If you’re an entrepreneur who’s spent any time in the online space, and you read the phrase “icky marketing”—I’d bet an example or experience comes to mind almost instantly.
Here are a few that come to mind for me:
- Lead magnets that drop you into never-ending sales sequences where you can’t hit unsubscribe fast enough
- Low-ticket offers that take three extra steps to buy because you’ve been funneled into a “one-time-only” tripwire upsell
- Vanity pricing on course bundles that claim a $10K value, even though the numbers are clearly inflated
- False urgency that tells you to act now or miss out, even though the deal is always available
- Bait-and-switch webinars that promise insight but turn out to be 90% sales pitch
- Sales pages selling the “secret proven pathway” with pain point copy so intense, you walk away feeling like a failure if you don’t buy immediately
These tactics are everywhere. So much so, it almost feels like an entrepreneur rite of passage to fall for them while trying to figure out how to market your business online.
The problem? So much of the advice out there treats marketing and sales like a transaction, not a relationship.
The ick factor shows up when we’re selling in ways that don’t feel aligned, especially when relationship-building is at the heart of how we do business.
That misalignment might show up when:
- Your business model is rooted in one-to-one or direct client services, not mass offers or products
- You communicate and build trust in a slower, more natural way
- Your sales process is built on connection, not automated conversion
- Your clients don’t respond to hype or pressure
- Your values don’t match the tactics being taught
Marketing isn’t inherently icky. A lead magnet with an email sequence can be a powerful tool for showcasing expertise, building real relationships, and making sales.
But if you’ve felt the tension of doing it the “right” way, only to feel off inside… it’s not you. It’s the approach. And there’s another way.
It starts by trusting yourself to define what aligned marketing and communication looks and feels like—for you, your business, and the people you want to work with.
