If you’ve been around the block once or twice in the direct response world, you’ve probably heard the argument against using a long form sales page:
“Long form copy? Phooey — Who’s gonna’ take the time to read, watch or listen to all that!”
And of course, the answer is…
Only people who are seriously interested in buying the product or service you’re offering.
Okay, awesome.
So, let’s say you get that.
You’ve got a great product or service…
You’ve identified a crowd desperately hungry for it…
And you have a channel to reach them…
You even have a spiffy landing page platform that claims to do all the work for you.
So you build your beautiful, pre-formatted landing page…
Now it’s time to replace all that “Lorem ipsum…” with real, live words that sell.
And then it hits you…
What in the heck do you actually say to the people you want to buy from you?
How are you gonna sell this thing?
What order do you present the facts that will turn your curious reader into a buyer?
How do you gently persuade them — without turning them off?
Because you know you only get one shot and you don’t want to blow it.
So, what do you do?
You can do one of three things:
1. Write Your Own Long Form Sales Page
The great part about doing it this way is you have total control over the outcome.
Plus, if you can make money with it it once, chances are, you can do it over and over again. Any time you want to stash a little cash in your wallet.
The downside is, it can take hours, days, weeks or even months out of your already jam-packed calendar. And even at that, it could still totally bomb on you. Even the top A-list copywriters don’t always write a winner.
If you want to go this route and haven’t read and re-read them yet, here are three of the best (of many) books on writing a long form sales letter:
- The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy
- The Architecture of Persuasion by Mark Ford, aka Michael Masterson
- The 16 Word Sales Letter by Evaldo Albuquerque
2. Hire a Copywriter
Good luck finding a good one who doesn’t charge five figures or more. My rates, for instance start at $10,000 for an initial full-day consult. And that’s just to settle on what you really need. Fees and royalties can add tens of thousands or more.
For this to work well, you will need a solid offer, access to the right market and deep enough pockets to see the project through the initial investment.
The good thing about this route is, you don’t have to spend the countless hours it can take doing the research, the writing and the dozens of edits and rewrites required to craft an effective sales letter.
The biggest downside is, you put your money at risk. Even with the best writers, there’s no guarantee.
or…
3. Let AI Write The Copy For You
While there’s no substitute for a sure hand writing great copy, the truth is, most of what you will need to write has already been written.
It just needs to be reassembled in a different, custom message suited to your offer and market.
And today, you can find some great tools to help hone your copy.
Some of my favorites include CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer, The Hemingway App and Readable.
But far and away, one of the best copywriting tools I’ve ever seen is Jon Benson’s CopyPro.
Jon was the originator of the video sales letter (VSL) format that’s made marketers billions since its birth about a decade ago.
CopyPro contains a library of proven templates from top copywriters. Using AI (artificial intelligence), it injects your details, giving you a quick, sure-fire long form sales page. It can also produce battle-tested copy for emails, checkout pages, opt-in pages and a long list of other formats.
And for less than $1500, it’s almost like having a top copywriter on call for you, 24-7.
If you have a product or service worth selling, long form copy is absolutely worth considering.
I’ve seen it 10x results, and have used it to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for my clients.
Now that you’ve got three ways to get a long form sales page done, and, I hope, by now can see the value in having one hard at work, doing the selling for you, 24/7/365…
Don’t let anyone talk you out of it!
