make sure your product descriptions are written with search engines in mind, too.

A lot of marketers make a mistake here by writing the product descriptions first and then optimizing them. But let me tell you, a properly planned and optimized description tends to give results faster.

Try using Semrush for keyword research and the Keyword Insights tool by Snippet Digital to identify the search intent of those keywords. When you know the search intent of the keywords, you can use the right ones for your product description.

3. Craft a Buyer & Keyword-Centric Product Description (Headings + Paragraphs)

4. Benefits vs Features First – Choose Based on Your Products

5. Consider the 4Cs of Copywriting While Writing Product Descriptions

6. Add Creative Taglines Wherever Possible

Premium/luxury brands or niche brands have a different set of buyers which they may target only through social platforms or emails. This is where creativity matters more than keywords.

7. Add a “How-to” Section to Your Product Description

You’re saving consumers time by adding a how-to section within the product description, both speeding up the conversion process and reducing the risk they’ll wander off to find information and never come back.

8. Add Your Brand Story With a Shorter Background

To stand out in marketplaces, help customers understand who you are and why they should do business with you. Add your brand story with a little history of your company and products to your product description.

9. Use Social Proof to Build Trust and Invoke Sales

When adding such social proof, you’re providing genuine reviews on how people perceive your products. That psychologically impacts visitors in the very moment they’re looking to make a buying decision.

Pro Tips for Writing a High Converting Product Description

1. Be Consistent

You can choose your style either way, but it is crucial to make sure that your format, style, design, and tone are based on your brand vision and align with the type of personality you want to sell to.

2. Think About Layout and Readability

Depending on the type of product you sell, you might include a lot of information in your product description. In this case, you should think about your potential buyer – the goal is to make navigation as pleasant an experience as possible for them.

3. Provide Value

Give precise details to your readers, rather than making statements. This will help you appear more trustworthy and knowledgeable about what you’re selling, increasing your success chances.

4. Pay Attention to the Visual Elements

Think about various creative ways to show your product the potential buyers. Including visual elements increases your chances of getting a sale. These elements can be graphics, pictures from different angles, and photos of the product details.

5. Double-Check the Information You Provide

Make sure that the information listed in the product description is valid and checked. Studies show that almost half of the returns happen because of misleading product descriptions, which can have negative results.

What is the purpose of creating a product description?

The primary purpose of a product description is to help buyers decide what to buy by giving them information that could be useful to them to make a choice. A good product description is the best salesperson sitting on your product page 24/7 to help you sell your products.

What is a good product description format?

What are the things to avoid in writing product descriptions?

How do I write a product description copy?

Sources:

https://www.shipbob.com/blog/product-descriptions/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/writing-product-descriptions-tips/404473/
https://printify.com/blog/how-to-write-a-product-description/

Why Having a Good eCommerce Customer Experience Matters

The customer experience is a lot more than just the outcome. It’s also about how the customers get there and what happens along their journey with you. With so many companies vying for attention these days, it becomes essential that the brand stands out from others. Instead of guessing tailored experiences or copying them from other businesses, you can really invest time into understanding who your customers are. Remember that what works for another company may not necessarily work for you, no matter how similar.

Technology is making consumers increasingly insightful, intelligent, and influenced by their own grasp of the information. This shift has changed the way people consume products as well as services.

Competition is becoming fierce, with more companies keen on building a positive customer experience. It is increasingly becoming a game-changer for their bottom line. A business that focuses on customer needs and preferences can potentially make 60% more profit than those that don’t.

The eCommerce customer experience is a holistic view of how customers interact with your brand. It includes every step they take from considering you to using the products and even what happens when something goes wrong.

If a brand’s value is enhanced, the company’s profits will increase as well. In addition, having an informative tone of voice makes it easy to gain the trust of key stakeholders. It makes buyers more willing to work with you but likely to recommend other people on their lists too.

Seventy-four percent (74%) of consumers (Forbes / Arm Treasure Data) are likely to buy based on experiences alone. (Forbes / Arm Treasure Data) The data means that your business needs to provide consistent support to buyers. Repeat buyers are essential to business scalability; 90% of CEOs believe customers have the most significant impact on their business. Here’s another thing to consider: trying to seek new buyers is expensive.

