Long copy sales calligraphy on the web: hype or not? - web-design

I have in print ahead of about long sales copy on the web. But I have more to say on the subject.

First, let me be clear about what I'm maxim here. I'm not discussion about long comfortable pages in dozens of other pages on a site. I'm discussion about stand-alone pages. . . a long, address reaction sales epistle online, often with its own field name.

Next, let me say this: long copy works, online and offline.

If you can hold someone's interest with your writing, a long page gives you the space to cede all the benefits, cover all the skin texture and attend to a heap of booklover questions and concerns. So long as the correspondence carries momentum and holds the reader's attention, colonize will keep scrolling.

And you'll get a change for the better conversion rate than you would with a shorter page. This is true offline, and on the web also.

However, what I have found is two clear-cut approaches to the long, online sales letter. Both work, but do so in altered ways.

Long copy style #1: Advertising with Hype

You maybe know the kind of page I mean. Here's an exemplar of the kind of copy you can expect:

"Income For Life? is the same agenda being praised by the true experts as ". . . a new breach fashion that will almost certainly lead more citizens from broke to millionaire category than 'Think & Grow Rich,' 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad,' and 'The Art Of Receiving Rich' Combined!""

The copy style is fast, packed with superlatives, thick with unsupported promises and fit to bust with testimonials given by citizens who arrive to dash amphetamines on their wheaties.

The outline for these sales pages is comparatively consistent. Lots of highlighted subheads and indents. A panting pace. . . and the agree of a beat life. Success. Wealth. Happiness.

Well, we all want to be happy and most of us could do with some extra wealth.

But how is it that this attempt works so well? Many of us look at these calligraphy and are incredulous. And many of us would claim never to be converted by such an approach. But hundreds of thousands of colonize are.

How come? This copy approximate has a fascinating condition to it. It makes promises with such depth and enthusiasm. And in some way, it tempts us into a state of submission. We acquiesce to the endless waves of promises and testimonials. We submit to the accepted wisdom that maybe, just maybe. . . this might work. . . and we might find that extra wealth or happiness.

And yes, even you will turn off your dangerous faculties from time to time. If you have ever purchased a draw tag you have been in this 'space'. . . where your aspiration for a beat expectations overcomes your more rational assessment process. Hey, a big cheese has to win. Right?

The same is true if you have ever felt your brain go soft in the face of an enthusiastic car or electronics salesperson. One half of your brain knows you are being convinced to buy extra facial appearance you don't need and almost certainly can't afford. The other part of your brain is whispering in your ear, "Hey man, chill. This feels good. Go with the flow, snoop to the man. "

This happens to us when we WANT to hear what we are hearing. When we WANT it to be true. When we allow ourselves to dream.

This is how hype works. It deepens our state of submission and creates a state of just about fantastic optimism.

And it works.

The important downside to this approximate is that most of us wake up from the dream and find that the promises were empty. Or, to put it a different way, we bought the ticket, but didn't win the lottery.

So if your aim is to build long-term relationships with your readers, prospects and customers, using hype is not the way to go.

Long copy style #2: Promotion with a Human Connection

The back up style of long copy attempt is quite different. Again, these are often stand-alone pages, many screens long. Again, you'll find the headings, the subheads, indents and testimonials.

But you'll find a very another advance in the journalism style.

If you have ever read a sales communication from Bill Bonner, Ken Evoy or Allan Gardyne. . . this is the kind of characters I'm chatting about.

These are still long, enthusiastic letters. . . and the pace still draws you down, line after line.

But here are some differences, and they are very significant.

- Contained by the text you will hear the actual voice of the writer. You're not being sold with copy in black and white by the 'Dream-O-Matic 2000' - you're being sold by a familiar human voice, the voice of Bill, Ken or Allan.

- You are not succumbing to that state of bizarre submission and suspending your dangerous faculties. You keep on quite rational and quite clear in your thinking.

- You are consideration a voice that sounds and feels infinitely more trustworthy.

- You don't have to delay your disbelief. Instead, you feel comfortable and consider what you are reading.

At the end of a dispatch like this, you make a choice. . . buy or not to buy. And it's a abundance you are much less apt to regret.

Online sales inscription like these are the family of customary absolute answer epistle writing. Good aim mail lettering are in print in this back up way - by construction a frank bond with the booklover and earning his or her trust.

There is a big upside to this back up approach. It builds trust and loyalty. If your policy is to build a list of happy prospects and customers who will come back again and again, this is the style you will want to adopt.

Conclusions

Long copy works, and it works in more than one way.

If you can reach a big a sufficient amount readership (no small feat) and want to make big money, right now, hype might work for you.

But if you want to build a long-term list of go over customers. . . be by hand and write to your addressees with an enthusiasm that is built on a foundation of honesty and accept for your readers.

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Article Resource: If you would like to learn how to write like a customary absolute marketer, read my analysis of Michael Masterson's Accelerated Agenda for Six-Figure Copywriting.

Nick Usborne is a copywriter, author, loudspeaker and advocat of good writing. You can admission all his archived newsletter articles on copywriting and journalism for the web at his Excess Voice site. You'll find more articles and assets on how to make money as a irregular author at his Freelance Journalism Success site.