Digital marketing is the buzzword of the 21st century and every other person wishes to leverage it. The profits that come with practicing digital marketing are manifold.
A Muslim friend of mine who was curious to tap into digital marketing asked me this question – “is digital marketing halal?”
I was a bit taken back by his question at first. Not knowing how to approach this question of his, I did a quick google search.
Guess what? There were plenty of other people wondering the same thing.
If you are reading this then you probably fall under the same category.
Good for you, after all, that I read about this topic, I have the answer for you.
This post will be especially beneficial for my Islamic audience who wish to learn more about digital marketing but don’t know whether, by the norms of Islam, it is permissible to do so or not.
This article will provide answers to all of your questions. To make things easier for you, I’ll share some interesting stats, information, and my personal perspective as someone who has tried and tested digital marketing.
I will do my best to break down information in a concise and easy-to-understand manner for you.
So, let’s dive further into the topic.
Is Digital Marketing Halal?
Digital Marketing is a strategy to reach people on the internet in an effort to promote your goods and services. Ultimately, it is an effective business strategy to help brands attract clients.
In short, there is nothing haram about it. It abides by the norms of Islam. To put it directly for you, digital marketing is completely permissible in Islam.
That’s correct! Digital Marketing is completely legal and you have nothing to fear to try it out for yourself if you follow Islam.
There’s nothing wrong with earning a living by promoting brands through social media as long as your goal is to add value to people’s lives.
You are by no means doing anything immoral.
Keep in mind though to be careful about not engaging in black hat digital marketing, also known as haram digital marketing in Arabic.
What has changed in black hat digital marketing is the emphasis on adding value to people’s lives. It is not ideal or permissible for a person to solely focus on earning money by any means.
Such means are unethical. You should not compromise your integrity for making some extra cash.
In other words, it’s not good if any of the following things happen while you’re practicing digital marketing:
- Promoting products that trick the customers by not delivering on what is promised. Treat these as haram products.
- Fake gurus and influencers who are paid money to give biased reviews are apt examples of unethical digital marketing practices as well.
- Doing incomplete research before promoting products on social media handles. It’s not fair to the customer or the business owner.
- Charging extra money from the customers. This is a complete breach of trust.
- Cheating companies with false traffic or invalid leads.
- Increasing conversions by employing extreme sales techniques.
These are some of the things that new digital marketers should keep in mind if they don’t want to get into the underbelly of the industry.
Many people do these shady things to make more money, but this is completely wrong and unacceptable.
However, it is encouraging to see that there are many ethical people in the space as well. Not all digital marketers employ dubious tactics.
Now to give you a better idea about what I mean by dubious claims, I will show you an example.
The brand, Gerber made unsubstantiated claims that its Good Start Gentle formula prevented children from developing allergies, which could have serious consequences for children with allergies.
Such digital marketing tactics are based on exaggerations at the cost of tricking people and even potentially harming them.
Avoid such tactics. Instead, promote products and services by listing out their pros and doing your best to leave no stone unturned as you carry out the promotional activities.
As a result, before you begin digital marketing, you should exercise caution. This business has both positive and negative aspects.
Digital marketing is more like a service than an advanced business if you choose great products that help people, create value for people, don’t trick people, add value to their lives, and don’t use sketchy marketing techniques.
It’s completely halal and a fantastic way to make money online. Digital marketing is used to grow by some of the world’s largest companies including Apple, Uber, Amazon, and Microsoft.
Is Marketing Halal in Islam?
How can we talk about the daughter without talking about the mother? Got confused?
Well, what I mean is that it’s only legitimate to ask yourself whether marketing itself is halal before raising questions about digital marketing being permissible by the word of Islam.
The business strategy to promote products/services and sell these products/services to clients is marketing.
The promotion of these products can take place on various levels. Introducing special offers, availing discounts, hosting an event, writing a blog post or advertising are some of the ways in which you can promote goods and services.
