Weird 4 word pitch gets 100 response rate

… that’s not clickbait, by the way.?

Here’s the scoop. If you’ve been around long enough you know everyone loves to say “long copy” is the best. “long copy” outperforms “short copy”. But the thing is, nobody has ever really defined long copy!

The meaning of the term is as vague.

Now moving forward, the reason I’m raising the issue of what exactly “long copy” is…

And even more importantly, how long copy should BE is because of a scene in The Matrix.

Around the start of the film, our hero Neo gets into a training fight with his mentor and captain of their ship, Morpheus. Neo is the supposed “chosen one” meant to save everyone. And Morpheus is the “father figure” of the crew.

When the fight started, most of the crew was having breakfast in the cafeteria.

Mouse, the youngest crew member ran to where everyone else was to call them to watch the fight.?

He burst into the room and yelled:

“Morpheus is fighting Neo!”

… and in an instant EVERYONE dropped their food and rushed out of the room to go watch.

See that right there?

Four words.

100% response rate.

Kid didn’t even NEED a headline or a call to action.

Now I know this is a movie but hear me out…

If you follow the “long copy always wins” dogma, then what Mouse should have done… was barge into the room, and give everyone an hour long shpiel on who he is…

Who Morpheus is…

Who Neo is…

Why should they care who they are…

Why should they care they’re fighting…

And THEN telling them that Morpheus and Neo are fighting.

In other words:

He would have given them the “full pitch”. But that’s not what happened. Why?

Because the crew already knows most of this stuff.

They already know who Mouse, Neo and Morpheus are. And they already know WHY Neo and Morpheus fighting would be a big deal.

All they really needed was to be told there was a fight going on.

Thus we can easily conclude that a considerable portion of the “pitch” had already been done for him… thanks to the additional background detail everyone else had. These are details they came to know just by being around they guys.

The end result is if Mouse had tried giving them the full, long pitch he would have bored the ever living crap out of them.

So he told them WHAT THEY NEEDED TO KNOW in that specific solution to do what he wanted them to do.

This right here is the definition of “long enough copy” in my books.

And no matter how I look at it, it’s way better than the whole “long vs short” copy argument ripe on the interwebs.

Long enough is what you need to tell them so they take the action you want them to.

But how do you decide what is long enough?

Easy.

Ask this one question:

“What do my customers already know?”

Do they know who you are?

Do they know why they should trust you?

Have they bought from you before?

Do they know their problem exists?

Are they aware of how the problem affects their day to day lives?

Do they want to solve the problem?

Are they aware of the different solutions for the problem?

Have they tried paying to solve the problem?

… this isn’t the ultimate, exhaustive list on this stuff. But it’s a good start.

Then, ask yourself how much of this stuff they already know or have seen in your other content and media.

How much have you educated them and made them more aware in your emails?

In your social media content?

In your videos?

Why is this important?

Because the more they already know and are familiar with… the less you need to say to make them take action. This doesn’t mean you should slack off and reduce your pitches to nearly nothing.

But it does give you a good starting point so you know what to remind them of…

And what to elaborate on.

That way you’re taking advantage of what your customers already know, to give them a pitch that is tailor made based on their current knowledge and experiences.

By doing this, you avoid boring them by treading old ground.

While at the same time you avoid confusing them by leaving out critical details.

Yet that’s just the beginning.

You can even take advantage of what your customers see BEFORE they hit your pitch… and get them up to speed on what they need to know before you finally hit them with the final sales copy.

This is why copy for cold traffic is often longer than copy for warm, or hot traffic.

The colder the traffic, and less aware they are…

The more you need to say before you copy is “long enough”.

And for super hot audiences who know you, and have probably already bought for you?

You’d be surprised how many people get away with just an email and an order page. NO sales page or VSL (don’t take this as advice though, test your list and audience first before trying anything crazy).

Long story short:

Don’t think “long copy or short copy”

Think:

“long enough” copy.

Because long enough could literally be 4 words.

Like:

“Morpheus is fighting Neo”

Or…

“Will you marry me?”

… or it could be a 4 hour Webinar.

Whether it’s in email.

Or a Sales letter.

Or a Landing page.

Or a Facebook or Youtube ad.

Or a ransom note.

Long enough is better than long AND short.

… till the next wave of madness…

Vae Victis

Jay