A Sales Letter “Non-Debate”: Long-Form Copy Vs Short-Form
How long should your sales letter be?
It’s something I get asked all the time.
But before we start, let me tell you…
I get wound up when talking about this. You see, the number of copywriters who say long-form sales copy is dead because people have short attention spans, is crazy. And, quite frankly, these people aren’t fit to call themselves copywriters.
(In my humble, yet accurate, opinion.)
Listen up:
If people are interested in something, they’ll happily read up on it all day long.
Heck, when I was at uni and wanted to get some muscle, I’d be on the bodybuilding.com forum about 3-4 hours a day, every day.
Couldn’t get enough of it.
And no doubt you’re the same. Think of something that excites you. Something that gets the juices flowing.
Would you really get bored reading about it?
You wouldn’t, you say?
See, told you so.
Anyway, a copywriter who tells you that long-form sales copy is dead, is, quite frankly, unfit to call himself a copywriter. Bit harsh? Nope. It’s the truth.
If they can’t hold their ideal prospect’s attention with long-form copy, then they’re as good a copywriter as Frodo Baggins is with a sword.
(On a side-note, Sam was the true hero in Lord of the Rings. Frodo was a pussy.)
Now, is that to say you should purposefully make every piece of copy you write as long as possible?
No. In fact, making it longer than it needs to be is stupid. And will actually hurt your sales.
But at the same time, you have to tell your whole message in your sales letter.
If that means you’ve gotta write 20,000 words, then you write 20,000 words.
Simple.
However, there’s 3 main factors you’ve gotta take into account when deciding the length of your sales letter.
Here they are:
1) How much your prospects already desire the results you are promising
You have a supplement that can help heart attack patients recover faster?
Well, someone who has just had a heart attack in the past month will clearly be interested.
Someone who had a heart 918kiss https://www.pussy888thai.net/pussy888/ attack 6 years ago and has been fine since? Yeah – still potentially interested. But they’d need more persuading.
Which means more copy.
2) The social status your product will give someone
Look:
People know that if they drive a Ferrari, they’re gonna have more “social status” than if they drive a Ford.
So a sales letter selling a Ferrari wouldn’t have to be long.
Yet if you were selling a Ford, you’d need more copy.
3) How much people already believe in what you are saying
What I’m now gonna tell you is vital.
If you take it on board, your copy’s gonna get stronger overnight.
A lot stronger.
Here it is:
People don’t buy until they believe what you are telling them.
It doesn’t matter how much they desire your product…
And It doesn’t matter how much social prestige they’ll get…
If they don’t believe what you’re telling them.