- Truth: People can smell snake-oil tactics from miles away. @IKEA always does what they stand for. Even their ads speak truth without exaggeration.
- Value first: Offer something genuinely useful before expecting anything in return. @dagorenouf offers value like crazy before expecting anything from the indie community.
- Respect your audience: Treat people as intelligent decision-makers, not targets to manipulate. @patagonia is known for its honest and transparent marketing that respects its customers’ intelligence, instead of pushing aggressive sales tactics.
- Consistency: Trust is built over time, not through one viral moment. @visualizevalue has been creating content since 2019. The creator does this on his terms and pace. Most creators would have thrown in the towel midway.
- Clarity: Make your message so simple that anyone can understand it without extra effort. @canva:“Design anything. Publish anywhere.”
- Authenticity: Show the human side of your brand. Real people connect with real people. @Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign celebrates real, everyday people not flawless models.
- Transparency: If you wouldn’t be comfortable explaining your method to a customer, don’t use it. Pieter Levels (@levelsio), a digital nomad and indie maker, shares almost everything about his journey – earnings, challenges, tools he uses, and failures publicly.
- No clever use of pricing psychology: Your pricing strategy should help customers make quicker decisions, not trick them into paying more. @basecamp keeps its pricing straightforward and transparent. They avoid confusing tiers or sneaky upsells, making it easy for customers to understand.
- Listening: Spend as much time truly observing your customers as you do promoting to them—go beyond just listening to complaints and suggestions. Use the ideas in the book “The Secret Lives of Customers” by @DavidSDuncan1 to understand your customers well.
- Practical Empathy: The willingness to acknowledge that other people don’t think the same way you do. @Applebees started offering Braille menu cards since 1994.
- Proof over promises: Let evidence, results, and customer stories speak louder than claims. Use tools like @testimonialto, @SenjaHQ & @famewall_io to create a wall of love.
- Long-term thinking: Don’t sacrifice tomorrow’s trust for today’s sale. @IndieHackers a community and platform built for indie founders emphasizes sharing honest stories and supporting sustainable business growth without hype or shortcuts.
- Integrity: Market in a way you’d be proud to explain to your family. @Everlane built its brand around “radical transparency” openly sharing production costs, factory conditions, and markups.
