Long sales copy versus short sales copy.

[newsguy]

I am a believer in long sales copy. The long sales copy I've used on my site has worked much better at converting visitors than the short sales copy. But then I have a higher ticket sales item ($99).

I'm starting to see, though, sales copy that goes beyond the description "long"--ENORMOUS would be a better world, or NEVER-ENDING.

Honestly, I -never- read all of that copy and almost always get bored and leave the site.

Does this super-ultra-long copy work for anybody?

[LocalMarketingGuy]

As a consumer and a marketer, no. But to each his own, every industry and product is different. For example, *some* higher ticket items, commiting programs, seminars, and especially fundraisers ect.. they pride themselves on copy, testimonials and not leaving any guess work to the consumer. How long are we talking here? 1 page? two pages? a paragraph? there is a such thing as too long.

[gorillaboy]

We've tested long, medium and short.

For "products", medium lenghth copy (around 600 characters) or so works best (for us). It's very important to include bullet points or specs as well. Some people will skip the copy and look for the technical aspects or features.
(We sell items that range from $2.00 - $10,000. The average item is about $65)

For "programs", (something you want people to sign up for), the long (ultra-long) copy works best for us. We offer a newsletter customization program. We have over three pages of text explaining the program. Of the people that look at this area of the site, 47% click all the way through to the last page. And of those people, 14% actually sign up and pay for the program. I think that's pretty good. It's a $600 - $1,000 enrollment fee. Overall, we have an 8% conversion rate for this program.

One thing to remember; when you're using long copy be sure to ask for the order many times. Explicitly ask them to buy the product in places throughout the article.

[imaginemn]

It really depends on the media on where you sales copy will be. If it's a magazine, newspaper, flyer then long copy usually can work to your advantage. If it's email, ads, promos then a short teaser with a reference where to get more information works best.

I get several requests by my clients to send out monthly email newsletters. Before we used to send a "long copy" email and most people would ignore the emails. But now we send out a "short teaser" email that just highlights the offer with a link to the "long copy/details" of the offer and we have seen a much higher return.

The way I see it is that YES it's an extra step to get to the REAL information BUT those people clicking to the EXTRA step are much more willing to buy than those who don't. Not only that it help ME as the "marketing firm" to give my clients some additional information like.

We sent out 1000 emails. 50 of them clicked on the more info and only 1 bought. What went wrong? Do you see where I'm going with this?

imaginemn

[gorillaboy]

Good points imaginemn.

In my post, I was referring to web site copy. Specifically product and program descriptions.

[younghistorians]

SvN Discussion

[WordArtist]

I'm lover of short copy. Small sentences. Sharp words.