In every one of my years of making promoting, there is one question that I have been asked more frequently than whatever other. One issue that has created me a bigger number of issues with customers than whatever other. One specific publicizing and direct advertising approach that makes more concern and mistrust than whatever other.
Anyway, what is this troublesome question?
"Nobody is truly going to peruse all that duplicate, would they say they are?"
Indeed, since I'm burnt out on noting this question myself, I recommend that we solicit some from the untouched greats in the historical backdrop of promoting and direct showcasing what they consider this issue.
How about we see what they need to state...
David Ogilvy (1911-)
David Ogilvy is probably the most famous advertising personality there is. He not only built the agency he founded, Ogilvy & Mather, into one of the biggest and most successful in the world, he also wrote two popular books on the subject: Confessions of an Advertising Man in 1963 and Ogilvy on Advertising in 1983.
In Admissions, he had the accompanying to state on the subject of long duplicate:
There is a widespread confidence in lay circles that individuals won't read long duplicate. Nothing could be more distant from reality. Claude Hopkins once composed five pages of strong content for Schlitz brew. In a couple of months, Schlitz climbed from fifth place to first. I once composed a page of strong content for Good Fortunes Margarine, with most satisfying results.
Each notice ought to be an entire attempt to make the deal for your item. It is impossible to accept that buyers will read a progression of commercials for a similar item. You ought to shoot the works in each notice, on the presumption that it is the main shot you should offer your item to the peruser—now or never.
Says Dr. Charles Edwards of the Doctoral level college of Retailing, at New York College, "the more realities you tell, the more you offer. A promotion's possibility for achievement perpetually increments as the quantity of germane stock actualities incorporated into the ad increments."
Ogilvy goes ahead to talk about some of his own encounters with long duplicate advertisements and shares an account which right up 'til the present time remains the best clarification of what sort of duplicate individuals get a kick out of the chance to peruse:
Investigate demonstrates that readership tumbles off quickly up to 50 expressions of duplicate, yet drops next to no somewhere around 50 and 500 words. In my first Rolls Royce notice I utilized 719 words—heaping one captivating certainty on another. In the last passage I composed, "individuals who feel reserved about driving a Moves Royce can purchase a Bentley." Based on the quantity of drivers who grabbed "timid" and bandied it about, I inferred that the ad was completely perused. In the following one I utilized 1,400 words.
We have even possessed the capacity to motivate individuals to peruse long duplicate about fuel. One of our Shell notices contained 617 words, and 22% of male perusers read the greater part of them.
Vic Schwab [you'll hear more from him later] recounts the narrative of Max Hart (of Hart, Schaffner and Marx) and his publicizing supervisor, George L. Dyer, contending about long duplicate. Dyer said, "I'll wager you $10 I can compose a daily paper page of strong sort and you'd perused each expression of it."
Hart laughed at the thought. "I don't need to compose a line of it to demonstrate my point," Dyer answered. "I'll just let you know the feature: 'This Page is About Max Hart'."
A quarter century, in Ogilvy on Promoting, he had considerably more to state on the subject:
All my experience says that for a large number of items, long duplicate undercuts more than. [He then goes ahead to give various cases of fruitful long duplicate ads.] I could give you endless different cases of long duplicate which has made the money enlist ring, remarkably for Mercedes autos. In the Assembled States, as well as everywhere throughout the world.
I accept, with no exploration to bolster me, that promotions with long duplicate pass on the feeling that you have something critical to state, whether individuals read the duplicate or not.
Coordinate reaction sponsors realize that short duplicate doesn't offer. In split run tests, long duplicate constantly surpasses short duplicate.
Later, he clarifies a standout amongst the most imperative contrasts between the long and short duplicate styles of promoting:
Promoting individuals have an oblivious conviction that ads need to look like commercials. They have acquired realistic traditions which broadcast to the peruser, "This is just a commercial. Skip it."
There is no law which says that promotions need to look like ads. On the off chance that you make them look like publication pages, you will pull in more perusers. About six times the same number of individuals read the normal article as the normal notice. Not very many promotions are perused by more than one peruser in twenty. I presume that editors impart superior to admen.
