A number of times I’ve been arrogantly told by bid managers and the like that (only) “good copy is short copy”.
As someone who attained their full suite of stripes in journalism before they left their teens, wrote speeches for New Zealand’s Governor General at age 20, edited a national motoring magazine at age 23, spent two decades serving some of Australia’s largest FCMG companies as a self-employed marketing copy writer, and has now been a bid strategist and writer for a decade and a half, here’s my not-so-humble take on this assertion:
Sure, if you can’t hold your reader’s attention, the shorter your copy the better. Deliver your message and get out.
But if you’ve exceeded what the “short copy experts” would deem a “good copy” word count (whatever that might be), yet you’re still delivering good, client-centred value, you’re still articulating the bid strategy, and your material is highly readable, then write on. (NB: Notwithstanding any client-imposed word count limitations)
If your response is being informed by a solid bid strategy and is thus conveying a compelling proposition, and if it’s at least moderately well-written, then you no doubt still have the evaluators’ attention.
Remember: This is not an ad. It’s a called-for document. You have a willing readership. You don’t have to attract the reader to your copy. You simply have to concern yourself with not losing them with non-answers or other forms of poor quality content. So tell the whole story (don’t take shortcuts). Just tell it as effectively as you can.
(If it’s a proactively submitted proposal, then, as the late, great advertising master, Claude Hopkins (‘My Life in Advertising’ and ‘Scientific Advertising’) said, “Give them enough to (spur them to) take action.”
Hopkins wrote:
“Some say, ‘Be very brief. People will read but
little.’
“Would you say that to a salesman? With a prospect
standing before him, would you confine him to any certain
number of words?
“That would be an unthinkable handicap.”
