3 Long-Form Copywriting Tricks You Should Steal

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Brief copy might be simply as highly effective as lengthy. (Image source)

Lengthy-form gross sales pages are ugly. Most companies really feel icky concerning the very prospect of touchdown their prize site visitors on – shudder – lengthy copy.

It doesn’t appear to matter that long-form gross sales pages work like a appeal in numerous instances, for a variety of merchandise and audiences… not only for the late-night, miracle-cure, impulse-shopper membership. Doesn’t matter. They’re ugly. They really feel icky. You don’t need something to do with them.

However do you know that a few of the highest-converting brief copy on the net at this time is predicated on easy long-copy ideas? True story. And it doesn’t even should be arduous to tug off—attempt Good Copy’s landing page copy generator to do the writing for you!

Let’s check out simply 3 landing page copywriting methods you may steal from lengthy copy at this time – and check by yourself short-copy touchdown web page.

Testable Touchdown Web page Copy Trick 1:
Middle and Daring Your Headline

It is a super-obvious trick… nevertheless it’s (surprisingly) not often utilized in brief copy design.

Lengthy-form gross sales copywriters know rattling effectively that your web page is nothing and not using a stellar headline that:

  • Is prominently positioned on the web page
  • Faucets right into a ache or downside – and takes the time to deliver that ache to life
  • Contains no less than 1 particular final result/profit
  • Makes use of charming phrases, phrases and rhetorical gadgets (like onomatopoeia)

Evaluate that to brief copy. Most brief copy touchdown pages cram a headline into 300 pixels shoved off to the aspect of a picture. Which often leaves you with area for about 3 to five phrases. Which suggests you may’t say something particular – and it’s important to use ultra-short, bland phrases.

You don’t have to put in writing an insanely lengthy headline like they do within the long-copy world. However you need to check centering and bolding your headline on the high of your web page. This is likely one of the first suggestions I make to each shopper I’ve. For instance, take a look at the earlier than and after for my shopper’s web site InspirePay.com:

BEFORE – Free conversion of three%
Headline BeforeHeadline Before

AFTER – Free conversion of 18.7%After home pageAfter home page

Now, the rationale this new model has so strongly outperformed the unique seemingly has extra to do with the phrases within the headline than the bodily positioning of it. However the takeaway right here is that if individuals are capable of finding and skim your most essential message (i.e., your headline), they’re extra more likely to devour it and make choices with it. If a customer can’t discover your key message, they’ll’t devour it… and conversion may very well be negatively impacted. Therefore, check bodily positioning.

So don’t deal with your touchdown web page headline like this:

landing page copywritinglanding page copywriting

However, slightly, deal with it like this:

Long copy rules for short copy pagesLong copy rules for short copy pages

Testable Touchdown Web page Copy Trick 2:
Use Meaty, Detailed Testimonials

Whereas long-form gross sales pages are made highly effective by unmissable cascading waterfalls of testimonials, brief copy too usually edits all of the juicy particulars out of testimonials. Consider testimonials as mini-stories or research – not only a line of “social proof”.

Now, you most likely don’t want a “waterfall of testimonials” in your touchdown web page, however you need to goal for:

  • Significant testimonials that embody no less than 1 particular element – ideally describing the before-and-after expertise of utilizing your services or products
  • A picture alongside each second testimonial
  • A brief ‘abstract header’ above every testimonial, which ought to describe a takeaway that scanning eyes can grasp shortly
  • Testimonials from folks that your supreme buyer both pertains to or aspires to be like

If you happen to use video testimonials – and kudos to you in case you do – give your touchdown web page guests a text-based style of what’s contained in the video through the use of a caption… in order that they’ve obtained a cause to click on and watch. Listed here are some consultant long-copy testimonials from Ramit Sethi’s Dream Job 2.0 gross sales web page:

Ramit Sethi Testimonials on Long Copy Landing PageRamit Sethi Testimonials on Long Copy Landing Page

