Those massive long sales pages: Do you REALLY read them?

Do you REALLY read those sales pages?

  • Yes

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  • Sometimes

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  • No

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ardley216

ardley216

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I was just thinking today that those super amazingly long sales pages that show you real/fake proofs of $3582475280457/day screenies... and pics of fast cars.. and complicated diagrams.. and bonus after bonus.. and price cut after pirce cut... and how "you cannot afford NOT to but now!!! NOWWWWW!!"

Because for me, those turn me RIGHT OFF! Just seems like total bull to me. I would even say that the sales threads on BHW are a custom to this. So far, the product I have bought from the internet have NOT needed a 23095 page long sales page... I think quality speaks louder than sales patter.
So anyone trying to sell me anything online, keep it short, skip the shit and tell me WHAT IT DOES.. Not how many girls, fast cars, muneyzz I can earn!

I'm just wondering if you guys at BHW REALLLY read those pages?
 
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Those pages are often done by people that may know how to SEO, but have no idea how to market.
Long forms convert very poorly.
 
Not always, but here's the thing, if they didn't work and weren't successful people simply wouldn't be using those types of layouts & sales pages.

It really all depends on the product and who you are marketing too. You can bet your ass that most of the sales pages have been tested, A/B tested and various variant testings to optimize conversions. Of course thats a general statement but there are sales pages out there that have produced millions of dollars in sales, hell some even in a single week of launching.

Again, its all about your target market, while some may *overlook* those pages, others expect to see that and WANT that information.
 
I have to agree with Expert. It serves one purpose but defeats the other
 
Expertpeon said:
Those pages are often done by people that may know how to SEO, but have no idea how to market.
Long forms convert very poorly.
Click to expand...

This couldn't be further from the truth, most of these long winded sales letters/sites could give two shits about SEO. Most of the traffic comes from banner advertisement, joint ventures with people with email lists, and so on. Not rankings in the search engines.
 
I think there are several factors at play here. A lot of it depends on content, salescopy quality, writing style and so on. I think an engaging, albeit long copy can convert fairly well, provided that of course well... it is engaging and written correctly.

I think quality speaks louder than sales patter.
So anyone trying to sell me anything online, keep it short, skip the shit and tell me WHAT IT DOES..
Click to expand...

I believe you pretty much hit the nail on the head here. Generally, the higher the price/lower the quality, the longer the sales copy, since you basically have to justify your pricing strategy. You basically make the sales copy do the conversion for you instead of letting your product speak for itself and this is not necessarily a bad thing.
 
SuperLinks said:
This couldn't be further from the truth, most of these long winded sales letters/sites could give two shits about SEO. Most of the traffic comes from banner advertisement, joint ventures with people with email lists, and so on. Not rankings in the search engines.
Click to expand...

Of course, sorry for implying otherwise.
However, I did say "may be" deliberately.
The worst though is when the buy links are at the bottom of these long forms.
 
SuperLinks said:
Not always, but here's the thing, if they didn't work and weren't successful people simply wouldn't be using those types of layouts & sales pages.

It really all depends on the product and who you are marketing too. You can bet your ass that most of the sales pages have been tested, A/B tested and various variant testings to optimize conversions. Of course thats a general statement but there are sales pages out there that have produced millions of dollars in sales, hell some even in a single week of launching.

Again, its all about your target market, while some may *overlook* those pages, others expect to see that and WANT that information.
Click to expand...

I guess so, I guess it's all about, give them a problem, tell them how to solve it, and tell them how amazing it will be after they buy thier product, and show how everyone else says it's amazing.

Now, if they condensed those down into multipaged websites, I could fall for it! :rolleyes: :p
 
SuperLinks said:
This couldn't be further from the truth, most of these long winded sales letters/sites could give two shits about SEO. Most of the traffic comes from banner advertisement, joint ventures with people with email lists, and so on. Not rankings in the search engines.
Click to expand...

Agreed.
 
You need to give the reader as much information as required for them to make their positive buying decision. Most people don't read the entire sales page but the BUYERS, who are the people that matter, do in fact typically read a large chunk of the page.

Many sales pages are just long for the sake of being long (because the designer heard that long pages convert better but never did any real testing). But in many situations a reasonably long sales page is really required to convince the surfer to buy. Generally you're better off putting all the info on one page so you can guide the surfer through the AIDA (Attention / Interest / Desire / Action) process and allay any objections they might have to buying.

If you want to see how surfers interact with your sales page then I would suggest using http://mouseflow.com which allows you to see recordings of the surfers' mouse movements, clicks and scrolling through the page, as well as different types of heatmaps. Very very useful for seeing what works and what doesn't.
 
I think mid length works best, just a few thousand words.

Scare them with problem
Present product as solution
Tell them how it will benefit them
Present proof
Tell them to buy it.

Obviously, bit more to it than that, but as a bare bones outline - it works.
 
I agree with an above post, a person who is genuinely interested in the product will take the time to read most of it if not all of it. As opposed to people who just happen to pass by the page for one reason or another.
 
Sampler said:
I agree with an above post, a person who is genuinely interested in the product will take the time to read most of it if not all of it. As opposed to people who just happen to pass by the page for one reason or another.
Click to expand...

I guess so, but I have to say, even when I've seen a WP plugin, or a software I need on BHW, I usually skip the sales patter and scroll down to all the real user reviews, personally I take much more notice of the negative ones, and see how they were solved.

I do hope one day, super long sales pages will be a thing of the past!:cool:
 
I personally can't stand these types of sales pages. Seriously, how hard is it to separate information into relevant pages and let the user navigate around/explore the site a bit?

I suppose they must work though, otherwise people wouldn't be doing it still. Meh.
 
I despise sales pages and the "canned" buzz words.

If I'm interested in buying, I read reviews and best of all, what others are saying on forums.
 
ardley216 said:
I guess so, but I have to say, even when I've seen a WP plugin, or a software I need on BHW, I usually skip the sales patter and scroll down to all the real user reviews, personally I take much more notice of the negative ones, and see how they were solved.

I do hope one day, super long sales pages will be a thing of the past!:cool:
Click to expand...

Long sales pages will never die because long copy converts better than short copy, period. Exactly how long is a matter for testing in each situation however. If you want to know how and why long copy is the way to go then you should read Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples. It's one of the original bibles about scientific tested advertising and one of the top 3 marketing books you can read. In his direct mail career, Caples found that tested and tweaked long copy converted up to 20 times better than short copy.
 
Also, I don't trust any type of sales that doesn't offer a trial, demo video and visual samples. That especially applies to those that sell services here on BHW.
 
Never read them. I always skip down to the end to see how many times they've "slashed " the price and have a good chuckle at how many copies of a digital product are left...

Also, those sales pages that are nothing but a 20 minutes long video and don't let you skip a head are just as bad, if not worse.
 
I have read the pros and cons about long sales pages versus
short sales pages. Some of the more well-known, successful
copywriters like Gary Bencivenga and Gary Halbert (now deceased)
have always stood by and encouraged the use of the long
sales page. However, they were GREAT copywriters and knew
how to "pace" their copy and keep the reader interested.

In my opinion, medium-size sales pages WITH the addition of a
compelling sales video is the way to go in this day and age. In
Halbert's and Bencivenga's time, streaming video and high-speed
internet were not yet commonly available.

That is not to say that the long sales page is dead, but if
you plan to go that route, you had better have your
copywriting "chops" down, or have the bucks to hire a
seasoned, professional copywriter.

Cheers! - "Wiz"
 
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