Ideal product descriptions. What instructions to give to copywriter?

[lcourse]

I plan to hire a copywriter to write high quality unique product descriptions for luxury products in one of our ecommerce sites.

Apart from being well written and unique, any suggestions on what specifications to give to copywriter? 
E.g. length of text per product, obviously no keyword stuffing, but any instructions regarding keywords? Any good posts or specifications you can refer me to on the topic?

thanks

[SEO5Team]

Additional reference sources on this topic below:

31 things i need to see in your e-commerce product page

9 simple ways to write product descriptions

Spruce up your product descriptions

Smashing Magazine article

[CleverPhD]

I would second what Everette mentioned about talking to your customers.  Write for them and what they want to know.  Answer the questions they ask.  That way you are not just optimizing for SEO, but for conversions.

[Everett]

Hello Icourse,

The keywords can be tweaked later by your SEO if needed. At this point, other than the top one or two keyword phrases for that product, they should focus on providing visitors with all of the information they will need to make a purchasing decision.

I like to check with customer service to find out what questions people have been asking about various products. For example, if they tell me a lot of customers call in about whether Item A will work with Item D I will be sure to include "Works with Item D." in the product description, perhaps under an FAQ or Specs. tab on the product page. If it is a new site, or if you don't have a customer service department, Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers often provide some good ideas.

In my experience, the more detail the better as long as it is presented well. You don't want one long page of text, but if you can provide all of the specs, options, instructions and details on the product page it will not only help your rankings, but will probably save you money in call center costs.

The more instructions you give a good copywriter the worse their writing will be, in my opinion. If they are professionals (you get what you pay for with copywriting!) and are writing high quality copy about luxury products I would just let them at it in small chunks. You can have your SEO make minor adjustments and recommendations as they go.

I will leave this question open for discussion.