Barkbox’s 6-word banger

Sometimes we’ll see a line of copy that’s so clean and so perfect that it causes us to question whether we know anything at all about copywriting.

This is one of those lines. Annoyingly good.

We saved this bit of copy as a little reminder to ourselves that it’s easy to get overly academic with copywriting. There’s always formulas this, best practices that, customer psychology so and so… but ultimately, copy just needs to make it clear what you’re selling and make a customer want to buy it. And if a line of copy does that and gets a smile? Then you’re onto a winner, even if it breaks every rule you know.

Look at this bit of copy. In just 6 words, they’ve packed in:

• Their core offering: “monthly dog goodies” AKA a subscription box. Plain, simple and clear.
• Some great voice of customer: “for good doggies” mirrors the exact language owners use when praising their pets. (Guilty as charged.)
• A hooky, memorable phrase: the rhythm and cadence and clever wordplay make this headline super catchy.
• Some subtle emotionality: what dog owner won’t read this and think “oh, I have a good doggie that deserves a treat”?

And even though this headline doesn’t do 95% of the things good copy is supposed to do (Where’s the benefit? Where’s talking to the customer? Where’s the verb?), it’s still so good. And that’s why we saved it.

That's the thing you can steal: confidence in your ideas. There's always pressure to over-optimise every sentence. But being clear and getting a customer to like your brand are worth more than any "power word" ever will be.

And if a word in your copy (like "doggies") feels like something that's going to make your customers laugh or smile, make sure it survives that pre-publish jitter of "is this too much?"