6 myths about long-form content
People have time to read, and you don’t have to bury your sales pitch at the end.
Remember advertorials? This old term for something that feels so new: promoted-native-sponsored-brand-voice-content (kudos to Jeff Jarvis for the mash-up).
Not all branded content is video. Video can have a great impact but comes with high production costs, and you can’t publish that video in a magazine (should that be where your audience spends time).
Written branded content can sometimes be essential to making sure your content marketing reach is optimal. And graphic heavy advertising might not be the solution.
That’s where long-copy comes in.
But writing long-copy is not hammering your message for 3,000 to 10,000 words.
Today, I am sharing with you a very interesting article published over at Open Sky Copywriting that wants to break six assumptions about long-copy ads:
- People don’t have time to read long copy: The most popular articles on Google and social media are long-copy.
- Lots of words means lots of fluff: If you make sure you answer all your customers’ questions and respond to their objections, you will need long copy. No fluff here.
- Long copy has to be hyper salesy: If there is value in your content, there’s no need to be salesy. The content does the work by itself.
- Long copy is only for expensive offers: Long copy is there to sometimes help you sell something that might be harder to grasp, not something necessarily more expensive.
- You have to make a sales pitch at the end: Ok, the entire thing is there to help you sell something. Don’t hide it until the end. Don’t trick your reader. Ask more than once. If there is value, your sales pitch should be well received.
- Long copy always performs better: Long copy works better if it is the right thing to do. Writing an extra 1,000 words will not make your content work better. Make sure you are not adding fluff (see point #2 above).
There you have it. Are you convinced? If not, read more over at Open Sky Copywriting.