How to leverage the “Jungle Law” in your copy

June 2025’s issue of Ben Settle’s Email Players is especially relevant and useful to my business:

This month’s issue is a “Part 2” of a direct mail-as-lead-gen approach Ben’s trying for one of his businesses. And Ben issued a challenge in Part 1 and again in Part 2:

Decide which of his ads (there were 2) generated the most opt-ins and why. 

I correctly chose the right ad, and even correctly answered most of the “why” it made his audience tick. But I also wasn’t 100% correct in my reasoning for “why.” 

Anyway, this month’s issue broke down the winning ad line-by-line. This is particularly relevant because I’m also in the process of testing direct mail in my business - though, I’m using it more as a way to land clients than land leads. (I sent out the first batch of tests this week… and I’m eager to see if I get any action from the tiny test list I mailed to - as well as seeing if any addresses I found were flat-out wrong and go undelivered.) 

It’s also relevant because of how many copywriters picked the wrong ad in Ben’s challenge.

Y’see, the winner was the one most copywriters would LEAST suspect. In fact, Ben showed this ad to his team and every single person thought it’d be a stinker. Ben included. Alas, it won. 

I won’t go into all the reasons why it won here, or even show you the ad (sorry, but if you’re not an Email Player, you may never get to see the ads). 

Instead, I want to focus on one particular tip that Ben mentioned in his line-by-line breakdown:

Respecting the Jungle Law. 

The Jungle Law states that those that flee get pursued, while those who pursue find those they pursue flee. 

Powerful copywriting lesson here with several ways to implement it into your copy, like, for example:

* Being so anti-needy that you actively refuse to pursue a given lead 

* Using negative strip-lining to tear hype away from your claims (instead of piling them on as most copywriters do) 

* Downplaying the potential results of your product or service and instead leading with honesty 

* Going out of your way to “allow” leads to unsubscribe from your emails instead of hiding an unsubscribe link in greyed out, teeny-tiny, barely legible font  

* Meeting the market exactly where they’re at instead of “wordsmithing” the best copy that doesn’t consider the market you’re selling to at all 

And I could keep going. 

My point is this: 

Everyone is over marketing. Heck, I even wrote an email not long ago about how marketing ruined the world. This means that any copy that looks, smells, or reads like an advertisement is immediately going to be ignored in more cases than not. 

But here’s the thing:

Humans still love buying things. We get a literal dopamine fix when we purchase anything. We just don’t like being sold to. 

So, the most powerful way to spice up your copy is by removing the spiciness from it. To make it more believable. More credible by nature of removing hype. To follow the Jungle Law: 

Make your leads chase you instead of the other way around. 

Now, as with most copywriting tricks, this is easier said than done. It requires you to actually be anti-needy, not just LARP like you are. 

But y’know what? 

Perhaps the best way to appear to be anti-needy (even if you are a little bit needy, as most people are) is by outsourcing your email strategy and implementation to a professional. When you’re removed from it, you become more anti-needy by default. And when you see how much extra revenue you generate every month by working with, say, yours truly, then, well, you may actually become anti-needy as a result. 

(At least, I’ve seen this happen to several of my clients over the years.) 

Only one way to find out: 

Boogie on down to the reply button, reply to this email, and let’s set up a quickie call. 

John