When Marketing Becomes Trickery, It's Bound To Backfire

by Bonnie Boots

When revised FTC guidelines regarding fair and deceptive practices were announced last year, the resulting kerfuffle from the internet was something to behold. Within days, thousands of blog posts were proclaiming doom and the utter demise of the internet.

Bloggers went wild, especially those who thought their income from affiliate sales might be interrupted. Others proclaimed anyone marketing on the internet was now a potential inmate of a federal prison.

We can call it Much Ado About Nothing, as the "new rules" were really nothing more than an updating of the FTC guidelines designed to protect consumers from unfair and deceptive advertising tactics.

But it shouldn't take the threat of a prison sentence to protect consumers from deceptive advertising. Common sense itself should dictate that any reputable business stay a football-field length away from anything that smacks of deception.

After all, consumers make purchase decisions based on emotions, not logic, and one of the emotions that lead directly to clicking the "buy it now" button is trust. How on earth can someone trust you when you've tried to trick him or her with deceptive adverting?

That's why it makes sense for everyone in business to be upfront and honest.

Sadly, I see an alarming number of businesses that let themselves be lead into deceptive marketing tactics, usually in the mistaken assumption that a sale in the end justifies the means.

Here's an example. "Jack's in the hospital!" is the alarming subject line of an email I received today. Because I know several people named Jack, I quickly clicked the link to open, without even looking at the sender's e-address.

Inside, the email said, "Sorry to trick you. I'm not really in the hospital I just have something really important to tell you and couldn't think of any other way to get you to open this email."

The "really important thing," of course, was nothing more than an announcement of something the mailer was selling as an affiliate.

A slew of other emails arriving in the past week all proclaimed, "Bonnie, here's the download I promised you."

Inside, the email says, "Because you're my loyal subscriber, I want to reward you with these free products. Click here to download them."

Clicking on that link takes you to an opt-in page that says, "Register your name and email address here to download your free gifts."

If you register, you discover you've just signed up for yet another internet marketing give-away.

And here's an example from my ground mail. An oversized postcard I received this week proclaims, "QUICKY"S…Have A Quickie For Lunch. Find out how to get your Quickie for FREE!" The other side of the postcard lists a menu of $4.95 specials with drink and one side dish and sends you to a web address for delivery information.

Because there was no local address or phone number, I was immediately suspicious. My suspicions were confirmed when I typed the URL into my browser and was brought to a site selling it's direct mail services.

"Sorry," it said, "there's no free lunch, but we do have a great "Quickie" way for you to drive targeted traffic to your business website. It's direct mail!"

Every one of these tricky tactics was successful in the sense that they got me to take the desired action. I did open the email. I did register in the optin box. I did type the URL in my browser.

My next actions, however, were NOT those desired by the sender. In each case, I found a way to distance myself from those ethically impaired marketers. Unsubscribe links let me easily cut loose from the list of the two errant emailers. And a contact form on the direct mailer's website let me inform them I was not to be contacted-and why.

Constant exposure to shady internet marketing tactics can make it seem like everyone's doing it-or worse yet, like it's the only way to survive.

But common sense should tell you that taking the high road to the intersection marked "Honesty" and "Integrity" is the only sure way to build trust in those you contact. And trust, as any true student of marketing knows, is the emotion that precedes every sale.

 

 
About the Author

Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine and the companion The Internet Wizards Blog to teach self-employed people and small businesses owners how to leverage the internet for advertising, marketing and promoting their business. To stay in touch with her, type your name and email into the subscriber box in the left column of this page. You'll be glad you did!

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