With the boom of online shopping and eCommerce, customers actively seek responsive, helpful, efficient, and trustworthy brands. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of shoppers say they are unlikely to continue doing business with a brand that delivers a poor customer experience.

Improving Your eCommerce Customer Experience

It’s never too late to make the customer experience pleasant. Understanding what customers want is more manageable with the rise of technology and digital tools. There are various ways of improving CX to increase customer loyalty and your profits. These include upgrading your product fulfillment through 3PL services to craft a personalized shopping experience.

Personalized Suggestions
Personalizing the shopping experience is more than just mentioning a customer’s name on their invoice. Making recommendations based on data such as their browsing history, location, and shopping behavior can get customers more engaged with your brand. The idea is to showcase products and services that make them seem tailor-made for every potential buyer.

When problems arise, you should be able to step in and immediately address any issues that a customer might have. Why? Because taking too long to reply can lead to frustration. Close to 30% of consumers say their brand loyalty has wavered during the pandemic due to long service wait times.

It makes sense to upgrade your supply chain and ensure that your products are always in stock and shipped out fast. 3PL services can streamline your fulfillment process, using digital warehousing to integrate directly to shopping platforms and ensure that inventory levels are constantly updated.

Online shopping customers look for free shipping, with 75% expecting to see an offer for it. Your business can offer this when you have access to a 3PL’s vast fulfillment and distribution centers network. The best part of outsourcing is that you can focus on other aspects of improving the customer experience for your business at cost-efficient rates. Products also have extra security when in transit, reducing the risk of damage or even getting lost.

Utilizing social media to gather your customers in a commonplace is an excellent way to get user-generated content that you can use for your marketing. Allowing them to leave reviews and feedback publicly lets more people see what you can offer. Being responsive to concerns also helps build trust.

9 tips & tricks to improve your ecommerce CX

1. Personalize the shopping experience

Personalization is a key element of the ecommerce customer experience. Personalization not only makes customers feel seen but also allows online retailers to increase conversions by offering tailored discounts and product recommendations. A massive 80% of consumers say they’re more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized experiences.

Personalization is also one of the few reasons customers are willing to share their precious data with retailers, with 65% of shoppers saying they’d share their data for value-adding personalization.

Personalization is a major ecommerce CX trend because it lets retailers provide that personal touch that was once limited to in-store experiences. And like in-store shopping, personalization increases impulse buys and average spend. 49% of customers reported they’ve made impulse purchases after receiving personalized recommendations. And 40% of consumers said they’re likely to spend more when encountering highly personalized experiences.

2. Bolster customer service

The unfortunate fact of retail is things can’t always work perfectly for every customer. And it’s when things don’t work that customer service becomes the essential tool to salvage and protect CX.

Tap into live chat and chatbots

Live chat and chatbots are the emergent customer service tools for ecommerce. Live chat is now the preferred method of ecommerce customer service among shoppers aged 18-49, and 63% of customers are more likely to return to websites that offer live chat.

Implementing chat bots allows retailers to provide 24/7 customer support without service agents working around the clock. This reduces wait time for customers and saves money for retailers.

Build a knowledge base

The rise in chat options reveals another key consumer trend: people want to solve problems themselves. Today, 67% of customers prefer self-service over speaking to a company representative.

Building a knowledge base helps customers help themselves. A knowledge base is a centralized collection of self-service information about products, services, or companies. It includes FAQs, articles, how-to guides, community resources, and more.

With a strong knowledge base, customers can resolve issues and find the information they need without needing to contact customer support. A massive 91% of customers would use an online knowledge base if it were available and tailored to their needs.

Train your customer service agents

Different customers have different preferences and expectations, so you need to be flexible with your customer service options. While many customers may prefer live chat or chatbots, it’s still important you provide phone lines and an email support form for those who don’t like chat functions.

When customers want to speak to people, they want a genuine conversation, so save the scripts for the chatbots and have customer service cater their interactions to the people they’re talking to. 78% of consumers said their customer service experience is better when agents don’t sound like they’re using a script.

