Article Marketing Tip: Don’t Lie!
Posted by Editing StaffIt should be obvious, but lots of folks don’t seem to get it. Even the giants behind long time veteran marketing agencies can goof up now and then.
There’s currently a class-action case that illustrates this, started by user Anthony Michaels against the web site Classmates.com because their email marketing copy told him that former school friends and classmates were trying to reach him, and that he had to upgrade to a premium membership for $15 to make contact.
As a free member of Classmates.com myself I know these emails are impersonal and seemingly triggered by anyone–whether they know you or not–searching for your name (which hundreds around the world may share) or visiting your free profile page on the site.
The assumption being that if someone visited your profile or searched for your name then they must be looking for you.
But that wasn’t the case for Michaels. Nobody was looking for him specifically, and so in essence Classmates.com could be said to have mislead him with their sales copy and end up paying out a lot more than they earned to those who have signed on to the class-action suit.
The lesson here is simple and hopefully obvious, and it applies to every piece of copy or content you create, don’t lie or imply anything that may potentially mislead somebldy who consumes your content.
Consumer fraud laws are broad and aggressive, and while some might laugh at Michaels for launching what they consider a frivolous suit after being duped by a word-play technicality, the fact is the government does tend to act first to protect individual consumers in such cases.
Keep this in mind when writing your articles. Don’t make unfounded claims about products or services, and never imply any benefit that doesn’t truly exist.
The best rule of thumb is to always under promise and over deliver. It keeps you safe of legal actions and makes your customers or end users more enthusiastic with you in the long run.
2 Responses to “Article Marketing Tip: Don’t Lie!”
By Pammy on Oct 31, 2009 | Reply
Article Marketing is really a good way in promoting your products and also your website. i used to write health articles on a big pharmaceutical company for the purpose of article marketing.