What's the copywriting "rule of one"?
The old copywriting "rule of one" can make your life easier & your copy stronger
Want to know one of the most fundamental secrets of copywriting? This one cuts through confusion and helps your potential clients immediately understand your offer, how you can help them and what step they could take next.
It’s known as the rule of one. The point is that any piece of copywriting should contain no more than one of each of the following elements:
One big idea
One core emotion
One call to action
If you try to cram in more than one of any of these elements, your reader is likely to end up confused or overwhelmed.
How can you make sure your copy sticks to the Rule of One?
The writer Alexandra Franzen has summed up this idea as Feel/Know/Do and she suggests that you never start a piece of writing without knowing in advance what you want your reader to feel, know and do.
It’s great advice. It doesn’t just make your copy stronger, it’s also really helpful if you’ve got writers’ block - instead of staring at a blank screen, start by writing at the top of the page what you want your reader to feel, know and do after they read your piece. You’ll find the words are more likely to start flowing, and when they do, they should also be much more on point.
How does the Rule of One help your reader?
Not only does it make all your copy clearer, it’s also a built-in tool for empathy. You’re creating every piece of writing by thinking first from the point of view of your reader - what do you want them to know? How do you want them to feel? What action would it be helpful for them to take?
This stops you going off on a rant or a tangent about ideas that interest you, but probably aren’t in service to your readers’ needs - unless you’ve identified that what they want IS in fact a juicy, funny, cathartic rant that allows them to know that they’re not alone in their frustrations, and offers them a helpful action they can take at the end of the piece.
How does it look in action?
When it came to writing this piece, what I wanted you to know was what exactly the Rule of One is, it's definition. I wanted you to feel reassured that it’s not some obscure or difficult copywriting trick, but is useful, easy to apply and pretty much bound to improve any piece of copy. And when it comes to what I’d like you to do, later in the article I’ll link to my services, because if you’re someone who’s interested in how copywriting works, we might work well together.
How does the Rule of One work with copy you’ve already written?
You don’t just need to use it as a tool to help you produce tighter, more focused writing - you can also use it as an editing tool. Go back to your sales pages, or to blog posts that you’d like to perform better, and re-read them in the light of Feel/Know/Do.
Are you trying to cram too much in? Would your one blog post be better split into two, or even three posts, each with their own clear message? Is it clear what you want your reader to do when they get to the end of the post or page? And have you paid attention to creating an emotional response, as well as simply conveying information?
For bonus points, when you edit your earlier work, you can also follow these guidelines too, to make your copy easier to read and digest.
What about times when you can’t stick to the Rule of One?
Of course, you can’t always stick to the rule of one.
On pages where you NEED to include more than one offer (such as a home page or a services page), you need to start with a single unifying message, and then provide super-clear distinctions between the different options, so that you make it as easy as possible for your reader to navigate to the option that’s most important to them.
If you want help in navigating your way through making ALL the copy on your website stronger, check out how we can work together.
Takeaways about the Rule of One:
Using feel/know/do will help get you out of writer’s block AND create stronger copy.
It makes sure you’re writing empathetic copy that puts your reader’s needs first.
You can also use the Rule of One as an editing tool.