#014: Writing Product Descriptions for Clients

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia. Hey everyone, thanks for joining me for episode 14 of the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to take their writing businesses to the six figure level or the part time equivalent. You can find detailed show notes to this episode by going to b2b launcher.com 14 the number 14 this week we're going to talk about yet another great opportunity for writers and it's one that you don't normally hear about. It's all about writing product descriptions for business to consumer and business to business organizations and even ad agencies and marketing agencies. My guest is is Susan Johnston, a freelance writer who has built her business on this type of writing. And Susan was gracious enough to spend some time with me recently to explain this opportunity in more detail. And in this conversation she's going to share what exactly product descriptions are, who uses them, what are they used for, when are they used, what this type of work involves and why she enjoys it so much. What fees does this type of work command, how much demand is there for these assignments, how she got started, and even how you can find clients for these fun projects. So we're going to get right to the interview. Enjoy it. Susan, welcome to the show. Great to have you.

Thanks so much, Ed.

So today we're talking about a really cool concept and a type of writing assignment that I'm not very familiar with. So I'm actually very anxious to talk to you about this and learn more about it. And it's writing product descriptions for clients. So why don't you tell us a little bit about what you do as a writer and then what types of clients you serve and then we'll kind of get into what these projects entail.

Sure. Well, I've been a freelance writer since May of 2008 and I've done a variety of things like post writing, blog posts for clients, managing the social media feeds, a little bit of journalism work. I've worked primarily with nonprofits and business to consumer or B2C retail companies. Some of my past clients include Hasbro Puma, Retail Conversions. I've also written about jewelry, candles, cheap washes, a variety of different types of products.

Okay, okay, very cool. How did you get into this, by the way? How did you get into freelance writing.

Into freelance writing or product description?

Well, let's freelance writing first. What made you Pursue this path?

Sure. Well, when I was in college, I did it to earn extra money. And at the time, I didn't really know anyone that was supporting themselves as a freelance writer full time. So it was just extra money and it was more flexible than getting a job on campus. I could write articles in my pajamas in my dorm room, so that was pretty cool. And then I worked in marketing for a couple of years after college and eventually made the transition into full time freelance writing. And I actually had my very first product writing gig in college. A local toy company was launching a website. They needed someone to write about toys. And I'm a little ashamed to admit this, it only paid $3 per product description. But at that point I didn't care because I was really just getting experience and building my portfolio. And then probably like five years later, I actually started writing product descriptions a little more seriously.

Even that beats working at the financial aid office. Doesn't.

Does. Yeah, for sure.

Very cool. Let's get into this whole project type. Let's delve a little deeper into product description. Who uses them, what types of companies use them, and where do they use them? Where are they used?

Sure. Well, I've mainly written product descriptions for business to consumer companies, but there are business to business or B2B that use product descriptions as well. If you get catalogs or if you shop online, there's those little bits of copy that usually appear somewhere near the photo of the product. It might be a couple of sentences, it might be a whole paragraph. The length really varies depending on the client. Sometimes it includes technical specs like washing instructions or the dimensions of an item. And sometimes it's really just focused on giving consumers a good experience and kind of creating a little bit of mystery and excitement around the product.

Okay, so there's some good variety. I guess the first thing that came to mind for me was catalog copy. But there are many different varieties of this, many different situations where they'll be used.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of times an e commerce company's website is really like, it's very similar to catalog, only it's in digital format.

Okay, so tell me a little bit about what this type of work involves.

You know, it's funny, all of the product descriptions that I've ever written, I've never actually been able to hold the item that I was writing about because it's just not time efficient to, you know, get shipped. 200 pairs of shoes and, you know, hold each shoe. It just takes too much time and it's just cost prohibitive. For the client. So usually I get images of the item from multiple angles, maybe some rough specs from the manufacturer, and then I use that as a jumping off point to kind of think about the reasons why someone would want to buy the product and then translate that into copy.

Okay, that would be pretty cool if they mailed you everything, though.

I think in some cases they used to do that. I've even worked on site for a couple of clients and even then I didn't get to. To hold or see the item in person because their warehouse was separate from, you know, from their corporate headquarters.

Yeah. So in terms of the expectations of the client, I mean, what, what guidance do you get in terms of what they're using us for, how many words, what style they're going for, how helpful and savvy are clients when they give you these assignments?

