Politics, Religion, and Small Business Marketing

Did your parents tell you never to discuss politics and religion? Mine sure did, and I didn't do so for much of my life. But now, it seems like everything is fair game.

People discuss the most private details of the lives with total strangers, and they openly argue about both politics and religion.

Perhaps it's television and the internet that have made the difference. But whatever it is, we're all more free with our opinions.

That's good in some ways. We're exposed to ideas that differ from our own, and if we're smart, we'll at least consider their merits. But in other ways, all this open discussion can be costly.

It appears that many of us can't quite accept that other people have the same right to their opinions as we do. In the past two years I've lost two long-time "friends" over them. Not because I told them they were wrong, but because I stayed silent and refused to agree. One was lost over politics and the other over religion.

On the other hand, I have good friends whose views differ from mine and we get along fine. We respect each other's opinions and don't argue about them.

So what does that have to do with marketing?

I believe we each need to make a conscious choice about revealing either our religious beliefs or our politics when we're in business. You and I may be respectful of other people's choices, but our potential customers may not. Especially right now, with the huge ideological differences between liberals and conservatives, politics could be an issue that would cost us customers.

Fear of losing business prevents many small business people from even supporting candidates for office at the local level - let alone at the State or National level.

If the decision is to keep these opinions and beliefs to ourselves, we need to be very careful. Most of us wouldn't slip and mention politics or religion in our advertising, but it's easy to slip in other places. We might impulsively reply to a comment on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any of the other social sites without thinking that our prospective customers and clients may be reading what we wrote.

Why would you choose to reveal your politics or religion? Because you only want to do business with people who share your views - or at least with people who won't reject you over them.

If you feel so strongly about an issue that you don't want to associate with people who disagree, then it's a good idea to be open about it. Let people know who you are and where you stand before you begin a business relationship that will end in animosity. The most important thing is to think before you act. Consider the impact that revealing this personal information might have.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter who specializes in making people feel good about buying your products or services.

She has extensive experience in writing search engine optimized web copy, e-mail campaigns, direct sales letters, postcards, newsletters, press releases, and more. She is also available for marketing plan creation and editing services.