How Does Ethical Marketing Help You?
I’m a practicing Catholic. In the words of Harry Connick Jr, I’m going to keep practicing until I get it right.
No matter what your worldview, I believe in living an integrated life. Where you’re the same person, with the same values, at all times. It’s the only way to be happy in your skin.
You can’t put your values on a shelf, like the good china you only bring out for special occasions. If you do things against your nature, things that feel shady and weird. That’s going to come back and bite you in the butt.
You can’t put a price on integrity. It’s not just a lack of lies, manipulation, and sleazy, weird sales tactics. But it’s also an active pursuit of virtue.
Ethical Marketing Matters To The 95% of Readers Who Don’t Buy
Ethical copywriting leaves everyone better than they were before, not just the eventual customers.
A typical sales page converts at around 5%. That means 95% of readers are not buying the product. Just reading the page.
What exactly ARE they reading on your sales page? Well, if you’re using the conventional formulas for copywriting… It’s not great.
Many copywriting formulas amplify the reader’s pain. You’re told to cause her more pain. The ends justify the means, they say. If we can neg her into buying, she’ll get better with our product!
But that means 95% of readers are leaving with nothing more than greater pain.
Some readers will never be helped by buying your product. Making that clear is paramount. Either the product isn’t a right fit, or it doesn’t fit into her budget. High-pressure, scarcity tactics might squeeze more sales in. But at what cost to your reader? At what cost to your spirit?
I do not want money from people who don’t have it to give. I don’t want to make sales to people who don’t need my products.
Ethical Marketing Will Get You The Right Customers
Some readers would really benefit from your product. They really could have used it. They had $$ to spend this month. Yet they chose not to buy, and they’re not helped by this decision.
If it was logically a good decision, why didn’t they buy it?
If there are no external roadblocks, then these readers’ struggle must be an internal one. There is something going on in her mind preventing her from buying your product. And making sure that they miss out on this opportunity.
Traditional copywriting tells you to cause her more pain. That “amplified” pain will spur her to buy.
Ethical copywriting flips the script and gives the reader her power back.
Ethical copywriting puts the reader back in the driver’s seat of her life.
Empowerment is an overused term, but actually fits here. Even if the reader ends up not buying, she’s still better off for having read your copy.
How do you get this across? Plan out all the things you need to tell her before she’s emotionally ready to buy.
That this moment is:
- A decision in her control
- One of long-lasting influence
- An actual possibility!
But it doesn’t:
- Define her
- Condemn her for missing out
- Change anything about her value
That’s how you build a sales page that heals, instead of harming.
That’s how we bring our Christian ethics into marketing.
