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How To Prevent Marketing Lawsuits

Which Would You Prefer?

Due Diligent Research or Get Sued?

In our previous post article we talked about the benefits of Blogs and how big business was learning about what consumers really wanted from the likes of kids.

Now I want to switch gears and talk about what I call the heart of any promotional information you produce about your company, product or service.

In this article I want to introduce the topic of why proving your claims is the key to gaining respect and committed clients.

Which Would You Prefer?
Due Diligent Research Or Get Sued?

A couple of weeks after it had gone through edits and fact-checking, I was notified that the information I provided in the article/whitepaper was inconsistent with the editor’s findings. In other words, the editor accused me of providing inaccurate statistics and that I was liable for giving wrong information. The editor stated that I could be sued for misrepresentation!

Here’s your first warning: The content your provide in any written form, especially your statistics and commentary to prove your claims, must be accurate.

But don’t let this warning scare you.

The truth is proof is an absolute essential to guarantee your readers believe what you have to offer. However, you know as well as I do that it must be accurate and not made-up.

The Secret of Proof: How to prevent lawsuits and why you need the almighty proof in your marketing, web, or any general information copy.

You have to give your prospect PROOF! There’s no way around this.

You must prove to your clients that what you say is true. And you have to prove it to his/her satisfaction.

Here’s some ideas of how to provide proof:

You’re going to tell him some details about how your infra-black gizmo works the moment he pushes the start switch. You will show how little electrical power it uses in first drive, compared to other similar products. And you will tell him how your machine reduces manual labour and you can double and triple your production as a result. So now how do you prove these claims?

How will your prospect know that you are a reliable source of information?

You want your reader to believe every word you say, so you have to establish CREDIBILITIY. Here are two key ways.

• Use reliable and believable sources. Testimonials can provide that type of reliability. Use testimonials from your real-life people.

• Get information from qualified sources like the manufacturer, the president, or an engineer who know the product and can verify what you say is true.

Adding proof works to increase your credibility.

This is where the “real” statistics and proof comes in handy.

How To Establish Real Credibility

Where do you find up-to-date research that’s reliable?

• Subscribe to credible journals of the content you are producing.
  
• Do an internet search. However, really consider the source when searching on the net. Those sites that end in .edu or .gov are generally more credible. Here are a few other web sources. Proquest, Ebscohost and Infotrac are highly recommended.
  
• Don’t trust the new wave sources like Wikipedia. Why? Wikipedia is the no-cost encyclopedia that relies on volunteers for its articles. Anyone can add or edit articles on Wikipedia so accuracy is an issue. In a study by Nature magazine, researchers found 162 errors in Wikipedia articles compared to 136 errors in the same articles in the encyclopedia.

Research is critical. Giving your clients the best information is important. Not only for their well-being, but also for your own credibility.

I hope you found this interesting. Please comment if you have experiences of your own about how you establish credibility with your clients.

Great job today!

Patricia Ogilvie,
Copywriter, Blogger, Business Consultant

P.S. Did I get sued? No. And here’s why. What I did was supply complete proof for each claim I made. I added the proof as sources from where I researched my statistics. So I proved that my research was credible. However, where I went wrong was my sources lied. That’s where deeper due diligence is required. What I learned was not to trust everything I read - research the research is almost the norm now. There are far too many sources of information due to the web presence. So be careful.