It really depends on the clients. I've worked with clients that have, you know, mult multiple e commerce websites. They have a whole team of writers. They have a house style guide. They probably have their own content management system that won't let you put in more characters than are allowed. So they're really organized and they really have a strong sort of brand voice that they train their writers in. In other cases, I've worked with more clients that are more in startup mode, and then they're kind of figuring out what they want and they're looking to me to kind of help. Help craft that brand voice and the personality of their copy.

Okay, okay. That actually brings up another question. I assumed the whole time that many of these clients were kind of in startup mode, but you mentioned that a lot of these companies already have staff writers or working with an agency. So what would make a larger company want to go to a freelancer versus using a staff writer or an agency?

Well, I've also worked through agencies that might subcontract to me, so I think that's a good place for work as well. Obviously it doesn't pay as well as if they hire you directly, but there are definitely some benefits to going through an agency as well. I think that the reason that they would want to work with a freelancer is if they have a high volume of products in a very short time, say they're getting ready for the holidays, and they have thousands of products that they need descriptions written for over the next month or two. Really doesn't make sense for them to hire a staff writer and then have them sit around the rest of the year. Freelancers are a good way for them to scale up and down According to their needs.

Okay, yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. And if you come across clients that maybe they're not just starting out, maybe they just need help. They got thousands of products out there already with very basic and bare bones descriptions, and they need somebody to take that challenge on and make it more descriptive and more helpful.

Sure, yeah. I've also gotten situations where the client has copy, but they're kind of rebranding and they need their copy to reflect the new personality of their brand. So that's another instance where they might come to me. I've also filled in for, say it's a flash sale website and they have three sales, you know, starting brand new every day and someone's going on vacation, they can't, they can't necessarily do all their work in advance because of the fast paced nature of those types of businesses. They might hire me to come in for probably two weeks. So I have a week of overlap with the writer, and then I'll cover their vacation for a week. And then, you know, business can continue as usual even. Even while they're away.

Okay. Okay. So there are different, many different scenarios out there, it sounds like. So give me an idea about the fees. What type of fees do these types of projects command?

Sure. Well, in cases where I'm working on site, I would typically get an hourly rate, But I've also worked with a number of clients where I'm telecommuting and I'm getting paid per item because it's kind of hard for them to track my time when I'm working remotely. And it also, it makes sense from my point of view because I'm very efficient to get paid per item. So as I said earlier, my first product writing gig, I got $3 per item, but I could do several an hour. So it's not like I was getting $3 an hour. And then I've also gotten as much as $18 per item. And again, once you get up to speed on the process and the company brand, you can work really quickly and make close to or more than $100 an hour, kind of depending on how efficient you are.

Gotcha. So this is the kind of work where you got to take several factors into account. You can't just look at what they're paying you per description. Because if you can, once you're good and you can knock several of these an hour, your effective hourly rate could be $100 plus.

Right. And I think that's why it benefits the writer in this case to use that pricing model rather than the Hourly rate. Because with an hourly rate, there's no incentive for you to get more efficient.

What would you say clients are willing to pay or typically want to pay? They're paying by the hour. What have you seen out there? Kind of a rough range.

Well, again, it depends on whether I'm working through an agency because they take their cut. So the writer's rate is a little bit lower. Or if I'm working on my own, it might be $40 an hour, it might be a little bit more. But again, it kind of depends on. It depends on the client and also how technical. If they need someone who can be really technical, or if they just need someone who's a little bit more creative, that might also influence the rate.

Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. So I can see why. Definitely. If you can go flat fee, then usually come out ahead. Okay, so tell me a little bit about the demand for this type of work. So when we first started talking, I really had no idea. But as I'm listening to you describe the types of clients and the type of work this involves, it sounds like there's quite a bit of product description work out there.

If you think about all the catalogs we get in the mail from West Elm, Pottery Barn, I don't know if Sears puts out their catalog anymore, but they certainly have a presence online. There are so many companies that have products and particularly flash sale sites. They're cycling through products very, very quickly. They may have limited inventory, but they need copy. That really kind of reflects the sort of uniqueness. And I use that in quotes because of course, when there's thousands of products, they're not really all that unique. But there's tons of different companies that need product descriptions. Also, I know people that write for sort of more technical products like refrigerators and other appliances, and they need product descriptions as well. Though they're probably a little bit more technical than the type of work.

I. I don't know if this plays into it, but I had been. This is maybe two years ago when Google put out their Panda update, I think it was. And they really started punishing websites that didn't have unique product content because there was a huge surge. I was working with a client that did a lot of what you're talking about, but more on the technical side, managing product data. And there was a huge push for companies, especially e commerce retailers, to take a look at all of their descriptions and come up with something a little bit more original and not use whatever the manufacturer was submitting.

