Ask a panel of the most esteemed copywriters on the planet, and 9 out of 10 will probably say that the length of your copy needs to be as long as it takes to get your sales message across.
If your message needs to be 5 trim paragraphs, so be it.
If your message needs to be a 64 page monster, overflowing with charts, graphs, and screen shots, so be it.
But for blog posts?
While blogs have different objectives than do typical sales letters, I believe that the same overlying principles still apply.
Your message needs to be as long as it needs to be… but no longer.
Kind of a Catch 22, huh?
In Victor Schwab’s classic copywriting text, “How to Write a Good Advertisement” there is small section entitled “It’s Easier to Get Attention and Interest than to Hold It.”
This particular section contains a maxim that made me think about my blog posts - and their length - in particular.
Here it is:
It is harder to write short copy than long.
Have you ever thought about that?
Most people equate longer posts or sales copy with more work, more thought, more effort.
But that’s not necessarily the case.
The Schwab passage goes on to say “These statements are true of copywriters who are neither energetic nor resourceful enough to write good copy of a greater length than they are accustomed to handle, nor capable enough to write superlatively effective shorter copy.
(In other words, if a copywriter is incapable of making it interesting, he better make it short!)”
This particular quote got me thinking whether some of my blog posts have been longer in length because I had a lot of good information to report on the topic, or due to a simple lack of discipline.
Because writing short, effective copy is a skill in and of itself.
So I’m going to try a copywriting exercise in brevity for a short while, just to exercise this particular writing muscle.
And I ask that you take a look at your own writing.
Are your blog posts (and sales letters, and emails, etc…) bloated with unnecessary content?
Are they as trim as they could be?
-James D. Lee
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