I set out as a full-time digital marketing consultant about 6 months ago, and I had to face the fact that a lot of internet marketing is horrible.

Citizens of the web are bombarded with belly fat ads, Facebook sold their data to shady political manipulators and their stressed out by an email inbox full of offers that you don’t need.

No wonder 83% of people think that behavioral advertising is immoral.

On the other hand, you have an amazing product or service that you want to share with the world. Is it possible to advertise on the web iin a way that adds value to your customers’ lives?

I think so.

I’m going to outline a few things that will help you grow your business online without being a douchebag.

Be in it for the long term

If you are trying to make a quick buck off the credulous public, flashy ads with quickly expiring offers selling a shitty product to an audience that you purchased from someone else with reviews bought and paid for by Bangledeshis who have never heard of your product may be a good way to achieve that.

If you are trying to build a business for the long term, you won’t be able to do it without building trust with your customers. That starts with a good product and an honest marketing strategy aimed at improving peoples’ lives.

Providing Value > Extracting Value

Any MBA will tell you that in order to build a business you have to provide something valuable, and you have to extract as much of that value as possible so you can get paid.

Both your product and your marketing plan should be focussed first on providing value and secondarily on extracting some value.

For marketing, this means providing the necessary information for your customers to make their decision, x, and y. This could be in the form of guides, blog posts, product comparisons.

It also means creating an experience that informs the user of the benefit to them, but also that makes them feel good on the emotional level. That should be through ads, through your website content, the look, and feel.

Show Customers They Will Benefit

Don’t tell customers that their lives will be better when they buy your product. Show them.

Use testimonials and reviews from people like them as evidence that your product will make their lives better. If you have won awards, have impressive qualifications, or are a contributing member of an industry body, put that in your website and ad copy.

All of that shows that you are recognized for quality by your customers and by respected authorities.

Don’t Bombard People with Ads

Don’t bombard your customers with ads everywhere they turn. First of all, people find it creepy. Secondly, they will get bored of your ads, product and you, and they will stop even noticing your ads.

Put a frequency cap on all of your ad so no person sees your ad more than 2-3 times per day.

Delight your Customers with your Ads

Put some extra time and thought into making your ads delightful to customers. Have a catchphrase, find a really beautiful or funny image for your creatives, and have fun with it.

You can provide value you to your customers by bringing them a little joy where they usually find impatience or annoyance.

Find your Future Fans

You have to find the right audience. You may think your ad is great for everyone, but take a second to think about who it is really, really, especially great for, and target them first.

People hate ads that aren’t relevant almost as much as they hate ads that are creepily too relevant (more on that next). So, think about who your audience of future true believers are and try to find them online. Some places to explore this:

• Facebook’s Audience Insights to see what kind of people are visiting your Facebook page
• Google Analytics’ audience section to see what kind of people are visiting and spending time on your website
• Ask for feedback! On your website or newsletter ask people who they are and what they love about your product. See if you can jump on the phone or exchange a few emails with a few fans to see what they like about your product.

In those tools look for:

• Age and gender
• Interests and In market categories
• Specific cities where interest is high
• Referring websites or pages that indicate customer interests

Respect Customers’ Data

Buying and selling of aggregated, depersonalized customer data for marketing purposes is legal and widespread. And, let’s face it,  it’s extremely useful to marketers.

On the other hand, customers can find it creepy or even scary.

I use aggregate customer data in Facebook and Google sometimes and I let those platforms cookie and follow users around the web and show them ads on my behalf (ie, remarketing).

The Most Respectful Channels

My favorite marketing channels rely on earning customer data, not using someone else’s. I often find these channels to be the most effective, too.

My favorite two are:

• Search Engine Marketing and Optimization
  • SEM and SEO allow you to advertise your business exactly when people are looking for something like your product or service
• Mailing lists
  • Let people sign up for your list rather than opting them in automatically
  • If you collect email during the check out process, show your customers and easy way to opt out, or, better yet, have a checkbox to opt-in
  • Don’t send spam to everyone
    • Don’t send more than an email or two a week
  • Send value to your fans
    • Make it fun, joyful
    • Provide valuable content
    • Give them offers they can’t find elsewhere

The worst practices

Here are some rule-of-thumb don’ts for showing your customers’ data the respect it deserves:

• Don’t sell your customer’s data
  • Especially: email address, mailing address, name, phone number
• Don’t buy email lists
• Avoid buying cookie lists where possible, build your own for remarketing, supplement with industry standard Google and Facebook lists where necessary
• Don’t pay for fake fans
• Don’t use  link schemes
• Don’t use paid reviews
• Don’t use paid followers
• Don’t use  paid likes

In Conclusion

It is possible to get rich with garish and invasive ads. That’s not at issue.

The more crucial lesson is that you can be successful online without resorting to manipulative marketing practices. If done right, it will lead to a more fulfilling and long-lasting business.

See you next time!