In the event that you imagine you are a manager, you will improve comes about. At the point when the magazine demands that you slug your promotions with the word commercial, set it in italic tops, backward. At that point no one can read it.
On the off chance that you forsake the ordinary design of ads and receive publication representation, your battles will get to be islands of good taste in a sea of indecency.
In a later part, Ogilvy puts a shout point on his contention:
Long duplicate undercuts more than duplicate, especially when you are requesting that the peruser spend a great deal of cash. Just novices utilize short duplicate.
John Caples (1900-1990)
John Caples is considered by numerous in the business as a definitive master of publicizing, and his book, Tried Promoting Strategies is the nearest thing there is to a promoting book of scriptures. Initially written in 1938, Caples himself modified the book four times until the late 70's, and a fifth release, distributed in 1997 and altered by Fred Hahn, has been issued after death. This is what he needs to state on our subject:
The short duplicate promotions, set in blurb style and containing just a couple expressions of duplicate or a trademark, are generally utilized by sponsors who can't follow the immediate deals comes about because of their commercials.
Promoters who can follow the immediate deals comes about because of their advertisements utilize long duplicate since it pulls superior to anything short duplicate. For instance, the book club publicists, the record clubs, and the correspondence school promoters utilize advertisements containing 500 to 1500 expressions of duplicate. Likewise, you will find that land sponsors, patent medication publicists, and arranged promoters put as much offering duplicate into their advertisements as the space will permit. These individuals can't stand to run purported "update duplicate." They need to get prompt deals from each advertisement.
Sponsors who offer their products and enterprises by method for standard mail letters have thought that it was gainful to utilize long duplicate in their promoting. Long duplicate is such a verified achievement that the four-page post office based mail letter has turned into a run as opposed to a choice. Where the direction used to be "Say whatever you should state, then stop," it now is, "Say it in four pages and make it worth perusing."
This does not imply that long duplicate ought to be utilized only for filling space. Long duplicate ought to be utilized as a part of request to swarm in however many deals contentions as could be allowed.
Here are some extra focuses Caples makes concerning length of duplicate:
Promoters of short duplicate say, "I don't think anyone will read all that little print. We should chop the duplicate down to a few sections and set it in 18-point sort."
What the promoters of short duplicate ought to state, in the event that they need to be exact, is this: "I don't think everyone will read all that little print." This is consummately valid. Everyone won't read it. In any case, the truth of the matter is that the very individuals you are most intrigued by will read your promotion. These are the prospects who will purchase your item or administration in the event that you let them know adequate explanations behind doing as such.
The question emerges: Is there any valid reason why it wouldn't pay the short-duplicate clients to make their promoting do the most extreme offering work by including more deals talk? Reply: the odds are that it would pay them.
Here is an answer for the issue of long duplicate versus short duplicate that ought to fulfill the champions of both sides of the question. Put a brief offering message into your feature and subheadings. Put your point by point message into little print. Along these lines, you achieve two things: (1) You get a brief message crosswise over to glancers with your feature and subheads. (2) You give a total message in little print to the individual who is adequately intrigued by your item to peruse about it.
Later in Tried Promoting Strategies Caples goes ahead to state:
After you have discovered your most proficient size advertisement, you ought to stick your space brimming with duplicate, regardless of whether it is a one-inch promotion or a full-page advertisement.
Brief, update style duplicate comprising of a couple words or a trademark does not pull request and also long duplicate pressed with certainties and peruser benefits about your item or administration.
In the event that you need to see effective utilization of space, take a gander at mail arrange inventories or at the mail-arrange advertisements in magazines or in your Sunday daily paper. A portion of the most grounded pulling mail-arrange advertisements have contained upwards of 1200 expressions of duplicate set in little print. Try not to be reluctant to utilize long duplicate or little print. Simply make certain that your duplicate is fascinating.
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In his 1983 book How to Profit, Caples says:
Advertisements with bunches of truths are powerful. What's more, don't fear long duplicate. On the off chance that your promotion is intriguing, individuals will read all the duplicate you can give them. On the off chance that the promotion is dull, short duplicate won't spare it.
