Cheesy TV shopping channels are the perfect places to look for inspiration when writing copy and content. They really are the masters of using words that sell – and a great source of inspiration for long copy tips.
Love them or hate them, you can’t deny the enormous impact that the likes of QVC and Ideal World have had on the UK retail market, with equivalents worldwide of course.
I have to admit I am slightly addicted to these channels, especially because I am fascinated by the lengths they go to when describing the products they are selling.
For as long as I have been a copywriter, the issue of short vs long copy has been hotly debated. As with so many things in marketing (and life) there is of course no simple answer. Sometimes a few well-chosen and carefully crafted words can achieve great results. Slogans like ‘go to work on an egg’ are legendary and show how just a few words can get a message across incredibly well.
Long copy has its place
But the idea that long copy never works is not something I agree with, and the TV shopping channels suggest I might be right. The presenters use lots of words when describing even the most basic products. Something as simple as a t-shirt is described in thousands of words, providing the channel with an opportunity to convey lots of information about the product.
One of the channels frequently dedicates hours of airtime and thousands of words to a product used to wash and polish cars. They go into enormous detail about the chemical makeup of the product, what those chemicals mean to users and the results the product delivers.
There’s information about how long it takes to clean a car using the product, its performance in avoiding scratches while cleaning and how it provides long-term protection against things that can damage cars.
Now, imagine a shopping channel that simply showed footage of the product with a one or two sentence description. What do you think their sales figures would look like? So why do so many brochures and catalogues (online or in print) have such little information about each product or service?
Other places to look for long copy tips
Look at two of the most successful online retailers, Amazon and eBay. Amazon usually include a detailed product description, a list of product features, user reviews and so on. The best eBay sellers also go into detail about their products, often with many paragraphs used to describe what they are selling.
Yes, I know that your resources are stretched and that generating detailed content takes time. But as those cheesy presenters on the shopping channels know so well: when you are competing for every penny and every sale, there can be little doubt that it’s time well spent.
When you are in a head-to-head fight against a competitor, such as when a potential customer is comparing your similar products or services, often the more information you can provide the better. As long as your writing is customer-focused, easy to read and formatted in an attractive way, it could give you a valuable edge in the battle for the sale.
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Photo by Elly Johnson on Unsplash