WTF is short-form copywriting?

"Long-form copywriting" refers to things like sales letters, webinars, and video sales letters (VSLs).

They're often 5,000-10,000+ words long.

So what exactly qualifies as “short-form copywriting?”

And what are the benefits of focusing on it vs long-form copy?

Today I’m going to break down the differences between the two and how each one fits into the customer journey.

Let’s dive in.

Read time: 2 minutes and 21 seconds

Together with Stacked Marketer

50k+ marketers and growth hackers swear by this daily newsletter (here’s why)

Stacked Marketer curates the most useful and important digital marketing news and boils it down to a 7-minute read.

Sign up here (it's free).

Every weekday, you get breaking news, insights, advertising hacks, tips & tricks for all your digital marketing,-- Facebook, Google, content marketing, SEO, Snap, TikTok, email, and countless others.

If you’re a marketer looking to constantly up your game or a founder who wants to make sure they’re nailing their growth, this is one free resource you absolutely need to be taking advantage of.

Join 50,000+ marketers and subscribe today.

Short-form vs long-form copy: what’s the difference?

Here’s the simplest way to describe the difference between the two…

→ Short-form copy drives traffic
→ Long-form copy makes the sale

Short-form copy is usually deployed in the top or middle of the funnel, whereas long-form copy is typically bottom of the funnel.

For instance:

• You click on a Facebook ad (short-form), then register for a webinar that promotes a course (long-form)

• You click on an email (short-form) that takes you to a video sales letter for a supplement (long-form)

• You swipe up on a Reel (short-form) that takes you to a product page for a pair of sunglasses (long-form)

Broadly speaking, anything 600 words or less qualifies as short-form copywriting.

This includes:

- Emails
- Advertorials
- TikTok ads
- YouTube ads
- Facebook ads
- Social content

Now let’s discuss some of the benefits of focusing on short-form.

5 reasons why you should focus on short-form copywriting

1. Easier to write than long-form copy.

The higher the word count, the more difficult it is to write. Sales letters, VSL scripts, and webinars often run 10,000+ words and can take a month or more to finish. But high-performing ads, emails, and social posts are often 400-600 words or less.

2. Easier to get data back on how your copy performs.

Getting market feedback is how you improve your skills. But it can sometimes take 3-6 months for long-form copy to go live and start receiving traffic. Meanwhile, short-form copy can go live immediately, so you can get data back ASAP and compress the learning curve.

3. Easier to find clients willing to pay if you’re a freelance copywriter.

Clients have to invest lots of time and money to hire a copywriter for a long-form promotion. It's a big risk. But it costs them much less to hire someone to write a single email, social post, or Facebook ad.

4. Long-form promotions still need short-form copy to drive traffic. 

In the digital world, the only way someone can land on a sales letter, VSL, or webinar is if they read an ad, email, or post first. This means for every one piece of long-form copy (like a sales page or webinar), you might test 10-20 or more pieces of short-form copy. So it’s important to get it right.

5. Faster path to copywriting mastery.

Fewer moving parts makes short-form copywriting much easier to master. And mastery is what leads to big wins, big clients, and big fees.

Putting It All Together

Both short-form and long-form have their place in your copywriting education.

Especially if you’re a business owner looking to sell your own products and services online…

Because eventually, you need to create longer-form assets like sales pages and webinars to market them.

But I strongly recommend using short-form as a vehicle to learn copywriting faster.

That’s it.

Thanks for reading!

Jim Hamilton