Posted by permission of
David Singer.

Have you ever tried describing your products using some of the five senses?

Let’s take a look at how vivid the five senses can be:

Picture an orange, then begin to peel it with me. Stick your finger into one of its ends and start to remove the peel, piece by piece. Your fingers feel the moisture of the orange and slight stickiness of the fruit, and you start to smell the sweetness of one of nature’s most fragrant foods. Set the peel aside and begin tugging the orange apart one section at a time. The smell is much stronger now. You can almost taste it, can’t you? Pop a section into your mouth and bite down, hearing the fruit break apart as you do. Your taste buds explode with the sweet, orangey taste. Pop another section into your mouth and feel the moisture of the orange on your lips. Isn’t it delicious?

While not all products can be described using the five senses, you can certainly describe most products using many of the senses.

For example, why do people like to go horseback riding? To feel the wind whipping through their hair? To “taste” the freedom of getting away from behind a desk? To breath in the clean air?

Obviously, these aren’t words used to describe a product when it comes to getting rankings, but I’m not talking about rankings. I’m talking about conversions . . . I’m talking about writing content that appeals to your target audiences.

If you own a flower shop, describe some of your romantic flower arrangements using romantic words . . . rose petals so soft that they feel like a lover’s touch. Then, include a card using those words with the flower arrangement. The buyer may not have the words himself, but the flower arrangement will say it all. Your USP could be that “Our Floral Arrangements Say It All.” (or whatever)

Another idea:

It may not be your product that invokes the senses but the setting in which you place the product. For example:

Psychedelic orange orb ladies’ watch that brings back memories of the smell of patchouli and the sound of Janis Joplin

The whole idea is to put the potential buyer in the mood for this nostalgic collector’s watch. In this case, the smell of patchouli and the sound of Janis Joplin definitely puts me in the era of this particular watch. I can see and smell and feel the era. I’m there, ready to click the “Buy Now” button!

What do people want to do when they watch TV? Eat popcorn. If you sell TVs online, put your readers in the setting by describing the taste and smell of popcorn, relaxing on your cool leather recliner, drinking a cold beer with your buddies as you watch football, etc. Bring your readers into the scene so they can feel how it would be if they owned the TV.

Try it. Open up your five senses and TRY IT!

Good luck!

Robin

P.S. This beautiful picture is owned by David Singer, a past workshop of mine. He’s quite a photographer, and he’s letting me use a number of his photos on my blog. David has a Web site devoted to x-ray inspection systems (Vidisco). His site is rather amazing. Take a look at this x-ray picture of a gun that his x-ray equipment produced. Wow!