If you’re at all interested in marketing and copy, which is essential if you want to succeed – then you know the formula AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. But please don’t rely on it because I’ve always found it to underperform.

 

It lacks the one thing that holds many of us back – including me.

Is this true of you?

 

To answer that, I’ll refer you to a man who wrote two books that influenced me more than anything other than Scientific advertising. They are ‘How to Become an Advertising Man’ and ‘A technique for producing ideas.’

 

He was James Webb Young, perhaps the best creative director ever. After he retired, he went away and made a fortune in mail-order. You can see two of his ads in a book called The 100 Greatest Advertisements.

 

James Webb Young said something I’ve never forgotten.

“The hardest thing is to be believed.”

 

That’s why after I learnt the AIDA formula, I was certain it was flawed… Because throughout the years, my approach outperformed the “best” gurus in the world. So my formula has always been: Interrupt, Engage, Educate, Offer.

 

How can you convince people that what you say is true?

Think about that for a moment.

 

People may find what you offer interesting, they may want it, but the problem is they don’t believe you. Every day – particularly now with the internet – we are all drowned in promises of this, that, and the other. All we have to do is go on to social media and it will happen. All we have to do is produce content and it will happen. All we have to do is buy somebody’s miraculous course which will change the world for us, and it will happen. Well, it won’t!

 

This brings us to my great shortcoming. If you get my posts you know I send out a lot. You would think that with me being a bit of an expert I would get flooded with business overnight. That doesn’t happen, and there is a reason: lack of belief. Why don’t people believe I can deliver what I say? The answer lies in business today… The marketing business is dominated by young people.

 

In fact, you’ll find very few people of my age, if any, who are still doing well at coaching, training, and marketing. Business or personal. So when I say that I can help you I can understand it if you say “Yeah right!”

 

The only way to prove that somebody can do something is to show them.

 

One example is worth a mountain of promises. So, amongst my many shortcomings, I have not been putting up enough examples of our work to convince you – mainly because we’ve been too busy doing the work to worry about showing it off.

 

However, if you’ve been sitting there thinking “I wonder if Eric’s methodology can actually deliver for me – does he know what he’s doing?” All you need do to find out is look here:

 

What this tries to do is show you the effect my methods have on people. When delivered correctly, people come back. And they tell other people. And, the guest list grows and continues to grow. So if you want someone who’s going to get you results, and you’re not mesmerized by the absurd idea that only young people have great ideas…

… Remember that Verdi wrote perhaps his greatest opera when 74. Check me out.

 

Eric