Later in the book, he dedicates a whole part to long duplicate advertisements entitled "How Publication Style Promotions can Bring Expanded Deals." In the wake of talking about various exceptionally fruitful illustrations he says:
On the off chance that you utilize the article style approach, you will have an effective figure working your support. Individuals purchase daily papers and magazines to peruse article material—not promotions. Readership concentrates on demonstrate that the perusing of article material is five times as extraordinary as the perusing of promoting.
Since we've gotten notification from—apparently—the two most celebrated men in promoting history, we should solicit some from the genuine pioneers in the field for their perspectives on long duplicate.
Claude Hopkins (1867-1932)
Claude Hopkins was one of the first to deliberately study and test the aftereffects of various methodologies in promoting. He is accepted to have instituted the expression "logical promoting" to depict the approach, and his 1923 book by that name stays one of the untouched works of art in the field. Not just did his work rouse a large portion of the promoting monsters who came after him, yet a lot of his work and his strategies are as material today as they were in his day.
Consider his musings on our question:
Some say, "Be exceptionally concise. Individuals will read pretty much nothing." Would you say that to a sales representative? With the prospect remaining before him, would you keep him to a specific number of words? That would be an inconceivable cripple.
So in publicizing. The main perusers we get are individuals whom our subject advantages. Nobody peruses promotions for entertainment, long or short. Consider them as prospects, remaining before you, looking for data. Give them enough to get activity.
The aphorism ... is, "The more you tell the more you offer." and it has never neglected to demonstrate out so in any test we know.
He spends a whole part, called "Recount Your Full Story," clarifying—with various cases—the basic significance of exhibiting an entire deals contention in each ad:
When you once stand out enough to be noticed, then is an ideal opportunity to fulfill all you ever trust with him. Convey all your great contentions to hold up under. Cover each period of your subject. One actuality claims to exactly, to each other. Preclude any one and a specific rate will lose the reality which may persuade. ... So present to the peruser, when once you get him, each essential claim you have.
The best sponsors do that. They take in their engaging cases by tests—by looking at results from different features. Bit by bit they amass a rundown of cases sufficiently vital to utilize. Each one of those cases show up in each promotion from that point.
This again raises the subject of quickness. The most widely recognized expression you catch wind of publicizing is that individuals won't read much. However an unlimited measure of the best paying publicizing demonstrates that individuals do read much.
Hopkins gives the straightforward case of attempting to persuade somebody, eye to eye, to change their most loved brand of breakfast nourishment, toothpaste, or cleanser and receive another one. He says:
A man who once does that at a lady's entryway won't contend for brief ads. He will never again say, "A sentence will do," or a name or claim or brag.
Nor will the man who follows his outcomes. Take note of that brief promotions are never keyed. Realize that each followed promotion recounts the total story however it takes sections to tell.
Maxwell Sackheim (1890-1982)
Max Sackheim was a pioneer in the immediate advertising field. Notwithstanding being a well known publicist (his advertisement featured "Do You Commit These Errors in English?" is a standout amongst the most acclaimed and effective ever composed and ran productively for more than 40 years), he developed the Book-of-the-Month Club and the negative alternative approach which have both been received by innumerable organizations from that point forward.
Here's his perspective:
I have never possessed the capacity to comprehend why such a variety of publicists are reluctant to utilize long duplicate when there's such a great amount of confirmation to demonstrate its esteem; such a great amount in certainty that the main purpose behind utilizing short duplicate is when there isn't much to state.
One great trial of duplicate is regardless of whether it can be cut. In the event that it can be cut, cut it. Be that as it may, when cutting is diligent work, you are getting down to bedrock. Recount your story completely and totally. In the event that you can let it know in ten words, fine. Be that as it may, in the event that you require a thousand words, nothing less is reasonable for the space you pay for.
Victor O. Schwab
Victor Schwab is the writer of one of the exemplary takes a shot at publicizing, How to Compose a Decent Commercial, which was initially distributed in 1962 after he had put in 44 years as a promoting marketing specialist. A whole section of the book is committed "To what extent Ought to the Duplicate Be?" and it contains a standout amongst the most entire and very much contended clarifications of duplicate length discovered anyplace.
