How to write ethical sales page copy
Maintaining customer trust is essential. Ethical sales copy helps you to be honest, trustworthy and connect with your audience.
If you really want to bring customers to your brand and reap the rewards, ethical sales copy is paramount. However, there are a fair few business owners out there who unfortunately don’t know what sales copy really is or why it’s so important for their business. This results in marketing that is riddled with uninspiring copy that simply steers away consumers.
You throw information at them, hoping some of it will stick. More, more, more. Surely if you push hard enough, you'll break through that wall? Ick. I don’t know about you, but it just doesn’t sit right. And there is another way.
Ethical sales copy gives you the opportunity to sway consumers towards taking specific actions in favour of your brand. And that brand of yours? It’s great. So, use your sales copy and persuade your readers to buy into your business, sign up to your mailing list or just take any action that will help you achieve your business sales goal.
What is ethical sales copy? Ethical sales copy is honest, truthful client based copy that helps to guide future and current customers towards your brand and its products or services rather than scaremongering them into a decision.
Really good copy is written to grab at our psychology. As humans, it is well known that we buy with our emotions and justify with logic. So if you are a value-led business, ethical sales copy is essential.
Ethical sales copy builds aspirations for your readers. Unethical copy gives marketers a bad rep and can feel like a pushy salesman on your back. Not our vibe. If you want sales copy to be ethical, the aim should be to get someone to spend money on something they need. While you want everyone to enjoy and purchase from your business, we never want to manipulate the client into purchasing things they do not need or would not be beneficial to them. You have strong, important values, don’t go against them by lying to your customers!
Why should a sales copy be ethical?
Brand values guide customers through stories, actions, behaviours and decision making processes. They make you unique in a competitive market. You might be familiar with many companies using honesty and transparency as their core values. And sadly, this is where many companies trip and fail to keep true to their values... They don’t actually stick to them!
We don’t want to name names of course, but there’s been an increase in industry coaches who like to use their sales copy to promise clients ‘X amount of money if they sign up to their programme’. Let's be honest… It’s not true and we all know it. If a client’s trust is broken, it is difficult to rebuild it and can be hugely damaging for your brand.
We want our business to grow as well as our revenue, but if you’re going through empty promises and false hopes, is that who you really want to be? Is that how you want to run your brand as a business owner? Hell no! Writing ethical sales copy for your customers will bring you sheer joy due to creating something that is true and honest.
What makes sales copy unethical?
In simple terms, unethical means not conforming to a high moral standard. Or in other words, ‘morally wrong’. Whether we like it or not, there's a number of brands that are seen to be unethical. Many companies use unethical copywriting and sales strategies to induce our audiences to act against their best interests and persuade them to buy something they don’t really need.
As a copywriter, your words are powerful. The promise in your words has a big impact on your audience. Don’t promise more sales leads or less hair loss (yikes) and not be able to live up to your word as this can show a lack of morals and professional standards.
Basically? Don’t be a fibster to your audience. You and your business are much better than that. Show compassion. Listen to your audience. Connect with them.
Steps to ensure that your sales copy is ethical
It’s going to take some time and effort to make sure your sales copy is as ethical as it can be; however, it’ll be totally worth it. Putting the hard work in will ensure that your business is following high moral standards and being as truthful as you possibly can be. Plus, you can also benefit from a clean conscience, knowing that you are being transparent with your clients.
So, how do you exactly write ethical sales page copy? Now, it’s on to the good stuff.
1. Be honest about the benefits of investing into your service
Of course, we want you to emphasise how great your product is, shout it from the rooftops! BUT, don’t lie to your customers if you can’t back up your statements. Being straightforward in the sales copy about the benefits they receive will be beneficial to the potential and existing clients from the get go and eliminate false promises.
Remember, first impressions mean everything!
2. Put the client's needs first
Without sales from your clients, you wouldn’t have a business! However, it’s essential to make sure the sales are made correctly.
Ask yourself:
Does the client need this?
Will what I'm offering actually solve my clients issue or just benefit me instead of both of us?
Taking the steps to ask these questions will ensure that you are actually thinking about the client and not yourself first. At the end of the day, they are the heart and soul of your business.
How does your product answer the needs and wants of your customers?
How does your product make the lives of your customers better?
Once you have figured out the answer to these questions, you’ll also have an idea of who your ideal client actually is and how you can market them to your brand in the future.
3. Avoid baiting
Baiting is promising something to your clients and then when the time comes offering them something totally different. It’s simple: only promise something that you can deliver.
It all comes down to trust. If a customer has doubts about your promise and its delivery, this recreates a barrier and could lead to them not purchasing from your brand. Some examples of baiting include:
Advertising the incorrect price that doesn’t include all relevant
Improper use of keywords to manipulate search engine optimisation
Not picturing the actual item
Baiting helps no one. Stay away!
4. Have transparent pricing
Have you ever been caught by a pesky hidden fee from another company that you had NO idea about? Super frustrating, right?
Be transparent with your customers and AVOID hidden costs. If you advertise a certain price, but after a while, the price slowly increases due to hidden costs, you are hurting your customers' trust and you don’t want that.
In fact, there's actually a Ethical Marketing Code of Conduct that helps to keep business on track with areas such as pricing. The Code of Conduct defines a set of principles and behaviours that a company has to abide by.
One of the principles includes fairness - it’s important for marketers to balance the needs of the buyer with the interests of the seller. To make sure we stick to this as a business, don’t engage in price fixing, predatory pricing, price gouging or bait and switch tactics. For example, it may seem harmless, but pricing your product at £199 instead of £200 just to make it seem ‘cheaper’, is unethical and a tactic you should avoid.
How can you write more ethical sales copy?
Everyone’s ethics vary; every business is different with different goals and values. People may take alternative steps to becoming more ethical within their business. But, when we work hard to run an honest business, we will reap the many benefits. An honest business will build strong trust and provide peace of mind for both yourself and your clients. A thing all the money in the world cannot buy!
If you are ready to create engaging, ethical sales copy for your business, but are unsure where to start, we can help! Turn your copy from lacklustre to liberating with a sales page that is ethical and does the hard work for you. Check out my Launch Your Brand package.
