Embarrassing products—the bane of marketing. Many marketing campaigns for embarrassing products, such as intimate care, adult diapers, condoms, or hemorrhoid cream, feature a humorous— if outdated —approach to draw in customers.

Humor is always good, since it brings attention to the product in an approachable way. But it doesn’t need to be that cookie-cutter and old-fashioned. Often, the key techniques for marketing embarrassing products involve creativity and paving the way for people to speak comfortably and openly about the problem.

Here are seven things I learned from marketing a product people are too embarrassed to talk about.

1. Root the story behind the product or company in a personal experience

Marketing an uncomfortable product is, well, uncomfortable. Coming at people with something embarrassing can be off-putting, so consider telling the story from your personal experience. People who can relate will silently agree and listen to what you have to say. The people who can’t relate will ignore you, but they weren’t your target audience anyway.