Here are a couple of his contemplations:
Promoters who can check their publicizing and deals comes about deliberately have found an amazing relationship amongst viability and number of words utilized. They have found that—unless duplicate is extraordinarily fine or incredibly terrible—these proportions of resultfullness to duplicate length are genuinely steady.
The More drawn out your duplicate can hold the enthusiasm of the best number of perusers, the likelier you are to prompt A greater amount of them to act.
Since the ooze of human latency is stagnant to the point that too little a measure of duplicate can't make that slop stream without hesitation—unless (and generally despite the fact that) the nature of the duplicate, or the inborn interest of the item, is hugely far better than expected. What's more, it's an uncommon duplicate thought that can be given awesome curtness and still get quick activity.
To total up: the more drawn out your duplicate can hold individuals, the a greater amount of them you will offer; and the all the more fascinating your duplicate is, the more you will hold them. On the off chance that you can keep your peruser intrigued, you'll have a superior possibility of impelling him to activity. On the off chance that you can't do that, then too little a measure of duplicate won't push him sufficiently far along that street at any rate.
Later on, Schwab talks about the reasons why individuals will read long duplicate:
What subject interests your peruser most? Himself, and his family. So ... your duplicate subject is the thing that your item will accomplish for him, or for his family.
It's stunning how much duplicate any individual will read, energetically, on the off chance that it keeps on indicating out these purchaser benefits; on the off chance that you continue making your item win favorable circumstances for him.
Persistently fascinating presentation of solid customer advantage deals edges legitimizes and remunerates the utilization of longer duplicate.
A businessperson does not state, "How would you do?" talk a couple words about his item, then request that you sign the request. No; he utilizes enough words to get your feelings and thinking power streaming toward a deal.
However numerous commercials for all intents and purposes say minimal more than "Hi—Our item is magnificent—Great by."
In like manner, it is self-evident (however frequently disregarded) that no peruser can be impacted by great deals edges which don't show up in the ad by any stretch of the imagination.
At the end of the day, if these business points aren't in the duplicate, then ... perusers can't be impacted by them. Be that as it may, in the event that they are there, they at any rate have the possibility of impacting every one of your perusers. What's more, you can't abbreviate duplicate excessively, just for the more noteworthy fascination of a few people, without risking leaving too little of it to benefit an occupation of offering the others.
Endeavoring to trade off with this reality, numerous sponsors attempt, essentially, to make an arrangement with the peruser. They make dull commercials short. However minor quickness does not make a generally dull ads fascinating—any more than simple length makes a generally intriguing promotion dull. Genuine intrigue will actuate a peruser to peruse longer duplicate, word by word, while the absence of it won't instigate him to peruse significantly shorter duplicate.
Schwab hits the nail appropriate on the head when he cites a comment ascribed to Howard G. Sawyer: "Long duplicate doesn't drive off perusers the way it frightens off publicists." Now if just promoters started to acknowledge that...I wouldn't have motivation to compose this article!
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Sway Stone
Sway Stone, originator of Stone and Adler, one of the main Direct Showcasing publicizing organizations on the planet, is the creator of Fruitful Direct Advertising Strategies, the authoritative manual for the immediate promoting field. In the fourth release of the book, distributed in 1988, he says:
"Do individuals read long duplicate?" The answer is yes! Individuals will read something for whatever length of time that it intrigues them. A uninteresting one-page letter can be too long. A skillfully woven four-pager can hold the peruser until the end. In this way, a letter ought to be sufficiently long to cover the subject satisfactorily and sufficiently short to hold intrigue. Try not to fear long duplicate. On the off chance that you have something to state and can state it well, it will most likely show improvement over short duplicate. All things considered, the more you hold a prospect's advantage, the more deals focuses you can get crosswise over and the more probable you are to win a request.
