Dark Patterns: The Hidden Manipulations of Digital Marketing and Their Impact on Consumer Trust

In today’s digital world, businesses are constantly looking for ways to capture attention and drive consumer behaviour. While some marketing tactics are ethical and designed to benefit both brands and consumers, others manipulate users into making decisions they didn’t intend. These tactics are known as dark patterns, and while they may provide short-term gains, they can lead to long-term consequences for businesses. I recently had the opportunity to speak at the Canadian Email Summit 2024 in Toronto and I wanted to share some the key distinctions we explored during my session.

What Are Dark Patterns?

The term “dark patterns” was coined by UX designer Harry Brignull in 2010 to describe design strategies that deceive users into taking actions they wouldn’t otherwise choose. Unlike ethical design, which focuses on creating positive, transparent user experiences, dark patterns are aimed at confusing, tricking, or manipulating users, who are usually on a mission of their own.

Dark patterns can be subtle or overt, but they share a common goal: to benefit the business at the expense of the user’s informed decision-making.

While users may feel manipulated or frustrated, these tactics often help marketers boost key performance indicators (KPIs) such as clicks, conversions, and email sign-ups. However, as consumers become more aware and critical of these strategies, the long-term damage to trust and brand loyalty can outweigh any short-term KPI benefits, that do not always increase sales.

Think about this for a minute; if you select a KPI – clicks for example, and your campaign objective was to generate sales or leads, things can get quite messy when your focus shifts to number of clicks. Decisions start to shift to tactics that drive clicks instead of sales or leads. Real campaigns results decrease while we are chasing clicks. You are now doing things TO the prospect rather than FOR them. It happens right before our eyes.

We operate with simple filters. In this case…

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