Ethical marketing is a huge topic, and it can feel hard to know where to begin. Katie was invited to sit down and chat about ethical marketing with our friend Julia (owner of Stratos Creative) on her podcast, Marketing in the Wild. Keep reading for the highlights!

1.  Give your audience agency 

   We make hundreds of choices every day - and companies are always pushing us to make more choices - buy this, subscribe to that, watch our reel, like our post.

   On one hand, it would be amazing to not have to make so many choices every day. But on the other hand, choice is what gives us agency.
   Katie points out that while choices can be overwhelming, there is a way to provide agency for our audience without creating overwhelm. Rather than forcing our audience into a corner, making them feel like they have to choose option a or b to do business with, we can simply give them the freedom to say yes or no. We can approach choice as coercive, or as freeing. We’d like to choose the latter.

2. Failure and success

   Giving your audience a clear idea of the stakes of their situation is a common marketing practice - but it can be taken too far, used to create fear rather than healthy motivation. Katie and Julia explore how to give your audience a healthy understanding of what could happen if they don’t do business with you - and the key is to stick to the short term. Rather than jumping to the ultimate consequence of not working with you (which could be something like going bankrupt or never getting another customer), focus on the short term consequences. These are less scary for your audience to read about and helps them focus on the reality of the situation, not speculative what-ifs. 

3. Define terms

   Katie’s refrain throughout this conversation is that clear is kind - and nowhere is that more true than in the literal words you use for your business. So many misunderstandings in communications of all kinds come down to people having different definitions of key terms. Don’t cut corners as you write copy about topics and words that could have multiple definitions depending on the context. Kindly leave breadcrumbs by way of additional context and clarify your words to ensure that your audience knows exactly what they’re getting when they work with you.

4. Alleviate stress for everyone

   One of the most important things to know about ethical marketing is that while it's definitely done for the freedom and peace of mind of your audience, ethical marketing is hugely beneficial for you as well. The less coercion, vague sales tactics, and fear-mongering you include in your marketing, the less stressed you will be too! Doing anything from a place of fear only creates more tension, stress, and overwhelm - whether that’s creating a marketing material or deciding to make a purchase. Ethical marketing is a win-win from all sides. The more you shift towards ethical marketing, the more you’ll see that manipulation isn’t a prerequisite for landing clients and making sales. Thank goodness for that!
   
   If you want to hear more about the ins and outs of ethical marketing, along with some concrete tips to go along with these highlights, Katie and Julia’s full conversation is available here!