I think that's a Better. I think it's a better customer experience, too.

Absolutely. I think Google was trying to mirror that. Right. Because what they're trying to do is they're trying to reward companies and websites who are putting unique content out there versus everyone kind of using the same thing. It's not that they were punishing them, but they were pushing them down the rank because they were moving other companies up that had better, fresher, more original content.

Sure. And some clients that I've worked with have been very aware of SEO and wanting to get keyword phrases like blue shirt or brown couch into the copy. And others of them are really more focused on having something that sounds really hip and cool and captures their brand. So it's kind of specific to the client and their point of view.

It sounds like you, in some cases, you're working with pretty savvy clients that are very good at helping you understand what they're looking for. And it sounds like in some cases, too, you've been doing this long enough that you know what questions to ask if you haven't been given the information.

Yeah. I mean, one question you want to ask before you agree to a per product fee is about the copy process. I mean, are you sending Word documents back and forth? Are you working off an Excel document? Are you have to use the client's content management system, which may require you to download some software. There could be a lot more technical stuff going on behind the scenes that you need to factor into that rate.

That's a good point. That's a good point. You may have mentioned this already, and I apologize if you did, but is this all you do? Or is most of your work or all of your work, product description work?

No, I do a number of different things. I. I've done product descriptions for a couple of years. I was doing a lot of toy descriptions for about a year and a half. And even though it's a creative challenge to come up with different things to say about the action figures or the toy oven, eventually I started to want a new challenge. So I don't do as much of it as I used to, but I think it's really neat niche for people.

Yeah, I can see how this would be. I guess it depends on your personality. Right. Because for me, I wouldn't mind having some. Some of this type of work. It's repetitive and there's a good creative component to it. But I would also want a little bit of variety, too.

Definitely.

I guess you have to know yourself and know what some people really love. Kind of the Systematic, automated type of work. So they kind of seek mostly that, but I have to have some variety in what I do.

Sure.

So for a writer who's never done this type of work, how do you find clients? I mean, you told us your story about how you started. You were in college. But if you had a friend who was interested and she wanted to start today, what would you tell her?

Well, I think LinkedIn can be a great place to connect with people at the brands that you're interested in. If you do an advanced search and search for people who are currently in. Currently working at XYZ Company. That way you're not contacting people who haven't been there in 10 years. You want to look for titles like copy chief, copy director, probably not art director, because that's a little bit more design oriented. But look for titles like that and look for brands that you feel would fit your writing style or also brands that you're familiar with as a consumer, so you have kind of an understanding of, of their brand identity. You could also go the creative agency route and maybe write up a couple of sample descriptions and tell the recruiter at the creative staffing agency. I'm really keen on writing product descriptions and I did a couple of samples for XYZ Company to give you a feel for what I'm capable of. I think networking is another big way to do it because most copywriting clients are not necessarily. Some of them are actively advertising for writers, but more often than not, it's sort of. It's through networking.

Gotcha. It's interesting so that the people who hire for this work is not a marketing director or marketing manager. They actually have a copywriting manager or copy chief.

For bigger companies, smaller companies, it might follow under the marketing role.

Interesting. Okay. Do you think it's a good idea to pick a specific industry to focus on? For example, do only food products or at least focus mainly on that. Have you noticed that there's any advantages to specializing?

I think so. I mean, I get contacted, I've done some home interior product descriptions. So I get contacted through LinkedIn and also through creative staffing firms from people who say, you know, I saw that you've written descriptions of furniture and rugs and sheet sets. And I have this client that's really looking for someone with your skill set. So I think that's a good idea. But also being open to other opportunities that might be a good fit for your skillset.

Going back to LinkedIn, you said it's a great place to look for clients. It sounds like you get contacted directly via LinkedIn by prospects.

I do, yeah, yeah. Typically like, you know, maybe recruiters or sometimes they are recruiting for a full time opportunity. And I'll say, you know, I'm not in the market for a full time opportunity at the moment but I have this other, you know, colleague that I can recommend or I could say, you know, I'm not, I'm really focusing on freelancing at the moment. But if you need someone to fill in while you're filling that full time role, I might say that as well.

Okay, now that's smart. That's smart. You're building a relationship there. Hopefully with some people.

That's the goal.

Yeah. And I'm wondering in terms because I haven't looked at your LinkedIn profile, but it sounds like you spent a little bit of time in your title in LinkedIn and your work history and your description in LinkedIn just to have some keywords in there.

