copywriting: Why Long copy Works

You've probably seen those one page sales letters. Pages that go on seemingly forever and usually are there for the sole purpose of selling a product or getting an email sign-up. Do they work? There's a reason this style is used by so many internet marketers and that's because they do work. While the sales copy is usually very long, there is an opportunity to showcase the product and employ a variety of techniques to gain the visitor's interest.

Traditional multi-page websites with lots of sub-pages and links provide lots of opportunities for the site visitor to get lost and perhaps go away. However with the one page sales letter, there are a limited number of options for the visitor. Often it's a choice of 3 things: Buy the product, Sign up for the email list, or leave. So while the long sales letter looks complicated, it really keeps things simple for the site visitor.

Consider the 30 minute infomercial on TV. It's well known that these do a far better job of selling than a 60 second advertising spot can do. It's the same idea with a one page sales letter.

Of course there are exceptions, but in general single page sales letters do work if written properly. Of course not every site can make use of them, but if you have a single product or service to sell and are perhaps considering another style, remember that those 'ugly' one page sales letters are a proven model.