How to Market Quietly and Still Be Successful

Let’s address the elephant in the room straight away. How could anyone build a financially successful, leveraged business by marketing ‘quietly’?

It sounds too good to be true, because we’ve been taught that the only way to succeed is via constant social media engagement, vast visibility, accessibility via direct messages, and the hosting of free events like communities, challenges, and webinars.

Yet, in the quiet corners of our minds, a voice whispers, "There must be a better way."

And indeed there is, for those of us who dare to defy those marketing rules — in the same vein as Roger Bannister did in 1954 when broke the 4-minute mile.

Back then, the four-minute mile was deemed impossible, a limit supposedly set by human physiology itself. Yet, Bannister's feat not only debunked these myths but also inspired a new wave of athletes to transcend their perceived limits.

This historical moment serves as a perfect metaphor for the quiet marketing approach: it's about breaking free from the constraining beliefs about success and visibility in business.

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Here are some practical steps you can take to begin your quiet marketing journey.

1) Limit your exposure to your peers

Often business coaches encourage us to keep an eye on what our industry peers are saying, doing, and offering.  I disagree with this approach because it interferes with the integrity of our own ideas, message and how we truly want to show up in business. 

What I recommend is the intentional practice of tunnel vision, which means that you take steps to limit your exposure to your peers content by unfollowing, muting, filtering emails or unsubscribing. Honestly it is so freeing to not see what others who do similar work to you are doing.

2) Your body is your compass

There is no ‘right’ way to do marketing, only what is right for you. You are going to receive conflicting advice from different coaches, mentors and teachers, but don’t let that disturb you. 

Your role is to try things on, experiment, notice how it feels in your body, and what happens as a result. Knowing and understanding your Human Design Strategy will help you immensely with this.

Pay attention to what feels irritating (i.e. being more accessible to clients or your audience than you really want to be) because these are the areas of your business that are out of alignment with who you are.

Personally, my most successful business moves have been as a result of being super irritated by something, and then making a significant change in that area of my business. 

3) Market like there’s nobody watching

Sounds counterintuitive right? — it’s not. Imagine marketing as an art form, where you are the primary audience member. What do you wish to create? What do you want to say, and how do you want to say it? Share your insights, epiphanies, and experiments.

Approach marketing as a therapeutic activity, an outlet for self expression, a public journal, an art project — and notice how that changes how you feel about it. And as you do this you become more magnetising, just like someone who is dancing with carefree abandon.

4) Let people know how you think  

The number one reason people decide to work with me is because of how I think, which makes them feel deeply validated, and that causes them to exhale. Do people know how you think?

Most people feel nervous about the idea of sharing their perspective publicly because the risk of having people criticise them feels too unsafe.

But there is a way to share your thoughts and perspective that greatly diminishes the likelihood of criticism, and that is by basing your point on your own lived experience.

When you do that, it’s very difficult for anyone to come along and say your lived experience is wrong -- especially in this day and age. Criticisms usually happen when there is an absence of any personal story, so keep that in mind and experiment with this idea.

Foundational principles of Quiet Marketing

What we have explored in this article are a few of the principles of Quiet Marketing. They are enough to set you off on a new trajectory where marketing feels like ‘art’ and is also effective in attracting your most aligned clients.

And if you are ready to go deeper with your Quiet Marketing journey the I recommend taking the Foundations Course, and also exploring the Quiet Marketing Pillars.

Finally, I’d love to know what stuck a chord with you in this article. Let’s chat about it in the comments.

Danielle Gardner
The Quiet Marketer
View my bio

P.S. Contrary to conventional marketing advice, I don’t use a lead magnet to lure you onto my email list (here’s why). If you would like to join my list, and have access to my inner circle pricing + offerings, you can do that via my Quiet Marketing Foundations Course.