Rule Of One

My exception that disproves the #1 copywriting rule

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I feel no shame about the story I’m about to tell you. I just feel a quiet and pleasing smugness for being able to say, “I’m not wrong. You’re wrong. And I can prove it.”

About a year and a half ago, I got an invitation to work with some very successful young copywriters.

They wanted me to write emails for them, but they didn’t want to pay so well. Instead, they thought of a creative way to sweeten the deal:

Being very successful, expert copywriters, they offered to critique my emails on top of the stumpy fee they would pay me.

As a show of good will, they asked me to send them some copy I had written, so they could show me the depth of their copy understanding.

At this point, I was already established as a copywriter. I had paid good money to get my copy critiqued by A-listers. And I wasn’t willing to get my own pay docked as a way of getting critiques. Still, out of curiosity, I sent over an email I’d written a few years earlier for RealDose Nutrition, an 8-figure supplement brand.

The subject line for this email read, “The evil twins blocking your path to good health.”

The body copy talked about a scientific study I’d found. Inflammation reduces the number of taste buds on your tongue… which makes you want to eat more… which drives up obesity… which in turn drives up inflammation, repeating the cycle one level down.

The expert copywriters read my email and sent me the following feedback:

“Feedback: you broke the #1 rule in copywriting – The Rule Of One (Write about only one thing at a time. Because one good idea, clearly and convincingly presented, is better than a dozen so-so ideas strung together.)”

And it’s true — I had two ideas in there. The burned-out taste buds on the tongue… plus the interplay between obesity and inflammation.

But here’s what I didn’t tell these guys, but what I kept smugly for myself — until now, that I share it with you:

This email was part of a campaign I had written for RealDose to replace an earlier sequence that they had used for years. My new sequence increased sales by 300% in this particular funnel. And this “Evil twins” email, with its violated Rule of One, was responsible for most of that 300% boost.

“Harumph,” somebody out there is saying. “The point still stands! That’s just the exception that proves the rule! The Rule of One! It must not be broken!”

To anybody who genuinely believes this… all I can do is shrug. Particularly since I still have work to do, preparing for the first call of my Influential Emails training, which is happening tonight.

When I was designing this training, I looked at some of the most influential emails I’ve written to this list. And I found that they inevitably break the Rule of One.

They break it in deliberate, consistent ways. But they break it nonetheless. In fact, breaking the Rule of One has become a kind of trademark of the emails I write.

And if you ever hear some authoritative copy guru telling you about this rule that cannot and should not ever be broken… maybe you will think of me and my not-so-humble exception here.

Now if you signed up for Influential Emails, then you will hear tonight about the specifics of how and why I choose to break the Rule of One.

If on the other hand you didn’t sign up for Influential Emails, well, maybe you can sign up in the future, if I ever offer this training again. Or just sign up for my email newsletter, because really, all my secrets are out there, lying in plain sight, each day that I send out my emails.

How to develop your voice even if you don’t have one

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I came across the following question today:

So this is one thing I’ve been trying to explore and develop.

I can write and convey ideas or messages, but it mostly comes out pretty dry (I’m a pretty boring person overall).

But I often read that punchy and upbeat copy, where you can really hear ‘voice’ and character come through.

Has anyone got any tips or articles or videos or professional quote makers they can recommend to develop this side of my writing?

Or should I just focus on writing dull informative stuff?

I’m also a pretty boring person, so this is a question I used to worry about as well. But I don’t worry about it any more. It seems to have taken care of itself. I asked myself how.

​​Here are a few ideas that came out — maybe they will be useful to you:

1. Write more. Swagger comes from lots of walking, up and down the same street.

2. Write faster. You’ll find stuff on the screen that makes your eyes pop out. “Where did that come from?”

3. Show and then tell. Punchy and upbeat copy is less about how you say it than about what you say. And it’s less about what you say than what happens in your reader’s head as a result.

4. Copy other writers for a while. I once read that Henry Miller would type up entire books by his favorite authors.

5. Self-consciously work on developing your voice. Invent your own phrases. Your own twists on cliches. Your own spelling. Most of it will be stupid. Most.

6. Infuse your own interests into your copy. Comedian Andrew Schulz: “Who cares if they relate to it? Make them relate to it.”

7. Get enthusiastic before you write.

8. Limit your editing. This is the second half of #2 above, for after you’ve finished writing.

9. Write more casual than you think is ok. You can always edit later.

10. Inject more drama. This goes back to #3 and #6 above. Your voice, like your writing in general, is more about what you say than how you say it.

And here’s a bonus #11:

Consciously do stuff that you know is wrong. For example, listicles like I’ve just written — they violate the Rule Of One, right?

​​Right. You probably won’t follow any of my ideas above, or even remember them come tomorrow. Even so. The more sacred a writing rule is, the more important it is to break it on occasion.

But here’s a rule that’s too sacred to break:

If you’re writing sales copy, you have to have a call to action. Otherwise the whole message was pointless. And in that spirit, my CTA to you is to sign up to my email newsletter about marketing and copywriting. If that’s something you can relate to, here’s where to go.