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This subject has been close to my heart since I stepped into the world of digital marketing or Internet Marketing as many call it.

Transparency as we all know is the mainstay of all relationships be it personal or business relations. The digital world has brought to the fore the need for increased transparency or rather transparency itself. Given that the Internet is a huge minefield of data which everyone has access to, transparency should be a given in any association, right?. But unfortunately that really is not the case. There are many out there who still feel safe under the shroud of privacy. This has been a major hurdle for the growth of Internet advertising especially in India. Recently I have been glad to notice seen some Digital Marketing practitioners come forth in educating the client before embarking on providing Internet Marketing solutions.

At virtual snipers our mission is to educate first and then create custom solutions for clients. Whether it is SEO, SEM, Web Design, Social media or any other solutions clients seek, we first ensure that the client fully understands the problem and the solution. In most cases you will come across clients who think they know all about the Internet but did not have the time to understand and thus gave it a miss. Sure businessmen and decision makers have heard of google and yahoo ads, facebook and twitter, linkedin and orkut but there seems to be very little they know about how best to leverage these for their marketing requirements.

So what does transparency really do?

Of te many positives of Transparency an important trait is that it helps build credibility. For a Digital Marketer, knowing that the person on the other side can verify what you are talking adds impetus to being frank and honest. The fact is that your pitch to the client maybe contradicted by a competitor and this may lead a conflict you do not to get into. Educating the client will only lead to a better understanding between both parties and thus lead to better campaign management.

Transparency is a great booster and motivational tool. When your teams are kept well informed of the company’s activities, the opportunities and the pitfalls, a deeper sense of belonging sets in. Equity takes a back seat and you see teams more engrossed in ensuring that the planned objectives are met and the organization grows. Transparency is a great leveler and helps intra team bonding resulting in above par deliverables to clients thus adding to the organisations goodwill. To the clients a honest agency matters more than just an agency who deliver and not share.

Transparency also leads to challenges. The industry you are operating in may not really fancy your approach. There could be more critics than fans. But then building businesses with string values and ethics is never easy.

Today we deal with huge amounts of content and data and your partners will expect you to screen these and bring the very best solutions for them. Such solutions will need explanations and if you are not transparent in yours then there will be doubts about your approach and integrity.

There will be occasions when you may not know something which the client has come across and this is nothing to be worried about, the Internet is changing every moment and it’s impossible to keep tabs and you need to tell the clients so.

Transparency also means the need to face and deal with criticism and problems without delay. Delayed responses or feelings of ‘I wish this would go away’ will lead to more complex and sometimes difficult to resolve situations. The ability to accept mistakes and taking the onus of corrective action will not only reinforce your partners faith in you but will also lead more respect from internal teams.

Transparency has to do with every action and reaction and thus calls for a dedicated approach through the troughs and peaks of business. There is so much more to transparency and I will try to share more of my thoughts on this blog.