Misleading Information

The intent to deceive, whether by careful rewording to give a false impression, or the deliberate omission of critical facts which would influence the outcome, is a poor business practice, and will negatively effect your marketing efforts.

You can't get away with dishonesty in any form for very long. Consider this:

If you are an eBayer, and you list items for sale, and fail to mention damage to them, or say there is no guarantee offered, but fail to mention that the item has a problem, or if you list things as "untested" which you know do not work, eventually it will catch up with you in your feedback ratings. Buyers do not put up with deliberate deception, no matter how carefully worded it is. People will not buy from you again - and even on eBay, the power of repeat purchases is significant.

Regular marketing is no different. Sure you don't have feedback ratings on all your sales, but satisfied customers come back, dissatisfied ones don't. And do you want YOUR name to be the one that is bandied about on the forums that someone is warning all and sundry about? How would you like to have your PayPal reputation questioned and threatened? Those are not remote possibilities, they are very real consequences of deception in marketing.

People also use misleading page titles, or keywords to entice people in. DUMB! If they are not looking for what you have, they will immediately click the back button. And they won't leave with any kind of good attitude about you! You will, at best, arouse a sense of irritation in them. It is not a good idea to annoy your customers! Search engines also consider this to be a disreputable tactic, and it can get your site banned. Not exactly an effective marketing tactic!

Keep it honest. Even when it kills your chance of getting a good price, or when it seems like it will take forever to succeed. Maybe it WILL take longer. But it will be solid and unshakable when it does grow, and it will pay you back for your patience and integrity many times over, and in ways that you'll record in your journal because they will be so amazing.

Bad Marketing Ideas

Bad Marketing Ideas Guide

Laura Wheeler, co-owner of Firelight Business Enterprises, Inc, mom of eight, and home business shoestring startup expert.

Laura believes in integrity and honor in business, and strives to always be 100% truthful in what she presents, no matter whom it offends. She has been featured in two books - The Entrepreneurial Parent, and Get More Business, and has been interviewed and featured as a guest speaker on small business topics. Laura has also written close to a dozen books, and written over 1000 pages of original website content.


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