The following is an extract taken from my best-selling book, The Accidental Copywriter

Page 74 begins like this.

The Little I Knew About Copywriting Was This 

Here is what I knew and learned about writing copy over those years. It’s a principle that stands as I write to you now.

It either works, or it doesn’t work. 

It had to work, failure could never be my choice. I didn’t know anything about formulas as such I just wrote the ads and used them like crazy.

I had a young family, I had a home to be paid for, and I had other expenses and luxuries I wanted in my life. If the ads failed nothing happened in life. If they worked I got my rewards.

I suppose that, for me, is my own personal purpose for copywriting. Yet, there is another secret that I will share with you because I know If you are reading this you are probably looking and searching for some holy grail of copywriting.

Here is mine and it has never failed me once – never.

I knew the clients or customers are always having an internal conversation with themselves. That conversation might be about colour, restyle, how bad they looked, or simply a change of hairdresser.

I would sit and think about what the clients were saying in the salon or what I thought and knew they were already saying in their heads. This was the conversation.

They are already tuned in and just waiting for someone to strike up or open the conversation.

For example, my friend loves to talk about the wonders of space. He bores most people when he talks about it because they get totally lost in his one-sided conversation. Eventually, he realises and stops talking. The conversation is in his head, but he only reacts when another person starts that same conversation.

When anyone shows an interest in his conversation he comes to life and reacts and responds in a way that only that conversation can make him react.

I found hair was the same. It was never about any kind of persuasion for me, it was always about joining the conversation.

The interesting thing for me over those years was most of the other salons we had feedback from felt our marketing was cheap, cheesy, amateurish, and tacky. Maybe it was from a cosmetic point, but all I knew was this;

The salon was packed from morning until night. We charged the highest prices and had stylists clambering to work in our salon. We had snatched the number one position from under the noses of all of the other top salons in just 18 months. That was obvious to anyone who passed my incredibly busy salon.

My ads were everywhere. They could be seen in markets, florists, clothes shops, food halls, on buses, on billboards, on the radio, and in newspapers. I mean everywhere. I even had flyers put into kids’ school bags targeting mums.

I was writing ads, letters, vouchers, offers, and flyers almost every day. Once I had what worked I simply ran and ran them until they stopped working.

My teeth had been cut as a copywriter or marketing man but even at this stage I had never read or seen or heard of the word ‘copywriter.’

I do want to finish this part by saying this to you. This period was a time in my life when I really didn’t have the time to endlessly read or take courses. Taking action and pushing forward was the only thing I had time for. I would only read to find out a single detail - never a full book.

My external influence was almost microscopic on my copy and in fact the only real influences was how I would observe successful businesses and try and copy something from them in my own little way (and Paul Mitchell.)

I only owned one truly influential book (my business Bible at the time) that I accidentally picked up in London called Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson. 

I still have my yellow paged, well used, ripped, scribbled on and coffee stained original print version signed by Jay himself. If it weren’t for Jay and his influence I doubt my salon would have been built as fast.

Later in 2008 I was to accidentally meet Jay face to face. We became good friends from that day forward. I will explain this interesting and almost inevitable story in greater detail for you later.

What’s next?

Extract taken from the best-selling book, The Accidental Copywriter