About a year ago I found an article with an unconventional take on a topic that had recently gotten me jumped all over on an Internet marketing forum. So, when I came upon that article, which supported the opinion that I had expressed at the forum, I was very interested.
I was especially interested because the article was the result of actual testing that the writer had done.
What was the topic?
“Which is better for Internet sales, long or short copy?”
The accepted wisdom was that long copy sells better than short.
What got me in trouble on that forum was that I described how the long sales letters affected me personally.
I didn’t say I knew anything about whether long sales letters affected everyong the same way. I just said that the long sales letters had the same effect on me that the middle of the night infomercials have, they are like sleeping pills.
In fact, if I have trouble sleeping, all I have to do is turn the TV to an infomercial, and I’m off to dreamland in a few minutes.
I have been experiencing the same effect when I come across the l-o-n-g online sales pages. I get an uncomfortable feeling of impatience, boredom, and irritation that although I’d like to see what the page has to say, I wish they’d just get on with it and give me the facts.
So, still feeling somewhat battered after my forum faux pas, I was amazed to come across an article on JamesBrausch.com claiming that the short sales pages might be more effective than most marketers thought.
Now, James has just revisited the topic with a new post in his blog describing the results of running multivariate testing software on some sales pages, and where it turns out that “no words” might be better than anything! What??? Read James’ article here:
http://www.jamesbrausch.com/?p=621