Walter H. Weintz
Walter Weintz is another immediate promoting legend, and was one of the pioneers in magazine and book membership standard mail when he worked at Peruser's Process. In his 1987 book The Strong Gold Post box, he shares his musings on long duplicate direct showcasing letters:
...a question that dependably comes up, when a mail-arrange professional endeavors to clarify his [use of long copy], is "wouldn't a postcard be more powerful?"
What's more, as a rule the perception is included, "by and by, I never read all that garbage I get in second rate class mailings. Truly now, why do you need to compose four-page letters? Wouldn't a one-page letter do similarly too, or far and away superior?"
The answer is, a 4-page letter will by and large draw twice the same number of requests as a one-page letter, gave that the marketing specialist has something to state, and says it with some expertise. This isn't only an assessment: it has been demonstrated again and again, by tests—where a suspicious customer has arranged a one-page letter, in finest exposition, and tried it against a wordy 4-pager.
Actually, Meredith Distributing Organization (distributers of Better Homes and Gardens and Present day Living magazines, and in addition various books and clubs) by and large inclines toward a six-page letter-in light of the fact that their tests have demonstrated that a decent 6-pager pulls stunningly better than a 4-pager!
Presently, on the off chance that you're suspecting that exclusive old-clocks and long-dead promoting pioneers hold these perspectives, we should visit with a couple of today's era of showcasing masters and specialists.
Robert W. Bly
Bob Bly is a top-notch copywriter and prolific author. In his 1985 book The Copywriter’s Handbook, which received a glowing recommendation from David Ogilvy himself, he has this to say on the subject of long copy:
The length of the copy—and the number of sales points to include—is something you, the copywriter, must decide for each project. However, I offer this piece of advice: if you’re unsure of how long to make the copy, you’re better off including too much information than not enough information.
There are many studies that confirm that, all else being equal, long-copy ads sell more effectively than short ones. For example, a recent survey of 72 retailers measured the "success ratio" of their ads against the number of merchandise facts each ad contained.[Here he has a table showing a steady increase in success ratio as the number of merchandise facts increase.]As you can see, the more facts included, the more successful the ad. The study also revealed that whenever a store omitted any essential information from an advertisement, sales response was instantly reduced.Don’t be afraid of long copy. Include as many facts as it takes to make the sale.
Gary C. Halbert
Gary Halbert is one of today’s highest paid marketing gurus and has made millions with his own direct marketing companies. He is the author of the 1990 book How To Make Maximum Money In Minimum Time!
One of his secrets to profitable newspaper advertising is to:
MAKE YOUR AD LOOK LIKE A NEWS STORY. Don’t make it look like an ad. Don’t use line art. Don’t use arrows, cute graphics, reverse type (except maybe to highlight a phone number), weird typestyles...OR ANYTHING ELSE THAT MIGHT WIN AN AWARD FOR GRAPHIC DESIGN.
Come closer. Listen: here is how to "think" about your newspaper ads. Think about what could be the best possible piece of luck you could have. Think about a reporter who heard a rumor about your product or service and decided to check it out. And then, he fell in love with it. In fact, he loved it so much, he went back to his typewriter and wrote a full-page rave article about what you are selling.Wouldn’t that be nice? Sure would. However, it is also unlikely that such a thing will happen. So...YOU BE THAT REPORTER!You write the rave "article." Just like a reporter would. And, at the end of the article, you perform a "public service" for your readers by telling them where and how to order. But, after all this, don’t screw up by having your "article" typeset to look like an ad.No. No. Noooo. It should be typeset to look like the "article" it is. You know, ad agencies just love to quote studies that prove how much people love to read advertising.Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!Editorial material (or material that appears to be editorial) gets 500% more readership than material that is obviously advertising.
Craig Huey
Craig Huey is a California-based direct response advertising expert. His thoughts about long copy are quoted in the 1998 book 2,239 Tested Secrets for Direct Marketing Success:
Long copy works. The more you tell, the more you sell. In fact, the reason ads don’t do as well as direct mail is you don’t have the space to tell your story as strongly. In just one study, McGraw-Hill reviewed 3,597 ads in 26 business magazines. It found that ads with 300 or more words were more effective than shorter ads in creating awareness of the product, prompting action, and reinforcing a buying decision.
