The OODA Loop For Copywriters
A lot of people love to talk about strategy. There are millions of blog posts on all sorts of topics about using “warfare tactics” and other similar topics. A million business students and marketing “gurus” have read their $5 translation of “The Art Of War” and think they’re some sort of super-tactician.
What this usually means is that some slick lifestyle guru will come out with statements like “business is war” and “keep your friends close but your enemies closer” and “you’ve got to strike when your enemy is unprepared.” Then they’ll use that to sell you an e-book about fitness or something.
But really, what do those statements mean when it comes to online business? Strike when your enemy is unprepared? What… post an article when a competing website is not posting one?
Regardless, something I love to do is fuse separate sets of knowledge to create new ways of looking at things. There are definitely lessons to be learned from military strategy, even when it comes to copywriting.
Today, I’m going to be talking about something called the OODA loop, which is a way or organising a military campaign. If you’re interested in military strategy, stay away from “business of war” style books, and read actual books on strategy. It’s worth it, because you’ll make connections that are lost by the marketers in translation otherwise.
As with a lot of my articles, you don’t have to do this. It’s just a mental framework that might come in useful sometimes.
What’s The OODA Loop
John Boyd was a military strategist, working for the US Air Force. His contribution to the field of military strategy was pretty vast for the fact he’s relatively unknown to this day.
His major contribution to military strategy (Or at least the contribution which ties all his other work into a complete framework) is that every military action will go through the OODA loop.
OODA stands for the following:
Observe
Orient
Decide
Act
Those of you who think like me and are copywriters will probably see a parallel within copywriting straight away. Don’t worry if you don’t. We’ll get to it.
For now, I want you to imagine there are a bunch of wild men with machine guns coming to kill you. You’re sitting at home in your underwear, watching Netflix. What do you do when you see out of the crack between your curtains the first masked man with a Kalashnikov sliding around the corner of your house?
Presumably, the first thing you do is sit bolt upright, run upstairs and poop yourself whilst awaiting your inevitable doom. We’re going to assume that’s not the case though.
Firstly, you’ll observe what’s going on: There’s a man trying to get into my house, with a gun. Essentially you’re assessing the situation.
Secondly, you’re going to calculate the available options to you. Can you get to the phone to call the police? Are they going to do anything in time? Do you have to fight? Can you fight? If you have to, do you have anything to fight with or are you going to bite this guy’s head off? Has he got partners? Where can you hide?
Thirdly, you’re going to have to decide. There are a million different scenarios. Most of them will end up with you dead. You have a limited time, and you have to pick the one which you’re going to choose.
Fourthly, you have to act. If you sit there or he kills you before you do something, then it’s game over no matter how great your idea to set up a Home Alone meets Saw trap.
Boyd’s theory about the OODA loop was based on the two-fold idea that an army would be successful if they managed to complete their OODA loop more quickly and more efficiently than their enemies. The second part of the equation was that to greatly improve your odds of victory, you should concentrate on disrupting the enemy’s OODA loop.
For an in-depth look at the OODA Loop, you’ll probably want to check out the Wikipedia page for the topic.
You’ve Gone Off The Deep End, Jamie
If you’re new to this subject, then you are probably thinking this has absolutely nothing to do with copywriting. I remember once talking to a guy, and he told me that his secret to being successful with women was the OODA loop. I thought he was crazy when I looked it up. After all, what has this decision making tree got to do with women? Or copywriting?
Well, in a wider context, we’re all basically decision making machines. It’s not conscious (which is why we don’t recognise it) but every question from “Do I have time for morning coffee?” to “Should I put my savings in an ISA or the stock market?” sees us going through this decision-making process.
That’s why it’s relevant to copywriting.
The Basic Truth Of Copywriting
Copywriting is the act of – through written communication – selling somebody something they weren’t intending to buy. (If people just bought things they’d planned to buy, then we would just have a picture and a “Buy now” button.)
When you’re copywriting, you have to imagine an audience that is somewhat cold to your product. They’re in their own bubble, sitting watching Netflix in their underwear and waiting for the new season of Game of Thrones to start. They don’t want to buy your protein powder. They’re worried about work or something far more important.
Essentially, we need to break them out of their current habit and then get them into their “buying” mode. The next section will show you how a copywriter does that, and how it’s similar to how the OODA loop works.
AIDA / OODA
There are a million different ways to evilly and secretly manipulate a person’s brain and insidiously make them buy your stuff (just kidding!) but the general way a copywriter will approach this will be by using the AIDA formula: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.
Essentially, we grab a person’s attention. Then we say some stuff that interests them. Then we build their desire. Then we give them a call to action when they’re at their most emotionally charged.
Let me write that again in military-analogy terms:
We give them something to observe. We give them data so they can later run through various scenarios. We weigh up the scenarios and give them the best course of action. We allow them to act upon the decision they’ve made.
Attention = Observe
Interest = Orient
Desire = Decide
Act = Act
Essentially, you’re doing the same thing in both scenarios. You’re getting a customer’s attention – usually with a brilliant headline or a picture of a dog in a bikini or whatever. Then you’re building their interest, ostensibly by re-orienting their reality through a lead of interesting questions, e.g. “Have you ever wondered why some guys put on masses of muscle and others don’t?” Then, you’re forcing a decision on your reader by saying something like, “You have been using the wrong protein powder for years. Ours is scientifically proven to be really awesome.” Then, you’re making them act as quickly as possible. “It’s running out, but luckily it’s on sale until midnight tonight. Get it now, because we don’t know when the next shipment will come.”
Final Thoughts/Being Ahead Of Your Customer
Military strategy can be useful in a wide variety of contexts. However, slogans and one-liners from The Art Of War and 48 Laws Of Power (don’t get me started on that book) are rarely going to get you any significant advantage in anything.
Instead, you have to use the actual frameworks and see how they actually apply to what you’re doing.
For instance, the OODA loop works in copywriting because it gives you a framework with which to think about how you’re structuring a piece of copy. You can take this a little farther and suggest that you’re being pitted against the status-quo of your reader. Your OODA loop has to be faster and more efficient than your readers’ every day thought patterns.
Luckily, you have the advantage there because after you’ve read this article, you’re aware of this decision-making process and what you need to achieve.