3 Rules of Etiquette in Online Marketing
#1 Practise honesty The lack of trustworthiness is not only a sign of our times, but also a mistake made even by marketing pros. Forcing a fake unauthentic dialog with your clients is probably the biggest violation of the unwritten marketing etiquette. Have your marketing guru? Searching for inspiration is great, but don’t try to copy someone else’s communication style – the things that work for them may not work for you. Moreover, customers will sense that you’re not being authentic which will make them suspicious or, even worse, assume that you have something to hide. Let’s be honest – most of us have some skeletons in their closets, but in most cases admitting even the most painful truth is better than covering it up with some flimsy excuses. This also comes down to being honest in what you are doing with your customers’ data, and other such privacy and security concerns that they may have. From running a cookie checker to ensure that you are compliant in that area, to making it clear what information you need and why, this is vital for improving your honesty with your customers. Nowadays, credibility became a great value and once you disappoint your clients you may never regain their trust. To make your communication truly convincing you need to believe in what you’re doing and simply… be yourself. #2 Beware of spamming A word said too often quickly loses its power, so better rethink your communication strategy before sending a tenth email reminder to your customers. Try to recall your inbox, which is probably overfilled with junk mail – yes, your customers experience this too, so don’t let them categorize you as the “spam-sender”. There’s nothing wrong in encouraging your customers to take the next step, although, when it comes to reminders less means more. Here’s a real-life example – imagine you’ve just finished an online meeting and you want to “squeeze out” feedback from your participants. Instead of bombarding them with several polls and surveys, make your actions more balanced, because people really don’t like to be forced to leave opinions. The same rule applies to your email marketing strategy (unless you want to end in the spam-box). #3 Say “NO” to ComMEnication It’s rude to talk about yourself all the time – the rule we’ve all learnt in our childhood applies as well in marketing communication. Even if you offer the most amazing and unique products or services, constantly talking about their advantages will bore your customers to death. People really don’t want to hear about how amazing you are – show them instead how amazing their lives can be with your product! Create a desire for your services by learning the customers’ needs, because being a careful listener is the best way to discover their expectations. Invite your recipients to write your product’s story with you – let them share their experience and express thoughts or doubts. Another element of client-centric communication is an immediate reaction to comments and complaints. A company that ignores customers feedback is practically doomed to fail. Make sure to cut out the “me talk” – shine a light on your customers and watch their engagement and loyalty flourish. These three basic savoir-vivre rules are worth implementing in all of your marketing actions. Keep them in mind while using your live webinar software and marketing automation tools, because having good-manners is a true virtue in the world of online communication. Read more: https://www.livewebinar.com/Related: Building an Online Community from Scratch: Essential Strategies for Growth
The questions to ask before you spend a penny on this
Most businesses commit budget to online marketing "etiquette" or compliance work backwards. They run the campaign, get flagged or complained about, then scramble to fix the rules they broke. Ask these questions first and you save yourself the scramble.
Before you sign off spend on any campaign, tool, or agency claiming to handle the "rules and etiquette" side of your marketing, get straight answers to these:
- Whose rules are we following? Platform terms of service, ASA advertising codes, GDPR, PECR for email and cookies, and plain old good manners are four different rulebooks. Ask which one the spend is protecting you against, because "compliant" often means compliant with only one of them.
- What happens if this goes wrong? Get specific. Does a breach mean a warning email, a suspended ad account, a fine, or a Trading Standards letter. If nobody can answer this, they have not thought it through, and neither have you.
- Who owns the data and the list? If an agency or platform is building your audience for you, ask what happens to consent records and opt-ins if you switch providers. Etiquette failures usually surface here first, when someone gets an email they never agreed to.
- Is this scalable without breaking trust? A tactic that works at 500 followers can look aggressive at 50,000. Ask whether the approach is designed to stay polite as volume grows, or whether it only works because nobody's noticed yet.
- Who signs off tone and frequency? Before budget goes anywhere, someone needs to own the decision on how often you message people and how you speak to them. If that's "whoever's free that day," you don't have a plan, you have a risk.
- What's the unsubscribe and complaint process? Ask to see it before you approve spend, not after the first complaint arrives. A slow or clunky opt-out process is the fastest way to turn a small etiquette slip into a formal complaint.
- Does this respect the platform's actual audience norms? LinkedIn, TikTok and email behave differently. Ask whether the campaign has been built for the platform it's running on, or just copied across from somewhere else because it was cheaper to reuse.
None of this is bureaucracy for its own sake. Every one of these questions maps directly to money: fines, wasted ad spend on suspended accounts, or reputational damage that costs more to fix than the campaign was worth. Asking them before you commit budget is not slow, it's the fast route, because it stops you paying twice.
Frequently asked questions
Do these questions apply to small budgets too, or only big campaigns?
They apply at any spend level. A £200 email campaign that ignores consent rules can generate the same fine exposure as a £20,000 one. Scale changes the size of the risk, not whether it exists.
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I build the systems that handle the boring 80 percent, so you get your week back. Done properly, with the human kept in.
Who inside the business should be asking these questions?
Whoever holds the budget sign-off, not just the marketing team. Rules and etiquette failures are a business risk, so finance, legal or a senior decision maker should see the answers before spend is approved, not after.
What's the biggest red flag if an agency can't answer these?
Vague answers about "best practice" with no specifics on platform rules, consent, or complaint handling. If they can't tell you what happens when something goes wrong, they haven't planned for it, and you'll be the one dealing with the fallout.
