What typically pulls best? Long or short copy?

Written By Ted Grigg

What have you found in your experiences with short and long copy in direct marketing communications? Does copy need to shorten to remain effective today?

I run into all kinds of marketers in many industries in my consulting business. The projects include newspaper subscription promotions, B2B lead generation, B2C insurance lead generation, retail store traffic building, B2C catalog sales … the list goes on from there. The question I often get from both experienced and inexperienced direct marketers deals with copy length. Most copy length comments involve direct mail letters that go over one page.

The common statement is: “Well, I would never read all of that.” Then I simply reply that testing in multiple media and various industries show that better results come from saying what you need to say to get the prospect to act.

That is why it is so important to make the copy skimmable with easy to read type, short paragraphs and paragraph headings.

There really is no answer to the question except that the copy length in successful campaigns will exceed what you are comfortable with if you have to ask the question.

Making a sale off the page in ANY medium requires more copy than lead generation copy. When getting a lead, you are building interest in the product, but your primary goal is to sell the appointment. Leave some selling ammunition for the sales person to close the deal.

Selling a product, however, requires anticipating and answering all of the objections. Furthermore, the copy translates the product features into benefits. That approach takes more copy and time than simply positioning the product for branding purposes.

Two-minute spots typically get better ROI than 30 second DRTV spots. Longer emails that must get orders off the page take far more copy than simply trying to generate a click through to your web site. Two and even four-page letters remain controls for years in direct mail.

There are always exceptions, but if you are competing with a selling message that does not answer all of the objections, then go for longer copy to beat your control.

The counter argument I get is that people are too busy today. Buyers don’t read any more. Just stick with the facts before they loose interest. And the list goes on.

The answer to all of these comments is simple.

We can hypothesize why something should or should not work, but in the world of direct response, only the customer’s vote counts. If you test your hypothesis, and it doesn’t work, then the answer is that the hypothesis was wrong. Otherwise, go with what works based on true A/B split testing.

Does this sound counterintuitive to you? Have you found through A/B split testing that shorter copy out pulled your long copy control by a significant margin (that is at least by 15% cost per sale or cost per lead)? What are your thoughts on the subject?

Ted Grigg
What Ted does best is increase response by beating controls, applying multiple channels to target markets, profiling customer databases and generally improving sales results using deep direct marketing principles. Regard Ted as your personal “think-tank” for your direct marketing planning and strategy development. After analyzing several hundred million dollars of direct response testing in all channels, he brings with him the knowledge accumulated from seeing what tends to work and what does not. Having worked on both the agency and client side of direct marketing, Ted understands the unique challenges faced by agencies and their clients. Agencies need to sell themselves and deliver sales results. And clients not only require results, but need ideas they can implement while focusing on tracking response using a relational database. If Ted brings nothing else to the table, by profiling customer databases and creating response propensity models, he quickly becomes the clients’ expert on their own customers. His formal training includes a BA from Abilene Christian University and two years of graduate work at Texas Tech University. For a national direct-to-consumer insurance company, Ted developed a revolutionary direct mail format that beat most standing direct mail controls for this company. He also generated more profitable business for this firm by expanding compiled list circulation of less than 10% to more than 30% of total direct mail circulation within a year. (Insurance business generated by direct mail demonstrated higher persistency than customers coming from other media such as print and DRTV.) Ted’s plan and implementation of Medicare lead generation campaigns for over 60 regional and national HMO/PPO organizations combined multiple channels that surpassed some sales projections by as much as 60%. Additional industry experience over the last 30 years includes B2B or B2C for finance, securities, home security, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, government, technology, nonprofit, retail, transportation, communications, and multiple categories in the services industry. As the founder of Wyse Direct (a division for Wyse Advertising in Cleveland, OH), he successfully launched and branded a new technology product for Seiko-Mead by supporting a nationwide sales team with a predictable flow of qualified sales leads. While a VP of new business development for the Grizzard Agency, Ted acted as the direct marketing strategist who refocused the agency’s culture to attract new commercial and fundraising accounts. At the time, Grizzard was essentially a direct mail fund raising production operation. His leadership and team building effectiveness prepared Grizzard for the eventual Omnicom acquisition and Grizzard’s successful integration into Omnicom’s large group of advertising agencies. An independent DM consultant, Ted continues to write numerous articles and conduct webinars on direct marketing techniques. He also wrote The HMO/PPO Marketing Plan — A Step-by-Step Guide publishing it through Executive Enterprises in New York City. During his youth, Ted was raised in Lille, France with his missionary family attending French schools becoming fluent in reading and writing French. Away from the job, Ted is a computer geek, blogger and science fiction buff!
http://www.dmcgresults.com
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