The origin and evolution of long form copy

A lot of people hate long form copy. They say it’s a pain to read, and is completely pointless. We’ve seen it in newspapers, magazines, even billboards. But what about on the Internet? Well, it has been around for ages here as well. The Internet is responsible for bringing long copy through direct mail to millions of people all over the world.

A lot of successful direct mail copywriters believe that it is better to write long copy, as it raises the chance of selling a product or service. In fact, a lot of these famous copywriters often wrote copy so long, that it matched the length of the books they were trying to sell!

With the coming of HTML, came the discovery of long form copy on the Internet. When it originally started, the layout looked very bad, just like most other things on the Internet. All the important stuff was highlighted so that people didn’t have to read all of it.  This format quickly became popular, as the copy almost always addressed the reader’s concerns regarding the product or service.

This format has lasted for a long time, as it really does work. There are other options such as pay-per-click, but that often turns out to be expensive, and sometime even dangerous due to all the malware and viruses floating around the web-space. People are scared of clicking an ad, as they don’t want to take the risk of getting their computers infected.

Long copy has, of course, evolved, and come a long way since its early days. It does not seem as desperate as before, and is friendlier, and easier to read. It addresses issues, builds urgency creates a good rapport, and is delivered over time. A person who receives long copy may not fall for it immediately, but maybe next time, he will bite the bait, and actually buy something.