LEXINGTON, S.C. — When business slowed a bit for the owner of Danielle Salley Creative this summer, she didn’t wait for the phone to ring.
Salley became her own client.
She had launched her independent design firm in 2023 after nearly two decades in the advertising industry. Since then, Salley has experimented with a variety of ways to market her one-person creative services business while continuing to serve clients.
“For solopreneurs, marketing their own business can often become secondary to client work,” Salley says. “I’ve realized that my own business can be a laboratory for the same kind of strategic thinking I bring to clients. When things slow down, I try to ask myself what I can create, test or improve that will make the business stronger and also show off my creative work.”
Those efforts have included a podcast, professional speaking, industry involvement and an annual Halloween campaign that has grown from a simple mailed card into an award-winning interactive marketing experience.
October self-marketing spotlight
October is recognized as Women’s Small Business Month. But for Salley, Halloween has also become an important part of her business calendar.
When she launched her company, Salley decided to send a Halloween card instead of a traditional year-end holiday card. She loves Halloween and figured an October mailing had a better chance of standing out than another December greeting competing for attention.
Recipients shared that first card on social media and contacted Salley directly to tell her how much they liked it.
“That’s when I realized it could be more than a card,” she says. “It could be an annual self-promotion campaign that reminded existing clients what I do while introducing my work to people who might not know me yet.”
The timing also works from a business-development standpoint. October puts Salley back in front of clients and prospects as many organizations begin planning projects and budgets for the coming year.
By 2025, the October promotion had grown into Doom Board: A Multilevel Murder Mystery, an interactive online Halloween experience developed with copywriter Andrew Evans.
The results went well beyond social media likes and compliments.
During the Oct. 26–31 campaign, new-user traffic to Salley’s website was approximately 700 percent higher than during an average week in 2025. About 12 percent of those new visitors actively participated in the mystery by submitting an accusation, and Salley estimates 91 to 94 percent of participants were potential business leads.
The project also earned a Gold ADDY at AAF Midlands’ 2026 American Advertising Awards and received a People’s Choice nomination.
“The numbers mattered because they showed that people weren’t just visiting,” Salley says. “They were engaging, and most of the people engaging were exactly the kind of people I want my work to reach.”
Her 2026 Halloween campaign will begin arriving by direct mail mid-to-late October, with the full campaign launching the week of Oct. 26.
Other solopreneur marketing tactics
The Halloween campaign is just one piece of Salley’s approach to marketing her business.
She has also used a , speaking engagements and active participation in the advertising industry to expand her visibility beyond client work.
Salley has also developed a strong reputation among advertising professionals around the country as a speaker on professional development topics such as maintaining professional mental health and becoming your own boss. Once uncomfortable with public speaking herself, she is now regularly invited to present training programs for American Advertising Federation chapters and other industry groups.
This fall, she is developing a new presentation, “Would Tomorrow Be OK?”, which she plans to begin marketing this fall for 2027 speaking engagements.
The program looks at a familiar problem in marketing and creative workplaces – treating nearly every request as an emergency. Salley addresses how to distinguish real urgency from manufactured urgency, when to ask for more time and how better expectations can lead to better work.
Salley’s speaking work has also become an important part of her professional visibility. She has presented at local, regional and national American Advertising Federation events after spending 16 years in local and national AAF board leadership.
In addition to her volunteer work with the American Advertising Federation, Salley also gives her time and talents to the Carolinas Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Society. She joined the organization’s board after serving as a speaker at one of its annual conferences.
Her 2026 Halloween campaign will begin arriving by direct mail mid-to-late October, with the full campaign launching the week of Oct. 26.
Salley doesn’t see these activities as separate from running her company. They are part of how she keeps building relationships, testing ideas and staying visible to the audiences she wants to reach.
Growth not defined by company size
Salley also rejects the idea that a successful one-person business eventually has to become a larger company.
“Solopreneurs don’t have to market themselves by pretending to be bigger than they are,” she says. “Being small gives you the freedom to experiment, move nimbly and try something different. The key is being deliberate about what you’re trying to accomplish and paying attention to what actually works.”
Rather than measuring growth by the number of employees she adds, Salley has built her business around senior-level creative expertise, strategic partnerships and the flexibility to work with agencies and in-house marketing teams that need experienced help without adding permanent staff.
“Growth can mean more than headcount,” Salley says. “It can mean better clients, stronger relationships, a broader reputation and more opportunities to do the kind of work you want to do.”
For Salley, that sometimes means doing exactly what she would tell a client to do … stop waiting for the next opportunity and create one.
