Your say….

• By: admin on Apr 15th, 2004
• Internet Marketing

In the last newsletter, I asked you if you had any particular questions regarding Internet marketing or working online that you would like me to try and answer.  As I thought might be the case, I received a number of questions so I will be working through these over the coming weeks.

The first email that I received in response to the last newsletter was from Maria and I feel it is only fair to answer her question first

Maria wrote:

‘I have noticed that the majority of ‘information sellers’ have very, very long introductions to their products, and most won’t actually tell you what the ‘product’ is until you sign up.  I find this off-putting, and quite often I have neither the time nor inclination to read all the blurb. 

Do you think that these very lengthy introductions are really necessary, or is a short, sharp concise intro the key (or one of them) to signups? Thanks.’

Anyone that has spent some time looking at information products (ebooks etc) online will know what Maria is talking about – some of the sales pages do seem to go on forever. 

The thing is that long sales pages CAN work but they won’t ALWAYS work.  I personally think it depends on the copy-writing abilities of the writer.  Good copy will grab your attention and make you want to read every last sentence and by the end of the copy you feel you have no option but to reach for your credit card and purchase.  Bad copy on the other hand will turn people off before the end of the first paragraph (or much sooner!).

I guess the best way to answer this question fully is to consider what you would do when faced with a long sales page….

The first thing I do is skim through the text and this means that I tend to read only the highlighted areas or bold text.  If the writer has done his job properly, this will mean that I get to read about the main features and benefits of the product so that even though I am not reading every line, I will have a good idea by the end of the page as to what the product can do for me (if anything).

Once I have skimmed through the text, I should have a rough idea of whether the product will benefit me.  If I still think that it will, I look for the price to see if it is a figure that I think is realistic and good value given my basic understanding of the product.

Assuming that the price is reasonable, I would then go back to the top of the sales page and read it through properly – line by line – so that I understand EXACTLY what I would be getting for my money.  Bear in mind that I may leave the website at any time during the above process if the copy didn’t ‘impress’ me sufficiently.

In summary therefore and please bear in mind that this is my opinion only, from a buyers point of view, I like long sales pages as long as the content is meaningful.  By that I mean that the long page has been used to explain in detail exactly what the product is or what it will do for me.  I don’t want to read hype; I want facts and the more the better.  The more information I am given, the more informed I am to make an accurate buying decision.  If I am not given enough factual information then I may well not buy simply because I don’t fully understand what it is I am buying.

That said if you opt for a long sales page, your copy needs to be superb or people won’t finish reading.  Like most things online, it is a fine balancing act and the only way to truly find out what works best for your site is to test both methods and see which gives the best sales results.

Thank-you for your question Maria – hope that helps to answer it

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