This used to be my problem too. I guess it was a confidence thing - confidence was definitely something I needed to work on, and once I started working on it, my success went through the roof (this was - partly - coupled with me discovering Androtics) what a difference not even two years can make.
What didn’t help me personally was all the pickup material I read giving vague, general and often cryptic advice: show less interest and attention, don’t be needy, give her the gift of missing you, let her chase, etc, etc. What I didn’t realise is that I was already showing too little interest - I wasn’t turning up with any bait, and after reading PUA material I wasn’t even turning up with a fishing rod. PUA material has helped me a lot, but it took me a long time to internalise it and really get it. I got worse before I got better - I did pretty much instantly remove a lot of self defeating behaviour and gain a basic understanding of female psychology however, so PUA material is something I’d recommend but be weary of how you interpret it at first.
Basically to avoid the friend zone (sorry, can’t help with escaping it) when you first meet a girl show her (don’t tell her) that you are interested in her, also demonstrate that you are a friendly enough guy (smile). Eventually during an interaction you have to qualify, in fact I find you have to repeatedly qualify all the way until the start of a relationship – this may sound paradoxical when compared to the ‘baiting’ theory, but really when done correctly, it is baiting. You state what you like about the person and then return to whatever you were talking about before. The guy who finds himself in the friendzone is probably either doing too much qualifying or none at all (as it was in my case), it’s a balancing act – qualifying is baiting.
This might help makes things a little clearer: Under Qualified
My final tip is pheromone related and is a testament to how much they can enhance how you are perceived (90/10 
).When wearing something like Ammo a lot of girls will have a harder time believing that you are interested in her, consequently you may have to bait more than usual, demonstrate more interest - but still not too much. The reason for this - I think - is because a lot of girls perceive you as more being more attractive, higher value, than they perceive themselves to be (even the beautiful, high self esteem girls) Ammo really does seem to make you very attractive in the eyes of a lot of girls, so all I can say is qualify and Kino (Kino could also be considered baiting and qualifying)