[Sigia-l] long copy vs short copy

[Eric Scheid]

On 9/11/04 2:28 PM, "Boniface Lau" <boniface_lau at compuserve.com> wrote:

>> A certain length? The article that spawned this thread didn't make
>> any mention of word count or similar.
> 
> The "certain length" expression was referring to what you called "that
> length":

Fair enough. I see how it could be read either way.

>>> So now, instead of demanding a short copy, people should ask for a
>>> long copy?
>> 
>> All else being equal (eg. quality), then yes.
> 
> That is the same mentality as those who accept only short copies. To
> them, quality is a word. But length is something that they comprehend
> because they can count. So they insist on getting a short copy.

They also insist on short copy because that's what they've been told by the
UE folks. Even Krug says it in his "Don't me me think" book. Halve, and
halve again. The point though isn't to fixate on some rule from some guru -
it's a guideline, not a rule, the context must be considered, and the
purpose of guidelines is to provide guidance, to point people in the
direction more likely (note: not guaranteed, just more likely) to produce
preferred results.

For any given piece of copy, there are three choices available:

a) make it shorter,
b) make it longer,
c) keep it the same length

The prevailing 'wisdom' has been to choose (a). The report from
marketingexperiments.com [1] suggests (b). It would however be very sensible
to factor in which would be easier to improve quality... if the piece is
made longer, can the quality be improved more so than if the piece were made
shorter? 

e.

[1] http://www.marketingexperiments.com/archives/long_vs_short.cfm