Should you use long sales copy on your website? Should you break your web pages up into easy to read chunks of about 500 words? Long copy is one of those marketing methods that no one admits to liking, but seems to regularly outperform and outsell traditional short copy.

Most marketers break their web presentations into individual screens because studies show that web readers are impatient and scan rather then read. But some visitors stop and leave when they encounter a “next page” button. These individual pages interrupt the sales process and visitors tend to leave.

Traditional short copy is better when the product is simple and decisions are easy. If you are selling a product that sells itself such as office supplies, use the short copy approach.

To sell more complex and more expensive products, use the long copy approach. In these situations, buyers need more information and lots of it. It takes longer for a customer to commit to spending $500 than $20. With long copy, visitors have their questions answered and have less anxiety about ordering. Customer service phone calls will be reduced.

Long Copy Writing

1. Focus on content quality. High quality short copy will always out perform low quality long copy. Content must be compelling and emotionally engage the reader.
2. Format the content for fast reading or scanning using bold headlines, bullets, etc. This allows readers to quickly find the areas that most interest them.
3. Include testimonials because praise from your satisfied customers is much more effective than self-praise.
4. Include “Buy Now” buttons at regular intervals throughout the sales letter. If someone is ready to buy after a few paragraphs, they can.
5. Test the results. It is important to measure the results and keep revising your offer. There is no hard rule regarding the ideal length of a marketing message.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008 at 4:40 am and is filed under Business Consulting, Internet Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.