The main role of a marketing agency is to find ways to increase brand loyalty and customer sales for a company. Integrity plays a huge part in retaining loyalty, and loyalty plays a huge part in increasing sales. No customer or client is going to stick with a company they know has lied to them (unless there is absolutely no one else to go to). Yet companies mislead all the time in their marketing practices. How can professional content writers help you promote a company with integrity?

In fact, why is integrity so important in marketing? A former supervisor of mine once claimed that “life is all smoke and mirrors.” He wanted me to promote services we did not provide, exaggerate the skills of our staff, and lie about plans we had for carrying out the project. But I had trained myself to sell with integrity. I knew how to promote skills we did have that we just hadn’t used yet for contracts. Because of it, we received a call seeking advice from a leading agency we’d been wanting to work with, even though they already had a company that had done the job they were advertising for the last eight years. They commended us on our proposal and urged us to continue applying for contracts.

By contrast, I presented services at a conference in Hawaii that I had been told the company was ready to offer. It generated interest, the prospect wanted proof, and we didn’t have it to show. As a result, the company lost that sale plus another that could have been connected, and along with them, its credibility.

It’s tough to come back from that kind of loss, honestly. Once people sense you’re stretching the truth—or just making stuff up—the word seems to spread faster than you’d expect. There are always those awkward conversations later, trying to patch things up or explain what happened, and let’s be real, not everyone’s in the mood to forgive and forget. That sting kind of lingers in meetings, too, even if no one ever brings it up again. When you’re honest from the start, you’re saving yourself a dozen headaches you might not even see coming yet.

How can an agency use expert writers to promote itself or its clients with integrity?

• Prepare ahead by informing yourself, your staff, and your clients of the importance of integrity in marketing.
• Look for evidence that integrity is important to a writer before you hire them, and emphasize that it’s important to you as well.
• Give the writer only facts you can prove.
• When reviewing a writer’s work, make sure that everything they say is true. A good writer will know how to phrase truth creatively, so the message is interesting as well.
• When you find a good writer, commend them and keep going back to them with future assignments.

People underestimate just how much readers can pick up on subtle cues in a brand’s voice. You don’t have to hammer your honesty over their heads; they’ll notice when promises actually match results. It kind of builds up, post by post, email by email. Eventually, customers start to expect straight answers—and they ask tougher questions. Agencies that are ready for that, instead of dancing around details, almost always move ahead in the long run (or at least sleep better at night).

I absorbed Integrity Selling for the 21st Century when first teaching myself how to market with integrity. I had already noticed that lying or prevaricating made me feel weak, so this book provided the key to my success as a marketer. Integrity leads to trust, which then leads to loyalty and sales.

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