The burning question: What is slow marketing?

Slow marketing is about incorporating longer-term strategies into your marketing plan, taking the time to slow down and be intentional with your business, and building solid relationships by being empathic toward your audience (rather than guilt-trip them into buying your offer).

I like Ann Handley’s take on slow marketing for a more in-depth look.

As a solopreneur, you may be feeling the pressure to do it all. You wear many hats and feel like you have to constantly play keep-up to be noticed online.

But what if you could just slow down? That’s where slow marketing comes into play.

The Pieces of Slow Marketing

I took a few concepts and morphed them into one to create my version of slow marketing. Ann’s take above is very similar and created a basis for me to work from.

My overall opinion is that slow marketing will look different for everyone. Everyone has different goals and different marketing methods that work best for them. That’s why it’s best to take some time and figure out what methods are going to work for you.

Practical Intention

Slow marketing can also be known as quiet marketing, intentional marketing, and slow living. When you slow down, you have more time to connect with your audience and build relationships.

You start to feel less rushed and pressured to amount to a certain standard. It gives you the space to think about your own business goals and why those are your goals.

You should also think about what is practical for the season of life you’re in. Practicality varies so greatly from person to person so take a look at, not just your business, but your entire life.

That’s what really brought this idea to fruition for me. I had a shit ton of emotionally draining things going on in my personal life, all happening at the same time.

That’s when I started to think about “ok, yes I need and want my business but can I just slow my roll a bit and not try to hit certain monetary goals that I’ve been trained to think are THE standard?” That changes the game.

Human and Life First Approach

The human-and-life-first approach is at the heart of slow marketing. It’s about starting with the person first. It is so ingrained in entrepreneurs to go hard at selling – use pain-point marketing, create urgency and scarcity, etc.

The human-and-life-first approach is a more natural way of marketing that feels good instead of cringe-y. When you take a human-first approach, you’re focused on providing value and helping people instead of going hard at selling to them all the time.

Of course that doesn’t mean that you never sell anything. That would be silly. But it’s a bit of a different approach when you slow down and actually think about the human on the other side.

This carries throughout your entire process, from conversations to marketing to onboarding and beyond.

Foundational Marketing

One way to incorporate slow marketing into your business is to build longer-term strategies into your marketing plan. This builds a solid foundation that sustains your business. It focuses on the big picture instead of the quick wins, like more subscribers or sales.

An example of a slow marketing strategy would be SEO. It can take months to gain traction with SEO but when you do, it sets your business up so clients can find you easily. I don’t wanna use the term autopilot because it’s tainted by bro marketers but SEO sets you up to build a raving fan base who soak up what you have to offer.

They can google something (or search on LinkedIn or Pinterest) and find exactly what they need. That is super powerful.

Having a solid foundation for which your marketing stands, you always have a way for clients to find you instead of you having to go balls to the wall on lead gen.

How to Make Slow Marketing Work for You

When it comes to implementing slow marketing into your business, the biggest takeaway that you should get from this is that you have to make sure that it fits into your life. Yes, I’ve already covered this but that’s because it’s SO freaking important.

Here are a few tips:

Define your goals with slow marketing. Why do you want to incorporate it into your business? Dig a little deeper below the surface and get a touch more specific. For instance, if you wanna feel more at ease in your business, what exactly do you want to feel more at ease with? Do you want marketing to come easier? Do you want clients to find you easier? Do you want an overall sense of peace?

Identify who your ideal client is. I’m not talkin’ about niching down either. A general idea is fine! I know, I know. No one really tells you that but I will. You still have to have some sort of idea about who you wanna serve. Even if it’s a general industry, even if it comes down to their personality. Maybe you’re big into enneagram and you know the enneagram type you wanna work with.

Focus on quality versus quantity. Whether it’s about content, conversations, or services. Quality will always win. If you’re just looking to fill space in your marketing, slow marketing is not going to serve you in the way that you are looking for.

If you’re not already incorporating slow marketing into your business, it’s a good time to start thinking about it. It may not be the quickest way to grow your business but it’s one of the most sustainable. When you combine it with faster marketing techniques, you can still build your business while building your foundations. They can coexist. <3