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independence7 unconnected · 1 more author in those circles
applies to

consumer, no audience needed

mixed results

confidence

high

evidence

9 claims · 8 articles · 4 receipts

window

2010-06-28 → 2023-10-08

7 builders who never spoke to each other

Keep the personality that drives some people off

A distinct voice loses you readers who find it untrustworthy or unserious, and that is the price of the ones who stay and tell someone else. Having no character at all is the worse trade, because nobody gets excited about a company with none, forgives its mistakes, or mentions it to anybody. Where every competitor writes dry and informative, the voice itself becomes the differentiator, as long as it is genuinely yours rather than borrowed.

The method

  1. 01

    Accept that a distinct voice drives some people away, and treat that as the cost of the ones who stay and tell their friends.

  2. 02

    Having no personality at all is the worse option, because nobody gets excited about a company with no character, forgives its faults, or mentions it to anyone.

  3. 03

    Leave your personality in the copy rather than editing it out, because the brands that land feel like a person wrote them.

  4. 04

    Compete on voice when the shelf is crowded with functionally identical products, and make that voice specific enough to be divisive.

  5. 05

    In a niche where every competitor writes dry and informative, differentiate on voice instead of subject matter by adding memes, GIFs and sarcasm so the thing entertains as well as informs.

What it returned

  • 60%

    Sam Klemens mixes memes and AI art through The Rollup's finance analysis, which sits at a 60% open rate.

  • An informal style reads as untrustworthy to some readers; admitting the company is two people wins service-minded buyers and loses people worried you will fold; swearing on the blog loses some readers and gains subscribers.

  • Oatly faces a milk aisle carrying other oat milks too, and Katelyn Bourgoin credits its clever, snarky and sarcastic writing with making shoppers pick it over the alternatives.

  • Noor Chopra positioned Touristy as business, tech and consumer culture news with millennial sarcasm, and it passed 110k subscribers.

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

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More in copy

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the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.