December 14, 2020 6 min read
The opinions expressed by the entrepreneur’s contributors are their own.
From scrolling your YouTube reel, to clicking video to video with misleading and even unrelated thumbnails, to downloading software and buying products with totally misleading ads, unethical marketing is becoming a sad feature of advertising today.
The interface between ethics and economics has long been a space for disputes. Ethics has always conflicted with the historical essence of business, which is making money. The reason for this is simple; Ethics has subjective definitions in different areas.
Ethical marketing is a system whereby a company conducts its business through tests of fairness, honesty, and social and cultural sensitivity before it is introduced. It is not a marketing strategy in and of itself, but rather a marketing philosophy that guides all marketing efforts that a company may undertake.
If done right, ethical marketing would bring brand loyalty, authority, more trust, and more ROI to any business. However, the main reason brands should stop unethical marketing practices is that this is the right thing to do.
Increase your brand loyalty
Customers have repeatedly complained about sensationalism in business advertisements and marketing content. Companies have purposely exaggerated the services their company offers by creating advertisements that better or completely misrepresent their goods and services. It’s not illegal, and it even collects money … at least initially.
The effects of sensation-driven marketing are often observed over the long term. Reduced customer loyalty and patronage are the clearest signs of dwindling loyalty.
These realities underscore the importance of being authentic in their marketing efforts for companies. This means realistic ads that are as close as possible to the actual products and services that you are offering. This does not mean exaggerated promises and offers like stating that you are offering a “100% free” service for an ad when the reality is what you are Just one starter for free and then the starter for a price.
Chris Thomas, the founder of Yonder Agency, sums it up, “Authenticity is your greatest achievement.” In other words, everyone loves someone who says what they mean and what they say.
Related: Only ethical marketing will stand the test of time
Incorporate a perception of quality
What is seen as a quality product or service is subjective and often depends on the customer’s experience and the feelings your marketing can evoke with the customer. One feeling that is very difficult to confuse is feeling like you’ve been betrayed or lied to. The stench never really goes away.
There are several ways you can improve the perception of the quality that customers have of your business without resorting to sensational and misleading advertising.
Customers are attracted and emotionally invested in products that are advertised by people they trust or who they value highly. This is the mechanism that powers the exclusive advertising model that has pervaded the social media ad space.
Originally developed and developed by Jennifer Brooks, CEO of influencer marketing giant International Loops, the business model uses familiar faces, influential people and celebrities to take influencer marketing to a new level.
The impact of this model on combating sensationalism and unethical marketing, among other things, has been blatant. The model gives advertisers a ripple effect on their ad by leveraging trusted celebrities they already have on their list.
The effect of this, and such creative marketing and influencer marketing in general, is that customers have to trust the product based on the personalities associated with it, and the personalities have to verify the validity of the product based on their image and reputation. This eliminates sensationalism and cheating while still presenting the product as spectacular and creates an increased perception of quality in the customer’s mind.
For example, a well-shot creative video ad coupled with powerfully written content creates an enduring quality perspective for the customer without making untrue claims about the properties of the product or service or any claim on the matter. In this way, customers can experience the product and evaluate it for themselves. Creative marketing allows you to make a statement without crossing the line with unethical marketing.
Related: 3 Basics of Ethical Marketing for Children
Building trust with ethical content
Email and ad copy are among the most popular tools for unethical marketing as companies send their unsuspecting customers countless “offers” every day with seductive and often misleading headlines designed to make them click and milk their lists for traffic.
I once sent an email with the headline, “Here’s the problem we have”. This attempt to be prone to the problems we had in getting customers to respond to our feedback requests was also an attempt to build trust. It worked.It’s also a great example of ethical marketing, as opposed to sending out another email with a bogus offer to reactivate our customer base.
Related: The 4 Pillars of Ethical Entrepreneurship
Another important key that I have found to be very good is my insistence on getting digital signatures for all my correspondence with clients and clients. Most e-mails and even contracts sent digitally by SMEs are unsigned, and I found that in my case, from simple e-mails to e-receipts, invoices and contracts, my simple signature ” trustworthy ”yelled. This also makes my copy stand out from the competition and reduce the growing tendency for customers to suspect fraud and fraud.
Ethical content is content that convinces your customer base of your fairness, availability and willingness to commit. It is your quick response to their complaints and reactions to their feedback. You use your content to instill trust in the hearts of the people you trust, and this requires qualities such as honesty, vulnerability, persistence, and sensitivity.
One of my favorite passages from the Bible is at Proverbs 23:23. “Buy the truth and don’t sell it.” I think this goes a long way in helping customers feel about brands. In the long run, customers will always buy the truth and reject lies and exaggerations. It is in your company’s best interests to build your brand authority with the long-term mindset that ethical marketing offers.
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