Increase Your Brand’s Longevity With Ethical Branding

Have you ever purchased anything that did not meet your expectations? 

Perhaps you’ve signed up for a course that simply recited everything you’ve already known or subscribed to a monthly subscription for something that was supposed to make your life easier but ended up being just another monthly charge…

Do you believe it’s your fault for not doing the proper research or the brand’s fault for spreading false advertisements?

While research should be done before anyone purchases anything, many people don’t and won’t admit that something happened (like time and money wasted down the drain) due to their own fault. Instead, they will blame the brands for it. 

Unfortunately, in many instances, they will be correct in blaming the brand, especially in the info product industry, as many businesses tend to take advantage of people instead of providing real value. 

However, if you consider yourself “one of the good ones,” you can win against the faulty ones by implementing Ethical Branding. 

What Is Ethical Branding? 

Ethical Branding means aligning your brand’s operations, marketing, and content with ethical principles such as transparency and fairness, as well as sustainability and social responsibility (if applicable).

Ethical branding has the power to make your business stand out in a competitive market. 

Here are some key principles of ethical branding for info product businesses:

• Transparency In Content And Marketing: Make it clear who this product is for, what it does, and how it can help. Be transparent about what your product can and cannot do.
  
  Don’t try to mislead people or exaggerate the quality of your product or service—once people make a purchase and begin actually using it, they will soon figure out the true value of it (or lack thereof).
  
  
• Fair Pricing: Avoid unnecessary markups and offer fair pricing based on the market and your target audience (TA).
  
  For example, the price for your products or services will be higher if your TA are entrepreneurs with a six-figure income or higher. The price will be lower if your TAs are stay-at-home moms trying out a remote side hustle.
  
  Before selling, offer free value – this will help establish trust between your brand and your audience.
  
  If you are promoting a course or a high-ticket product or service, consider offering payment plans and other various payment options.
  
  
• Ethical Sales Practices: Don’t manipulate people into purchases, and use wording that anyone can understand – simplify or explain what you mean in your terms and conditions if necessary.
  
  Offer customers an easy way to unsubscribe from marketing emails and cancel recurring charges should they choose to pause or cancel your services.
  
  Avoid false urgency – if there are unlimited spots in your webinar or live session, say, “Plugin now to learn how I had my first $10,000 month!”  instead of saying, “There are only 10 spots left”.
  
  
• Data Privacy: It is important that you are transparent about how you collect and use customer data. Gain consent to solicit your customers through future marketing emails and disclose any important information relating to customer privacy and data safety.
  
  
• High-Quality Content: The information you offer in your free and paid content should provide real value to your audience and customers. Ensure that your content is factually correct and well-researched.
  
  When promoting your product or service, ensure you provide enough information to set realistic expectations about it.
  
  Give credit where it’s due, especially if you use other people’s insights in your content. 
  
  

Benefits Of Ethical Branding And Some Pro Tips

Ethical branding fosters and brings a lot of positive impact to your brand. It boosts your brand’s reputation, develops stronger connections with your customers by building trust, helps your brand stand out in your niche, and much more. Let’s explore!

• Builds Trust And Credibility: People don’t like being lied to, misled, or scammed.
  
  There is already too much of that in the world, so when consumers come across a brand that is transparent about its products, services, and intentions, they respect and trust that brand more.
  
  Trust usually leads to increased engagement, conversions, and even referrals.
  
  
• Increases Customer Retention: People enjoy doing business with brands whose values and priorities align with theirs.
  
  Ethical branding attracts like-minded individuals and fosters a strong community of engaged and invested customers. If your content, products, or services provide real value and deliver on their promises, these customers will likely stay loyal to your brand.
  
  
• Reduces Customer Complaints: A part of ethical branding is being honest and transparent with people about what your product or service delivers and what it doesn’t.
  
  Setting realistic expectations for people sets them up for success in the future. If a customer knows what they are getting, they are less likely to complain or request a refund down the line (unless a zombie apocalypse happens or something 🧟).
  
  Bonus points to brands that underpromise and overdeliver—people like being pleasantly surprised, especially by those they do business with.
  
  
• Helps Your Brand Stand Out: Many business owners rely on manipulative, hard-close sales tactics. Their only agenda is to take advantage of customers’ finances, which often results in negative reviews and very few long-term results.
  
  Implementing ethical branding helps your brand stand out among competitors and increases the likelihood of long-term success.
  
  When you deliver what you promise every time, there is no reason for people to ruin your brand’s reputation or spread negative comments all over social media.
  
  Some could argue that every company has a mixture of good and bad reviews, and they’d be correct. However, from my experience, there is no smoke without fire – which means the negative reviews (maybe not all, but at least some) came from bad experiences.
  
  
• Encourages Referrals: When people like something – they talk about it. (Just the same way they talk about something they don’t like.)
  
  Being ethical in business creates positive experiences that foster referrals.
  
  Referrals boost your brand’s exposure and engagement, leading to increased conversions.
  
  When people contact your business because someone referred them, they are much more likely to convert into paying customers.
  
  
• Supports Purpose-Driven Marketing: Ethical branding goes hand in hand with purpose-driven marketing. Sharing your brand’s purpose is just as important as being transparent about your intentions, and it can often be viewed as one.
  
  Your values, morals, transparency, and respect for your customers will reflect in the quality of service you provide, so ensure that your brand’s message aligns with your business actions and transactions. 
  
  

Closing Remarks

If you wouldn’t like it being done to you, don’t do it to others. It feels pretty crappy when a business overhypes its product or service and then underdelivers, don’t you agree?

So, instead, do the opposite to outperform your competition. It is always better to underpromise and overdeliver.

When people receive what they expect (or more), they are much more eager to return to your business and recommend it to others. 

Being transparent, honest, and respectful with your audience and customers is essential if you want your business to maintain its reputation, receive positive reviews, and have a deeper connection with your consumers. 

Ethical branding is definitely a practice you should consider if your goal is long-term success.

On that note, subscribe to Vavoza Insider and stay tuned for more helpful marketing tips to scale your business. 

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– Steph