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No one likes having a thousand ads shoved in their face...

No one enjoys being screamed at with every slur imaginable over the phone...

And no sane person would choose evil before good when presented with the obvious choice...

But that is the way of the world today... Make as much money as possible no matter the consequences.

So why are we not there yet?

Are we just plain evil?

Are we not smart enough?

In the thousands of conversations I've had with business owners, just like you and me, it's always the same answer...

If that's you... Perfect!
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Not only am I going to teach you why that is utterly false, but also how adopting an Ethical Advertising mindset could sky-rocket your sales in no-time!
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But make no mistake...

I won't be talking about the fact that sustainability has become a buzzword...

Or the fact that gen z and youths are more likely to choose sustainability focused businesses...

You see, I understand you've heard this before.

And I know what you're thinking...

"We already have one Greta, that's enough..."

So, let me be perfectly clear with you...

I'm no Greta Thunberg.

I'm an old school kind of entrepreneur, self-taught by the greats: Sun Tzu, Robert Greene, Dale Carnegie, Dan Kennedy, Andrew Carnegie, Robert Collier, etc...

I know business.

But I also want to leave the world better than I found it.

So I'm on a mission to help business minded people just like you to reap even bigger rewards while making the world a better place.

Now, enough about me!
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I have a gift...

Below, you'll find three steps to turn your business into an ethical money-making machine.

Starting with...

We've all seen them.

Unrealistic ideals, toxic generalizations, straight-up offensive ads…

But the world of advertising is a lot more complicated.

You see, advertising has been used to manipulate opinions for hundreds of years.

In politics, business and even prosecutions.

Let me give you an example.

Let's say you are a local politician in a small city…

People are moving away and your job is to get them to stay.

This is an advertising issue.

For some reason, people find more pleasure in moving away and more pain in staying.

But all you have to do is reverse that.

By advertising the reasons WHY people should live here…

By demonstrating the benefits WHY living here is better…

That is how people will stay in the city.

And you can do that through any platform.

Not only in your typical "ad place”.

This can be a blog post, news article, documentary, movie, video, event and much more.

In the same way, you can associate any belief, opinion or emotion with anything…

Your business, politicians, artists, countries, organizations…

That is the true power of advertising.

So what role does advertising play in society?

It's the main character…

Therefore it is our responsibility to uphold a sustainable way of doing it.

And here's how...

‍1. Transparency.

The first key to socially sustainable advertising is transparency.

David Ogilvy said it best “Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating”.

That is the job of an advertiser.

But just telling the truth doesn't cut it.

It is also the truth that must be perceived…

It isn't enough to be "truthful" if it deceives.

Be truthful, transparent and believe in the product as is.

Because even if you must deceive to sell, create a better damn product…

‍2. Inclusion & representation.
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‍Regardless if we want it to or not...

Advertising will have a great impact on our society.

That's the truth…

Therefore representation is highly important.

Representation of our entire society.

Diversification in ethnicity, gender and abilities.

It is common practice to target very specific personas.

And that is completely fine.

Just remember that it is not the demographics of a persona that makes someone buy.

It is psychographics…

Representing a more diverse reality will therefore make no difference on the results.

Instead, it will create healthy social norms.

‍3. Permission.

‍Instead of interrupting people, give them a reason to listen.

That way you get them to come to you, instead of the other way round.

You do that by providing value and exchanging it for permission.

For example, exchanging value for an email address…

That way you have gained their permission to receive your information.

This doesn't mean you have to stop using paid advertising.

Simply that you should use it to provide value…

And not try to sell.

No one likes being sold to.

And no one likes being told what to do, unless…

You have permission.

But don’t worry, doing this won’t decrease your sales.

It will exponentially scale your sales.

As long as you provide the appropriate and desired value.

We are reaching a point of no return…

Climate scientists are warning us and have been for years.

We have already crossed some tipping points and if we do not act now…

We are facing detrimental events that will harm the entire planet.

Unfortunately…

Few advertisers are aware of the environmental impact their advertising has.

In part because they don't even know it exists.

But the internet is actually responsible for 4% of global emissions.

Because the internet consumes A LOT of energy.

And of course, if you advertise via print or other physical tools that will also impact global emissions.

But today we are changing that.

After all, you are here…

You are reading this…

There are three main things you can do.

‍1. Choosing Product.

‍This won't come as a surprise…

But the first and most obvious thing you can do is…

Work with businesses or products that are sustainable.

Not necessarily to the degree that they promote sustainability.

It doesn’t need to be branded as sustainable…

It just needs to be a better option than the ones already out there.

To get good guidelines on what might be considered sustainable I highly suggest following the SDGs.

Ask yourself…

"Will promoting this have a positive or negative impact on the planet?”.

Of course, this applies to both your own business if you’re developing a new product or if you’re an advertiser choosing what customer to work with.

It is worth noting here that the market is demanding sustainability and the businesses that are not will most likely be hit by hard regulations soon enough.

Meaning not stable clients.

