With the recent popularity of The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, you’ve probably heard about the 80/20 Rule.
The concept was developed by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto over 100 years ago.
Ryan Healy, a direct response copywriter has something to say about it:
The 80/20 Rule is simple. It says 20% of inputs create 80% of outputs. Conversely, 80% of inputs create only 20% of outputs.
For instance:
* In a house that is carpeted, 20% of the carpet will get 80% of the wear.
* On a blog, 20% of the blog posts will get 80% of the “reads.”
* In a business, 20% of the customers will produce 80% of the revenue.In anything you apply the 80/20 Rule to, you will find both great leverage and great waste.
He goes on to say:
Writing copy the 80/20 way is about getting maximum results with minimum effort. It’s about doing more with less.
Don’t waste hours trying to create the “perfect” sales letter. Rather, write a letter that’s good enough. Then split-test it to success. Let the software do all the heavy lifting for you.
If you write all your own copy, give this approach a fair shot. I believe you’ll be pleased with the outcome.
Read more at Copywriting the 80/20 Way on Michel Fortin’s Blog
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
October 1st, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Hey Jeff - Thanks for linking to my article. I really appreciate it. I hope the information about the 80/20 Rule is valuable to you and your business.
October 1st, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Yeah no problem Ryan. Your article does help when I’m stressed about writing the perfect sales letter.
October 1st, 2007 at 3:21 pm
Excellent. Now I can show this to my partner and get our business to a higher level. He’s perfectionist about every single article and it consumes so much time. I can completely understand the 80/20 way because it suits me and my way of thinking.
October 2nd, 2007 at 10:01 am
I think that it was Ogilvy who said that only 50% of all advertising works and it is difficult to say which 50% is that. In sales and marketing communications, it has been my experience shared by many of my colleagues that we are always wiser by hindsight.
October 3rd, 2007 at 12:56 am
That’s a very good rule.
I liked the way you have logically explained the whole thing in your post.
I have started applying the rule right away.
October 8th, 2007 at 8:11 am
It was the same with coding i remember. Something like 90% of the errors are due to mistakes in 10% of the code…