The Long Versus Short Argument
How long should your copy be?
I’m sure you’ve read a lot of discussions around this particular question…I know I have! So I’ll ask it again “How long should your copy be?” Well the first thing it depends on is what your product is. If for example your product is a tube of toothpaste…there’s only so much you can say about a tube of toothpaste without boring your reader to tears. Use short copy. If on the other hand your product has many features and benefits use long copy. The more you tell the more you sell.
Some people believe that a reader will not read long copy…nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the most successful direct mail letters and adverts over the years have used long copy. The world famous Claude Hopkins once wrote five pages of copy for Schlitz Beer which moved from fifth place to first place in just a few months.
Research does show that readership falls off quite quickly for the first fifty words, but slows quite dramatically between fifty and five hundred words. In his first famous Rolls-Royce advert David Ogily used 719 words. He literally piled one fascinating fact on top of another. In his last paragraph he wrote the line “People who feel diffident about driving a Rolls-Royce can buy a Bentley”. The number of motorists that picked up on the word diffident concluded him to believe his copy had been thoroughly read. So he used 1400 words in his next advert!
Every piece of copy you write is a complete sales pitch for your product. You have to treat it as though this is the only chance you will ever get to sell the product to your reader. The more facts you tell the more you will sell.
Here is a quick story about Max Hart (of Hart, Schaffner & Marx) arguing with his advertising manager George L. Dyer about long copy. Dyer said “I’ll bet you ten dollars I can write a newspaper page of solid type and you’d read every word of it,” Naturally Hart scoffed at the idea. “I don’t have to write a line of it to prove my point,” Dyer replied. “I’ll only tell you the headline: This Page Is All About Max Hart.”
Anne Pearson
Compelling Copywriter
http://www.mapcopywriting.com
anne@mapcopywriting.com
Skype – mapcopywriting
Tel / Fax – 01772 468979
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