A few years back, Merrill Lynch ran a very long ad in the New York Times. Its 6,450 words received a lot of criticism for being "ugly," for having "too much copy and not enough graphics." The headline was long, too: "What Everybody Ought to Know About This Stock and Bond Business."Despite all the negative reviews, it received 10,000 responses without even a coupon.
Jay Abraham
Jay Abraham is one of today’s most respected—and highly paid—marketing consultants and is the author of Getting Everything You Can Get out of All You've Got, a book published in 2000. Talking about sales letters he says:
Should your letter or E-mail be long or short? Make it long enough to tell a complete, informative, and interesting story. People think others won’t read long, multipage letters. That couldn’t be further from the truth. You’ll read any number of pages if a letter captures your interest. Make your sales letter long enough to tell a complete story and to thoroughly address all the necessary components.
Don’t shortcut to save space. Edit ruthlessly for waste or boring content (this is particularly true with E-mail), but never jettison fascinating facts, forceful reasons, or specific information that adds to your compelling story.If you had a salesperson calling on a client, would you tell that person to stop the presentation after thirty seconds to save time? Of course not. You want that salesperson to take as much time as necessary to make a compelling case. That also applies to sales letters.My most successful sales letters have been eight, ten, twelve, even sixteen pages long. But every paragraph was informative, and every section advanced the case. If you have a hobby or a profession, how much will you read on that subject? A page? A chapter? A book? The answer is: a lot. Provided it is interesting. If your sales letters are interesting, people will gladly read them.
Jay Conrad Levinson
Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of the number one best selling marketing series of all time, the Guerrilla Marketing books. In Guerrilla Marketing Attack (1989) he says:
Remember that long copy works better than short copy. Of all the things people dislike about marketing, "lack of information" comes in second. ["Feeling deceived" is first.]
In Guerrilla Advertising, a 1994 sequel, he adds:
Print ads that look like a newspaper story and have a newsy headline are another sage use of the print media. People read newspapers to get the news, and if you’ve got some, tell it. They read magazines so they can become involved with the stories. Let them become involved with your ad.
Many of the most successful print ads are long-copy ads with headlines that begin with the words "How to." ...prospects hang on to every word. Don’t be deluded into thinking people won’t read long copy. They will if it interests them. And they will if it solves one of their problems. The sheer quantity of your copy will impress many prospects who won’t even read it, but will figure that if you have that much to say about your offering, it must be worthwhile.
In another 1994 addition to the series, The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook, co-authored with Seth Godin, he sums up the issue very nicely:
Don’t be afraid to use lengthy copy. It’s been statistically proven time and time again that ads with more copy draw better than those with less. You want to give the reader as much of the story about your product or service as possible. Tell a story that will compel them to buy.
So what do you think now?
Every one of the authors I have quoted is a giant in the field of advertising. Between them, they have written advertising that has sold hundreds of billions of dollars worth of products spanning the entire twentieth century. Every one of them built their career on producing advertisements that worked phenomenally well for their clients.
And they all agree about the effectiveness of long copy ads. If you were to review the work they produced during their advertising careers you would see that they practiced what they preached.
Do you think they could all be wrong? Not too damn likely is it?
Do you think you know more about the subject than they do? Do you really want to ignore their experience and research?
And I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg, of course. I’ve provided you with a few brief quotes from some of the greatest men in advertising history. But every marketing person who has tested and tracked the results of their advertisements could vouch for the same thing. And I could share with you hundreds of additional quotes from marketing books, research papers, and articles that would reiterate the same conclusions over and over again.
So the next time some uneducated advertising sales person, graphic designer, or self-proclaimed (and self-deluded) marketing expert tells you that "No one will read all that copy," you know what to do: hand them a copy of this article and suggest that they should really do a little research before making such foolish statements.
Summing Up
So let’s sum up what we’ve learned from the advertising greats about long copy ads:
- People will read long copy as long as it interests them. The people that won’t read long copy are the ones who aren’t interested in your product anyway. No advertisement will change their mind, regardless of the number of words it contains. Real prospects want to know as much as they can in order to make a sound decision.
