A Great Marketing Mystery
Sep 3rd, 2007 by gibsondirect
One of the great mysteries of the marketing universe is long copy vs. short copy. Now, I know this isn’t very spiritual, but I thought some marketing comments might be beneficial to many of you.
Having been in marketing all these many years, I vividly remember the days before the web when we used the mail almost exclusively. When I’d tell clients that long letters almost always out perform short letters, the response to that statement was always the same—shock, groans and even boos.
But it’s true. Long letters will almost always out pull short letters. Long copy usually works better than short copy.
I realize such a statement goes against all logic, practical sense, and all that we hold dear. Our gut tells us, “Well, no one will ever have the time to read all of that!”
So how do I know such is the case?
A/B split testing.
When split testing a mailing, a four-page letter will normally out pull a two-page letter, and an eight-page letter will normally out pull a four-page letter. Of course, that’s assuming all letters are written well and other factors.
I think there are possibly many factors that may help explain this phenomenon. However, more than likely, the main reason is that people who are really interested in a product want to know as much about that product as possible before making a purchase. A two-page letter may seem like it’s easier to read, but it actually may leave a lot of questions unanswered.
I’ve long suspected such is the case with emails and landing pages. Of course, I know there is the same concern: “No one will read long copy, it takes too much time.” “That’s not what the Internet is all about.”
And I can understand such concerns. However, it now appears that there is A/B split testing evidence that long copy will out pull short copy in our electronic world. You may want to check out Marketing Experiments. They have performed a number of great A/B split tests on this topic. Now, I think there’s more testing to be done, but the data is interesting.
If long copy vs. short copy testing on emails and the web holds up, it just goes to prove an axiom I’ve long observed—our logic and our gut feel doesn’t always hold up to how people will actually respond.
That’s interesting to me. And yes, I would have thought the opposite. Is it possible that the important question is, what are you trying to do with the letter?
If you are trying to sell a product, then it seems those who are in the group of potential buyers like lots of information. Those who aren’t interested probably won’t read the short or the long version.
But what if your letter is meant to catch the attention of people who don’t think they really are interested. I don’t know anything about marketing, so I don’t have the right terminology. But say you were wanting to drive traffic to a website where you hoped to further catch their attention.
Does the intent and purpose of the letter have anything to do with this?
Very interesting, and encouraging to me in a way. I’m not a marketer in the literal sense, but I am trying to get ideas out in front of people in order to persuade them. Most of my blog entries are much longer than the average blog entry, and I usually link them into even longer series. This seems to be too much for some folks, but others are just fine with the length. Anyway, thanks for this entry.
These are all very good questions. Unfortunately, we direct response guys are a lot like preventative medicine doctors—we treat the symptoms, but may not know the exact cause of an illness. In direct, we do our testing, read the results, and the follow what our testing tells us to do.
First, you are correct, the content of any copy is very important. There’s a science to creating a good direct response letter, not only in the way it is written, but in other factors as well. For instance, good ole courier type will out pull other, more formal type. In big, four-color mail pieces, there needs to be a certain amount of “standard” (boring) copy involved, but letters offer the chance to be more emotional. And emotional words are generally better than intellectual words: “Worried” is better than “concerned,” “I’m sorry” is better than “I regret,” “funny “is better than “humorous,” “tough” is better than “difficult.” (However, one note on this: I’ve observed that there are exceptions to some of these rules, such as the church and academic world.) If a 2nd color is used, bright colors are normally better than pastels (designers hate this one). Etc., Etc.
Secondly, besides providing more information, I’ve long thought credibility is a big issue in long copy responding better than short copy. If a person is interested in a product, short copy may raise more suspicion than confidence. Long copy may help eliminate certain fears. I’ve seen an eight-page letter out pull a large, expensive four-color mail piece that contained a lot of pretty pictures, but not much copy. Now, there are times when a large, bright mail piece is the right way to go, but you get the picture.
Your web site question is a good one. I’m learning more about this myself, so it may be the blind leading the blind. However, I’ll throw in my two cents worth, so take the good and throw out the bad.
Driving folks to a web site is less about long copy vs. short copy and more about benefits.
Why should a person visit your site?
What do you have in your content that is worth someone paying you a visit?
Selling a product is far easier than selling pure content. I’ve been selling N.T. Wright’s For Everyone series online for the past two years. Using Google Ad Words, my benefits are easy to define and very clear in my Google ad: 1. It’s N.T. Wright, 2. Matthew is only $4.95 intro price, and 3. Free shipping on all volumes. These are very clear benefits that give enough information to make folks want to click through to my web site.
On content, the same principals apply, but they are often much more difficult to define in a short amount of space. You know your market, those folks who respond best to your content. What draws them to your content? Is it honesty? Is it saying things others are worried about saying, but want to say? If you can come up with words that describe benefits to your content, then the rest is a matter of simply testing them online. Most folks wince when I tell them that I like to use Google pay-per-click. But, I find that it provides me with information in a rather short amount of time, which for me, is a big factor. Of course, it also provides response information that I can track back directly to my test ad, although I often take the information off of Google and create my own reports, adding a few more details. So, this may be an option.
I know this is far more than you asked for, but I hoped it helped.
I’m sorry. These comments got too long and I stopped reading.
John