The true cost of not complying...
Exactly what the FTC is looking for...
How most are unknowingly breaking the rules...
Plus 4 incredible FREE bonuses with your download...Four words. That’s all it takes to get sued by the FTC, destroy your business, and make your life a living hell.
The problem is most business owners don’t know what the rules are or whether or not they’re breaking them… until now.
In Don’t Say That! FTC attorney Greg Christiansen and digital marketing expert Anik Singal team up to share the good news of compliance - not only can you market your business legally, ethically, and compliantly, but you can also acquire better quality customers and increase conversions at the same time.
Anik’s incident highlights a significant oversight many of us are probably guilty of: not understanding what’s necessary to be compliant (in the FTC’s eyes) in our marketing. It should serve as a crucial wake-up call for all of us in the digital marketing world.
I'm about half way through "Don't Say That!" I originally read it because Anik wrote it. I didn't think it applied to accountants. But oh, it does! This is surprisingly a very easy read despite the legal stuff. I have so far found several things I will start / stop doing. This book is a real eye opener
Disclaimer: All testimonials provided are individual experiences only. Results & experience is not typical. Some individuals may have received a minimus consideration for their testimonial participation.
Worried about getting sued by the FTC, your state’s Attorny General, or another regulatory body?
Have you seen the massive uptick in consumer led class action lawsuits?
Know someone who’s been sued or been the target of an investigation?
Confused about what the “compliance rules” really are?
Have you been watching the government crack down on company after company, and worried who will be next?
This brand new book from Anik Singal (21+ year digital marketer) and Greg Christiansen (20+ year FTC attorney) reveals the exact steps to take, mistakes to avoid and rules to follow so marketers don’t end up as the FTC’s next target...
You’ll discover everything from:
It’s no exaggeration that the FTC and other regulatory bodies have its sights set on the marketing industry. And they’re only getting more aggressive in 2024 (more on that below).
After dealing with 18 months of hell from the FTC himself, Anik has made it his mission to help fellow marketers and business owners avoid the same costly mistakes.
His mission with this book is to help you market EFFECTIVELY and COMPLIANTLY without seeing a major impact on your conversions...
In this Masterclass, you’ll discover…
Greg and I took the BIGGEST takeaways from the book and put them all into this FREE Masterclass.
There’s no better way to start your compliance journey.
When it comes to marketing and advertising practices, there are countless areas of focus for the FTC, State Governments and even Class-Action attorneys.
And unfortunately, some of the most common marketing practices (that EVERYONE uses) are actually the biggest violations.
And if you slip up AT ALL, you could find yourself the target of investigation. (And no, ignorance of the law is not a defense).
The FTC takes a fine-tooth comb to common marketing practices like...
Yes, the things almost every single marketer uses in their day-to-day life is considered non-compliant by the government.
It’s truly astonishing how LITTLE our industry knows about this...
If you’re a digital marketer, business owner, copywriter, sales director, MLM, information marketer, supplement seller, health & fitness coach, consultant or just want to make sure your marketing is 100% compliant
This book is for you.
Whether you...
In this book, we will show you how to handle ALL of these compliantly and avoid the most common mistakes that have sunk countless companies in the past.
Take my story as a warning. I thought I was doing EVERYTHING the right way. And it turns out some of the most common (and small) mistakes ended up costing me MILLIONS...
Disclaimer: All testimonials provided are individual experiences only. Results & experience is not typical. Some individuals may have received a minimus consideration for their testimonial participation.
For 20 years, I dedicated my life to building an amazing company and proudly serving my customers. When I saw others get taken down by the FTC, I always thought “oh, I’m not like them, I’m compliant and I’m good to my customers. That’s not me.”
...until they decided they disagreed with me.
Let me tell you a few stats about my business (before we got under investigation by the FTC):
And yet, I still got sued by the FTC.
We didn’t have an issue with complaints or unhappy customers. We had no problems with refunds or chargebacks.
None of that mattered...
It turns out that there is so much we business owners don’t know. Yes, some of us hire the “big firms” and think that their logo is some kind of bullet-proof protection. It isn’t. Over the last 15 years, I probably invested close to $1 Million in legal fees.
