What is ethical marketing?

There is no dictionary definition of what constitutes ethical marketing.

But a lot of people can agree that there are marketing practices they deem unethical, for example:

• Lying about what a product or service can do
• Lying about special offers, price reductions, or availability
• Putting pressure on customers to make a purchase
• Using bait-and-switch tactics
• Exploiting people's weaknesses to get them to do something that's not in their own best interest
• Excluding people, discriminating and marginalising groups

Defining ethical marketing is sadly not as simple as inverting that list. Sure, "not lying" would be a great start. But it's also an overly simplistic goal.

In real life, lying is not binary

You're not either lying or being 100% truthful.

Instead, our intentions, behaviours and their outcomes are all points on a scale.

We might intend to be 100% truthful, but we lack the competence to pull it off. Because we lack important information, or we've misunderstood something, and we're not even aware that this is happening. Or despite our best intentions, we use unclear language, and some people get the wrong impression. So we intended to be truthful, but the outcome is a misconception/lie.

Another example that's really close to home for me right now:

A lot of marketers, copywriters, designers intend to create 100% accessible digital experiences. Unfortunately, though, despite our best intentions, we use designs or language that accidentally cause some people difficulties. So we intend to be accessible, but the outcome is that people are feeling excluded.

• Because our tools themselves aren't perfectly accessible (ask any disabled WordPress developer about their experiences with certain theme builders. Also, testing with disabled users is not yet as easy as generic user testing. And then there's that whole debate about accessibility website plugins ...).
• Because most of us have never had comprehensive accessibility training (also, why on earth do we not learn to write Alt text at school?).
• Because it's dang easy to misunderstand WCAG guidelines (which are amongst the most complicated texts I've ever seen online).
• Plus, some accessibility needs don't go that well together, so we often need to make choices and compromises.

Most of the time, we're not even aware that this is happening.

What's more important: our intentions or the outcomes of our actions?

Philosophers have been arguing over this for millennia.

I'm not here to take sides in that debate.

But I think it would be helpful if we'd all make our frame of reference explicit when we talk about ethics in marketing:

• Do you care more about people's intentions?
• Do you care more about outcomes?
• Or are they equally important to you?

In the 6 years I've been involved in The Ethical Move , we switched from an outcome-based pledge (a list of tactics) to an intention-based pledge.

The main reason was pragmatic: we were never going to be able to list all unethical tactics. Plus, there will always be ways to conform to the pledge by tweaking your tactics ever so slightly. And some tactics may be interpreted differently, depending on how you use them. (Timers, for example, can be used to clarify due dates for people in different time zones – or they can push people into a purchase before they've had time to think it through.)

In setting up an intention pledge, we hoped that good intentions would reduce bad outcomes more often than not.

But there's one thing a pledge can't take care of: competence.

Good intentions matter. But making an impact requires impeccable execution

If you lack the knowledge, skills, processes and tools to fulfil your intentions, your marketing may still be unethical. You might accidentally greenwash, marginalise people, oversell and underdeliver.

During my time as a co-host at The Ethical Move Community, I've heard a lot of calls for an ethical marketing course. I even set out to write a guide on ethical online marketing – which was going to work like a workshop in a book.

Here's the thing:

You need no magical, new, secret skills to do ethical marketing. You need good intentions and the competence to deliver on them.

Because better copywriting is more than making things sound good. Design is more than just making things pretty. And ethical marketing is more than just avoiding a list of unethical tactics.

So, here's my advice if you want to make your marketing more ethical:

• Become aware of your intentions. Make them explicit. Discuss them as a team.
• Keep honing your skills. Master your craft. Read blogs, newsletters and books. Take every high-caliber course you can afford. Experiment. Learn from the results.
• Hire experts to help you market better. I'm not saying: either master your craft or hire experts. Because no-one can know it all. My personal experience: You'll learn more from hiring an exceptional colleague than from reading 50 business books. So, do both. Working with others who bring their A game will inspire you. Not sure where to start? Contact us at From Scratch Communications .
• Last but not least: take a pledge. Call me biased, but I'll always recommend The Ethical Move Pledge. A pledge will help you achieve all 3 points on my list: clarify your intentions and make them explicit; learn through the brilliant content produced by The Ethical Move and our pledgees; and find people you'd love to hire. Here's the link to the pledge. Would be great to see your name in the next Ethical Move newsletter!