HOW MUCH COPY DO YOU NEED TO GET $5 BUCKS?

It depends.

I wouldn't need any copy to sell a $5 product to my own email list. And I'd get a higher response than 32%.

So your conclusions are based on selling a $5 product to cold traffic. People who don't know you, or trust you. In that case, I see the benefit in writing a 12 page letter. Just like I can see the benefits in creating a 5 page letter to get a highly responsive subscriber, for free.

I think you're asking the wrong question

The better approach would be: What kind of FUNNEL would I need to get an average of $5 from my page visitors?

Simply getting a sales page in front of random eyeballs isn't going to work

I think the amount of copy needed to sell a $5 offer is going to depend on how targeted the traffic is, the nature of the product, and how well the copy is written.

Some copywriters may take the long winded approach of 12 pages, while others may be able to get good conversion numbers with fewer words.

If you're asking this because you have a $5 offer of your own you're looking to sell, you should start with at least 2 different versions of your copy and run a proper A/B split test and let the test results guide your decisions.

There is no one size fits all copy length.

I like this post. It's easy to miss the particular gems in a post like this, such as...


Yes. Absolutely. The question then becomes... do they need to?

To put a spin on what you said right afterwards...


Let's say, on one particular trip, one of your prospects happened to get lost in an African desert, and ended up hungry. If I came along with a plate of delicious food and they had $5... how many pages of copy would it take to convince them to buy the food from me? 12? 24?

(Also, how many pages would it take for a ride home?)

Probably the only "ad copy" needed would say something like...

"Want this? Only $5."

In other words, the amount of copy you need is also related to the amount of DESIRE that already exists.

Prospects have the ability to say "Yes"... but it's the people with a burning desire who will say "H*ll yes!"

In the case of your client, it took 12 pages to turn 32% of presumably fairly cold leads into a "H*ll yes"... which is pretty impressive.


I look at this a little differently. I'd ask, "how much copy does it need to turn a "Hmm, I'm willing to hear you out for a nanosecond or two" prospect to "H*ll yeah how do I pay?" customer.

The difference is DESIRE.

As others have pointed out, the amount of copy would be different depending on how much desire, trust etc you've already pre-built with your target audience. A list owner has already built trust, so won't need to do as much trust-building.

Anyway, I think your post was valuable for highlighting that there isn't a simple relation between the amount of money you're asking for, and the amount of copy needed.

NOTES ON THE AMOUNT OF COPY NEEDED:

As a general rule of thumb, the more money you want, the more copy you should have to justify the purchase.

We had a catalog client years ago, who was having trouble with profits and sales in his catalog for audio/visual equipment.

One of the problems was there was the same amount of catalog ad copy for a $50 product as there was for a $2,000 product. NO. NO. NO.

The minimum thing we did was INCREASE the ad copy on all the HIGH END products and miracles happened.



Over the years, I have found that IF, I can convince a client to RAISE HIS PRICES... he magically feels the need to do a better job of SELLING in order to justify the price, and magic happens. As long as he was a "low-price competitor" he did not bother with much in the way of salesmanship... and why should he???... "take it or leave it" is the low-price excuse for a marketing message.



In many industries, it's the low-price dude who goes out of business first. For example, low-priced plumbers are kinda famous for going out of business every 3 years and opening up under a new name. Why? They just did not charge enough money to cover ALL THE EXPENSES. In that industry, the Plumbers who charge 5 TIMES labor, double the materials then, add in taxes, usually survive. The plumbers who are destined to go out of business, always accuse the "5 Times" guys as "rip offs" .... and they charge 2 or 3 times labor... but it never works. Trucks are rusty. No uniforms. Absolutely no bonuses.

POINT:

POINT:

POINT:

This client is making money in direct mail, with a 12-page letter, and I can't tell you how many damn fools have told me "Direct mail doesn't work, I've tried it and it just don't work."

Did they mail out anything close to a 12-page letter? No. Did they have a strategy at all in direct mail? No.

The last guy to tell me that direct mail doesn't work was a former restaurant owner. He said, "I tried direct mail, it doesn't work." --- But he did not try the BIRTHDAY MAILING LIST... You see, birthday boy has to have a party somewhere? Why not have it at YOUR restaurant??? Hmmmm?

Without the right strategy and the right offer, no medium will work.

Direct Mail is and always has been the overlooked darling of the marketing universe.

Even Google uses direct mail. And has for years.

Just thinking.

Linwood

It not about quality of content its about the quality of the copy.

You know the difference between a $7 product and $997 product?

Marketing!

Seriously I've purchased stuff for $997 that had the same information as a PLR ebook.

Good luck

Selling is selling.

It all comes down to making the right pitch to the right audience.

some times it will only need a short amount of copy, other times a much longer amount.

I've written 30 page letters that sold millions in fitness books.

I've written 4 page sales letters that ask for just an opt in.

I've written 2 sentence emails that LED to millions in sales.

It all boils down to who you're talking to, why, etc...

If you try to enter the conversation that your intended prospect
is having in their minds... it can often help you decide how to
approach the copy.

But after almost 20 years of writing copy and selling online...
there's no hard and fast rules... it's ALL a test. all of it.

What works for one may not work for another, and vice versa.

I'm constantly amazed at just how many times I've seen "copy rules"
not work as I thought they would...

As long as people are irrational... so will their response to certain things.

It's all a test...

Mutually catalytic blendyjuicy.

If'n stuff ain't 'bout that, ima no play.