Ah, those Long Sales Page Letters.
The issue that always brings out the two camps of thought: 1) love them, they totally work and; 2) disgusting, done buy sleazy marketers.
It’s a highly emotive subject: many people are vehemently opposed to them in any way, shape or form and you will never sway them.
And then there are those who stand by the long sales letter pitch.
Personally, I’ve tended to jump the fence to both sides of the argument. And that does me no good. Either I am for them or against them. Pick a side, you fool and stick with! 
But I have a disclaimer of sorts (a lame excuse!). I used to run a blog called ePublishingDaily. This blog was all about creating and selling information products. It’s still there but it’s pretty much a dead blog until I decide what and where to go with it.
The point is: I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen beautifully crafted long sales letters for products that really deliver. I’ve also seen horrible sales letters using blatant trickery and still deliver the goods. And I’ve seen (the worst) the one’s where every trick in the book is used to produce horribly hyped up sales letters for shoddy products to say the least.
In my “welcome” post to this blog I positioned my publishing company pretty much in the anti-long sales page camp. Obviously it’s a marketing tactic. I can read the trends. I understand that more and more folks understand how the long sales page is used (and often times abused).
It’s a trend that’s growing and as the general web user becomes more web savvy (and they are), long sales pages will become less effective.
But back to the main topic…
One must remember, that we are all internet marketers - well, those that want to do business online.
Internet Marketers. Internet Marketing. Change those two words around. Internet Marketing into Marketing Internet. Polish it a little and you end up with Marketing on the Internet.
Those who bitch and moan and complain the loudest do so because they are in the “marketing on the Internet” industry. They’ve seen it all. They’ve become jaded.
But What Have They Seen
The fact of the matter is that …
long sales pages work on the RIGHT prospect.
Remember that: The Right Prospect!
And it even works more so to those that have not become accustomed to the long sales page - in other words hundreds, if not thousands, of different niche markets that has nothing to do with making money online.
We, marketers on the internet, have seen it all before. We understand the format and the way that a well planned out sales page hits those emotional triggers at just the right moments. The bold, red headline, the well-placed testimonials, the social proof (a big one), scarcity and so on…
The RIGHT Prospect Loves Long Sales Letters
The Right Prospect simply loves long sales letters. As they read they become more and more excited, they say to themselves “Yes, yes, that’s me” or ” Yes, that’s exactly where I’m at!”
The long sales page letter works because it brings the RIGHT prospect to a state of excitement, they have lived the sales page letter emotionally all the way, it’s been building. And when the call to action comes they can’t get their wallets out fast enough.
Phew! Got my own self into a state of excitement there for a minute.
My view on long sales pages is that if you believe you have produced the goods and can deliver on the promise then a well-crafted long sales letter works. I’d test the hype factor - which in fact I’m currently doing with various A/B testing methods in both long and short sales letters.
Why Am I doing this testing, which is costing me a decent amount of money? Firstly, pardon my French, but it gives me the shits when those who want to get into internet marketing won’t take out their wallets and buy products and/or services that will help them get there. This “I want it all for free” mindset puts me right off - you want to succeed, get the right tools.
Back to the testing. Why? I see the trends and I want to test them. I want to understand what the market responds to and boy am I getting some results to mull over.
Because who knows where the long sales pages will be in the future. Will they always work? Will there come a time when it reaches a sort of tipping point of no return?
I’m a firm believer in relationship marketing, in nurturing a community over time. Building trust, reliability and credibility. It takes time, but get it right and you have fans for life. And fans for life will buy from you over and over and over again - long sales letters or not.
