Sales Copy Length

Sales Copy Length

This is a question that always comes up, so I thought I would answer it honestly.

“How long should my sales copy be?”

Okay, here’s the smart answer…just long enough.

There is no, nor will there ever be a standard sales copy length.

However, having said that and this applies only if you write excellent sales copy, which has nothing to do with length, the longer sales copy will generally pull better than shorter sales copy.

But why is this?

I haven’t really seen this explained in detail. Mostly what I get is something like, “Studies have been done.” Well, I’m sure studies have been done, but that doesn’t tell me a whole lot.

So let me speak to you from my own experience, not as a copywriter, but as a buyer. Yes, believe it or not, I buy things. My hard drive is littered with the stuff that I’ve bought.

But why do I buy things? Well, remember what I said about the reasons why people buy things? There is another reason that people buy a particular thing from one person and not from somebody else. It’s the sales copy and how it compels them.

See, many buyers have pretty much already made up their mind that they’re going to buy something. The fact that they’re going to the sales page at all means that they have a need inside that is dying to be filled.

But then there are those purchases that you’re kind of on the fence about. Maybe you’re not sure you really need it or want it. Maybe the price is more than you feel you can afford. There are a ton of maybes and I’m not going to get into all of them. But in almost all those cases, for the people who DO end up buying, it is the sales copy that made the difference.

However, in order to make that difference, you have to compel the person to buy. You have to push them over the edge. You can’t do that in a few paragraphs because there isn’t enough information to remove that last bit of doubt. They’re sitting on that fence and they need to be pushed off that fence.

If your sales copy can do that, and in most cases it will take some doing, you’ve converted a fence sitter into a buyer. The sales copy that will do this, more often than not, is the longer sales copy. Not so much just because of the length, but because of all that goes into it such as testimonials, features and benefits, proof and so on. In order to give prospects enough information to make a decision, by the nature of what you’re doing, the sales copy MUST be long.

Still, there is a relationship between long copy and very long copy that goes directly to, as much as I hate to admit this, the cost of the item.

If you’re trying to sell an item that goes for $97, your sales copy doesn’t have to be nearly as long as the sales copy you’d have to write for an item that you plan to sell for $997. Let’s face it, for some people $997 is a boat load of money. So your copy has to be more compelling in order to convince that prospect to pull out his wallet.

Think about the offline world. Think about all the time that a salesperson spends with you trying to sell you a $20,000 automobile. It’s a heck of a lot more time than somebody would spend to try to sell you a $200 DVD player. Well, the same thing is true in copywriting. Your “time” translates to the length of your copy.

Even though I consider myself a to the point person, my sales copy tends to be fairly long, especially for a relatively inexpensive product like my Honest Income Program, which only goes for $47. If you take a look, the sales copy is 66 pages long. I’ve seen sales copy for $197 products that isn’t that long. My conversion on this product is very good. I don’t make a lot of sales because I don’t really actively promote it very much and don’t have an army of affiliates working for me, but I’ve sold a few thousand units. I’m certainly not complaining.

Point is, when you’re writing sales copy, think about what you need to say and do in order to get the person on the other end to pull out his wallet and then do it. However long it takes, that’s the ideal sales copy length. There are no hard and fast rules.