Sales Letters... long or short?

Fellow blogger, Georgia Patrick, brought up some great thoughts in an email series we bounced back and forth. This is a common question (and complaint) that I address all the time.  I thought it may be important for this to be brought up here.

If you have comments or proof of shorter copy working better than longer copy - PLEASE let me know!

The Initial Email…

I have a question for you.

Your copy is long.   It's a lot of reading and scrolling.

My question is, how does that work?

It must work or you would do something else.  Who goes through that much content and buys from you?   Perhaps you have explained this before in your books or presentations.

I run across these long, text heavy sites, promising business success and I just wonder how that works for the buyer and seller?

Thank you,

Georgia Patrick

My response

Hi Georgia, glad you enjoyed that!

The copy debate on long copy vs. short has been going on for decades.  Historically, long copy sales letters have always outperformed (in terms of measurable sales) shorter copy.  But, that said, it is all about the testing.  Long copy still works - but I am testing shorter copy with some clients to see if we can get better results with a shorter message.

It seems that no one would read all those words - but the facts prove they do.  At least those who are interested in your product or service. Those that won't read the copy - typically wouldn't read short either - nor are they typically a real buyer.

That said - there are a ton of companies who are very successful who never use this approach - but they do have big budgets to run the "image" style ads that don't elicit an immediate response.

These types of ads have to run for a long time to get solid numbers.

It is all about the testing though - the only ones who can really tell you what works are the paying prospects. Let them decide which works better.