As a copywriter, I’m always thinking about the length of the copy I write. As a lazy soul, I always opt to go shorter, but I’ve recently read a couple of pieces that make a good case for longer copy. Of course, “long” and “short” are relative terms. For example, I read The Goldfinch in April for book club, and at 770 pages, it still wasn’t long enough. I would have hung in there for more. (For other members, it was way too damn’ long.) And right now, I’m perusing Reading Lolita in Tehran and finding it a bit long. Objectively speaking, it’s not particularly lengthy, so perhaps narrative rhythm is a problem.
Anyhow, I digress. Marcia Yudkin, marketing guru extraordinaire, believes that longer copy may be better in some instances. She notes “Long sales letters get results when every element has a purpose,” and she likes the idea that headlines grab the attention of the casually interested while “paragraph-to-paragraph flow appeals to those who are deeply interested.” No less a personage than Andrew Ogilvy notes in his terrific book Ogilvy on Advertising that direct response advertisers typically get better results with longer copy. According to him, “All my experience says that for a great many products, long copy sells more than short.” Both seem to agree that length may be driven by the non-routine nature of a purchase and the need to address it from various angles.
Business white papers—which are, of course, in a different category—are where I differ. In my experience, limiting a business white paper to five to seven pages, including graphics, is a good idea. It may be better to separate a topic into relatively short, manageable chunks rather than writing a whopper. And here’s a thought: call your white paper a “business brief” or an “executive brief” so you don’t scare readers off.
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