Yeah, I think that the skills section of LinkedIn is particularly useful. You can add sort of if you want to do product descriptions, you could add product descriptions as a skill. I think I have catalog writing in there as well in case someone's using a little bit of a different search term. But I also have a pretty big network and I update my profile with articles that I've written or articles that are relevant to my industry on a regular basis. So I think that shows that I'm, you know, active and working.

I think it's very smart. And I'm seeing a lot more clients starting a search in LinkedIn. You know, it used to be five years ago, even before they would go to Google and search, you know, product description copywriter. And I'm sure a lot of still, still do that. But I'm starting to see more prospects search within LinkedIn alone for specific skillset. Very cool. What would you say, what type of writer would you say is best suited for this kind of work? If there's someone out there thinking, you know, this sounds interesting, but I don't know if I have the temperament or the, you know, the skill set for this. What would you say?

Yeah, there are a couple of important qualities and they can seem a little bit contradictory. So you don't necessarily always find them in the same writer. But I think you really do need a lot of these qualities to become a go to prize description writer. As you've mentioned, there can be a lot of repetition in writing product descriptions. So you need the patience to be willing to have 15 different sheet sets and figuring out how you're going to describe each one in a little bit different way. You also need very careful attention to detail, especially if you're working with product specs or writing descriptions of a more technical product like a refrigerator or a watch. Even with products that might not be so technical, like toys, you need to be really careful about the SKU number of each item because that's the unique identifier for each product. And if you save a file with the wrong SKU or you upload it in the client's content management system to the wrong sku, it's going to create a lot of headaches for you and the client. So you need to be really careful about that. But you also need to be able to write very specifically to that client's. Whether they want really short, punchy copy, or if they want something a little bit more longer and flowery, you really need to be able to write to their specs. I had one client whose product descriptions were limited to 120 characters each, which is shorter than a tweet. So I think if you're good at writing tweets or you're good at writing haikus and you can pack a lot of information into a very small, I think that those skills could be transferable to writing product descriptions. And the other thing is, it's not uncommon to have a list of forbidden words. And I don't know if you found this in your copywriting projects, but there might be legal reasons or it just might be the copy director's personal preference. But oftentimes there's words that you can't use in your product descriptions and you need to find creative workarounds.

Yeah, yeah. I think every specialty has something like that. Right. Some words that are. You definitely want to avoid no matter what, and some others, you may want to check in with your client before you do a lot of work.

Right. So it's that combination of the agility and the creativity, but also being very detail oriented and very careful about making sure that you're writing the right copy for the right product.

One of the things that I would worry about if I were going after this kind of work is working with a client who gives you some direction. But then you write, let's say, 20 of these, and they say, you know what, this is just not what we're looking for. This is off. And they can't really tell you more than that. They're not very detailed in their feedback. Have you encountered much of that out there?

Well, first of all, I wouldn't do 20 and then get their feedback. I would probably do two or three. And I think most clients, particularly the ones that are very savvy, are going to want you to do a very small number of products before you get their feedback because they don't want you to go too far with it and then just discover that you're off track. So, yeah, I would do a really short number of products, check in with them, and then make adjustments as needed.

This sounds like, and I can see why that probably happens, it sounds like a more copy savvy client than the people that I'm used to working with, which are business to business marketing managers or marketing directors. Not that they're not copy savvy, but these people tend to wear multiple hats and they do a lot of the content themselves. So the copywriting aspect is just one of the many facets of their job. So you sometimes run into some issues, stylistic issues, not always. It's actually pretty rare if you do your homework. But what I'm hearing here with this type of work is that this is what they do. So they know how to minimize these potential risks, which is great.

If you're working through a creative agency. And they are very savvy themselves sometimes if they're involved in the work. I worked in one agency where the founders of the agency had been doing the writing for a long time and then they wanted to grow, so they hired more writers to subcontract to. But they'd been in the trenches doing the writing for a long time. So they were kind of the liaison and they had a good understanding of what the client wants, what they don't want, how to avoid. And so they were a good advocate when the copy process changed. As writers themselves, you could go to them and say, the copy process has changed. I think we need to revisit the fee. They were the people that approached the client about revisiting the fee. So that worked out great. Even though I wasn't making as much as working directly with the client, having someone who's really your ally and your advocate was really helpful.

That's a great point. What would you say going to agencies, we're talking about agencies alone. What factors would trigger a red flag for you as you're talking to them? They haven't hired you yet. Maybe they came to you because they need some work done. What would set off those alarms that would maybe indicate that they wouldn't be very great to work with?

