At Visiqua, we are known for our dedication to compliant performance marketing at all costs. Many companies would like to prioritize compliance in their marketing, but do not know where to start.
Recently, our Visiqua team created a whitepaper with guidance on compliance in performance marketing. This guidance is useful for both beginners and professionals and it is totally FREE to download.
In this blog post, we will give you our six hottest tips for compliance from the whitepaper, so you can get an overview of what you could learn from a simple download. For more detail, visit our website to download your own copy.
Use Truthful Marketing
This is the most important step toward compliant performance marketing. You need to make sure that your marketing is always honest. Ask yourself “would I feel betrayed if I put my own information forward” If your answer is yes, then you should rethink your marketing claims.
You should also make sure your marketing is not overly ambiguous. Users should understand what they can expect from your product. This sort of accuracy will improve your reputation as a company. When you are checking your marketing claims for accuracy, it is worth asking yourself if you can back up your claims.
Use Appropriate Marketing
Another place some companies struggle with compliance is in creating appropriate marketing. Although it is good to create advertising that is surprising and eye-catching, it should not be at the expense of compliance. Good marketing is marketing that is appropriate for everyone, and that wouldn’t be harmful if it fell into the wrong hands. Make sure your products do not use offensive language or imagery or cause a user to stray from opt-in language.
Another aspect of appropriate marketing is making sure that you are not taking data from minors or without consent. Opt-in language is needed at all aspects of performance marketing at its core. Without consent, your marketing can lead to lawsuits and litigation.
Protect Customer Data
Speaking of data, protecting customer data is one of the most important aspects of creating compliant marketing. Customer data should be stored safely and never shared outside of the company. Using good data hygiene to protect customer data not only protects your company legally, but it also helps build your company’s reputation as reliable and trustworthy. The European Union, Canada, United States and The United Kingdom have all created data protection legislation that bans companies from selling customer data. Following data protection protocols can also be outsourced through third party compliance tools. One tool Visiqua has partnered with is Jornaya.
Jornaya offers solutions to help marketers create exceptional experiences for their customers and prospects, while respecting the consumer’s privacy, preference, and permission.
Create A Culture Of Compliance
If you want to have a compliant company, there needs to be commitment to compliance on all of the levels of the company. If your company does not fully embody this commitment, you will not reach your compliance goals.
To create this culture, start by talking to the people highest in your organization about how they frame compliance. Make sure that they are framing compliance as a routine aspect of their job rather than an inconvenience. This will influence the way employees see compliance and how compliant they are in interactions with customers.
Develop A Compliance Process
Creating a culture of compliance also requires building compliance into the routine of your company. You can create a compliance team that spot-checks the marketing department to ensure that they remain compliant.
You should also create a process for employees to ask questions about the compliance in a low-stakes, anonymous way. If there is a constant dialogue about compliance within your company, it will be easier to implement changes in the compliance policy.
If your company implements a clear compliance process, you should share that process with your customers so that you can build customer loyalty and so that employees begin to take pride in their company’s compliance.
Take Advantage of Tools
This might seem overwhelming, especially when you start to think the Do-Not-Call registry. However, you do not have to do it alone. Every year, more services are developed to help companies remain compliant. In our whitepaper on performance marketing compliance practices, we discuss the services that these companies provide and how they can help you stay compliant and competitive.
Overall, you shouldn’t feel afraid of compliance marketing. Creating a culture of compliance not only benefits your company because you can avoid legal backlash. It also makes your company more trustworthy and reputable. Working on compliance shouldn’t be confusing, which is why Visiqua is here to lay out all of the steps. Download our whitepaper so you can set your company on a more compliant path.
