The concept of ecommerce has clearly revolutionised consumer shopping habits over the past few decades, but it also brings new challenges for brands. 

As most ecommerce marketing and advertising happens from behind the screen, customers are physically removed from the products being promoted. This means that, before customers make a purchase, they must wholeheartedly believe your products will deliver on promises — whether it be a game-changing formula, luxe materials and fabrication, truly effective results, or construction that lasts forever. Due to the inherent distance, this persuasion has to happen solely through verbal and visual communication, not touch or feel. 

From the brand side, you know the quality of your products. You’ve built them, you’ve formulated them, you’ve felt them. How do you prove quality to potential customers before they get your products in-hand? How can you communicate effectively enough to create the belief that your products are better, trustworthy or more worthwhile than others in your category? Here’s how we do it in the Lovenote copywriting studio. 

1. Find out what they know, then fill in the blanks

Start by analysing the current market understanding of your category. Think: what information does your customer truly need to know before moving closer to making the purchase? 

For example, scalp-care brand Straand determined their potential customers knew the concept of a ‘skin microbiome’, due to educational marketing over the past decade by various skincare and pharmaceutical companies. Rather than educating their customers on the concept from square one, they simply made the connection from skincare to scalp-care, sharing that ‘your scalp has a microbiome, too’. 

For brands that launch innovative, groundbreaking products like Straand, consider where the gaps are in customer knowledge. You may need to explain or educate how the product works, what makes it effective, and why it one-ups their current choice in the category. Be thoughtful about where you place your focus; information that is too obvious will be ignored, while explanations that are too vague or high-level will fall on deaf ears. Aim for a balance between what your customers are considering and conversing about in their day-to-day — and how you can memorably shake up the way they perceive products like yours. 

For products that are more ubiquitous, like handbags and skincare, product descriptions and copy can focus on what makes yours different. This may be highlighting the care put into construction; sharing what makes your materials more ethical; or deservedly and eloquently boasting about ingredients that come from a natural source, like Three Warriors does. 

2. Make product descriptions a sensorial experience

Premium quality products often go hand-in-hand with a higher priced, more premium brand — but simply stating your products are high quality doesn’t necessarily make it true. 

Consider how most premium or high end brands tend to avoid describing themselves with phrases like ‘high end’, ‘premium’ or ‘luxury’. Instead, true luxury brands take a more sensorial approach to their copy, creating an illustrative experience through their words. 

For example, luxury label The Row says ‘explore the strength of simplistic shapes that speak to discretion’ rather than something basic like ‘elevated everyday bags’. Handbag brand By Far announces new fabrics with attitude: ‘the exquisite material brings a bold new texture to the streamlined form that is unmistakably BY FAR.’ Instead of blatantly stating their products are renowned and revered worldwide, jeweller Tiffany & Co states ‘there is no box that makes hearts beat faster’. For our haircare client Canamo, we replaced ‘experience the ultimate cleanse’ with ‘explore restorative hair rituals to strengthen, protect and rebuild’.

3. Be over-transparent with the details

Does your brand respect the intelligent discretion of its customers? Ecommerce shoppers have access to continuous information at their fingertips, which means they can fact-check, eyebrow-raise or learn more at any moment. 

To form stronger relationships with your customers, communicate with the belief that they are savvy, educated and aware. Through your use of language and transparency, assume they have a healthy dose of skepticism towards claims that are unfounded or misleading. This leads to our concept of over-transparency. 

Over-transparency means digging into the ‘why’ behind every statement your brand makes — before customers have to ask. Your brand could be more transparent about its sustainability standards, more open about its supply chain, or more specific about how each ingredient works. For example, ‘Our Italian Leathers’ by the handbag brand Vestirsi takes customers on a journey behind material selection, sharing the benefits, artistry and care details behind every choice. Rhode Skin features its philanthropic endeavours, entitled Futures, as prominently in its main menu bar as the ‘shop all’ function. 

This over-transparency will attract customers who share your brand’s values and see your products as irreplaceable — because they know everything there is to know about your brand, and they still choose to buy in.

4. Remove generic or overused language

You want to prove your brand takes quality seriously? Treat your copy, content and communications the same way you would treat design, sampling and manufacturing: by putting thought and care into everything you do (creating nothing less than the best, of course).

Rather than stuffing generic phrases and overused lines into places where they technically fit, reinvent copy in your category. Use words and phrases that are more creative, more specific, or go beyond what customers expect to see. The effects of every creative line compound to verbally demonstrate your brand’s dedication to serving nothing less than the best. 

For example, fashion label Dissh uses ‘design notes’ as a sub-headline in their product descriptions, rather than generic ‘product details’. Activewear brand Stax titled their blog ‘The Sauce’. Bangn Body calls their email subscribers the ‘Goodness Gang’. Shoe brand Tony Bianco categorises their pointed-heel collection with a bold title ‘Points’. For our haircare client Canamo, we replaced the headline ‘subscribe for $20 off’ with ‘haircare rituals worthy of loyalty’.

5. Prove attention to detail is built into your brand

Brands delivering the highest quality products have put utmost attention to detail into their construction, design or formulation. To prove it, every aspect of your brand should be developed with the same ethos.

Across all content, communications, website and marketing material, your brand should operate with the same high standards you apply to product designs — never just a ‘good enough’ approach. To do so, we recommend upgrading every bit and piece that comes from your brand. 

For example, you can implement on-brand customer care templates for your team to use, rather than relying on generic or third-party responses that sound nothing like your brand. Strategise a thank-you card to include in orders that genuinely speaks to what your customer is thinking and feeling when they receive your branded package. Ensure your automated flows are working appropriately and doing everything the copy states you’ll do. Bundle your products into collections that reflect how your customer shops, thinks and lives. Give customers an unexpected reward or surprise when they reach a specified lifetime order value. 

Go beyond in every way, and consider the cohesive brand experience at every touchpoint. 

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Written by Taryn Rapp of Lovenote