June 26, 2008 Volume VII

Will Long Sales Letters Ever Die?

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By Brian McLeod

“I just wanted to know what the reason is behind long sales pages? To me, as a surfer looking to buy something, it is a turn off .When I come across a page and scroll to see its 3 miles long, I usually exit the sitethinking how long it would take me to read the whole thing. Seems like informationoverload, IMO.But, I know there has to be a reason or else people would not do it. So, if you could enlighten me I would appreciate it.”

Long Copy vs. Short Copy - The Battle Immortal

The veritable “Mac or PC” debate for copywriting,it’s one of those topics that comes up over and over again.If you are one of theapparently many who areon the fence about long-copy try thinking of itthis way...Imagine that there's this34 page sales letter sitting on a web server somewhere featuring adramatic story that isartfully interwoventhroughout the copy.The letter also has a slew of testimonials and multi-modal proof elements. Now, if this long-ass sales letter could talk,it would tell you flat out... It could not careless whether or not you or your friends leave,or that some call it "BS" or "a scam"... Youand 90 or so others out of every 100 say thesame thing all day long, every day. No, that long-ass sales letter is really only concernedwith the fact that, out of every 100 visitors, 2 or 5 or 12 or 15 on a good day DO read the whole thing -some parts several times - and then theyORDERED.... Does that make any sense at all?

Do not make the classic mistake of marketing your products to yourself instead of marketing them to your buyer

. That's the very issue at work in thisdiscussion, IMO.

"I don't like long copy, therefore long copy could behurting sales".

Add to that,

"My friends don't likelong copy, therefore long copy could be hurting sales".

It's a trap. Beware.

Are You Marketing To YourProspects Or To Yourself?

Time and time again, we seemarketers rant about how andwhy they would or wouldn’tdo this or that because of howTHEY react to the specifics being discussed. Isn’t thedisconnect there obvious?

Ask LoudMac...

Sell More Better

™

What Does The Color Of Your Prospect’s Shirt HaveTo Do With The Length Of Your Sales Letter?

“Not to make argument, but you stated that by your numbers that 90 out of 100 thinkthe same thing. But the sales copy is targeted to get the remaining 10.Why would you not look to make your sales copy appeal to the mass?”

What I said was that 9 out of 10 are going to bail out - andlet's be clear - maybe it's because they can't afford it, maybeit's because they don't like long sales letters, maybe it's because the pizza guy showed up at the door and they closedtheir browser...Point is - if you are converting at 10%, a very healthy number by most tallies, 9 out of 10 are NOT BUYING. That's not a problem!Just remember, the BUYER doesn't MIND spending 20 minutes reading the whole thing. It's the reason he'snow a BUYER.

“If I am marketing to myself, like you said which is a big fault and I try to optimize towhat the majority think, wouldn't that be more efﬁcient? Instead of targeting the 10 or 15?”

That's the trap - trying to appeal to everyone can leave you appealing to no one, particularly.

“Sorry I am just trying to understand. In my mind it seems backwards. I hope my understanding seems somewhat valid.”

No apologies, dude. We're just talkin' about it... And yes, it IS backwards from conventional thinking in manyways.