It’s been awhile since I wrote something on this blog. I’ve been swamped between personal life and business commitments, so please accept my apologies.

I’m going to make a stronger commitment to writing and posting more often on this blog in 2010, so stay tuned because I have some topics to cover and share!

One of the most frequently questions I get asked by clients is the same basic one that stirs up raging public forum debates: Does sales letter size matter?

Well, let me make a very public stand on this debate.

Ready?

My answer is… it depends.

Some stand, huh?

Let me explain before some readers send me flaming emails.

Honestly, it depends on the media you are using. If you are writing a product description for a print catalog, space is at a premium. So you need to use very short, powerful copy to do this, often times less than 100 words of text.

If you are writing a direct mail piece, then there are times where the mailing cost will dictate how much copy you can use. Case in point, I recently wrote an offline direct mail piece that I thought was killer.

Except that it was 16 pages… 17 pages with the order form included. That would have bumped the mailing costs up by 50% for my client which they wouldn’t approve. I don’t blame them so it was back to the cutting board to get the mailer between 10-15 pages of even tighter copy.

I think one of the reasons why many copywriters enjoy writing online sales copy so much is space is rarely an issue. Most online sales letters are just one long scrolling webpage and it can be as long as you feel it needs to be.

Here’s a great example: In August 2004, John Reese’s Traffic Secrets launched using an 80 page sales letter written by Michel Fortin. Now I’ve never asked Michel this directly, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t sit down thinking to himself “I’m bored. Let me write 80 printable pages for this sales letter”.

Not hardly.

Michel sat down to write a sales letter to sell a $997 home study product (at the time an unheard of price for a home study info-product for the IM niche) and it took him 80 pages to tell everything that was in the product… include client testimonials… include video demos… and so on. It took him 80 pages to ethically make the sale and in that case, it was 1.08 million dollars in sales for the first 24 hours alone!

I’ll paraphrase legendary marketer Dan Kennedy, who I think says it even better: “There isn’t too long. Only too boring.”

If you bore your reader, then the copy is probably too long or need reworking.

When I sit down to write a sales letter, I deliberately write more copy than I need to ethically sell the product or what the mailing budget is dictating. So if I need a 5 page direct mail letter, I’ll write 6-8 pages. If I think I need 12 pages to sell an ebook, I’ll write 14 or more pages.

Then I edit ruthlessly to cut out any excess fat. Any text that isn’t carrying its weight or doesn’t help ethically move the prospect towards buying is cut. By the time I take that 6-8 page “draft” and edit it (usually several rounds of editing), it’s 5 pages of copy tighter than a military bootcamp private’s made bed.

So that’s my take on it. The length of the letter rarely matters. It’s making the sale consistently that does.

What do you think?

Until next time,

Mike

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Michel wrote an emotional letter which he posted on the front of his forum explaining his reasons behind making this decision. After reading the letter, my reaction was mixed.

Let me explain.

On one hand, Michel’s forum was one of my favorite places to hang out. Over the years, I had developed a number of friendships through that forum.

It was also a great resource of copywriting and marketing knowledge, shared by thousands of people over the years.

Unfortunately, I understood much of what Michel said he was feeling because I’ve been there before myself. When I decided to close my massage therapy center, I had had enough. I was completely burnt out with the day-to-day stressors that came with running a business of that size.

In fact, I was so burned out that I opted to close the business rather than try to find a buyer. Trying to sell the business would have meant that I would have been forced to stick around for another 6-24 months to find a suitable buyer and then help transition the center to the new owner. I didn’t want to wait 1-2 years to get out… I wanted out IMMEDIATELY.

Do I think Michel has closed his copywriting forum temporarily?

Probably not.

I know Michel a little better than the average online marketer or copywriter… having talked with him numerous times by email and by phone. I’ve even ghostwritten copy for him.

I don’t believe Michel would reopen that forum unless he had a burning desire to do so once again. I can’t see Michel reopening it and just going through the motions of running it the way he’d want to see it run.

I don’t have any proof. I don’t know what Michel has planned for the future either. I’ll probably find out what Michel does next at the same time as the rest of the world and that’s okay with me.

In my opinion, Michel is one of the best copywriters in the world. He’s probably even better as a marketer which doesn’t always get the public recognition.

My point is Michel needs to do what is best for Michel. As a former business burn-out myself, I support his decision even if isn’t one that doesn’t benefit me the most.

So what does benefit me? Moving forward with my career and my life. I’ll still periodically check in with Michel by email to see how he’s doing but providing for my family will always be my top priority.

As for missing the social lounge for copywriters, I got some great news a few days ago. It seems my buddy & fellow copywriter Bruce Wedding opened a new forum for copywriters. It’s growing quickly and has a strong chance to become the new hang-out for copywriting dudes like me. I even decided to be a moderator there after Bruce asked me if I would.

You can check it out at: http://www.copywritingboard.com/

So come stop by. Get a sales letter critique while you’re at it. It’s a free copywriting and marketing resource that grows stronger by the day. Your bank account may wind up thanking you for joining this new forum.

Until next time,

Michael

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