It's a frequent debate among new marketers and experienced marketers. Why use long sales letters?

An inexperienced marketer will often try to avoid conventional sales methods and avoid long sales letters only to realize later how effective they are online.

Direct Marketing Vs. Online Marketing

Long sales letters have been used in direct mail marketing for decades. As the internet gained popularity, methods to monetize the consumer base have been tested and refined. Surprisingly, the ones used in direct marketing have been adapted to generate sales online with great success. Many of the same principles when building an offline sales letter, translate well to the internet. The common denominator is the consumer. They speak directly to their needs and concerns which is why they're still in use today.

Keep Consumers On A Sales Path

Online sales letters have a tremendous amount of competition with other sources of information just a click away. One of the main reasons copywriters continue to use long sales letters online is to prevent or at least discourage consumers from clicking away.

It's rare to find clickable links on a sales page. Those links would be considered traffic leaks, or ways for the consumer to leave the page. Once the consumer leaves a sales page, they're unlikely to return.

A Proven Formula With AIDA

A well known formula for creating direct mail sales letters is also used online. AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. A webpage headline is intended to grab attention. A personal story from a customer is included to create interest. Describing the benefits of a product will establish desire. And finally, your product offer including the price and how to get your product is asking the consumer to take action.

Sales letters aren't going to win many web design awards but they achieve their intended purpose. As long as they generate sales online, they'll continue to be used.