“A flower is just a weed with an advertising budget.” says one of my favorite evangelists of how contemporary markets work, Rory Sutherland. He explains that bees know that it’s “costly” for a plant to “invest” in petals: it costs more resources to produce color, makes it harder to blend in, etc. The logic is: this plant would only go through the trouble to advertise this much if it also offers a lot of nectar. If there were none, bugs would only visit once, and that would not be worth the trouble for the plant.
Rory’s point is: that excellent offers that aren’t marketed enough just don’t seem like good ideas to humans.
Note: marketing is a much broader term than advertising. For example, pricing your work in a way that most people don’t expect is also a bold, seemingly “costly” move.
Any fool with money can buy an ad that says their service is good, that’s easy, common and clients rarely put much faith in it.
Sticking to your pricing method, on the other hand, is seen as “betting on your own horse” and says more about your confidence than a lot of brightly painted billboards/pop-ups.
People need “petals” to find their way to your metaphorical “nectar”. They largely don’t know enough about your field to judge the work on its own merits, especially before they buy and experience what you do. And if the “packaging” does not match the value, it will look suspicious to them.