This is how one-two punch copywriting totally changed my point of view

“This is not an easy decision to make,” I said to myself when asked to craft a copy for Moka website’s main headline. I stared so long at my laptop screen with a list of hefty words, but I came to no conclusion at all. The more I looked at it, the more I felt like it was the screen that’s staring at me. So I went back to my notebook, where I jotted down my findings on Moka’s products and what they had to offer.

Comparing the products with those of competitors, check. Finding copy inspiration from more well-known POS products, check. Asking my fellow product marketing managers during lunch break about anything I should know, check. Power words like best, ultimate, and sought-after suddenly popped up, but they just crammed together in my head. Well, they never really work, do they? So I visualized my final copy by saying it aloud, as my eyes wandering on the attic…

…like a child trying to memorize a speech for tomorrow’s graduation party.

Quite silly, really.

For the first attempt, I wrote: “Atur Kasir Lebih Mudah” (Manage Cashier at Ease). And… simply left there. I didn’t manage to think it should be longer or shorter. Because I thought the length was just at the right amount of enough, and it got what it needed. But I found it lacking a human touch, an empathy that really spoke to Moka’s potential and existing customers. So I self-talked: what should I improve? Is it completely necessary to add a few more words? Does my copy sound gobbledygook?

I was overjoyed with my absent-mindedness.

Until Roy Peter Clark stepped in.

In How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times, he talked about the power of two. Out of many other copywriting techniques, this one works the best when it comes to creating a chain-link effect. He emphasized that over the past ten years, two has not been the lucky number. Three has. But it has been so past the time.

And more and more customers are running out of time just to read the headline before getting to the Features or Benefits section. Especially in the age of disruption like 2019, where people need a quicker-to-read copy because it’s less time-consuming and has a high distribution value. Otherwise, they would look away, or even worse, won’t even come back again.

The term “the power of two” has been reverberated in various sectors for different purposes and meanings. It’s been used in pedagogy, mathematical method, and even marriage counseling. One, in particular, with which Clark associate in his book, is in boxing. Interestingly, this technique is called “one-two combo,” which is a “sequence of two quick punches, especially a jab with the left hand followed at once by a hard blow with the right.” Its objective is “to get in range and land a power-punch.” So, when one jab is not that impactful, you still have that final punch to throw.

In copywriting, Clark suggests that it is the author’s task to “take two elements of language and rubs them together for effect.” And when he said elements, he didn’t only mean phrase or clause, but also sentence, paragraph, and short essay. So, I assume this technique doesn’t work well in longer essays such as an academic paper or journal article. And it made perfect sense to me as to why Clark proposed two elements and not three or more. By juxtaposing two things, the audience will have a more well-informed choice in terms of whether it’s a contrast or a comparison.

Clark even pictured a classic one-two combo most commonly used in copywriting. These pairs represent the “double helix of genetics” that many other cultural expressions use to impose effect.

These are some of the couples:

?? Yin/Yang 

 ?? On/Off 

?? Concave/Convex 

?? Conflict/Resolutions

?? Bass/Treble

Now, let me give you a few examples that can give you a better vision.

This one is from Diesel.

The first time I saw this ad, I was starstruck not only linguistically but also visually. The copy says “Smart critiques. Stupid creates.” The first sentence (the horizontal one) might sound like a yadda-yadda, while the reader doesn’t yet quite grasp what this ad is trying to say. But when the vertical copy comes to sight, along with the captivating optical illusion photo, you kind of get the point. Equally compelling is this one below.

Everything about this ad is quite self-explanatory. The image supports the copy, and the copy speaks for the image. From my point of view, these ads are trying to break rules from what an ad from other online retail stores such as G-Star Raw, Full Circle Farm, and AllSaints would sound and look like. Instead of saying mumbo jumbo like “Our clothes are the best” or “Choose our products over theirs,” Diesel copywriters choose to do this. By comparing “smart” and “stupid” in one line, they want to emphasize that both are part of the same seesaw.

They’re somehow suggesting that being smart is mediocre and maybe overrated. Good, well-sewn clothes may make people look cool, smart, and sophisticated. But, everybody knows that already. That’s why they do something different for their product, which is to be the opposite of mediocre. They’re suggesting that by doing something completely “stupid” or “un-smart” their product remains impactful no matter how conspicuous the products from other competitors get around. What they did was to surpass people’s expectation with the copy, while maintaining relevance to the right target audience.

In short, they’re telling us that: Stupid is the New Smart.

Before wrapping up, I’d like to give another example from the so-called world’s “marketing poets.” Ring a bell? Yep, Apple did an amazing job of crafting compelling copy while promoting iPad Air 2. It looks like this:

It’s not the comparison between “ingenuity” and “aluminum” that makes this copy compelling. It’s the clever use of adjectives at every tip of the sentence that makes it outstanding. On the surface, both sentences showcase the product’s main strength. But when you take a closer look at it, each somehow becomes interdependent to each other. That it would sound clumsy if either is absent. This is what I think what’s so clever about Apple’s copy. It has the ability to entail strength not from one side of the line but from both sides.

Now that I’ve learned more about one-two punch technique, I got a better insight into the copy I left behind for Moka website’s headline. To remind you, my first attempt at scratching says “Atur Kasir Lebih Mudah.” Which sounds quite technical for some people. Then instead of making another sentence with a different structure, I wrote a similar sentence with different wording and a slight drop of emotional touch. Which, together, shapes my final copy:

Atur Kasir Lebih Mudah. Atur Hidup Lebih Baik.

So my strategy here is that I emboss both functional and emotional values within two punches in one line. While the first emphasizes what our clients can do with our product in practical terms, the second does it with a nod of empathy and a bit of prospect, serving altogether as the final jab.

It’s funny now that I didn’t realize which copywriting technique that I used while I was making this copy. I mean, I didn’t know the purpose of the technique, and I wasn’t sure that this copy would convert customers into leads. It’s not bombastic. Obviously not better than the competitor’s copy. But at least it had what it needed to say.

Imagine if I only had the second sentence as my one and only punch. Probably the effect is not that intact. And my audience will be left flaundering, “what the heck are you trying to sell me?” I’m limiting their point of view as to what Moka can actually do, which is to save their precious time running business and use them to get to know their customers better or spend more time with families

To conclude, the one-two punch copy is most effective to create a chain-link effect. My own rule of thumb might be: first jab, second punch. First, tell your audience what you want to brag about your product. Second, show them another focalization that they don’t expect but is relevant to their needs. Then, you can appropriately call yourself the champion in the ring.