Long Copy or Short Copy : Here’s How to Choose

I was listening to one of Yanik Silver’s CDs from his excellent copywriting course today and came across this interesting nugget.

A lot of people still don’t understand that long copy tends to usually outperform short copy. They reason that long copy usually turns people off.

This is true. In the study quoted in Yanik’s course, the majority of people on a site will drop off after the first 300 words.

So short copy wins?

Not true. The people who do continue past 300 words will usually stay on. There is no more significant drop off again until 3000 words!

But here’s the important thing. The most interested buyers are the ones that will stay. That majority that dropped off after 300 words, well you were not going to sell to them anyway. Let them bounce off.

The minority that stayed on past 300 are the hot buyers. And these guys want as much info as you can dish out. So give them the long copy they need.

Long copy trumps short copy.

PS: Yanik Silver’s Course is described here.