Can bro marketing come from gals?

Yesterday, I was browsing the website of a women-founded and run business (identity not important) when my spidey senses started to tingle. I was experiencing what many people refer to as bro marketing.

According to Robert Cialdini in his well-known book Influence, “bro marketing” is “the use of psychological triggers like scarcity, authority, and social proof in a way that shuts down critical thinking to persuade or even coerce people into making quick purchases.” Cialdini advocates for the ethical use of his principles to build trust and long-term relationships, emphasizing transparency and mutual benefit.​

The overall vibe on the home page felt pretty hypey—if you’ll allow me to use “hype” as an adjective.

At the top, things started off pretty standard. They stated what they do, who they do it for, and the outcomes they promise, and that felt fine to me.

But in the next section, I started to feel the hype. A client testimonial featured the words “biggest,” “tripled,” and “insane.” Not an automatic “strike three, you’re out” in my book, but I noticed a subtle shift.

Then I noticed there were 24 sections on the home page, with some sections repeating. It was one of those long sales pages that tries to overcome any and every objection, all in one breath. There’s nothing inherently unethical about that format, but I didn’t feel the website was offering me space to breathe and consent to learning more at my own pace.

What really got my attention was something a little tricky. There’s a disclaimer paragraph in the website footer that makes it clear your success depends on a number of factors. But it doesn’t appear at the bottom of the home page—the main sales page. They only reveal it once you’re deeper into the sales funnel. Again, not immoral, but in my book: slightly aggressive.

Coming across this website helped me notice something The Art of You stands for in our positioning and how we seek to position our clients. We stand for calm and respectful marketing—not bro marketing, hyper marketing, or aggressive marketing.​

We believe good marketing is about finding the right-fit client, and that the sales process should feel calm and mutually beneficial, setting a foundation for a designer-client relationship built on respect and trust. Marketing should be more like dating than like a pursuit.​

When you approach it this way, your clients feel honored and respected for their intelligence. It’s dignified.

Of course, your website should be built as a sales tool. But it can be effective without being super bro.

Question: How bro is the marketing on your website?

Image by KoolShooters