Comments on: Do long sales letters really work?

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

[...] Contact « Do long sales letters really work? [...]

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

By: Deborah Bifulco

Deborah Bifulco — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:46:53 +0000

Great topic, Karen! I have had several conversations with other marketers in the last week about this very topic. It’s funny that no one seems to like the long sales page format; yet nearly everyone uses it. Personally, I dislike the format; but that is because I want my information in bullet points, just the highlights. I suppose that for every person like me, there is someone else who really wants all that information, the endless testimonials, the restatement of value propositions.

Since I am currently writing (and re-writing) several of my own sales pages, I find this whole subject quite interesting. I will probably try going with something shorter initially, but may well end up with the 15-page litany eventually.

Really enjoyed reading everyone else’s thoughts on this. Thanks again, Karen!

By: Jackie Mitchell

Jackie Mitchell — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:49:36 +0000

Interesting article – one of the answers may be to hire a professional copywriter who knows what they’re doing and can edit your long sales letter into something short and snappy!

By: Dan Elder

Dan Elder — Thu, 28 May 2009 12:41:46 +0000

Great article! My thoughts/opinions:

Professionally, all the comments I read say that long sales letters work… but no one has ever cited any personal stats or a broad-based study on how well.

Personally, I find that most people in today’s society have basically abandoned reading as a form of communication (sounds silly, doesn’t it?). Twitter has reduced communication to 140 characters or less. People watch TV news or play video games, communicate in bits of truncated text (Gr8!), and rely on images or simple headlines for nearly all content they absorb. If you ask many folks about the last book they read, they’ll either respond with, “you mean, like, a book-book?” or relate their latest audio book they’ve listened to in the car on the way to work. Finally, if you actually hand someone a brochure, many times they’ll hand it back and ask, “What does it say?” And also in my experience, their level of education does not change this social (as opposed to professional) behavior.

For all these reasons, I think a hybrid approach of a headline and subtitle designed to get your attention, followed by some sort of option for those who want to know more seems to work better. A letter with the main message concisely communicated, with testimonials in a separate column (to be read or skipped as desired) and a separate page or sheet or column with additional info for those that want it, is the best of both worlds. And get the meat of your message “above the fold” on the web page or letter.

And finally, I NEVER buy anything off of a long rambling sales letter or squeeze page. As you said, my attention wanders as the writer forces me to read items of no interest, my eyes glaze over, and I begin searching for the Back button.

Keep up the good work!