How Do You Slow Down The Sales Letter Skimmer?

Now I'm curious - what do you think is the reason for using subheads?

Sorry, I thought I made that clear in my first reply - I don't test it because I don't have a reason to test it against anything else.

The reason these kinds of subheads work is because it improves readability, which can't hinder conversions. But it's more about work methodology. It just depends on how you want to write your copy. You seem to think writing the subheads the way I do would be "extra work" that's not worth it without proof.

I don't do subheads as pull-quotes and excerpts as you're saying, because I START with the outline and subheads. The rest of the copy doesn't exist yet for me to pull items from the flow. Besides, I don't write in a freestyle flow kind of way anyway.

My work is very structured, and assembled, and constructed according to patterns and components, all designed to further the argument in favor of a sale. When I have all the bits, each with their own subhead, I put them all together in the right order, then if needed, add copy to smooth transition from section to section.

This is the same way one would write a legal argument, a political speech, a debate stance, etc. Get the points, elucidate the points, then string them all together.

There is no extra work for me to do it my way - conversely, it would be extra work for me to do what you suggest, because that's not how I assemble the copy.

And while I haven't split tested my subheads against some other way, my copy outperforms controls, and I get return customers, and I've sold about $25 million worth of crap with my copy. That's not meant to be a brag, but to say that I'm not feeling like I have to mess with my system to try something else just because.

I have no hypothesis for WHY a different kind of subhead would work better. So why would I test something like that? If you had a compelling reason why your kind might work better, then maybe I'd try it a different way.

But obviously you must simply write in a different way since you keep referring to the way I do it as extra work - which is fine - everyone writes differently. But it's not "extra work" for me to do it my way - I have the subheads before I even write the letter.

As for interesting bits from the flow that I want to bring attention to, I do block quotes or indenting or bold or italics or highlighting. I agree that some of those things should have attention called to them.

But that's not what I use to make subheads. I explained how I do it, why I do it, why I think it works, and I'm happy with the results it gets. Plus, if you are like me and write copy for other people, it's obviously beneficial to have an outline that the client can sign off on before I just start writing freestyle.

So like I said, if you want to test my way vs. your way, knock yourself out. I don't need to test it against anything else, because I already write them the best possible way I can think of to do so. I only change my process if I have a theory to test.

Hopefully that explains it better.