Others either never hired a legal firm or bothered to get any advice whatsoever.
...never did I learn the things that actually mattered. The things that ACTUALLY got me in trouble were never covered directly.
So, even after spending $1M+ on compliance reviews and legal advice, thousands of happy customers, no complaints and a full-time paralegal in the company, I STILL became a target of the FTC.
It ended up costing me millions of dollars in fines, legal costs, forensic team hiring, opportunity cost and lost profits.
I’ve made it my mission to help prevent the same thing from happening to other online marketers.
*In my opinion, my case with the FTC cost me roughly $15 million. I came to this number after factoring in the lawyer’s fees, the settlement, the lost opportunity cost and the impact to my business. That doesn’t even cover over a hundred sleepless nights, PTSD and a forever fear of receiving certified letters or FedEx packages.
The fines the FTC levies against companies are painful enough. Personally, I settled with the FTC for $2.5 million.
And that just scratched the surface of what I really paid...
An FTC investigation can disrupt EVERY SINGLE PART of your business.
Once the FTC begins pursuing you, you can expect all kinds of things...
Far too many people ignore FTC compliance and take an “ignorance is bliss” approach.
Don’t be that person.
Because there’s one thing the FTC has made clear, it does NOT matter if you’re a big company or a small business. If they decide to come after you, YOU’RE the one left with all the problems...
I’ve been in business for over 21+ years now and worked with numerous attorneys.
NONE of them have the experience dealing with the FTC and other regulatory agencies like Greg Christiansen.
After almost 20 years of practice, Greg has a wide range of experience on all types of regulatory issues concerning marketing companies and federal compliance.
He’s seen countless cases and tracked nearly every case the FTC closes(almost daily).
It’s no exaggeration to say that...
That said, there ARE things that can be done to protect you and your business.
Unfortunately, the FTC does not give marketers that specific advice.
Because of that, I asked Greg to help me co-author this book and help protect other businesses from going through the pain that I did.
Make no mistake - the FTC does not “rest” when it comes to compliance. In fact, they’re getting more aggressive...
NOTHING can bring your business (and your life) to a screeching halt like a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission or another Regulatory Agency
There’s just one problem, most businesses think they’re 100% compliant - until that FedEx package from the FTC arrives at the doorstep.
Since 2020, the FTC has seized more than $1.5 BILLION from businesses and individuals it claims have violated consumer protection and competition laws.
In FY 2023 alone, they brought in more $342 MILLION.
Worst of all, the agency has considerably ramped up how much money it’s seeking from companies. Make no mistake, the FTC is extremely active and is aggressively bringing actions and investigations.
And it’s not just the government agencies that businesses need to worry about. Consumers have been filing reports at an incredible rate over the past 4 years.
Since 2020, the FTC has seized more than $1.5 BILLION from businesses and individuals it claims have violated consumer protection and competition laws.
In FY 2023 alone, they brought in more $342 MILLION.
Worst of all, the agency has considerably ramped up how much money it’s seeking from companies. Make no mistake, the FTC is extremely active and is aggressively bringing actions and investigations.
And in the last couple of years, the FTC has greatly modified their approach.
Due to some rulings in the Supreme Court in 2021, they are now pursuing cases in a new way. Given these changes are recent, many are not really aware about how to adjust to them.
Of course, you’re probably saying to yourself.
Well, we hate to break it to you. That’s what everyone thinks.
In reality, a vast majority of companies are actively breaking FTC rules - and they don’t even know it...
If it feels to you like MOST direct marketers are non-compliant, your assumption is correct.
Over the past few months, my team has done a DEEP DIVE on the entire direct marketing industry. We’ve researched HUNDREDS of companies to see just how common violations are among both the big brands and the small ones.
What we found was astonishing...
Of the 500 companies we researched, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM was flagged as committing compliance violations when we scanned their site. Yes, you read that right.
Now ask yourself. Is your website and marketing ACTUALLY compliant? Do you feel confident?