Ramit Sethi Testimonials Long Copy Sales Page TestingRamit Sethi Testimonials Long Copy Sales Page Testing

And right here’s how I used one of the best of long-copy testimonial therapy on a key brief copy touchdown web page for Energy Market Exchange:

Testing testimonials on short copy - EMEXTesting testimonials on short copy - EMEX

SIDE TIP: Have to get testimonials? Want images to go alongside them? Merely ask for them – that works most of the time. Reply to “joyful buyer” emails with a request to make use of their phrases as a testimonial, with the proposed testimonial written proper there within the electronic mail. For finest outcomes, embody the profit for the shopper: I’ll fortunately embody a hyperlink to your website – which is nice for search engine marketing – along with your testimonial and picture.

Testable Touchdown Web page Copy Trick 3:
Straight Break Through One Main Objection

Have you learnt why lengthy copy is so rattling lengthy? It’s not as a result of the writers don’t know learn how to edit themselves. (At the least, not all the time.)

It’s as a result of lengthy copy offers you the area you must deal with objections and neutralize anxieties one after the other.

Within the brief copy world, we’re so busy telling ourselves that folks don’t learn.. and so they solely scan.. and so they’re too busy for you… and so they’d slightly have a video – and, and, and, blah, blah, blah – that we find yourself summarizing the entire factors our guests want us to spell out for them. In an effort to maintain issues brief and scannable, we suggest half the story, put solely the softest messages on the web page and find yourself saying nothing in any respect. Ugly ol’ lengthy copy runs round changing at 10%, and we’re joyful when our brief copy converts at 2%.

However is it any surprise why brief copy fails to promote more often than not? It’s not doing any convincing!

You’ve GOT to assist your goal market or phase overcome its greatest objections to selecting you. I’d such as you to beat as many objections as attainable in your touchdown web page, however let’s begin with only one. And let’s use an instance to get you there: I not too long ago helped App Design Vault optimize their website, together with their house web page, which doubles as a touchdown web page for a lot of of their adverts, emails, and many others. The management used the next physique copy:

Short copy summarizes too oftenShort copy summarizes too often

The headlines in that management copy are your typical short-copy headlines. “Saves you money and time”. “Skilled appear and feel”. “Up and working in minutes”. Smooth, comfortable, comfortable.

You should push previous the apparent, bland messages you learn in all places. You should work out what your guests’ greatest objections are, and take them aside. Piece by piece. On the web page. That’s precisely what I did within the following copy, which we examined towards the above management:

Short copy that steals from long copyShort copy that steals from long copy

The objection: Guests believed they might design their very own app – in order that they didn’t must put money into the app designs on App Design Vault. And, in the event that they had been going to speculate, they weren’t going to spend $70 on an app template. We knew we needed to take the time to spell out precisely what was unsuitable with such considering.

The copy: We listed out the precise hours {that a} developer may spend on designing their very own app… and we did easy calculations – proper on the web page – to indicate how a lot time-as-money our customer may waste by not spending $70 at this time.

The consequence: We elevated paid conversions by 51%.


You don’t have to put in writing or design an “ugly” long-form touchdown web page to comprehend the advantages of lengthy copywriting. Small tweaks like these proven right here can deliver you large outcomes. So take 10 minutes at this time to:

  1. Write a meaty headline on your touchdown web page, and middle and daring it on the high of the web page
  2. E mail 2 folks that have given you testimonials, and ask them if you should utilize X picture of them (which you need to be capable to discover by googling them) in your website

Then, put aside an hour this week to put in writing new copy that breaks via an objection you understand guests have. If you happen to don’t know what their greatest objections are, you should utilize pop-up survey instruments like Qualaroo to ask questions that might assist you to higher perceive; alternatively, in case you use click-tracking in your touchdown web page, you could possibly determine areas that folks wish to know extra about just by seeing the place they’re clicking.

When examined, these 3 small to-dos may yield conversion charges that no less than come inside the neighborhood of the common long-copy conversion price.