5 Marketing strategies i no longer follow as an introverted solopreneur

Marketing your business when you’re naturally sensitive or introverted can feel extremely overwhelming or like the only way to make it work, is to sacrifice your quiet nature and fight to be seen amongst the noise.

I’ve been on quite the journey with marketing my own small business and in this post, I want to share 5 marketing strategies I no longer follow as an introverted solopreneur (and what I now do instead!).

Marketing Without Social Media

The biggest shift I’ve made in my marketing over the past 12 months is saying goodbye to social media platforms. I fully believe they can be extremely powerful tools for small business owners who feel called to using them but for me, they just don’t align.

For the first 2.5 years of building my business, I forced myself to stay on Instagram, LinkedIn and a brief stint on TikTok, trying every hack and trend under the sun to make it work. I genuinely spent about 95% of my daily energy either thinking about what to post or wishing I didn’t have to at all (and then feeling guilty for avoiding it).

When I made the decision to leave social media and lean into the voice telling me that a slower, less performative route was what I needed, everything changed.

It’s been almost a year since I deleted all the content from my Instagram account and I haven’t looked back once. Social media isn’t for everyone and what I’ve come to realise is, that’s completely fine. It doesn’t mean you don’t want success badly enough or that you’re failing by taking a step back from it. It just means that there’s a more aligned approach waiting for you - for me, this has been writing blog posts and email newsletters and using Pinterest/SEO to gently grow my audience.

I can honestly say that I’ve had way more success in the last year without Instagram than I did for the 2.5 years I was trying to force it to work for me.

Letting Go of Daily Posting

Another common piece of advice that I used to hear constantly and beat myself up over was that if you want to see results, you need to be posting content every day. As an introvert and someone who is highly sensitive, my energy and creative capacity are ever-changing. Some days I can generate 20 ideas and write for 4 hours straight, other days I can’t think of a single sentence.

Previously, I put so much pressure on myself to churn out new content every day and always show up with some nugget of wisdom to share. Quite frankly, it was exhausting and very rarely was I happy with what I created because it was coming from a place of force, not flow.

Since shifting to a slower, more sustainable approach to marketing my business I no longer feel that stress of chasing ideas. Instead, I create when I’m inspired and I set my content up to work hard for me for months and years to come so that even when I’m not sharing anything new, my ideal clients can still find me and gain value from my work.

Ps… if you want to get started with discovering the marketing strategy that’s most aligned for you and doesn’t burn you out, I’ve included the link to my free 5 Day Gentle Marketing Email Series here.

Scarcity Marketing Is Not For Me

The third marketing strategy that I no longer follow as an introvert is scarcity marketing. This is where you use language that makes your ideal client feel like they are running out of time or about to miss their chance to get your offer/product. It could be using countdown timers, saying things like “only 2 spots left, get yours now before they’re gone” or offering discounts and deals if people buy within a certain timeframe.

Now these tactics can work very well and I know many coaches or business owners who successfully fill their offers by using this style of content. When I was posting on social media, I used to do the same because I felt pressure to keep up with everyone sharing screenshots of their latest sale or that they’d sold out in X number of days. 

However, as I’ve transitioned to a slower and more intentional approach to business, I no longer feel the need to keep up - I choose to stay focused on my own journey and what feels right for me, rather than consuming what other business owners are doing. In addition, I want people to buy my offers because they feel ready and have taken the time to be sure I’m the right person for them, not because they felt pressured or it was a panic buy.

You Don’t Need To Be An Expert To Be Valuable

One of the most interesting approaches to how I market my business these days is that I’ve completely let go of the belief that I need to be an expert. I used to hear all the time that you need to position yourself as an authority, a leader, the expert and I would tie myself up in knots worrying about how to make myself sound like I had all the answers. I hated guest speaking or hosting a workshop in case I was asked a question I didn’t have the answer to and people realised I actually didn’t know it all.

Through trying to be this authority figure online, I completely lost my own voice - I was writing and speaking how I thought a leader would and sharing content that didn’t at all feel like me.

In reality, I don’t want to be on a pedestal or have it all figured out, what I love is sharing what I’ve learned from my experiences to help other people. When I write content now, I don’t worry about sounding authoritative, I simply write in the way that feels like me and I know that what my audience value is comfort, validation and simple solutions.

If You Also Find Sales Icky…

Finally, I no longer believe that the daily goal in business should be to sell. Now, of course we all want to make money from our work but what I mean is, I no longer believe that in order to see success in business that you need to be actively selling every day.

I’ve always found sales icky, maybe it’s my introvertedness but I get such anxiety from showing up in a post, live feed or video and talking about my offers or trying to encourage people to buy from me (or join my mailing list etc., whatever the focus is at the time).

Instead, I prefer to set my website, content and my audience journey up in a way that lets them take their time and make that decision for themselves. If someone finds me on Pinterest, let’s say, they can click through to my blog, read my free content, browse around my website and then decide whether they’d like to join my mailing list or make a purchase from me.

This approach works so much better for me as it takes out the salesy side of my business but also puts the power in the hands of my audience to take the next step if it feels right, rather than me trying to convince them. I genuinely believe this leads to more aligned clients/subscribers too!

Final Thoughts & An Invitation

These are the 5 marketing strategies I no longer follow as an introverted solopreneur and HSP. If you’d like to get started with building out your most aligned marketing approach that brings you peace rather than pressure, I invite you to join my free 5 Day Gentle Marketing Email Series, where I walk you through shifting your entire marketing style to one that feels like You.

Caitlin.