The less I use those annoying marketing tactics we all hate—popups, countdown timers, fake scarcity, high-pressure sales—the more books I sell. Counterintuitive, right.
Open Heart Marketing is my term for the type of marketing that is non-coercive.
The acronym spells OHM, pronounced like the Hindi ‘Om’. Very hippy, but still pretty cool.
OHM represents a new breed of non-coercive, emergent marketers.
We’re breaking free from traditional marketing’s obsession with linearity and funnel optimisation.
You know the drill—sell something cheap, push an upsell, then hit them with a downsell if they refuse. Buy, buy, buy!
It works, it’s formulaic. Visit any Shopify store and within seconds you’re bombarded with ‘save 10% on your first order’ popups.
Desperate people pressuring you to buy.
They don’t even give you time to figure out who they are or what they’re flogging.
Or how about those youtube product reviews with purple lighting? Once clever, now just another tired trick everyone copies.
Zero creativity. Zero uniqueness.
It makes you wonder: is marketing more art than science?
Though honestly, art and science intertwine in systems thinking. Viewing marketing through this lens opens up fascinating possibilities.
The art of marketing is sharing our love and passion for what we create.
That doesn’t mean giving everything away for free.
Take my approach: I sell books on foraging and eating wild plants. Monday through Friday, I create what I consider pieces of art—not ‘content’ (such an over used word).
It comes from internal resonance, what I’m moved to share, rather than guessing what some algorithm or audience wants.
I want to create an experience in my audience that feels like walking through a photographic art gallery. That moves them, emotionally to fall in love with plants.
There’s no immediate profit motive—just a burning desire to create and share something beautiful.
People notice.
They share my work.
They leave comments saying how refreshingly different my work is from the usual same same posts they see online.
In marketing speak, this is called positioning.
But it is not contrived, it stems from my ‘inner’ world and flows through the ‘external’ world.
I don’t follow blueprints or formulas.
I immerse myself in my passion—plants—and let inspiration guide what I create.
My work draws people into my world without force or desperation.
I’m not desperate for sales.
I’m genuinely detached from the outcome.
This shift didn’t happen overnight.
I’ve been self-publishing for thirty years, coached by some of the early internet marketing pioneers: John Reese, Jonathan Mizel, Yanik Silver, and others.
It was a world of high-pressure ‘bro marketing’—coercion, emotional blackmail, and dark persuasion tricks designed to prise open wallets.
Sitting in private inner-circle conference calls, I heard the contempt many marketers secretly held for their customers, despite publicly claiming to value them.
Toxic stuff. By 2005, I’d had enough. I walked away.
Now, after decades in marketing, I’ve come to a liberating conclusion: you don’t need to play that game.
Open Heart Marketing is exactly what it says on the tin.
Sharing and caring at a deep level for the people who I am privileged to serve.
Look at the successful creators building substantial audiences and sustainable incomes. They share a common thread.
Seth Godin, the grandfather of modern marketing, writes a blog post every single day—over 8,000 so far—offering value freely without constant pitching. Yet he’s written numerous bestsellers.
Craig Mod, a writer and photographer, supports himself through memberships. He gifts beautifully crafted essays about walking Japan’s pilgrimage routes, photographing landscapes, interviewing locals, and creating limited edition books.
His website doesn’t offer teasers or clickbait, but fully realised works of art. His writing stays rooted in his passions, occasionally offering glimpses into his personal life without making it the focus.
Another example: Austin Kleon, who wrote Steal Like an Artist. Every week he shares art or writing about the creative process through his website, social media and his Substack newsletter, offering an accessible exploration of creativity.
His voice feels personal and friendly—like Craig Mod’s—while Seth Godin maintains a businesslike yet human tone.
To be continued…