When I started my business, TikTok, Substack, and Threads hadn’t been invented. Barely anybody used Zoom, X was still called Twitter, and ‘influencer’ wasn’t a job title. ChatGPT, Copilot and Gemini didn’t exist.

But although online platforms have evolved, the basic principles of marketing haven’t changed: Get the right message in the right place at the right time.

It really is that simple.

But while the concept is simple, putting it into practice can be tough. It’s too easy to get distracted by shiny new platforms, vanity metrics, and other people telling you what you should and shouldn’t be doing.

You need to ignore all the noise and focus on who your ideal clients are, where to find them, and how to create stuff that appeals to them.

And as I’m going to show you in this article, it’s rarely a single thing that leads to a sale. It’s a culmination of things – a chain reaction.

A video that leads to a connection, leading to an enquiry, leading to a sale, leading to a recommendation, leading to a profile view, leading to another enquiry, leading to another sale.

And the more pieces of content you have working for you – videos, blogs, social media posts, emails – the more chance you have of starting those chains.

You’ll be more likely to be in the right place at the right time, with the right message.

Sometimes it feels like there’s no rhyme or reason when it comes to marketing.

What seems to work perfectly well for one person turns out to be a complete waste of time and money for someone else.

Something you put loads of effort into doesn’t generate a single enquiry, while a throwaway comment results in an influx of leads.

You get great results from one campaign, but when you try and replicate it, all you get is tumbleweed.

Sometimes it feels like marketing is all just a game of chance.

But although marketing isn’t an exact science, it’s not all luck either.

Most of the time, conversions don’t come down to a single thing. It’s a combination of things working together to create a chain reaction – a domino effect.

And that means there are some things you can do to improve your chances of ‘getting lucky’.

Until 2014, I’d never heard of copywriting. But I was researching how to start a blog, and I came across a copywriting course. From what I could gather, copywriting combined two things I was good at: sales and writing. It sounded like the perfect career, so I signed up for the course.

While I was doing one of the first assignments, I set up a Twitter account for my future copywriting business. Within days of setting it up, I got invited to a networking event. Although I didn’t have a business yet, I decided I had nothing to lose, so I accepted.

I got talking to a marketing consultant, and I was completely honest about where I was in my copywriting career (which was nowhere). He told me he was in the process of building a new website. He was going to do the copy himself, but if I was interested, maybe I could have a crack at it instead.

He ended up being my first client and my biggest source of work during my first two years in business.

But what if I had never set up that Twitter account?

What if nobody had invited me to that group? Or I’d declined the invitation (which I very nearly did)?

What if that marketing consultant hadn’t been there that day? Or he’d already written his website copy?

Who knows when I’d have got my first client – maybe my business would never have got off the ground.

The “luck” part: I got lucky that someone saw my profile and invited me to an event where there just happened to be someone who needed what I could offer.

The non-luck part: I made myself visible. If I hadn’t been on Twitter in the first place, the guy who invited me would never have found me. And it helped that I’d chosen ‘Leeds Copywriter’ as my Twitter name, making it obvious where I was based and what I did. Plus, I made myself visible by actually going to the event and talking to people about my business.

The lesson: If you want clients, you’ve got to be visible. If nobody knows you exist, how can they do business with you? You don’t have to be on every platform or doing every kind of marketing activity, but you need to be doing something.

Fast-forward to October 2020, when I knew far more about copywriting, marketing, and business.

I’d been following a guy on LinkedIn for quite some time. He had a big following (around 70,000), and many of those followers were small business owners (my ideal clients).

He shared an idea he’d had to help business owners help each other. For £500, you could go to his podcast studio and share your expertise in a video interview, which would then be shared with his followers.

I saw it as a fantastic opportunity to increase my reach, so I signed up without hesitation. And it paid off.

Within a year of that video going live, I’d won £9870 worth of business off the back of it. I know this because people told me that seeing that video interview was how they first became aware of me, and it was the reason they connected with me.

Some of them booked consultations, some paid me for copywriting work, and some signed up for ongoing mentoring.

I then went on to make a further £9000+ in spin-off work (repeat business and referrals), so in total, I can attribute at least £19,000 worth of business to that video. And that’s just the business I tracked in the first year - there might well have been more.

Not a bad return for £500.

The “luck” part: I saw an opportunity that would allow me to reach a bigger audience (and more importantly, the right audience). People responded well to the video and connected with me as a result.

The non-luck part: I knew that video would get me in front of my ideal clients because the audience was made up of my ideal clients. But if I sold custom-made fish tanks, it wouldn’t have been the best way to market my products.

And it wasn’t as simple as making a video, sharing it once and watching the work come flooding in. That video helped me attract new followers, but it was other marketing – LinkedIn posts, blog posts, emails, sales copy and so on – that helped me convert those followers into clients.

The lesson: Before you invest money into marketing, you need to ask yourself whether it’s the right fit. Will it get you in front of your ideal clients? Choose the right opportunities. Be in the right place.

And bear in mind that getting in front of the right audience is only part of the equation. Once you have their attention, you need to keep their attention until they are ready to buy.

One of the clients I got off the back of that video went on to mention me in one of his LinkedIn posts. It wasn’t a post specifically about me – it was a post giving general business tips.

Number two on his list of tips was: “Learn about copywriting or pay Lisa Slater to teach you.”

That was it – one single line. No specific details. No context as to why he was recommending me. Nothing spectacular.

But within 24 hours of him sharing it, I had a connection request from a lady who’d seen it, clicked on my profile and decided she wanted to work with me (I know that’s what happened because she told me in her first message).

Two messages later, she’d booked and paid for a 90-minute consultation. And within a week of her consultation, she’d booked up and paid for my 12-week copywriting training and mentoring programme. After the initial 12 weeks, she signed up for ongoing mentoring for a further year.

All because I got a passing mention in someone’s post.

The “luck” part: It was lucky someone who was the perfect fit happened to see the post I was mentioned in (thanks to the LinkedIn algorithms). And it was lucky she was curious enough to click through to my profile.

The non-luck part: If my profile had been generic or boring or completely unclear as to who I help and how, she would have clicked back off without giving me a second thought. But my profile resonated with her because it was written specifically to appeal to my ideal clients – people just like her.

The lesson: Your social media profiles, your website, your content – it should all speak to your ideal clients. If you try to appeal to everyone, you probably won’t appeal to anyone. And it won’t matter how many people click through to your profile or website because none of them will take the next step.

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