Importance of Ethics in Digital Marketing

1. Importance of Ethics
in Digital Marketing
SUBMITTED BY- YASHIKA GUPTA
DATE- 14TH APRIL,2020

2. Introduction
 Digital marketing is the advertising of brands using all forms of digital
advertising. Privacy and security both are some ethical issues that are
supposed to influence the purchase behavior of the customer.
 As more and more people are starting to realize how important doing
business ethically is and it looks like this is spreading to the marketing
domain as well. This means that the approach people take in digital
marketing has changed a lot since companies first started promoting
their brands on the web. But how important is ethics when it comes to
digital marketing?

3. Importance of Ethics in Digital
Marketing
 Customers demanding more-Things are the same when it comes to
marketing and consumers prefer buying from companies that don’t just
promote their product but are also ethical about their marketing efforts.
This has resulted in companies who create false scarcity just to bolster
their sales to do much worse than in the past. Moreover, they have to be
honest when it comes to testimonials and avoid fake ones which have
been quite popular in the past.
 Being transparent about data-Of course, even in this day and age, no
company is forced to share all their data with the public. However, taking
a different approach and being transparent about it is something that has
helped a number of companies reach new heights. Any data you can
collect about your performance and share it with your customers can do
wonders for your company.

4. Importance of Ethics in Digital
Marketing
 Protecting customers’ privacy-The biggest problem all companies face is
hackers who’re ready to do everything it takes to get their hands on
customers’ sensitive data. Businesses are responsible for investing in security
and protecting every piece of information they collect from their customers.
When that data is stolen, the company is supposed to take full responsibility
for it. Throughout the last decade, we saw the reputation of some companies
be ruined completely because they failed to protect their customers’ data.
 Ethics and social media marketing-One of the places online where
companies can promote their products and services is social media.
Companies in all industries are already on platforms such as Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter. Not only that they use these platforms for promotion
but that’s also where they communicate with customers directly. Although
this comes with benefits of its own, there are also things businesses have to
be careful about.

5. Ethical Issues in Digital Marketing
 We are currently living in an era where digital technologies are becoming
more important in most sectors of the economy and where companies
are pushing social selling and digital marketing
 While digital technologies offer organizations considerable benefits to
customers such as greater access to information and convenience, there
are some ethical issues that are emerging due to its increased use:
1. The Digital Divide
2. Marketing to children
3. Privacy issues
4. Social Exclusion

6. Ethical Issues in Digital Marketing
 The Digital Divide: Expansion in channels of communication has made
Internet technology more accessible to people around the world since
the beginning of the 21st century. However, the disparity in ICT adoption
between developed and developing countries, referred to as the Digital
Divide, has continued to grow which has implications for public and
private organisations. Those who lack access to online resources in
developing countries are immediately put at a disadvantage as they
already have little access to other socio-economic resources.

7. Ethical Issues in Digital Marketing
 Social Exclusion: Related to the Digital Divide is the issue of social exclusion
which refers to individuals who cannot afford digital devices such as
broadband connection and 3G phones. In the era of digital, where basic IT
skills are required for entering the labour market, individuals without digital
devices are unable to take advantage of learning opportunities and engage
in wider levels of social networking.
 Privacy issues: As a result of the dot.com bubble and later the introduction of
Web 2.0, new policies in terms of privacy and protection of customer data
are being introduced by governments. Online privacy policies must be
continually updated because of the evolutionary nature of Web 2.0
platforms. Concerns about security have grown in recent years and the
release of new government policies is something that must be anticipated by
organisations.

8. Ethical Issues in Digital Marketing
 Marketing to children: The final ethical issue in this list is using the
Internet to market to children. Children have long been known to be the
one of the biggest advocates of Internet usage but they are vulnerable to
the Internet in many ways. For example, they may not realise that their
every mouse click may be monitored, they may be unable to evaluate the
accuracy of information they view or be unable to understand the nature
of the information they provide to advertisers.

9. Conclusion
 To some, things discussed in this slides may seem like common sense.
Unfortunately, not all businesses see it that way and there has been a lot
of cases of this throughout history. However, as the entire business world
is moving towards protecting customers, we see more and more
businesses caring about being ethical in their operations, including digital
marketing. The web is constantly evolving and it looks like we’ll see some
new tools and strategies be designed specifically to encourage being
ethical in digital marketing.