With Sales Content, Sometimes More is More

A content consideration for your holiday sales

In eCommerce, we’re often told to keep copy short and get users to and thru checkout. We use short snappy headlines, bold CTA buttons … whatever it takes! While this can be effective, sometimes we need to do more and prove more with our Black Friday content.

I think of customers in three tiers. (1) You have your loyal fans. They’ve likely been waiting for a sale and will be quick wins. (2) Then there are those who know you but will still take some convincing. This can be done by removing your barriers to sale — think urgency, confidence boosters, fewer clicks.

(3) Then there’s the group who, for whatever reason, will want to see backup to your headline’s promises. Maybe they’re new to your brand. Either way, they want to see claims substantiated before they click “purchase.”

Sometimes, people want MORE content.

In content in general, I always like to provide people with options. For those who like to skim, give them great headlines, outlines and bullets. For deep divers, give them pertinent and useful content between those headlines. Why not kill many birds with a stone?

With fitness client Juggernaut Training Systems, we began to notice over a period of months that the more text and details we included about a product, the better the conversion rate.

In another scenario, we hypothesized that shortening the length of a few ebooks would increase their downloads. Wrong. They didn’t convert nearly as well as when they were more substantive.

Keep in mind that more copy isn’t always best. But it is something to weigh when writing your campaigns and sales copy.

Why not convert more people with your holiday budget + efforts?

My point about copy comes down to this: why not? Why not include options for people who want to see more? Try including backup to your claims on your landing page or in the product description.

So, you claim your winter jacket is the warmest out there? What about the inner material and outer shell makes it so? What percentage warmer does it keep its occupant? Who is living proof of this claim (testimonials!)?

Facts and examples go a long way toward getting that last group to convert. And customer testimonials are gold.

Those who don’t want or need to read this backup content, won’t. Our eyes are trained to skim right over things we don’t care about or need.