Disclaimer: We completed this study ourselves and it was completed by selecting 500 direct marketing sales websites in various niches. We used multiple networks, sources, searches and were as fair as possible. We did absolutely nothing to try and find only the non-compliant sites. We believe this is a representative sample of the direct marketing industry.
We hear it time and time again from marketers and it’s one of the most dangerous “myths” out there...
The FTC doesn’t JUST go over the big companies like Amazon, Facebook, Herbalife and other billion-dollar firms.
The Federal Trade Commission DOES NOT discriminate about the size of the company it targets for its investigations. There are countless examples of the FTC filing suits against companies with under 5,000 total customers.
In 2022 the FTC closed cases against companies with TINY amounts of eligible customers like...
The list goes on and on. Yes, they target the big companies, but just because you’re a “small company” with only a few hundred customers DOES NOT mean you’re safe from the FTC...
Getting compliant can be a process (and we can help), but it is NOTHING compared to the expense it takes to DEFEND yourself against the FTC and the United States Government.
Worst of all, there is no “warning” from the government. They just come after you.
By the time they’re knocking on your door, it’s already too late. Living with the mentality that you’ll deal with it when it happens is literally gambling with your future. Everything you’ve world for. Everything you’ve built.
Personally, my own expenses were staggering. I spent...
And that doesn’t account for...
Putting your head in the sand and hoping the government doesn’t come after you is one of the most EXPENSIVE mistakes you can ever make...
Would you rather gamble with your future, or insure it?
I get it. You see every other marketer out there making outrageous claims in all of their marketing materials and they get off scot free. They do all kinds of non-compliant things...
It’s fair to wonder if anything actually is compliant out there. Well, it’s true...
For the last 100 years (at least), direct marketers have just been copying one another. Year after year they’ve been raising the bar on non-compliance by just copying bad habits.
We’ve been trained to think NOTHING is compliant because these bad habits we’ve been copying have all been non-compliant.
But if you step back and learn the rules and start applying them correctly, you’ll quickly learn that you CAN market compliantly.
Plus, compliant marketing isn’t only possible - it’s the ONLY path forward.
The FTC is on a mission to crack down on unfair advertising practices, and sometimes it feels like they take these cases personally. If you pay attention to their press releases, you’ll notice that every single week, more companies are being targeted.
Like I mentioned before, the FTC alone has collected $1.5 BILLION from companies since 2020.Companies of ALL sizes and in every industry are being investigated, sometimes for even the most “minor offenses.”
You can't avoid this.
They're coming one way or the other.
Clean up!
Greg truly can’t count the number of times he’s heard this from marketers over his 20+ year career in the regulatory space.
Not only is that a lazy excuse to not get compliant, it can also ruin your business and destroy everything you’ve built.
With this book, we’re here to make one thing clear.
Compliant copy DOES sell. You just need to…
Just take a look at some of Greg’s biggest clients…
They heard what I went through and decided it was time to go full compliant.
From their videos, to their sales calls to every step. They not only are not just surviving, they're performing better than before. They're getting better customers, and their conversions are still solid.
The founder was sweating bullets about going compliant. He was convinced his marketing would NOT convert.
Well, it took him a little less than 2 months to drastically improve his compliance but sure enough, the conversions are great and his sales calls are much cleaner.
Not only is his marketing more compliant, he feels much better about how he's treating his customers.
Not only did he create a highly compliant webinar. He TESTED it side by side with his “old” webinar for a $3,500 price point.
Guess what? The compliant one converts JUST as well.
Of course, he was able to do this after working with us, learning the rules and then making sure every compliant guideline was met.
In these examples, we’ve protected their names for privacy reasons. But we want you to know that compliant marketing not only works. It's better.
Compliant marketing can absolutely sell to your audience.
Hell, I know I did. My company had an “A” rating by the BBB for YEARS. We had happy customers and very low refund rates.
But there are 2 things that most marketers don’t realize…
The government relies on something called the “Sentinel System” designed to help them catch marketers who aren’t following all the rules. And there are far more complaints in this system than anyone realizes.
And no, you can’t access this system.