‍2. Data Usage.

‍To reduce our carbon footprint when it comes to advertising we need to consume less energy.

You see, when we publish things on the internet it is being stored in a database somewhere in the world.

And the bigger files you publish the more space on the database is needed.

Therefore, more energy is being consumed to power the database.

So what can we do about this?

We create ads that consume less data.

Let me give you an example…

We have two images both 300x300 pixels big, yet one image creates a larger file than the other.

This has to do with the complexity of the image.

Color, light, size and technology are all things that will impact the file size.

So simplicity is key.

Which is a major part of customer acquisition performance as well.

Keep it stupid simple.

Your potential buyers care about getting the value they desire and getting it as fast and efficiently as possible.

I’m not saying you should do black and white to make your ads as low as possible…

Although that would be kinda cool.

I’m simply telling you to consider the requirements and then get rid of the excess;

- Image Type

- Pixel Resolution

- Graphic Dimension

- Colour Depth

These factors will have the biggest impact on determining your digital carbon footprint.

Aim to make them as low as possible.

But simplicity isn’t the only thing you’ll win from this you’ll also make your ads load faster which means more exposure.

These same principles apply to all marketing activities, especially your website.

‍3. Energy Source.

‍The source of energy used to store our data also has a great impact on our carbon footprint.

Here is a list of the most common energy sources and their impact on the environment...

- Coal, 820 gCO2/kWh

- Natural gas, 490 gCO2/kWh

- Biomass, 230 gCO2/kWh

- Solar PV roof, 41 gCO2/kWh

- Geothermal, 38 gCO2/kWh

- Hydropower, 24 gCO2/kWh

- Nuclear, 12 gCO2/kWh

- Wind onshore, 11gCO2/kWh

As you can see above, the energy produced by coal for example has a 68x larger carbon footprint than nuclear energy.

But what are you supposed to do with this information, you can’t just choose what energy sources everyone uses.

That is true.

However, you can choose which providers to work with…

By simply spending 30 seconds to have a look at businesses...

Transparency report.

Sustainability policy.

CSR statement.

Or other relevant documents you might find.

There you should easily find what source of energy they are using.

If they are not transparent or aware of their environmental impact then you should consider if you even want to work with them.

But let’s say they’re a small business and they haven’t had the time or knowledge to write such documents…

Then you could either search for their energy provider or partners.

For example, we use Webflow for our website and with a quick search you can find out that Webflow uses AWS Cloud.

And with a quick additional search, you will find that the AWS Cloud is using over 65% renewable energy.

It may seem like an extra step, I get that.

Trust me, I value my time extremely high as well.

But taking the time to do this doesn’t just create hope for a better future for your children.

It doesn’t just make you feel a little bit better about yourself.

This is also something that makes employees excited.

This is something that gives purpose and purpose drives action!

The landscape of advertising and marketing today is full of guess workers.

Yes, I said it…

People are playing a damn guessing game.

And they’re doing it with your money!

Taking no responsibility at all if the advertising succeeds or not.

Because in their eyes, their only job is to grab attention.

That is what today's advertising is all about.

Attention, attention and attention…

But here's a cold hard slap in the face for ya…

Attention means nothing if it doesn’t lead to an actual sale!

To be fair, they usually aren’t doing it on purpose…

They just don’t know better.

My belief, however, is that our job as advertisers includes understanding the market, individual consumers and how to make them buy.

Therefore, if an ad doesn't sell, it is still your problem.

Here is how you make sure to create economic sustainability…

‍1. One objective.

Of course, not all advertising will be aimed to generate sales.

But whatever the goal is…

It needs to be specific and singular.

Having several goals or a vague one will make your ad less relevant.

And if it is not relevant and directly speaking to your consumer.

Then they won't hear it, and won't act.

It will also be impossible to optimize the ad if you don't know what you are optimizing…

‍2. Measurable.

You need to be able to measure the goal, whatever it is.

If you don't know its results…

You don't know how to fix it.

And if it is not measurable, it is not predictable.

Your best guess will still be a guess.

In today's age there really is no valid excuse not to measure your efforts.

Sure back in the day, it wasn’t very simple and you had to be very creative…

But with the internet, it is easier than ever to measure this.

We can build independent funnels, use UTM tags, heat maps and almost everything can be automated.

But even without these fancy tools, there are ways to track our campaigns.

Promotional campaigns with custom offers can help directly measure the impact and effectiveness of our advertising.

‍3. Follow the data.

We can guess, estimate or hypothesize however much we want but we’ll still be far from accurate.

The only thing I truly know about advertising is to never trust anything other than data when measuring results.

You see, numbers don’t lie.

So whatever the numbers are saying, that is what you need to follow in order to be successful in advertising.

Keep optimizing and tweaking to improve the results for as long as you run your ad.

There should be no stopping when it comes to optimizing.

You want to keep optimizing every day until your ads don’t work anymore.

It’s how you make your advertising profitable.

The truth is, that ads don’t have a very long lifespan.