Somewhere in the jungles and rain forests of Bali, a woman named Elora Hardy has built a house.
It’s not any usual house mind you, but something pretty spectacular and otherworldly:
No plastic
The thing is, this crazy design didn’t just arise from Hardy’s brain, or from the brain of the other designers at Ibuku, her architecture company.
Instead, it was largely a response to the demands of bamboo, the building material they chose to use. In Hardy’s own words:
“The construction industry, the design world, just relies on materials that will bend to your will. Like plastic. People love plastic because you can just make whatever shape you want out of it. You can mould it, you can color it, it’s like the ultimate vanity. […] The team and I could never have come up with this on our own. It was totally driven by the form and the shape of the material we chose to use.”
And yes, this design stuff also applies to copywriting.
Namely:
If you are having trouble coming up with a good idea, odds are you are allowing yourself way too many options.
Enforce some quick barriers, and watch the ideas pour in.
Here are a few such barriers I’ve set up for myself on earlier posts in this blog:
1. Tie in the latest movie I’ve seen
2. Demonstrate the marketing principle I’m talking about
3. Work in 2 or 3 randomly chosen and unusual phrases
4. End with a call to action
5. Tease the main idea without giving it away
6. Tell a story
You get the idea.
There are a lot more of these creative barriers or requirements.
And setting them up for yourself is not just a cute game — not by a long chalk.
It’s serious business.
Because the resulting copy that you write will be much more interesting, much more lively and unique, and will therefore sell much better.
In other words, thunderbolt city.
This is is why I’m putting together a list of such effective self-imposed barriers — including the ones above, but also many more.
And I’ll put it in my upcoming book on profitable email marketing for the health space.
For a free copy when it comes out, head on over here: