{"id":38,"date":"2021-11-22T00:38:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T07:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fishingforcustomers.com\/the-long-and-short-of-persuasion\/"},"modified":"2021-11-28T07:44:18","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T14:44:18","slug":"the-long-and-short-of-persuasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/the-long-and-short-of-persuasion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long And Short Of Persuasion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Researchers must be careful to neutrally phrase a question, so as not to influence the response.<\/p>\n

My partner, Roy Williams<\/a>, offers a perfect example. When a penitent asked if it was proper to smoke during prayer, he was told it was not. But when the question was rephrased as: \u201cIs it acceptable to pray while smoking<\/em>?\u201d he was assured that prayer was always appropriate.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s not the phrasing that controls the outcome. Sometimes people ask the wrong question. The wrong question, in this case, is \u201cWhich sells better? Long copy or short copy?\u201d<\/p>\n

I’m a long copy proponent. That is, I’m opposed to the “nobody will read more than 300 words” school of advertising.<\/p>\n

Short copy has inherent risks. Because it has limited amounts of compelling information, response rates are frequently low. There\u2019s also the risk of high numbers of cancellations and refund requests because the product or service wasn\u2019t what the customer imagined.<\/p>\n

The short copy crowd<\/a> assumes that everyone is like them. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t read this<\/em>,\u201d they argue, \u201ctherefore no one else would either<\/em>.\u201d However, these people are not interested in what you have for sale. Without any interest, no matter how short the copy is, they will not read it. Will they read 300 words? They won\u2019t read 100.<\/p>\n

Fans of short copy are almost never successful copywriters.<\/h3>\n

When the copywriter ignores people who won\u2019t buy, and concentrates on those who may, copy invariably grows longer. Be careful, though. Long copy in the hands of an unskilled writer becomes an excuse for sloppy, non-focused, undisciplined writing.<\/p>\n

Long copy proponents have research<\/a> on their side. Split-testing research shows that long copy consistently outperforms short copy. Additional research indicates that although readership does fall off dramatically at 300 words (when the non-interested browsers lose interest) it does not show further erosion until 3,000 words.<\/p>\n

This argument over long copy vs. short copy has raged for years. Unfortunately, it\u2019s a tangential issue.<\/p>\n

Long vs Short asks the wrong question.<\/h3>\n

To get to the right question we need to assess the customer\u2019s perceived risk, and the emotional commitment necessary to persuade her to buy.<\/p>\n

The biggest risk any purchaser makes is the possibility of wasting her money in a bad purchase \u2013 one that doesn\u2019t suit her needs. The lower the price, the less risk. The less the risk, the lesser amount of emotional commitment. A lessened amount of persuasion becomes necessary.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all been in a check out line at a convenience store or a grocery. We\u2019ve noticed the magazines, the candy bars, the breath mints. In retail, these are known as \u201cimpulse items.\u201d No emotional involvement required. No financial risk. Impulse items are low priced items.<\/p>\n

Long copy may well bore the potential purchaser of low-risk items.<\/p>\n

Note that you won\u2019t be able to pick up and admire the portable DVD players, or the jewelry, or anything with a stiff price tag as you wait in line. These things don’t usually sell on impulse.<\/p>\n

The higher the price, the less likely Miss Prospect is to purchase it on a whim. As price goes up, so does the risk that she\u2019s making the wrong purchase. As risk goes up, so does the requirement for emotional commitment on the part of the buyer.<\/p>\n

When our prospect is considering a major purchase, short copy may leave her wanting to know what she gets for her money.<\/p>\n

So, in order to decide how long to make your copy, you’ll need to determine the amount of reassurance Miss Prospect requires. If you\u2019re selling candy bars, she won\u2019t worry about the rent check bouncing. If you\u2019re selling college enrollment and asking for a commitment of $25,000 over the next eighteen months, she will require more assurance.<\/p>\n

This leads directly to the right question<\/h3>\n

How much persuasion does the prospective customer require to be comfortable making the purchase?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Her comfort level will be directly proportional to the number of dollars in the “ask.”<\/p>\n

The length of your copy should also be proportional to the size of the ask. When asking for a small amount a simple easily remembered message is appropriate. When asking for a large amount your copy must anticipate every objection, every question, every doubt that your prospect has in you, or in the product or service you\u2019re selling.<\/p>\n

Of course, it must also be well-written, persuasive, and compelling.<\/p>\n

The message must be salient<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Salience is the relevance of the message to your prospect. It\u2019s the most overlooked quality in advertising. It\u2019s the reason for the long copy \/ short copy debate. It\u2019s also the reason the debate is bogus.<\/p>\n

Remember, your purpose is persuasion<\/h3>\n

You\u2019re trying to get a total stranger to open her purse and give you money. Write something that speaks directly to her. Give your message salience.<\/p>\n

Write what needs to be said to convince Miss Prospect that owning your product or service will affect her life. Get her emotionally involved. Tell a story. Share testimonials. Use statistics. Boost your credibility by whatever means is available to you to remove as much risk as possible. Guarantees are golden. Add as much information as necessary to make the sale, and not a bit more.<\/p>\n

Then start cutting any excess from your copy. Remove any word that can be removed without changing the meaning of the sentence.<\/p>\n

Do you now have strong, persuasive, motivational copy? Long enough to make your points? Short enough to get right to them?<\/p>\n

Assuming that you truly understand your prospect, and have written to her concerns, your writing will automatically be the appropriate length, whatever that length may be. And providing enough persuasion, but just enough, will increase your catch when you’re fishing for customers.<\/p>\n

Your Guide,
\nChuck McKay<\/em><\/p>\n

\"MarketingYour Fishing for Customers guide, Chuck McKay<\/a>, gets people to buy more of what you sell.<\/p>\n

Need help making your advertising copy persuasive?\u00a0 Drop Chuck a note at ChuckMcKay@FishingforCustomers.com<\/a>. Or call him at 317-207-0028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fans of short copy are almost never successful copywriters. Short copy has limited amounts of compelling information, response rates are frequently low. There\u2019s also the risk of high numbers of cancellations and refund requests because the product or service wasn\u2019t what the customer imagined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[154,14,144],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ad-writing-copywriting","category-minimizing-risk","category-persuasion-power-of-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19741,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/19741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop-my-site.com\/fishing2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}