Darren Lester, CEO & Founder of SpecifiedBy, discusses the importance of online product pages and how to ensure yours are attracting specifiers to your website.

1. DARREN LESTER
CEO & Founder
SpecifiedBy

2. How to Create Online Product Pages Specifiers Will
Love 💓
Darren Lester, Founder at SpecifiedBy

3. Research
“What Makes a Great Product Page?” + 40,000 product pages + a Data scientist
= Quality Score
• Product Names
• Product Descriptions
• Product Images
• Technical Specification Data
• Downloadable Files

4. Important – all 5 elements must be combined
Tested on SB but relevant to your own website

5. One Product Per Page
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Be more specific about features and benefits
• Expand the amount of information you provide
• Provide clarity to web visitors
• Makes your website navigation much more
straightforward
• Allows you to easily share a link with specifiers
• Easier to promote each product individually as
required

6. One Call to Action (CTA) Per Page
A call to action (CTA) is simply giving the specifier clear,
explicit guidance on what their next step should be.
• Request a Quote
• Call us now
• Download [file] now
• Make an appointment
• Ask a question
One of the most common mistake we see on
manufacturers’ product pages.
Almost 73% of pages don’t have a direct call to action
button.

7. CTA Good Practice Guidelines:
• Keep it brief: A couple of words is best, no more than five is ideal
• Try to use ‘action’ based copy that compels specifiers to click. Begin with a verb like "Download",
"Register" or “Request”
• Place CTAs in easy-to-find positions that fit organically with page in question
• Use a contrasting colour from the main colour scheme of your website to make it stand out.
• Make it large enough to see from a distance, but not so large as to detract attention from the main
content on the page
✅

8. Product Names
“A good product name is concise and
descriptive, making it painfully clear what the
product is and who / where / why it may be
useful.”

9. Product Names
• 1st piece of information a specifier will see
• It will appear in search results / navigation links
• Located near the top of your page (h1)
• Highlighted in a larger / bolder / different
colour text

10. BRX10
Provides a unique naming or ID on it’s own, which provides the
specifier with no indication of what the product is.
❌

11. BRX10 – Red Facing Brick
Provides a unique ID (BRX10), clearly states what the product is (Facing
Brick) and also includes the colour (Red) which is a key property for this
product.
✅

12. Pennine
Provides a unique naming or ID on it’s own, which provides
the specifier with no indication of what the product is.
❌

13. Pennine – Budget Toilet Cubicles
This provides a unique ID (Pennine) clearly labels what the product is (Toilet
Cubicles) and also identifies who the product is best for (projects with a tight
budget)
✅

14. Formula
Unique Product Name (or ID) + Adjective / Key property + Product Type
(in any order)
BRX10 – Red Facing Brick
Pennine – Budget Toilet Cubicles

15. Product Descriptions
“A good description helps the specifier to quickly understand your product, and
make them want to look into it in more detail.”
41.6% of specifiers picked ‘Clear product descriptions’ as being key to their
decision making

16. Product Descriptions
• Located immediately after the product name
• Never assume that the specifier knows what your
product is
• Cover major benefits of the product, without
expressing an opinion
• Write in paragraph form and in complete sentences
that are easy and interesting for the specifier to read
• Include major technical properties which may be the
main selling point
• Consider positioning / target customer
Obvious? You might be surprised how many companies
do not do a good job of explaining exactly what the
product in question is

17. Descriptions are often too concerned with listing off features and marketing
superlatives.
❌ 'NSYJK43001 has long been one of the most popular products in the [Company]
product range and achieves a rating of X’
✅ 'The NSYJK43001 insulation board is used for creating warm pitched roofs by
insulating between and below the rafters'

18. Features
• Board size: 1000 x 2000mm
• Thickness : 50-100mm
• Lambda: 0.020 W/mK
• Low emissivity foil facings
• BBA certified
• BIM object available
❌
Benefits
NSYJK43001 insulation is well suited for use in warm
roof constructions: it is robust enough to span the
rafters and will resist moisture.
Also, its high thermal resistance enables the required
U-value to be achieved with a minimum thickness of
insulation, which minimises the loss of headroom
within the loft space.
✅

19. Technical Properties
“The technical performance of your products is by far the most important piece
of information for specifiers. But it’s also often the most difficult to access
information.”
56.3% of specifiers selected technical performance as the key factor in their
decision making process

20. Technical Properties
• Usually found within downloadable product
data sheets or other technical documents
• Free data from documents, make it easier to
access
• More companies starting to do this, most still
do not
• Those who do provide this information
generally use either a table, bullet points or
include it within the products description.
We highly recommend using a simple table format
to display this information in a prominent position
on your products pages.

21. Provide Context
Don’t assume that specifiers know what every technical
property is and/or why it’s important…
They don’t!
• Provide a short description for each property
• Is it better to have a higher or lower value?

22. What information should you include?
It depends (category, target customer etc.)
Tips
• Discuss with and trust your technical
• Speak to your customers to verify
• Look at what other similar product manufacturers provide
• Have a look on SpecifiedBy
*Our research suggests products with more than 8 specification properties perform
significantly better than those with less than that.

23. Product Images
“Communicating your product with good quality, accurate
product images, is critical to the success of your product
pages.”

24. Product Images
• Specifiers want, and need, to see what the product
looks like before they make a buying decision.
• Both quality and variety (quantity) of images are
important.
• Higher the quality (bigger, higher resolutions) the
better
• A large percentage of products at the bottom of our
popularity spectrum had either no images or poor
quality images.
Failure to provide a quality image will severely impact
on the popularity and success of your product listings.

25. Image Types
We recommend using a mixture of 3 types
of images which show your product:
• As a standalone object (where possible)
• How it looks in use
• As rendered technical images

26. As a standalone object

27. In use

28. Rendered technical image

29. Advanced Conversion Tips
“Up your game with file downloads, pricing,
comparisons and social proof.”

30. Downloadable Files
This is now common practice for most companies,
but still an important ingredient for a good online
product page.
• Make file downloads available from the
product page they relate to
• Big question: require a registration or not?
• Remember – yours is not the only website
they’re having to resister to

31. Pricing
Big controversial topic. But research shows:
• Price ranks in specifiers top 3 priorities for decision making
• Getting prices / quotes is the most time consuming part of their
product research process
• 66% of specifiers rated pricing between 8-10 (out of 10) for
importance in their final specification decisions
Objections
• Architects & specifiers don’t need/want prices
• Worried about competitors
• Too complex / too many variables
25x increase in conversions

32. Comparisons
Don’t shy away from comparisons with
competitors’ products. There is huge value in
showing specifiers how your product compares
with product X and product Y from other
companies.
• Assume specifiers are doing this anyway
• Be the company that makes it easy for them
• Control the information – place emphasis on
your strong points, acknowledge and address
weak points

33. Social Proof
Providing social proof that your products have
been successfully used by others is incredibly
powerful.
• Format - Reviews, recommendations, case
studies or customer quotes / testimonials
• Particularly important online – where specifiers
may make their decision without ever speaking
to you
• Don’t just show off nice projects
• Align with your product benefits – ie. use social
proof to confirm the benefit you claim
• Aim to demonstrate why your product was
specified

34. That’s It!
1. Product Name
2. Product Description
3. Images
4. Technical Properties
5. File downloads
6. Call to Action (CTA)
7. Pricing
Darren Lester
darren@specifiedby.com
www.specifiedby.com

35. Thank You
www.pauleycreative.co.uk
For more information visit our website at