This is an age old discussion which rages on; does shorter (less) copy equal more conversions. Conventional wisdom might tell us that more information will equal a higher conversion but conversely you could argue that having too much copy, even if you’re making new points each time, will bore your reader and lose their interest. It’s more complicated than that, so let’s compare long copy vs. short copy properly.

Long Copy vs. Short Copy

In terms of long copy versus short copy and which converts better, the biggest factor comes down to your visitor’s motivation and the kind of offer you have. In my experience a shorter sales letter is more ideal when the action you want your visitor to take doesn’t involve them parting with any money.

When someone is just looking for free information, they are more in a skimming mindset and don’t have time to read a long windup just to take them to the actual page they want or to encourage them to sign up for an email list. These kinds of free exchanges convert better when the copy is short and sweet.

On the other hand, when you’re writing a sales letter for a product itself then you want to make a stronger case for why someone should reach into their pockets. You need to do what you can to convince your reader that your product is the best and only solution to their problem which you can do using my sales page copywriting tips.

To simplify and sum up things, generally shorter sales letters convert best when the transaction doesn’t involve any money. This makes sense because generally if something is free then that’s the best selling point which it has going for it; no need to beleaguer the point by talking about something more than you need to when they have already been hooked, at that point you just want to point them to where they can sign up or receive whatever information they are looking for without losing them with too much copy at that point.

There are a lot more factors to consider, however, which will vary greatly from niche to niche and between audiences such as your visitor’s motivation, their level of anxiety about whatever it is you are promoting going into it (elective surgery vs. selling an e Book as an example), and the level of commitment and cost associated with achieving a conversion.

Ultimately the best thing you can do is to split test various lengths of your page to find out which ultimately converts the best for your product, service, or goal specifically and remember that copy length is definitely one of the metrics you can and should test.