Ep. 63 Roundtable: The Most Unconventional Marketing Tactics That Actually Work

Mar 12

When you started your business, you probably didn't realize that becoming an expert in your craft was only half the battle. The other half is marketing, and figuring that part out is something a lot of online business owners quietly struggle with.

The internet doesn't make it easier. Between constantly shifting best practices, competing advice from every direction, and an endless stream of gurus telling you to be on every platform at once, it's genuinely hard to know what the right move is. What I've come to believe, and what four of the business owners I spoke to for this episode confirmed, is that the most effective marketing tactics are often the least conventional ones.

I asked four online service providers to share the most unconventional marketing tactic that's worked for them, how they landed on it, and what it's done for their business. Their answers were all different on the surface, but there was a thread running through all of them that I wasn't expecting. More on that at the end.

Or listen on your favorite platform: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music | YouTube

Arielle Nissenblatt: Just Tell People What You Want

Arielle Nissenblatt is a podcast strategist, writer, and community builder who has been working in the podcast space for about ten years. She started out writing a weekly newsletter curating podcast episodes around a theme, and over time built a client base working with creators on podcast marketing and growth.

Her unconventional tactic sounds almost too simple: she just tells people exactly what she wants them to do.

Not in a manipulative, exploit-the-pain-point way. Not with a carefully crafted hook designed to trick someone into clicking. She literally opens a LinkedIn post by stating its purpose.

"Sometimes I will put out a LinkedIn post and at the top, where you're supposed to say something hooky, I'll say something like: the purpose of this post is to get you to subscribe to my newsletter. Or: I am writing this post because I want you to check out this episode I just put out, because it's going to be the perfect listen for your afternoon."

Arielle acknowledges this might be considered weird or ill-advised by conventional marketing standards. But it works for her, and she thinks she knows why.

"That upfrontness and obviousness gives off trustworthiness, because it gives off the impression that I'm not hiding anything. And I'm really not hiding anything."

A good deal of her clients have found her through LinkedIn, and when she asks them what drew them to reach out, they consistently cite how direct and upfront she is. Being transparent about what she wants apparently signals that she has nothing to hide, and that builds trust faster than any clever hook could.

The lesson here isn't "copy Arielle's LinkedIn strategy word for word." It's that the people on the other end of your content are real humans with limited time and attention, probably not so different from you. When you're direct with them and respect their time by getting to the point, they notice.

Abigail Alvarez: Show Up as a Real Human, Especially When It Feels Risky

Abigail Alvarez is a content strategist and podcast editor who also talks openly about politics because, as her Threads bio puts it, she's got to use that history degree somehow.

Her unconventional tactic wasn't exactly a strategy she planned. When Threads launched in July 2023, she joined as a personal account with no freelance business to speak of. She wasn't thinking about marketing. She was just being herself, which in her case meant posting about politics, current events, and her actual beliefs alongside the business and content stuff.

Then something unexpected happened. A podcast editing client tagged her in a thank-you post. A new potential client saw that tag, spent ten to fifteen minutes scrolling through Abigail's Threads, and decided she wanted to work with her based entirely on what she found there. Most of what she found was political content.

"We were able to connect because she knew that we could agree on some very core beliefs."

In a world where more and more content online is either AI-generated or carefully sanitized to avoid alienating anyone, Abigail showing up as a fully opinionated, real human being became a differentiator. The client didn't just think Abigail could do the work. She felt an immediate sense of alignment and trust.

What's worth sitting with here is that Abigail didn't water herself down to attract more clients. She was fully herself and attracted exactly the right one. Not everyone who saw her content became a client, and that was fine. The person who did become a client was already aligned before they ever got on a call.

Jenae Thompson: Sing. Yes, Really.

Jenae Thompson is a fractional CMO and marketing strategist who describes her work as translating clients' marketing love languages across platforms both on and offline. She is also a former performer with nearly fifteen years in the theater and acting space, Broadway dreams included.

For a long time after she transitioned into marketing, she kept that part of herself completely separate from her work. She was afraid of not being taken seriously, of being dismissed as the bubbly theater-to-marketing pipeline instead of a real authority.

