The Anti-formula Formula for Writing on The Internet

If you follow most of the popular copywriters and marketing writers on the internet, then you've already heard the gospel of templates and frameworks.

Everyone preaches acronym-based formulas like AIDA, PASTOR, and PAS. “Buy my template pack,” they say. “Use this formula to raise conversions.”

You know the type. Their articles are everywhere.

I’ve tried some of these formulas over the years. They can be helpful, especially during the early days when you lack confidence and experience.

But I have a problem with formulizing writing. Formulas are shortcuts. As long as you know what it is that you're shortcutting, a shortcut is fine.

Specifically, a writing formula is a shortcut to finished copy. But it should not be confused as an effective shortcut to creativity or good writing.

Think of formulas as a reasonable floor for your writing career. A good template can ground your writing when you feel lost. Formulas offer structure when you're tackling an amorphous problem on a short deadline.

But great marketing writing can’t be distilled down to a formula. It requires something you can't sell in a course.

I’m talking about taste.

Taste is subjective. Taste is hard to measure. It’s even harder to teach. Taste differs. Even though it's impossible to teach taste, I think it’s useful to begin a writing career with the understanding that taste is superior to formulas.

That’s why I usually don’t tell starting copywriters and content marketers that formulas even exist. They can find them on their own time, if they need them.

Instead, I advise most starting writers to simply study good writing, especially within the context of their current assignment. Do good research.

Writing website copy or ads? Track down your favorite brands. Read their landing pages. Browse their ads. When you find one you love, read the case studies about who wrote it and how. Google is your friend.

Writing articles for SEO? Read a few articles, top to bottom, that you find at the top of Google. Pay attention to structure. Pay attention to language.

Want to create awesome blogs and social posts? Start by reading the writers you follow obsessively online. Study their titles. Consider their average word count, sentence length, recurring words, and common subject matter. How do they frame an idea? How do they begin a story?

Marketing is an old business. Examples are everywhere.

You’ll quickly learn what you like. You’ll also learn what you don’t like. You'll realize that what you like and dislike can't be distilled down to a formula.

That's because great marketing writing is as much about individual word choice as it is about sentence structure. Sentence structure is as important as the amount of white space around the ad. The image next to your copy matters as well.

And it all varies.

There's no shortcut to good taste.

I’m highly opinionated about writing, especially when it comes to marketing-related writing such as ad copy and thought leadership.

But here's the catch: Just because I’m opinionated doesn’t mean the stuff I don’t like doesn’t work. There are many ways to find success in advertising. What matters is forming a clear opinion that is your own.

Taste matters more today than ever in the ad business, in part because formulas are more abundant than ever. In an industry brimming with formulas, and a world flooded with generic AI text, taste is the ultimate competitive advantage.

It's an advantage because it’s so damn hard to copy.