A thought for your consideration (which happens to be a comment that I made on John Carlton’s blog last summer)
Selling is just like a marriage proposal. You can’t just walk up a stranger and ask her to marry you. You have to take the process one step at a time, starting with small, easy-to-make choices (“hey, wanna catch a movie?“). Make the first step for your prospect irresistibly easy to take. Over time, the actions get larger.
Long copy allows the message to start small and move the customer increasingly toward making the purchase. Short copy doesn’t have that ability-there’s no time!
Long copy is can be a “greased slide” to the sale. Short copy is one big step, and grease on a step (stair) is not usually a good idea.
This is what Gary Bencivenga called “throwing the monkey fist.” Most big tasks can’t be accomplished in one move. Master salespeople (that includes smart marketers) use a sequence of expanding steps to move the prospect to take the desired action.
Think about it…
More importantly, implement it.