Then she stopped hiding it. Now she sings in her YouTube videos, in her Instagram stories, in her sessions with clients, and essentially anywhere else she shows up. It's become a non-negotiable part of how she operates.

"I'll sing in my sessions with my clients. I bring that energy to everything that I touch because it's me. This isn't some caricature I created in order to be taken seriously. It's not a performance."

The results have been significant. People remember her. Discovery calls often start with prospects who are already bought in, not just on her credentials but on her energy and approach. And it naturally qualifies leads in both directions.

"The right people think it's genius. The wrong people might think it's too much and shy away. And I don't want to work with people like that."

Jenae is quick to point out that she's not saying everyone should sing in their marketing. Her actual framework, which she calls the Saquoi method, is about identifying where your marketing feels like a chore and recognizing that the friction is usually a sign of misalignment between how you're showing up and who you actually are. Singing is just her specific version of closing that gap.

"If your marketing is disjointed and it's a chore and you really hate it, you've got a mismatch. The results of me showing up as my own theatrical, singing self is proof of concept."

Jemma Broadstock: Remove the Rules You Were Told You Needed

Jemma Broadstock is a business and branding coach who brings a heavy emphasis on psychology into her work with clients. Her unconventional tactic is a little different from the first three because it's less about a content strategy and more about how she runs her business entirely.

She got rid of a lot of her strict boundaries.

Early in her business, like most service providers, she was taught that firm contracts, no exceptions, and rigid policies were the key to being taken seriously and running a scalable business. She didn't question it, she just followed the playbook.

Then an incident shifted her perspective. She needed to reschedule a session with a client. The client responded badly, said some harsh things about Jemma's values, and it shook her. But instead of doubling down on stricter policies, Jemma had a different realization: she wasn't being clear about the kind of relationship she wanted with her clients, one built on mutual humanity and trust rather than performance and rigidity.

She started openly telling clients that she encouraged them to reschedule when they needed to. Not for a short list of approved reasons. Just whenever life required it.

"I want you to always feel like you can put yourself first. I don't want someone to think, I've got a call with Jemma, so I need to show up, even though I've got a million things going on in my head."

She also allows clients to pause contracts if something unexpected comes up, and welcomes people to come back after leaving without any waiting period or penalty.

The fear, of course, is that removing strict rules means people will walk all over you. That hasn't been her experience. Since softening her approach, she's had fewer clients push back, fewer people try to wriggle out of contracts, and more of the mutual understanding and respect she was hoping to model. Her clients give her grace when she needs to reschedule because she has made it so clear that she extends that same grace to them.

"Our clients are human, we are human, and we need to allow space for the messiness and the chaos."

The Common Thread: Embrace Marketing Your Way

When I first put out the call for contributors for this episode, I had no idea what I was going to get back. What I didn't expect was for four completely different people with four completely different businesses to essentially all say the same thing.

Every single one of these tactics comes down to showing up as your real self.

Arielle is a direct, no-nonsense person, and she markets that way. It attracts people who value that quality. Abigail has strong opinions and doesn't hide them, and she's attracting clients who share her values and trust her because of it. Jenae is theatrical and performative and full of energy, and she lets all of that come through in everything she does, which means her clients show up already bought in. Jemma leads with humanity and flexibility, and her clients mirror that back to her.

None of them are following someone else's blueprint. All of them tried doing things the conventional way first, found that it didn't feel right or wasn't working, and eventually leaned into whatever was most natural to them. And in every case, that shift attracted better clients, more aligned relationships, and a business that was easier and more enjoyable to run.

The takeaway isn't to start singing in your content or to open your next LinkedIn post with "the purpose of this post is." The takeaway is to get really honest with yourself about where your marketing feels forced or exhausting or fake, and ask what it would look like to do it your way instead.

You started your own business so you could make the rules. That includes the marketing rules. Try things, see what resonates, and when something works, do more of it. You don't need to be on every platform. You don't need to film a talking head reel every day. You don't need to follow the advice of whoever is currently dominating the online business coaching space.

You just need to figure out what your version of authentic marketing looks like, and then be unapologetic about it.