CASE FILES / CASE 001 · COPYWRITING / BRIEFING 02
Briefing 02 of 10 · Principle 2

Pick One Thing (Seriously, Just One)

Trying to say everything means saying nothing.

ABOUT 2 MIN READ1 INTERCEPTED REWRITE1 FIELD MISSION

You know that friend who tells a story and goes off on seventeen tangents, until you're thinking "wait, what was the point?" Don't be that friend in your copy.

Here's the deal

Every piece of copy needs one main idea. One primary benefit. One core message. Not three. Not five. Definitely not "everything we do, because we're brilliant".

Your product may do a million things. But try to communicate all of them at once and you communicate none of them well. The reader's brain turns to scrambled eggs.

Ask yourself: what's the one thing you want them to walk away knowing? What's the one problem you're solving? What's the one reason they should care?

Everything else in your copy supports that one thing. Features, testimonials and guarantees are the backing singers. Your main benefit is the lead vocalist.

The big phone brands do this brilliantly. A smartphone does a thousand things, but each advert focuses on one: the camera, or the battery, or the chip. One message. One landing.

If you can't sum up your message in one sentence, you don't have a message. You have a mess.

— Intercepted copy

Before and after

INTERCEPTED

Our fitness app offers meal planning, workout tracking, community support, progress photos, a recipe database, integration with 15 fitness devices, customisable goals, expert articles AND meditation guides!

REWRITE

Finally see your abs again, with 20-minute workouts and no gym required. (Every feature can still exist. Now they all support one clear outcome.)

QUICK TEST

Can you sum up your message in one sentence? If not, it isn't ready to publish.

— Briefing 02

Field mission

Find the single promise your copy is built around, and demote everything else to a supporting role.

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