Ethical Marketing Policy

Platinum is a change agent for people. We share our knowledge and expertise to create a positive transformation in the lives of our stakeholders.

We are committed to being educational leaders towards inclusive, compliant and environmentally sustainable development.

Our commitment to the above is based on a foundational belief that companies, and their marketing, should be honest and that marketers should not take advantage of anyone’s personal data. This policy statement lays out the ethical marketing practices we follow at Platinum Property Partners and the commitments we have made to ensure that our client work meets or exceeds the highest ethical standards of our industry.

HONESTY IN MARKETING

As ethical marketers, we commit to absolute honesty in our marketing for our own campaigns and for customers and partner-driven projects.

We promise to:

  • Never use doctored reviews & testimonials to promote our products and services
  • Always provide factually accurate descriptions of our products and services
  • Always use real and honest case-studies from our clients to advertise the impact our products and services have had
  • Never directly market to contacts who have unsubscribed or expressed no interest in our products or services

ONGOING REFLECTIONS

It is easy to claim that our efforts are honest, however it takes discipline, rigor, and at times internal conflict to ensure honesty in marketing. We ask ourselves the following questions during campaign strategy and execution:

  • Are we clearly communicating our product or service’s value without exaggerating or misleading our key audiences?
  • Are we using language that honestly communicates the features and benefits of our products and services?
  • Are we accurately quoting our customers, partners, and team when we share reviews or testimonials?
  • Is our use of data and examples honest and accurate when promoting our features, benefits, or the impact of our products and services?
  • Is there internal pressure to communicate dishonest information within your marketing and communications coming from team members or the leadership of your company or organisation? If so, we will push back or disengage from the project.

REJECTING GREENWASHING

When a business exaggerates their positive impact to gain a marketing advantage or uses “feel good” marketing to cover up or distract from negative outcomes that their core business model is having in other areas–socially or environmentally.

Impact washing is a broad topic that includes:

  • Exaggerating impact by inflating numbers, cherry-picking data, or focusing on stories that aren’t representative of overall outcomes;
  • Communicating false promises or making unrealistic claims about expected results;
  • Sharing stories or creating impact initiatives that aren’t rooted in an authentic mission or intention for good–but purely for the marketing benefits;
  • Using a social impact initiative to distract from negative social or environmental problems caused by their core processes, products, or services.

We promise to:

  • Remain honest and transparent about the social and environmental impacts of ours and our client’s work.
  • Review marketing and communications strategies and tactics to ensure that they are not engaging in impact-washing.

PERMISSION-BASED EMAIL MARKETING

The term “permission marketing” was originated by marketing thought leader Seth Godin in his 1999 book by the same name to describe marketing where the recipient of the marketing messages provides permission to receive marketing materials.

We promise to:

  • Create value with free, educational, and informative content (blogs, video content, online publications, classes, social media posts and infographics)
  • Ensure that users receive marketing content specific to the original opt-in intent
  • We commit to being GDPR compliant

COMMIT TO CULTURAL SENSITIVITY IN CAMPAIGNS

Many marketing campaigns and messages have the potential to be insensitive. It takes a combination of self-awareness and inclusion of others in the creative process to avoid marketing campaigns that are insensitive.

We promise to:

  • Never exploit people in need within our marketing channels to elicit an emotional response and drive engagement and/or donations from our audience
  • Take steps to avoid any exploitation, appropriation, or stereotyping of underrepresented or historically oppressed people or groups within marketing content.
  • Promote cultural sensitivity to all staff in the form of internal training to increase awareness and inclusiveness

WE COMMIT TO ETHICAL DIGITAL ADVERTISING

Our Approach to Ethical Advertising Includes the following considerations:

  • False advertising: If an advertisement makes untrue claims about a product or services or clearly misrepresents what is being offered then it is false advertising which is clearly an unethical marketing tactic.
  • Advertorial Adverts: We will stride to be transparent about our paid and organic adverts across marketing channels. We will be clear about any influencer and affiliate marketing within our marketing campaigns
  • Pop-ups, pop-unders and modal windows: Pop ups or pop unders (that create new tabs or windows behind the main browser window) are now widely considered unethical marketing tactics. The modal window is a term for using similar techniques within your own website where the pop up is part of your own web page. Modal windows are often used for contact forms, email signups and other strategies. We will:
  • Limit our use of each of the above
  • Ensure they are always easy to close
  • Use them only in ways that offer clear value

We Practice and Encourage the Following Best Practices for White Hat SEO and Content Marketing:

  • Link building – promoting links to us with valuable content and using PR/partnerships to build these links
  • 404 pages – ensure they are well branded with clear navigation
  • User first – creating content and value that aligns with our mission and their needs
  • Clear navigation/red-directs – to help users find the right content/information
  • Remain honest and transparent across our content and SEO optimisation

Black Hat SEO: Tactics that We Avoid and Discourage

  • Purchasing links for link building (unless included in partnerships with online brokers etc)
  • Hidden content and links that only search engines can see
  • Automated, stolen or plagiarised content generation – Using content scraping technology, AI content development, or direct content theft to generate high volumes of content to build your site’s size and perceived authority
  • Keywords stuffing, over optimization

WE COMMIT TO UPDATE THESE PRACTICES AS THE INDUSTRY EVOLVES

We expect for ethical marketing practices to continue to evolve along with the technologies marketers use to discover, reach, and engage audiences. The line that separates ethical from unethical marketing practices can shift rapidly as major online platforms such as Google, Facebook, and other search and social applications roll out updates and new options for data-driven targeting. We will continue to monitor the state of the field across different marketing channels and tactics and update our practices accordingly.

QUESTIONS AND FEEDBACK

We always strive to do the right thing for our clients and adhering to these ethical practices is part of that work. If you have questions or feedback to share that will help us do better, we encourage you to reach out and let us know. Please contact us using our website contact form for any of the following:

  • To request information
  • To provide feedback
  • To access, edit, or delete personal information we may have about you (see our Privacy Notice and Cookie Policy)
  • To register a complaint