Many years ago Sesame Street had a song called 'Silent E' that was all about how a single letter, that isn't in itself noticed, can completely change both the pronunciation and meaning of a word.
For example, adding a silent e to can makes cane - something else entirely. Putting an e on the end of star turns it into stare. The point being that one little letter has a big impact.
There are silent e's all over the place, none more obviously than in Internet marketing.
The silent e for Internet marketers is the initial of the most important word you need to learn and embrace if you want to enjoy long term success.
When seminar audiences are asked to shout out what they think the e should stand for, the answers are many and varied: entertaining, educational, emotive, energising, earnings and ebooks tend to be the most popular choices, but there are many more. The real one is, sadly, very rarely mentioned.
It is Ethical. Yes, it deserves a capital letter!
Running your business according to ethical principles is so obvious, but so often ignored. It seems that as soon as some marketers get a small bit of success under their belts, their ethical compass starts to go astray.
They come to believe that anything goes if it makes a dollar.
You only have to look at the sales letters used to promote many of the big launches in Internet marketing.
They are full of lies and half truths. Many will begin with the promise that only a specific limited number of the product will be sold - a limitation the vendor has no intention of sticking to.
The first thing they do in their interaction with you, a potential new customer, is lie to your face. Where is the ethics there?
Then they will show you 'proofs' of their earnings, either outright stating, or strongly implying that those earnings have come from doing what their latest book teaches. The reality is that if the earnings are real at all (and many are just photoshopped fakes) they refer to the vendors last book sale and have nothing to do with whatever dubious method he is trying to peddle.
Ethics anyone?
Behind the scenes all these serial product producers have agreements with each other to promote each others' products - usually with no questions asked. The result is that you get the same pre-written pitch email from everyone. And an endless stream of content-free emails that are only sent out to sell.
And they wonder why their lists are getting unresponsive and their subscribers are leaving them in their droves!
Eventually their ethics-bypass becomes all too obvious.
Many of the serial garbage producers are getting so worried about the damage they are doing to their own reputations that they are starting to launch new products under fake names.
It makes you wonder why they don't get the message that it doesn't matter how many fake names they can think up, a bad product is always going to be bad. Why not spend more time and effort making a good product that they can be proud to launch in their own name?
Maybe that way their shot-to-pieces reputations can begin to be repaired?
The trouble is that once on the dark side of the ethical divide, it seems incredibly difficult to claw your way back into the light. Very few online marketers seem to manage redemption completely.
It may seem old fashioned or fuddy-duddy to talk about ethics where marketing is concerned. There is an enduring view that all is fair game in salesmanship. For many years online marketing has been a bit of a lawless wild west.
Thankfully, government bodies like the OFT in the UK and FTC in America are starting to act on the bigger excesses and are legislating against others. Truth and honesty may stand a chance in the future. Unfortunately though, governments don't step in with a gentle touch - they wade in with sweeping new regulations that are often way more than is needed. The result is that even the ethical marketers are caught up the ensuing witch hunts.
In my opinion, ethics are not an optional extra, or something that you turn to after a lack of them gets you into trouble. Ethics are the bedrock of building a real business online and the heart of the reality that people do business with people they trust.
Put the silent e of ethics at the center of all you do online and you'll never have to earn trust - it will be yours for the taking.
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