Ensure customer service agents understand the problems customers commonly face and have access to the information required to help customers with their queries. 71% of customers expect agents to have information regarding their previous interactions with the brand and 46% say they’ll abandon a brand if employees aren’t knowledgeable.

3. Strengthen your UX foundations

While customer experience encompasses every touchpoint with your brand, user experience (UX) focuses on the experience customers have while using your products or services. That is, the experience they have as users.

There’s overlap between CX and UX, but UX is more technical and focused on the ecommerce shopping experience and making things easier for customers. It remains, however, a core component of ecommerce CX.

Websites and apps that provide a great user experience need to be functional, reliable, useable, and pleasurable—in that order. We’ll first address how to put your website on solid footing, then move to making it a pleasure for your customers to use.

6 keys to creating a successful E-Commerce Customer Experience

1) A Mobile-First Strategy

Providing an eCommerce website that is adapted for smartphones is no longer an option, it is a requirement. For several years, the share of consumers that shop online using a smartphone continues to rise.

Thanks to the growing number of digital channels as well as the growth of smartphones, increase in broadband connectivity, and social adoption of shopping via smartphones, more consumers are connecting with brands and retailers across multiple channels including their apps and websites.

To put it simply, it is crucial to provide a great mobile experience due to the number of customers who shop and research products and brands via their mobile. At the same time, providing a poor mobile experience can lead to a loss of customers and revenue. A recent study concluded that 50% of customers will stop visiting a website that offers a poor mobile experience, even if they have a favorable opinion of the business or brand.

Other research highlights the importance of the mobile customer experience. According to a study conducted by Magento, 22% of online shoppers are sensitive the proper function of a website or app. Amongst online shoppers between 25 and 34 years old, 42% view the mobile customer experience as being critical.

Progressive Web Apps

A PWA helps retailers overcome a significant challenge: providing a clean, consistent user experience via their website and mobile apps. Furthermore, PWA’s enable retailers to offer customers an app-like experience without having to invest the time or resources required to develop and maintain a mobile eCommerce app.

2) Personalization

People like to receive offers and content that are actually relevant to their interests. So it should come as no surprise that personalization is a key component in the recipe for eCommerce success.

A lack of personalization can be quite expensive for retailers. According to Accenture, in 2016, 41% of consumers switched companies due to a lack of trust and poor personalization resulting in a loss of more than $750 billion for these businesses.

On the flipside, getting personalization correct, according to Gartner, can help business increase their profits by up to 15%. Moreover, research shows that consumers spend 48% more as a result of strong personalization.

3) Data Protection and Data Privacy

Today, the vast majority of online shoppers are concerned about their personal data, which can often include sensitive information such as their address, phone number, credit card information, and more.

While studies point to the fact that consumers are willing to exchange more of thier personal information for greater personalized recommendations and offers, concerns regarding the security of their information remain. In fact, a KPMG survey highlighted that 55% of online consumers have declined to make a purchase online due to concerns over data privacy.

In addition, recent legislation is requiring eCommerce retailers to do more to protect the consumers’ personal data. This includes the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which can levy fines against companies that violate the law.

To quel consumers’ concerns, eCommerce retailers can take various actions such as only collecting the data that is absolutely necessary and being transparent with consumers regarding how the collected data will be used.

In addition, strengthening one’s cybersecurity is an important way to get to consumers to trust your eCommerce platform. Marketing the security of an eCommerce site, for example, via trustmarks is also good way to build consumer confidence.

4) Adoption of New Technology

A key to improving the customer experience within eCommerce players is to adopt new technology that is poised to transform online shopping. Many marketers believe voice and image searches will play significant roles in the future.

Consumers between 18-34 years old are too showing a growing embrace of visual search and image recognition technology to discover new products and brands. Gartner highlights the potential of this technology. By 2021, Gartner estimates that eCommerce revenue will increase up to 30% for retailers who are early to integrate image search and image recognition technology into their apps and websites.

Sources:

https://zhenhub.com/blog/improve-ecommerce-customer-experience/
https://queue-it.com/blog/boost-ecommerce-customer-experience/
https://www2.stardust-testing.com/en/ecommerce-customer-experience