Are You Always When Truthful Marketing your Business

I think it is wrong to mislead people but if theres no money loss to the person i dont see much harm..

I only market products to my list that have at least a handful of good reviews, most I try out myself just to affirm the quality. I feel like people will naturally trust you if you only offer them quality information and products. It also helps you in the long run for clicks and conversions.

I think that if you are selling a product that you are endorsing "that this worked for you" to keep your credibility you really need to be truthful.

If however, you are selling physical products, ie: flower pots, I do not think that the same applies - beautiful flower pots are in the eyes of the beholder.

Dave, it seems that since you are asking the question, it is something that is bothering you - go with your GUT

I believe marketers should try every product they promote, know the reliability of the company they are promoting, and be as accurate as possible in representing both the product and the company. If a marketer is not truthful in representing his or her business, I believe that the false statements will at some time come back to bite them. It never pays to make false claims; if you make money at the start, it will cost you your reputation later.

You know, I am half way developing my own health based products right now. I do experiment them and actually do that before and after picture as proof (I mean if it's applicable but if not then nevermind) but the best thing I think would be to give them a big sneak peak of what you are about to offer them in your sales letter by listing down the table of contents you have in your book and pointers as to what each page will explain to them.

Deception, for whatever purpose or however you do it is no good.

The reason I see that some marketers do it is to make money
even without actually being an expert in their niche or actually
experiencing the thing they're "peddling".

I did this once. I got burned. Never again.

It's dishonest and it doesn't help anyone else.

My advice? Create free reports that have links to your websites in them that people have the option to explore if they're interested and then only promote products you have used and love. That's what I do now and it works 10x better.

Seems like more of a moral question to me. I tend to present most of my business from a neutral standing offering a positive approach. I feel my customers/clients better value the authenticity of my statements that way.

I think it depends entirely on what you're marketing though, rather than your moral motives.

David my tip is that you should never lie, why you don't tell about other people success who had great result with that product!

In this way you don't lie and you don't destroy the trust and your name. Use other people testimony how the product had help them! you can say " I don't know, but _____ had great result and she lost ____ lbs, and so and so had ...........

There is a great saying I believe resolves most issues and that is "Do on to others as you want done on to you". If you have a problem being misled, then you are most obliged not to mislead others. However, I must also add that some who consistently fall victim of misrepresentation of facts, need to go through a self reflective process. Usually there is something within them that consistently want the easy no pain option in life. In reality in most instances, the blatantly misled and the people misleading are actually both at fault, and not just the one.

I stand with those who say we should never lie. Even white lies should not be done. At what point is money worth your integrity. I mean if money is your God then you may say anything maybe do anything just to obtain it. It is written somewhere that "the Love of Money is the root of all evil" Somethings are just not worth it and for me intentionally lying is one of them.

You don't need to tell a 'white lie' at all.

You have a choice and every choice has consequences.

A reputation takes a lot of time to build and only seconds
to destroy if/when people find out.

And even if your market don't find out - YOU know that
you've deceived your market.

I wouldn't give a flying feck what extra money could
come my way by telling a 'white lie' here and there.

A lie is a lie is a LIE.

Plus the fact is that it's possible to make money by being
honest. Sure, you may not make as much in the short-term
but at least it doesn't cost you something a lot more valuable
than the extra money - your INTEGRITY and peace of mind.

Tell the truth because it's the right thing to do and it's a lot
easier to remember.

Dedicated to mutual success,

Shaun

Like some of the other people here, I do not and will not market any product that I have not used or tried out myself. This way, the copy I write for each product will be as truthful as can be. Misleading or telling a lie just to earn a buck is bad juju.

You want honesty? I can be blunt.

Sounds like very narcissistic reasoning - stop that.
It's not right to crank someone's reality around because you think you know what is good for them. I've divorced men for that jive. I might be tempted to sue a salesperson for it.

Tell the truth and let other adults decide for themselves what is good for them........if they can't figure it out for themselves, leave em in the pasture.
Do not sell your soul for a wallet full of cash. You will regret it in the longrun.

Everything is based on your reputation in the IM game. Telling the truth is a necessity to maintain a respectable business. If you mislead your clients on this one little thing, then what's to stop you from misleading them on a slightly bigger thing next time? In my opinion, a lie is a lie. If something might help them, tell them but do not lie to them. Hopefully you will be thanked for being truthful. If not, you'll still be able to sleep at night. Good luck with your problem and I admire your honest approach.