- People are primarily interested in themselves, their families, or their businesses. They are not interested in your company, product, or service in any other way except for the benefits it will bring to them. As long as the copy continues to focus on their self-interest, it will keep their attention.
- People read newspapers and magazines for the stories and articles they contain, not for the ads. In fact, most people scan the headlines for articles of interest to them while purposely avoiding anything that looks like advertising. As a result, advertising that contains a headline which attracts their interest and looks like the editorial content around it is much more likely to be read than advertising which looks like advertising.
- The purpose of advertising is to motivate and bring about the desired action in the reader, such as an order, phone call, or visit to your place of business. For most products and services, a picture and a few words are highly unlikely to attain the desired response. Your ad needs to do what a salesman would do when face to face with a prospect and provide a complete presentation of the product or service benefits.
- Because of this, every advertisement should tell the full and complete story. It should contain all the strongest and most persuasive reasons for a prospect to do business with you. And for those who are either too lazy or in too much of a hurry to read all the fine print, you should include subheads throughout which summarize the main points of the ad for these quick scanners.
With over a century of practical experience, thorough testing and research, and the collective recommendation of some of the great names in advertising history behind it, you can take this approach to the bank. Long copy advertising works.
Yes, but...
1. "I’ve seen research that says otherwise"
Yes, it is true that supporters of short copy advertising can produce research which seems to support their point of view. But if you begin to dig into this "research" a little deeper, you’ll find it doesn’t stand up to the scrutiny.
First, you’ll find that much of the research is academic in nature. This means it was done in a laboratory, not the real world. In most cases, student volunteers—who are not real prospects for the product or service in question—are shown a series of ads and asked which ones they "liked" best. Not surprisingly, they choose attractive or amusing ads. You would never get the same results in the real world where actual prospects and actual sales are being counted.
The second type of research which seems to contradict the recommendations I’m making is a favourite of the big general advertising agencies. They measure for what is known as an "advertising recall" score and they conclude that the more people remember the advertising, the better it is. Once again, volunteers who are not true prospects for the products or services involved are shown a random series of advertisements. Then, at varying time intervals, they are asked which ones they remember. Now let me ask you which would you remember: a pink elephant with green polka dots being ridden by a naked 300-pound woman—or an ad with a simple product picture and lots of strong selling copy.
You guessed it! The naked woman on the elephant achieves a significantly higher recall score and is deemed to be the better advertisement. Now, unless you’re selling pink and green elephants—or 300-pound naked women—your ad may be remembered, but it’s not likely to sell much.
If you think my example is too outrageous to be realistic, try a little experiment: see how many television commercials you remember. Now see if you remember what those commercials were in fact selling. And finally, ask yourself if you’ve actually purchased any of those products or services. Unless you are a particularly astute student of television commercials, chances are you couldn’t remember what most of them were selling. If you actually buy any of the products, my guess is that you were already doing so before the commercials aired. And remember, we’re talking about television commercials here that you have probably seen many, many times. "Memorable" print advertisements are even less likely to work.
2. "If this is true, why doesn’t everyone know about it—and do it?"
That’s a valid question and there isn’t one simple answer. But here are a few possible reasons.
First, most of the people involved in creating advertising are amateurs who have never seriously studied the subject. They are salespeople who sell advertising space. They are graphic designers who provide the "free layout services" for newspapers, magazines, and yellow pages directories. They are free-lance artists, desktop publishers, print shops, and other business service providers who add "advertising layout" to their list of services—but don’t bother to study the subject beyond browsing ads themselves.
These people speak authoritatively on the subject of advertising. They assume that they know a great deal about it because they work with advertising every day. They pick up tidbits of advertising wisdom from colleagues, managers, the advertisers themselves, and other assorted purveyors of "old wives’ tales." It may be fascinating and amusing—but it’s nowhere close to the truth.
There is a second group of people who bring confusion to the issue in a different way. They are the advertising and marketing people who studied the subject in the academic world. They present impressive credentials like business administration degrees, marketing degrees, and MBAs. Many of them have significant work experience as marketing managers or consultants. Surely, they must know what they’re talking about.
