Another Long vs Short Copy Question

From some others experience and my own combined.

You have answered your own question. Make it as long as it needs to be. Don't leave out any great benefits, pains it can fix, or selling points but don't bore the reader!

For years I preached long copy dogma, then I figured out that good long copy is composed from quanta of good short copy.

So now my take is that all good copy is short copy, even if it's ten thousand words. Keep it relevant to the reader and use as many words as you need to tell the product's story. Then be fanatical about how those words are presented on the page.

The length of your copy is mainly going to depend on the market awareness of the product you're trying to sell.

For example, if you're looking to buy the Harry Potter books, all you really need to know is the price, if they're in stock, and if the seller's trustworthy.

Whereas for a typical info-product you're going to want to know every last detail before you make a buying decision.

Copy length depends on various factors. Chief among them is the product and the sophistication of the market. You will require less explaining if you are selling a credit card than you would when selling a revolutionary weight loss product. Selling cigarettes requires fewer words than a financial newsletter subscription.


Whether copy is long or short, it is necessary that it is interesting.


Copy is interesting when one sentence leads you to the next. One paragraph leaves you yearning to read the next one. And before you realize you have read 75 pages of a sales letter like I did recently.

I totally agree with the quote. Most of my sales pages end up being medium length.

I try to keep things as short as possible and get others to test it out to see if they get the point.

I personally always hated those long sales pages and would decide in the first few paragraphs if I was going to scroll down to see what it cost or bounce of the page.

The length of your sales copy depends on several factors.

First, what are you trying to accomplish? If you are writing a squeeze page, your copy should be short.

Your copy tends to be shorter for any type of lead generation.

If you are writing a microsite or sales page site, your copy will most likely be longer.

You will have to write longer copy generally, the higher the price point. You can probably sell a can of pop with a paragraph or two.

However, when you are selling an expensive product that is $300 or more, you will need longer copy.

If you're looking at the short term for your business then it's really a case by case issue. However, if you are planning on planting seed for a business that's going to be around 10-20 years down the road, which means you'll at some point have to go through Google....long sales letters will hurt your reputation.

Google hates long sales letters and views them as scams. They are good to use with an existing list of customers though. Take a quick Google search on any niche out there and you won't see any long sales letters on Google Adwords. There may be 1 or 2 who slip through the cracks, but for the most part, you won't find them.

Great quote. I think that if you keep it relevant it's easier to keep it interesting.

Since this is a question that will go round and round...I'll give you my short answer.

Short copy works the best.

It's always worked the best for me.

It seems you agree...since you gave a short post to get your signature seen (IMHO)...

"Copy length is like a womans skirt. It should be long enough to cover the essentials - but short enough to keep it interesting."

I agree totally with the quote...longer the sales copy you have to hold the interest of the reader, if it is to short then have you left room to convince?

This is a nonsense issue. Gary Halbert's famed "Coat of Arms" letter -- in many swipe files -- comes in at two hundred and odd change. He dubbed it one of the most successful sales letters of all time.

Yet he did not seem to forge some iron rule out of this, based on the whole of his work.

You are not going to do well with classifieds, or adwords if you stick to long copy. ...Ever see a fifteen page postcard?

Finally, it comes down to your own way of working. Some just can't go for page after page and hold the reader's interest. Others might have comparable success with a multi-step, using short copy.

More than likely it will be long and short copy, working together. Over several conversion points.

This sounds like a typical "answer from the back of book" topic. The mythical right answer is to know which you would use, and why. Understand how you write copy; not anybody else.

Your Insight for Today: Give up on the stupidity of the "or." Cease the false conflict of "versus." Embrace the marketing genius contained within the word "And."


Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go over to the illustration forum and start a thread: Blue Versus Green -- What works better?

Cool. Not I don't have to edit. Because "the book" tells me so. (Hey, it's a good book).

Test. Test. Test. Just don't expect a fifteen page postcard to get to the top of the list of things to test.

Or maybe, being agency men, they had good reason to understand exactly what short copy was usually like.



Clever. Catchy. Sloganeering. Or death by art director.

Knowing what you're doing, you also know when and where and why the rules apply. Not expert. Not genius. Just knowing which end is up.

I read about this in a copywriting classic... I can't remember which.

Long copy is composed of various sections of short copy. So to say long copy is better than short copy merely means that there are multiple accurate promises that hit the prospect on the head.

I guess for certain markets, you don't really need such a long copy...

The length of my copy always strongly depends on how well you can overcome the reader's objections of the product or service you're selling. If it's something you feel the reader doesn't have to many objections too, short copy would work.

However, if there are many objections...you write until you have given them specific reasons of why your product or service will work. If it takes 20 pages of copy to get the reader in a more than comfortable place to buy, that's how many pages you write.

In my mind - it's never about the length of your copy...it's the contents you're providing to the potential buyer to click on the "buy now button" knowing they made the right decision and they made it themselves.