Since 2016, more than 16 MILLION complaints have been filed to the Sentinel System from consumers around the country. And no, there’s no “minimum threshold” of complaints that you need to meet to be investigated.
If the government comes across your website, ads, emails (or whatever) and they find you breaking the rules - they’re coming for you. End of story.
No amount of happy customers or glowing reviews will change their opinion of you.
It sucks, but sometimes it just comes down to bad luck…
Most marketers think they’re one of the “good guys” and they won’t have any issues. Just a wake up call, the FTC doesn’t care. They ONLY care about the representations and the impression your clients walk away with after viewing your claims.
Think of it this way - non-compliant marketing is like speeding.
You can be the Mother Teresa of your space, but if you're speeding and get pulled over, you're getting a speeding ticket.
They don't care. Good. Bad. It doesn't matter - the rules are the rules. And you being a “good guy” won’t make a difference whatsoever
Actually, the investigators barely even talk to you! They just review your marketing - YOU are irrelevant. Only the things you say in your marketing are relevant.
Back to that speeding analogy - there’s one big difference. When you get caught being non-compliant, you don’t get a minor ticket.
Your business, your life and everything else comes crashing down at once.
Think of every little tiny embellishment or missing substantiation as “speeding.” Well, every single one of those is a chance to land on a regulatory agency’s sights.
There are so many regulatory agencies that can bring your business to a screeching halt. We’re pulling the curtain back on the biggest rules and violations to be aware of and how to avoid them.
The true cost of not complying absolutely dwarfs the fines companies end up paying. Most never account for the months of discovery costs, extensive attorney fees, missed opportunity cost, and the unrelenting toll the stress can take on your mental and physical health.
We cover the BIGGEST violations we’re constantly seeing from marketers as well as the areas the government is focusing on the most. We’ll also dive deep into the exact strategies marketers are using now to stay compliant and convert. Make no mistake, compliant marketing can be extremely effective when done right.
Gauge your risk level of being sued and find out what parts of compliance you're weak in. If you can’t assess your own blind spots, there is just no way to become more compliant...
In this bonus, we’ll help you...
With this FREE BONUS, you’ll know exactly where your company stands, and where you can improve...
Radically change your compliance in 90 minutes or LESS with this On-Demand Training. No hours (or days) long seminars or courses. This is the BIGGEST and most common training issues we’ve seen again and again from marketers...
In this bonus, we’ll reveal...
This training should be mandatory for all marketing teams in 2024...
Print and hand this checklist to anyone who writes your sales materials. They can keep it next to them and assure that they're writing compliant marketing!
Remember, compliance involves EVERYONE on your team. If your employees or team members are non-compliant, it’s YOUR business that’s at risk.
In this FREE bonus, you’ll discover...
Don’t write copy (or have anyone else write your copy) without this checklist...
You’ll get access to our “Book Buyers Only” community to support each other in getting more compliant with the FTC laws!
Stay up-to-date on the latest trends, strategies and insights from our community of EXPERT and compliant marketers.
You’ll get...
We’re on a mission to build the world’s largest community of compliant marketers...
In this exclusive Masterclass (only for book buyers) we reveal the 15 FTC rules & penalties that no one ever talks about.
I had NO IDEA most of these rules existed or that these penalties could happen to me until I started getting investigated by the FTC myself. I purposefully made this Masterclass so you can get a massive jumpstart on everything we cover in the book.
In this Masterclass, you’ll discover…
Greg and I took the BIGGEST takeaways from the book and put them all into this 90-minute Masterclass. There’s no better way to start your compliance journey.
We highly encourage you to get extra copies of “Don’t Say That!” for your entire team. Copywriters. Marketing Directors and Managers. CEOs. Sales Directors.
Compliance Officers. Remember, your team is just as critical to your company’s compliance as you are.
We’re here to help your entire team!
When you get your digital copy for just $7, you’ll get INSTANT access to the book + all 4 of our amazing bonuses!
When you buy 1 paperback copy, you’ll also get instant access to all 4 bonuses!
When you buy 3 paperback copies today, you’ll also get...
