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Bright Ideas # 42 – How much text is enough—or too much?

Have you ever wondered how much text you really need in your brochure, Website or ad? This is a question I get all the time from my clients. And it’s a darn good one.

After all, we constantly hear that people don’t read anymore. Yet direct mail and Internet marketers have proven over and over that long text (or copy, as it is called in marketing circles) sells better than short copy—even these days.

Just think about all those multi-page sales letters that regularly stuff your mailbox. Or those super long Web pages that seem to scroll on forever. Or those long-winded magazine advertorials …you know, the “articles” that say Advertisement in small letters at the top.

Even those ever-present—and often annoying—infomercials are examples of effective long copy.

How do I know it’s effective? Because companies wouldn’t keep using them if they didn’t bring in sales!

In fact, if you keep seeing the same infomercial, long copy ad or sales letter used time and again, chances are that’s because it’s a winner. This is especially true with infomercials and sales letters (both print and Web), because their creators do the most testing and tracking of results.

Since they are trying to generate a response—they want you to pick up the phone, send in a card, or go to their Website and order now—they can easily see how well their promotion is working by the number of responses.

But, long copy is not right for every application. Sometimes a small amount of text is just the thing.

So how do you decide how much text you need?

First, you have to ask yourself, “What is the purpose of this marketing or advertising piece?”

If you are creating something purely for the purpose attracting attention, reinforcing your brand, or letting people know what you do, you don’t need much text at all.

Just a good headline to make people take notice. And maybe a little follow up text to fill in any gaps in the reader’s understanding of who you are and what you can do for them.

Good examples of this are billboards, the billboard-style ads you see in airports, and regular 30-second TV commercials. Of course, lots of print ads are designed this way too.

Flip through any magazine and you are bound to see tons of ads with big images, very little text, and no call to action or even contact information.

Again, this is because the company doesn’t expect to you to do anything. They just want to grab your attention—and hopefully get you to remember them and what they do down the road.

But if your goal is to make people take action you need a lot more copy. Why? Because now your text has to do more than just get attention—it has to be your salesperson.

So just like a good salesperson it needs to:

Target the right customer
Grab their attention
Explain the features and benefits of your product or service
Answer all their questions
Address all their concerns
And finally, close the sale

There is just no way to do all this with a headline and a few sentences.

However, in order for long copy to be work, it has to be written and formatted very carefully. Because if you don’t keep your audiences attention all the way through, you’ve lost the sale.

If you’ve ever been subjected to the torture of a salesperson droning on and on about the wonders of their products while your eyes glaze over, then you know what I mean. This is the last thing you want your text to do.

So your copy can’t just run on endlessly talking about you and the wonders of your business, product or service.

It has to tell your customer what THEY want to know. It has to be both reader and skimmer friendly. And it has to be written in a way that’s so engaging readers eat up every word without even realizing it.

Sure, this takes planning, hard work, and practice. But when it’s done right, nothing is more effective than long copy at making sales!

The bottom line is…there is no such thing as too little or too much copy. It just depends on what you want to accomplish.

As long as it does the job you want it to—and helps you achieve your business goals— then it is just the right amount.

Do you have a marketing, advertising or writing question you’d like to have answered? Email me and you might see the answer in a future edition of Bright Ideas.

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