What Is Kate Tolo's First Rule for Going Viral?

Kate Tolo's first rule for going viral is never assume, always test, even after years of doing this and even with a strong guess about what will work. On one email, the line under the product stayed the same and only the copy above it changed. One version was dense: nutritionally comparable to 1,808 calories of food, 13 health actives, then a start line. The other was a picture: eat kilos of food or have one scoop, then drink 13 key nutrients daily. The shorter line won.

She still calls the reason a guess, because you can never really know what worked. Her guess is simplicity. Kilos of food are easy to picture, and the word nutritionally turns dense. Strong copy mixes an emotional line with a rational one and puts extra weight on emotion. Jeans at $60 speak mostly to the rational part of the brain, which drives less of the decision. Levi's and Wrangler rarely pitch a fact. They show a lifestyle. Eat kilos of food or have one scoop sets a hard thing next to an easy thing.