-Joe

Just an update partly as a result of the positive responses I have re-examined that way I was thinking of marketing my new business so as to avoid even telling a white lie. Maybe it will result in producing less income but I will be able to sleep easier at night, knowing that I have done my best to help others.

You see everyone has a choice in life with what they do and I have have always told people that if they don't like what they are doing rather than moan it is better to take action.

So I will continue to be honest honest and truthful

Why it's wrong to tell lies and mislead people? Because your buyers will ask for refund later. So what's the point of making 100 sales per day if you get 99 refunds? You will also lose your credibility. Your previous buyers won't buy anything from you anymore.

Interestingly enough, I've been thinking about starting a thread on this same topic. I don't believe in lying with marketing--yet almost every sales letter I come across (the "good ones", anyway) tells this amazing story about how the person's life has been completely transformed by the product.

It's sad to think I have to completely fabricate a story in order to make money. I don't want to do it. As far as I know--and I'm a newbie when it comes to marketing--I don't think it's entirely necessary, either.

I have a list of Warriors who are entirely untruthful about their business. With evidence.

Without naming names, there's one who claims to make X per day (a LOT) and it couldn't be further from the truth, given that they struggle with money...

Another sells a WSO which claims to make X per day. Bull****. They showed 'PayPal' evidence, and when you zoom in on the picture, you can see clearly how it was edited.

So many more. And these are only the ones I have very concrete evidence on.

"Due Diligence Investigations"
They have pretty much killed lying about performance or success on the internet. Anytime I do business with anyone I check their credentials, SN, CR and legal filings. Thanks to the search engines, Facebook and open records laws just about any fib can be fact checked almost instantly. People who used to be terrified of Better Business Bureau complaints now have to hire "Reputation Consultants". The impact of the transparent nature of the WWW on society should make for some great Doctoral thesis in a few years.
BTW, I try not to lie regardless of what Google says.

I was doing a quick check on advertising material on quickbank and see that they have have recentently updated their advertsing guidelines.

"All use of testimonials and endorsements must comply with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines. This means that vendors cannot use false and deceptive statements in their written promotions or their video promotions. All specific advertising claims about a product’s performance or quality must be capable of substantiation—that is they must be real examples based on actual experiences. A statement that not all consumers will get the same results is not enough to qualify a claim. Testimonials and endorsements can’t be used to make a claim that the advertiser itself cannot substantiate.

Connections between an endorser and the vendor that are unclear or unexpected to a customer also must be disclosed, whether they have to do with a financial arrangement for a favorable endorsement, a position with the vendor, or stock ownership. Expert endorsements must be based on appropriate tests or evaluations performed by people that have mastered the subject matter. This means vendors cannot have actors (paid or unpaid) pretending to be someone they are not as part of a product endorsement. Also, affiliates cannot pose as neutral third parties evaluating two products so they make a commission on selling one of them."

I think that this can only be a good thing, hope fully vendors will remove some of the misplaced advertising that used to be commonplace in Clickbank. I have used Clickbank on a few occasions, but never really liked the promotional material.

Perhaps someone that uses Clickbank on a regular basis would care to comment.

I believe in beneficial marketing. Not beneficial to the person trying to make the sale, but beneficial to the person buying. With that said, you could never benefit the person buying by fibbing to them. If you need to fib to them, then the product isn't worth it. Even if no money is exchanged, it could send your prospect down a path where someone else could take advantage of them.

How about this... Ask yourself, "Do I want a long-term or short-term business?"

Most people out there that are looking to create a fast buck or two, they do not
care or even think about the long-term effect that it might occur when doing things
dishonestly or inappropriately. After you have decided whether or not you'd like a
long-term or short-term business, decide how you will run your business...

No-one can tell you how to run a business or how to act to a person. I have every
piece of faith in you that you are able to do what is right... Remember... We are all
big-boys here... Regardless if times are rough or you can make an extra buck or two,
do NOT screw someone over or lead them in a dishonest way.

Think about it...

Jake Gray

You need to be MUCH more specific on what you're talking about.

Are you talking about exaggerating or lying? Even then, because the meaning of the two words are so subjective, there is a very, very fine line.

Sal can probably tell you better than I can, but just one word can exaggerate, or over-amplify an emotion, yet be completely truthful of how good something is or isn't.