Ah, this is THE number 1 question I get asked. “Do you really need all those words on a long sales letter? I never read those long sales letters, do they actually work?”

The short answer is “yes.” (See, direct response copywriters CAN be brief.) And no, it’s not because I can charge all sorts of money the longer they get. It’s because yes, long sales letters actually make more sales than shorter ones.

Why do they work? Well, it’s because people have a lot of questions when they’re deciding whether to buy something or not. And if you don’t answer all those questions to their satisfaction they’re not going to plunk down the money.

Think of it this way. You’re on the phone with a prospective client. Let’s say it takes 30 minutes to explain what you’re selling so they feel comfortable enough to buy. Now imagine you’ve transcribed that 30 minute call. That’s at least 20 pages of text. 20 pages. And it’s only for one person. What about the next person? Sure some of the questions will be the same but there will also be different questions.

And, the more expensive product/service you’re selling, the more questions your prospective clients will have. And the longer on the phone you’ll be with them (hence longer copy). That’s why you see more copy for more expensive programs.

So when you look at it that way, sales letters are actually much shorter than you’d expect. You need to answer as many questions and overcome as many objections as possible for as many different prospects as possible. And using a sales letter you can probably do it more efficiently than being on the phone with them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Business Building, Sales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.