Your goal as a marketer is not to be louder, flashier, more attention-worthy than your competition. Your goal as a marketer is to make your marketing invisible.
The best marketing doesn't look like marketing.
It looks like a friend recommending a book to another friend. It looks like a user sharing a post on his or her wall. It looks like a logo sticker on someone else's laptop. It looks like a signature at the end of an email. It looks like a cool book cover that makes you want to open it. It looks like a sleek device you put out into the open in your living room for visitors to see. It looks like a well-written, insightful guest article.
Truth is, the purpose of marketing is not to sell, but to generate curiosity. It's to get people to say, "I want to know more about that." There are two factors to creating this effect:
Get these two right, and your product/service will market on its own, without your needing to promote, promote, promote.