"I want an 8 page sales letter. Mustn't have anything too long!"

Whenever I hear those words I'm filled with the urge to put the phone down and scream. I manage to stop myself by considering an exercise in the obvious: of course it mustn't be too long.

But how long is too long?

Most business owners will tell you they think business-to-business letters should be "short and punchy", because "busy business people haven't the time to read long letters".

You may agree with this sentiment and believe it to be true.

But it's wrong. And the statistics from over a century of testing proves it's wrong. People WILL read long copy; it's dull and uninspiring copy that turns them off.

The simple fact is, in the main, with all else being equal, long copy outsells short copy every time. And while it's true that a busy executive won't spend the time to read a long, uninspiring letter, she will make the time to read a long, well written and inspiring sales letter that promises her and her business good benefits.

We can see how daft this all is by looking at the problem differently. Consider a sales manager sending out his best salesman to make a call. Would he really say:

"You make the appointment, you make the call, you make the sale; but you mustn't speak more than 200 words".

No, of course not. On the contrary, you'd expect him to say as much as he had to until he made the sale, wouldn't you?

So why constrain your sales letters - which are nothing if not salesmen in envelopes - in this same artificial way?

A sales letter exists to get readers to take the action the copywriter wants them to take. And to achieve this the writer must get down all the required information, anticipate, meet, and overcome all objections, and so on and so forth. If the end-result is for the reader to put a cheque in an envelope, this can be a lot of information.

Sales letters are frequently more than 16 pages long; I've heard of others that are 64 pages long and sell the product like hot cakes.

In short, copy needs to be as long as it needs to be to achieve its purpose.

No more, no less.

The author Jonathan McCulloch runs a Direct Response Marketing website called http://jonmcculloch.com where you can help yourself to a free Marketing report claimed to double your small business profits within the next 12 months (or even less). Jon McCulloch is a renowned direct response copywriter and marketeter serving super-successful clients on both sides of the Pond.