Internet marketing experts often implement dubious strategies to increase profit rates of the company. Surprisingly, hardly any one talks about it. However, today, we will discuss few popular ‘dark patterns’ (in simple terms, it means unethical strategies) that many web development companies implement these days.

Why people hardly notice unethical strategies?

The unique thing about dark patterns is that they are incorporated in website design cleverly. As a result, users hardly notice them. Let us clarify the issue by discussing an example. Let us assume that I have an e-commerce site and want to increase its profit somehow. If I plan to gain more profit by increasing product costs, chances are that high that users will move on to other sites.

However, if I request the customer to pay $20 extra as ‘order processing fee’, I may succeed in availing greater profits. The customer will think that this is a justifiable charge and will complete the ordering process. Even if the clients find it out, they may think that as compared to registering for checkout process in another site, it is better to pay this small amount.

This example explains the trick applied by evil web designers. In most cases, these dark patterns are so small and subtle that users hardly notice them. And even if they do, they do not consider it as an unjustified demand.

Dark patterns interfere with informed decisions

Dark patterns do not allow users to take informed decisions. For example, a promotional e-mail offers you two options. The first one says, ‘Click here if you would not like to receive special deals and discounts’. The second option declares’ Click here if you would like to receive carefully selected messages, offers, and discounts’.

This example highlights the perfect implementation of dark patterns. The first option uses negative in a way so that it confuses viewers. People who will ignore both the options will give marketing permissions. Those who click at both the options will also permit the company to send mails and deals. People who will click on either, will continue to receive mails.

Dark patterns is strongly associated with forced continuity

Many businesses struggle with the problem of low conversation from free to paid customers. To solve this problem, business owners sometimes opt for the forced continuity strategy. They lure customers by offering free trial that asks for credit card information. With expiry of this free trial period, the person is automatically upgraded to a paid customer.

When it comes to continuation of services, Apple’s MobileMe service adopts an honest approach. It clearly states that at the end of the free trial, customers will have to pay a certain amount of money. Seven days before the trial period expires, they send a mail to the customers, reminding them about the switch. In brief, they provide users with an honest and transparent experience.

Now let us discuss strategies of another company. A famous DVD rental company highlights the switch from free to paid plan in clear words (similar to Apple). However, they do not remind clients about expiry of the trial phase. Some customers would obviously forget about this expiry and it would increase conversation rate of the company.

Of course, some would argue that not sending remainder mails does not make a company fraudulent. Frankly speaking, this argument also contains some logic. At the same time, it is true that sending or not sending reminder mails can affect your conversation rate. The problem lies in the fact that a definite answer to this debate does not exist.

Still, business owners should always remember that to earn trust of the customers, one needs to adopt an honest approach. A sustainable relationship can be created when you consider your interests, along with that of the customers.