“How long should my copy be?” (Part 2)

Alright.

So yesterday I said that the more expensive your product, the longer your copy should be. Then I shared a qualification.

Today I share another one:

Qualification 2: You must take into account what you’re actually selling in each piece of copy you write… and NOT make the mistake of trying to sell whatever product is at the end of your funnel… at every prior step in the funnel.

BIG mistake that copywriters make.

Confused about what I mean?

Let’s look at a simple funnel selling a $1,000 product, to illustrate:

landing page (email capture) –> email sequence –> sales page –> buy $1,000 product

A mistake many people make is they try to sell the $1,000 product in the email sequence. Whereas what they SHOULD be selling people on is *the next step in the funnel* – which is to read the sales page. That’s the only thing the emails in the above sequence should be doing: ‘selling’ people on taking the next action… going to the next step in the funnel… which is to read the sales page.

Don’t jump the gun!

If you have a 4 part funnel… don’t try to sell your end product at step 2!

Why?

Because you just can’t sell a $1,000 product in 1-2 page email(unless – as noted yesterday – they’re already predisposed to buy it from previous steps in your funnel). Doesn’t work. That’s the whole reason why you have a 5 to 50 page sales page, or a phone sales guy: to do the brunt of the selling. Your emails are only there to ‘prep’ your prospects… and then warmly hand them off to your friendly, mighty-persuasive sales page.

Make sense?

Okay.

So what does this have to do with the length of your copy?

This:

You might think that IF you have a $1,000 product at the end of your funnel… EVERY step in that funnel (landing page, emails, etc.) should be long. Because it’s an expensive product. But remember: you have to take into account what you’re REALLY selling in each step of the funnel – and each piece of your copy. And in the steps leading up to the final selling stage… your aim is NOT to sell the final $1,000 product. Your aim is only to send your prospects to the next step in your funnel. So they eventually get to the final stage – which is usually a sales page, webinar, or phone call – where you then sell them on the $1,000 product.

And that’s why your emails probably shouldn’t all be 10 pages long.

Because in lots of cases…

The only thing they’re selling is a link to your sales page.