It’s time to try and simplify a very complicated subject. Just today, I read a 50+ page PDF ( manifesto ?) from copywriter Michel Fortin.
In it, Michel goes on at length about why long-copy salesletters are less efffective than they used to be. The funny thing here is that he took 50+ pages to say it.
If people aren’t going to read long-copy, why would he take 50+ pages to tell us ?
Because he knows the truth is that people will read 10,000 pages of content that interests them. Salesletter, novel, magazine article … whatever.
Are online salesletters changing ? Yes.
Is long-copy dead ? No.
Direct-mail copywriters will be using long-copy for a long, long time.
Online, the salesletter format is changing, but the length is not. The amount of copy needed to convey a point, to change a mind or to sell a product is as long as it has to be. No less will do. No more is necessary.
The real point here, and Michel makes it around page 25 of his manifesto, is this : Long-copy salesletters are here to stay, long-scrolling salesletters aren’t as effective online as they were 5 years ago.
Why ? Because of stupid people who used them poorly. They knew nothing about sales, persuasion or marketing, but they thought they could get wealthy by using screamin’ headlines, lots of bullet points and 10 colors per page.
Why ? Because of technology. The advent of AJAX, Flash and other means of making the content more interactive.
Why ? Because of evolution. Simple.
Long-copy is still going to be used, it’s just going to be in the form of audio and video. In fact, because it’s audio with or without video, there may be even more copy (text) used.
The amount of text will be the same – as much as is needed to make it work. It’ll just be in the delivered in a form that won’t require you to do all the work yourself. Reading is hard work for humans. That’s why a majority of them don’t do any of it after they leave high school.
Educating and entertaining your prospect, making him/her aware of their problem and presenting a solution will always work, because human nature will never change. It hasn’t since the dawn of time and won’t between now and the end of time.
If that sounds like what a salesman does face-to-face, you’re right. Want to have a more effective website, learn to sell.
If that sounds like what a white paper does, you’re right. If you think that they’ll be growing in popularity in 2007, you’re right.
The online salesletter writer, in the future, will need to simply know more about the sales process, be more credible and experienced in the field he’s writing about, will need to be a more effective speaker ( or user of audio ) and will need to be a better story teller.
Quite frankly, I’m glad.
And I prefer to think of it as the birth of a better sales letter.
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