The Long and Short of Copywriting

Content writing has changed drastically over the last 30 years.

Gone are the days of three-page copywriting ads in newspapers and physical letters. But that doesn’t mean long copy doesn’t still serve a purpose.

The 7th question of our Customer Journey Assessment is about direct response copywriting, meaning it’s a vital aspect of customer journey marketing. You can take the assessment yourself by clicking right here!

Does your brand have direct response copywriting in place on your website, emails, or other collateral with a clear call to action (CTA)?

Nowadays, most brands avoid long-form copy in favor of a larger volume of smaller pieces that are perfect for social media and fleeting attention spans.

For a complete content marketing strategy, brands must utilize both short and long-form copy.

Treating short and long copy the same is a costly error. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses and needs to be crafted with those qualities in mind.

Let’s take a look at the difference between long and short content.

Any possible customer your brand could ever have is on a journey. They start with needing to learn about your brand, their own problems, and possible solutions.

The end of the journey is them becoming one of your best customers.

Your job is to help the customer along the way, giving them everything they need to reach the goal.

Your content is how you communicate with these adventurers, and to get their best, you need to use short and long forms of content.

But, as we said earlier, they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. When we use them intelligently, we get the best of both worlds.

Short Content

Social media posts, emails, and landing pages are usually short and snappy.

Brands know they only have a few seconds to get the attention of new could-be customers. But there is an important word in that sentence we need to focus on.

Attention.

Short content is GREAT at attracting new customers, increasing awareness, and providing a little bit of value.

They fall off when developing the trust and demand necessary before someone is ready to open their wallet.

Instead, the short content helps people get familiar with your brand and (should) help lead them to an appropriate micro-commitment, like watching a short clip or taking a poll.

Long Content

Most people think long-form content is a relic of the past– that no one will sit there and read pages and pages of content.

But think about how much a person has to trust a brand before they’re ready to open their wallet and buy from a company.

When someone is reading something they’re genuinely interested in, they don’t care how long it is. The more in-depth, the better! That means they’re reading for longer, increasing their trust in your brand.

Long-form content needs to be valuable to work. And the more precisely the value is presented to the reader, the better.

There’s another reason long-form content is key to any serious marketing strategy.

Even when a person trusts a brand enough to buy, it doesn’t mean they will.

Brands that skip the step of directly asking for a sale miss out on possible life-long customers.

Long-form content shines at taking the customer, one step at a time, through all the benefits waiting for them at the end of the sale. The longer the content, the longer someone has the opportunity to convert.

A common error brands make with long-form content is when they lead newly acquired traffic to a long sales page.

A longer sales page can work because of the value that’s already been established (with awareness and value-centric long-form content).

Matching the value of the content with the CTA is imperative for all copywriting.

With both short and long-form content at your disposal, your brand’s marketing can lead customers through every step of their customer journey.

There are a lot of steps to cover, and we think the best way to start is by taking our free Customer Journey Assessment.

In just a few minutes, you’ll know how well your brand performs at customer journey marketing and where to focus your efforts first for the most impact in the shortest amount of time.

Take the Customer Journey Assessment by clicking here