Digital marketing is just one of the branches of the main thing i.e marketing.
Absolutely yes, marketing is 100% halal. It is permissible by Islam. All you do to do is to practice marketing in an ethical manner without tricking the customers into buying a good/service by propagating unreliable information.
Only if you reap the benefit by spreading misinformation or might I say, misleading the customers, is it haram.
I can understand that you want to gain profit by applying the techniques of marketing to earn a commission for the sales that you make but it’s wrong to scheme someone for your benefit. I’m sure you don’t want to do something like this.
What is Haram in Digital Marketing?
Haram is an Arabic word that means “prohibited.” Haram refers to things that are forbidden in the Quran and Sunnah, things that Muslims cannot do. Such things are considered to be sinful and a direct violation of the Islamic norms.
Now let’s come down to the question that must be probing you – what is haram in digital marketing?
From fake gurus and influencers who are paid to give biased views to companies that don’t stand true to the promises they make are apt examples of what haram entails in digital marketing.
Haram in digital marketing is the unethical practice of misleading customers into buying goods/services that project different from the actual image. In short, the projection does not match the deliverables.
Let me give you a few elaborative examples to shed light on this. Here are examples of haram in digital marketing to look out for:
- Influencers and fake gurus who take commissions for promoting products that they hardly try in the first place and make these products seem like the best thing ever are no less than scammers. Giving a biased view of a product is misleading to customers who place trust in these influencers and gurus.
- Companies that promise results but don’t deliver focus on reaping profit at the expense of the customers who place their trust in them only to realize that it was a total and utter mistake to do so.
- Institutions that promise jobs and income guarantees are also a part of the list of schemers that you can encounter. By employing shady digital marketing tactics, they put up fake testimonials fooling naive people that by doing their course, they will definitely get a high-end job.
My Views On “Is Digital Marketing Halal?”
There is one proverb that resonates true with my belief about a lot of things, the proverb being – “there are two sides of a coin”.
Well, it is keeping this statement in my mind that I would like to give my own perspective on the question of whether digital marketing can be considered halal.
It depends on you and your practice whether you make the strategies of digital marketing amount to halal or haram.
Digital Marketing on its own as a strategy has no evil in it. It lies upon you as a practitioner of this strategy whether you choose to promote goods and services that deliver what they promise by ethical means or focus on reaping the benefits by employing unfair and dubious means.
Digital Marketing is a growing industry, something that you can partake in and leverage. Digital marketing enables organizations and brands to reach a larger audience, expand their business, and generate more revenue.
Everything is becoming digital. Companies in all industries out there are focusing on establishing a strong online presence because that’s where the world is headed.
If you really hone your digital marketing skills, you can actually make a whole lot of money either by starting your own business or by helping already existing businesses.
You can also start your own freelance business and offer various kinds of services for the better. There are many people already doing this!
In short, I encourage you to learn digital marketing and employ the strategies you learn through it to scale your revenue to new heights.
Keep in mind though that you should keep it as neat as possible. Don’t exaggerate and don’t make far-fetching claims that don’t stand true to what they apparently pitch.
In Conclusion
Now that you have reached the end of the article, let me concise it all for you.
Digital Marketing is the skill of the new world and it’s 100% halal to practice digital marketing provided you do not resort to any unethical means.
I have also tried to simplify what the true evil in digital marketing is which is something more to do with a person’s conscience rather than anything else.
My own personal perspective on the topic will guide you into picking up this strategy in a way that does only good and no harm.
Last but not the least, here are some tips for you to practice digital marketing in a completely ethical manner, one that aligns with the Islamic code. So here it is:
- Always add value, regardless of your religion.
- Sell products that stay true to the customer and deliver what they claim.
- Develop trust with others and never promote haram products.
- Find great and exciting companies to collaborate with.
- Respect people’s money and solve their problems.
- Don’t reap benefits by tricking a customer.
So yes, that’s it.
Hope you understood the crux of the matter.
