Comments on: Do long sales letters really work?

By: Karen Skidmore

Karen Skidmore — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:58:01 +0000

Good sales copy needs to be written for skim reading too, doesn’t it? If you can allow people to skim, get the drift of what it is you are offering but then still offer the detail they can go back to overcome their objections to encourage them to buy … then you are on to a winner

Thanks for your thoughts, Jon.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:21:59 +0000

Hi Karen,
Great article talking about something that many of us get irritated with, what’s more you’ve pointed out why some of them really really annoy me, while others are OK and others get me to click.

Well written and the ability to skim on a subject I’m really interested in – guess what I do (even though inside there’s a voice going, “no, it’s a long copy sales page”)

By: Mohan

Mohan — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:43:19 +0000

you mean sense full long letters will work… but than again I find it very difficult to get convened because targeted audience do not have time.. and we are entering a generation where people are viewing rather than reading stuff…

As I know the quality of you content … I happen to read this long post if not would have jumped to the next tab.

so do you think reorganization makes the difference?

By: Tola Popoola

Tola Popoola — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:47:37 +0000

This is a great one Karen. I thought I was the only one that hated those long sales letters. In particular, I hate the ones that have yellow and red highlighted text. I have become immune to them. I think the model has been over-used in certain circles maybe.

By: tony

tony — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:47:06 +0000

Could I ask then, if you do have something to sell, what do you consider to be the best way to connect with a customer if not with the long sales letter.

Great website by the way…

By: Sunday

Sunday — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:50:20 +0000

Hi there, I’m a bit late here too, but as someone who has a fairly long sales page, based on a 2 day workshop I attended last year, I have sold my product (an ebook), but I have never been happy with it because of its length and the fact that it is the same “formula” as millions of others. After reading the other comments here, I think I will “go with my gut” and re-write the page the way I want to, which is short, to the point and with the cost above the fold, then all the answers to questions further down, plus either audio or video (I already use a 30 second video on the “dreaded” squeeze page! I would have to “up” my advertising, however, to be able to “split test”!

By: louise david

louise david — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:11:42 +0000

hello, bit late to the debate … one of the key psychological reasons cited for using long copy marketing devises (they stop being letters after the first few paragraphs in my view) is that the longer a reader spends with the copy – the more committed they will ‘feel’. I think the long copy ‘letter’ comes from the old skool sales approach so beloved of the door to door chaps – get in, get comfy and don’t leave until the old girl signs up.

That’s how I feel when I read them, and for professional reasons, I’ve deconstructed a few in my time. Even the best of them end up annoying and patronising, and the worst are bullying and tedious.

I don’t specialise in long copy – I have spent my life, persuading communicators to get to the point, give their customers what they want, up front and without a lot of cynical marketing nonsense to wade through.

Mostly I think its self indulgent to take up so much of my clients’ or their customers’time.

Well targeted, well written, well organised and well signposted material gets great results.

Lets start a revolution – and save ourselves some time.

By: Nicola Bird

Nicola Bird — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:27:33 +0000

HI Karen – great debate I see happening everywhere at the moment. What I’m particularly interested in at the moment are whether the internet marketing techniques taught by the IM ‘gurus’ about, let’s face it, how to market to the people of the US mainly, work on the people in the UK? Perhaps, and it’s a gross generalisation, we are more cynical, just want the bare facts and a clear price and are not so convinced by pages of testimonials, bonuses etc?

Obviously people use the internet to market globally, but what if you want to use the internet to market UK-wide, should we be using a different approach?

I’m trying to get a particular IM marketer to answer this question for me at the moment and if he does I’ll be sure to share with you here

(and I watched all the armand morin video in 20 min chunks all weekend Hannah and it’s actually really interesting and worth the 1.45 hours!).

By: What if we called long sales letters something else? « CanDoCanBe

What if we called long sales letters something else? « CanDoCanBe — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:08:54 +0000

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By: Hannah McNamara

Hannah McNamara — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:10:40 +0000

Hmm… everyone here seems to dislike them! Karen, interesting point about the videos. I notice Armand Morin has put out a like to a 1hr 45 min video as a promotional tool (http://www.armandmorin.com/72hours/). That’s the length of a movie! It’ll be interesting to see how this works for him. Personally, I’ll struggle to watch it because my decent internet connection is in my office and I work a strict 9-5, oh and it’s being deleted in a few days. Yes, I know I could set aside the time to watch it and I could be missing great content, but all I’m saying is it’s going to be hard for me. I think that most people have been conditioned to the YouTube length video. I’ve just started dabbling in that, so could adapt for my promo perhaps…hmm.

Karen, I notice you put my twitter name down – it’s actually @hannahmcnamara