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3. Do you believe this?

I have preached about this year after year - and it never fails to excite argument. Some people just can't believe it.

Let me start with this quote:

"No creative writer has ever been able to approach the effectiveness of the boardwalk huckster who often sold 50-75% of his entire audience." - Al Eicoff, "Broadcast Direct Marketing".

That quotation underlines what I suggested in my last suggestion: try to emulate a good salesman.

Al Eicoff was responsible for more TV and radio commercials than anyone I know of. The early ones did exactly what you've just read implies. He filmed successful boardwalk hucksters, edited the result, then ran it as a commercial.

I met Al in, of all places, Manila when we were both speaking at the grandly-titled World Direct Marketing Congress, more years ago than I care to admit to.

Al was more than a great salesman. He was a thoughtful pioneer.

He commissioned research by a Japanese University to confirm what he already knew from experience about the best times to run direct response commercials. Some people still don't know what he learned - and lose a lot of money as a result.

Some of his early commercials were 30 minutes long. And they made millions.

Does a 30 minute commercial sound a bit much to you? Then I suggest you turn on your TV any time in the early morning anywhere in the world. You'll see lots of 30 minute or even 60 minute commercials.

You just don't think of them as commercials because they seem like ordinary programmes. They keep running because they make money. Lots of it...

So my next point, number 3, is simple: try running longer copy. Much longer. Because it tends to work better in any medium.

Here are the results of some tests run by a colleague of mine:

Now, if an extra profit of 41.9% doesn't interest you, please stop reading now. You are making far too much money.

But if it does, let me simply say that I have never seen short copy making the same proposition prove as profitable as long. (I have, though, seen it get fewer immediate replies - but far more eventual sales).

The funny thing is, though, that the people I find to be most surprised by, and even disbelieving in the success of long copy are salespeople. They never seem to relate what they do to what happens in another medium - yet they should.

No good salesperson would dream of trying to be brief. They keep going till the prospect either buys or throws them out. That's what your copy should do.

This does not mean you should strive officiously to drone on and on.

Dull long copy will flop just as depressingly as dull short copy. And although I find e-mails of 3, 4 or even 7 pages seem to work, I think it's always a good idea to get people to click through to a website ... where you can run really long copy.

The trick, of course, is being able to write long interesting copy. That is another story.

But my colleagues and I make our living by getting people better results, and I can't recall us ever running shorter copy to do so.

So next time you're looking for better results, try longer copy. Try giving every reason why people should do what you want. Deal with every reason why they might not do so. Logically, it's bound to make more sales.

Next helpful idea...