I think in a lot of cases, for me, the deal breaker has been that their expectations for the fee is just too low. And then the conversation just sort of, if it's really like bargain basement, I know I'm not going to get them to double or triple their rate. So the conversation just kind of ends there. I just ask a lot of questions and try to get a sense of kind of what, what they're looking for in their writers, how they work together with writers, whether they have a lot of writers for a long term or whether it tends to be more one off projects. If they have writers that they've worked with for years and years, that's a more encouraging sign than if they're constantly posting ads looking for new writers. That means there might be high turnover.

Yeah, that's a good point. I'm sure that you've been down that road and it's not a lot of fun to work and specifically with agencies because you're answering to them and it could be a communication breakdown between them and the client and between them and you. And so it could get really hairy very fast. So what would you say you enjoy most about this type of work? About writing product descriptions?

I really like the challenge of finding new ways to describe a set of sheets or a necklace or a watch. I think it can really stretch you creatively. And I started doing this a few years before Twitter came out. I think it kind of primed me to think in headlines and think really short and to not always feel like you have to have a long complex sentence that short sentence fragments depending on the brand and depending on their style guide. Short sentence fragments or just short punchy declarative sentences can be very powerful too, especially if you have very small space to work with.

Very cool. Very cool. I'm sure there's a great deal of satisfaction when you see your work out there on a big brand's website or a catalog. That's got to be pretty cool.

Yeah. One thing I wanted to add Ed, before we sign off is and this is applicable to copywriters and lots of other niches too. But the importance of features versus benefits is so, so important for people writing about products. Features are those things, as I'm sure you know. Like sunglasses have an anti glare coat. But the benefit would be why the anti glare coat matters and how it helps the consumer. So the benefit might be that you can wear the sunglasses driving without worrying about glare from the sun. So you always want to be thinking about rather than selling the and it doesn't tend to be very salesy copy, it tends to be more factual. But think about putting those benefits front and center rather than the features.

That's a great point. That's a great point. You got to have a mix of both. But I see writers erring towards the feature side than the benefit side. I think we automatically default to that, don't we?

Yeah, and sometimes that's driven by the client. So depending on the type of relationship you have with them, you might steer them more towards the benefit side. Or if they have a stronger personality, you may just have to live with features.

Susan, this has been really good. Where can listeners learn more about you and the work you do?

Sure. I'm on Twitter urbannews writer. You can also check out my blog@urbannews writer.com or you can check out my professional website, which is Susan Johnston Johnston.

And we'll make sure to include those links in the show notes. Again, thanks for coming on. I love this. I was completely ignorant about this type of work and thanks for shedding light on it.

No problem Ed. Thanks for having me.

Well folks, I hope you enjoyed that interview. I'm continually amazed at how many great opportunities there are for business writers, and the reality is that there are tons of these little pockets of opportunity out there that you may not even know exist. You just have to look and explore. So I hope this gave you some ideas on some things you could look into. If it sounded interesting, a couple of quick announcements before I sign off. First, I wanted to let you know that today is the last day to enroll in my popular program Effortless Productivity. This is a three part class where I'll show you how to boost your productivity by 30% or more with a lot less stress. My approach to productivity improvement is much different from the typical time management advice you read out there you hear out there, and it's designed specifically for freelancers because it's based entirely on my own experience as a solo professional. You can learn more about the program@www.productivesolo.com. again, just keep in mind that enrollment closes today, Wednesday, July 24th at 6:00pm Eastern Time because the first class starts tomorrow. So depending on when you're listening to this, you may or may not get this in time. If you missed it, you can still go to that page and sign up to be notified next time I offer this class if and when I do that. Also remember that you can grab the detailed show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com 13 these are very detailed notes and make great reference material, especially if you're somewhere where you just can't take notes. If you enjoyed the episode, I'd be very, very grateful if you shared it with friends. And the easiest way to do that is to go to b2b launcher.comlove or to simply use any of the social media sharing buttons you'll see on the Show Notes page. And finally, I wanted to thank all of you who have taken the time to leave me either a quick star rating or a quick review on itunes. It really means a lot to me. If you're enjoying the show and want to leave me a star rating or a sentence or two about the show and how you're enjoying it, just go to b2b launcher.com iTunes. That's the easiest way to do that. So that's it for today, folks. I am your host, Ed Gandia. Thanks again for listening and I hope you have an awesome day. The High Income Business Writing Podcast is a production of B2B business launcher. Learn more at B2B launcher dot com.