Unfortunately, they don’t—not on this subject anyway. Business schools, you see, teach marketing from the point of view of the giant corporation: McDonald’s, Budweiser, Ford, IBM...the places where marketing budgets are measured in the hundreds of millions. These are the companies that can afford to "build their brand recognition," use "reminder" ads, and count on frequent repetition to boost their market shares by fractions of a percent. Unless you’re working with the same kind of a budget, you can’t.
The only place you’ll go by listening to the advice of one of these "academic marketers" is bankruptcy court. Because they haven’t studied scientific, tested advertising methods where actual sales are the only measure of effectiveness, and they haven’t practiced their craft in the real world where each advertisement needs to produce profitable results, they wrongly assume that their Fortune 500 marketing methods apply to all businesses.
Finally, there is a "blind leading the blind" element at work. When people go into business, they assume that bigger competitors must know what they’re doing. They figure that the advertising they see everywhere they look, especially the kind placed by big, successful companies, must be the right way—and proceed to imitate it. And, of course, they are reinforced in their decisions by the two misguided groups mentioned above.
Lost in this great sea of marketing idiocy are the lonely voices of the marketers who have done their homework, who have practiced and experimented in the real world. Make sure you don’t ignore them just because they are in the minority.
3. "The newspaper, magazine, and yellow pages publishers don’t want me to do long copy ads"
Publishers often seem to go to great lengths to talk you out of running long copy advertising. Why is that?
The issues we’ve already covered above explain most of the problem, but there are a few other points worth mentioning.
First, it is obviously far cheaper, easier, and quicker to produce low-copy or poster style advertising. A stock photo or piece of clip art, the company name and logo, a few "clever" words of copy or a slogan, and you’re done! Next...! Anyone with a basic grasp of graphic design or page layout software and a minimal amount of good taste can perform the task in just a few minutes. (Sadly, some publishers don’t even include the minimal amount of good taste in their qualification requirements.)
Since publishers usually offer these design services free of charge to advertisers, they are not about to hire highly skilled copywriters and marketers. The last thing they want you to do is to start a trend and have their other advertisers begin asking them to create high copy ads.
Newspaper and magazine publishers—and by extension their sales representatives—are also huge fans of reminder advertising. "Keep your name in front of the customer," they tell you, recommending that you place ads in every issue of their publication so that their readers can’t possibly forget you. They are right—up to a point, of course—because readers won’t forget something they never notice in the first place. The motivation for this seemingly helpful suggestion is quite transparent: A "reminder" advertiser never needs to be sold advertising space again, an ideal scenario for the sales rep and publisher alike.
Finally, magazines and newspapers are concerned that editorial style ads will compete with the actual editorial material in their publication and confuse their readers. This is not an unreasonable concern—and is in fact exactly what you hope to accomplish as an advertiser—but chances are that there will never be more than a handful of advertisers using this technique thanks to the overwhelming majority of the short-copy advocates. And besides, it’s really not your problem.
4. "I showed people some long copy ads, and they told me they don’t like them and don’t read them"
You’ve fallen into the trap of the researchers we discussed previously. My guess is that you asked people who were not real prospects for the product or service featured in the ad. It’s also possible that the ad had a poor headline, weak, uninteresting copy, or boastful, company-centered information that didn’t connect with the reader’s self-interest. Just because an ad has long copy does not necessarily make it a good one.
If you want a truer test of what people think about long copy ads, begin by finding out what it is they are really interested in or passionate about, like a favourite cause, beloved hobby, or grave concern. Now ask them if they would read a long copy ad on that subject.
I think you already know the answer.
There are hundreds of factors which determine whether an ad is successful or unsuccessful. One of the factors that seems to cause a great deal of confusion, scepticism, and debate is the use of long copy in advertisements.
Now that you've heard the opinion of some of the greatest names in advertising history on the subject, I hope that you will never again be afraid that long copy will not be read.
The evidence is in. The results from decades of testing and experimentation are conclusive. The logic is clear and simple.
Long copy ads work.
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