The challenges of marketing a privacy-first VPN
From a marketer’s perspective, working at an ultra privacy-focused VPN company isn’t easy. Since joining AzireVPN, I’ve learned the hard way that many common marketing tools are simply off-limits. Read more about my experience and unique challenges of promoting a leading privacy-first VPN company!
AzireVPN is a company that takes its privacy focus incredibly seriously. That means no marketing automation tools, email marketing or social media management tools, even surveying tools – anything that would allow a third party to track our customers’ or potential customers’ data is off the table. In other words, tools of convenience like Google Analytics, which are staples and make up to 90% of daily tasks for most marketers, – they are simply not an option for us.
My name is Darta, and before joining AzireVPN, I spent over half a decade working in marketing for various companies in the telecommunications sector. I thought I had a good grasp of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to marketing highly technical services and products. However, joining AzireVPN opened my eyes to an aspect of marketing I hadn’t fully considered before: ethical practice. Since ethics aligns closely with online privacy, I’d like to share my experiences, the unique challenges, and ultimately – the rewarding moments that come with marketing in a privacy-first environment.
What privacy means for marketing
Let me paint you a picture. Beyond AzireVPN's strict no-logging policy, owning and personally overseeing all of its servers worldwide, and offering anonymous payment options, we also run all of our day-to-day systems in-house. From our ticket support system and website analytics to our email infrastructure – AzireVPN relies solely on open-source or custom-built software hosted on its own servers.
Need to send out an automated email to thousands of customers or analyze the results of a complex ongoing marketing campaign? Imagine not being able to rely on the most common, convenient one-stop-shop marketing solutions for these tasks! Not so easy anymore, right?
Coming from a traditional marketing background, adapting to the workflow at AzireVPN was definitely a challenge for me at first. I had to invest a lot of time and creativity into developing workarounds and solutions for marketing our service and spreading the word about AzireVPN without relying on third-party tools. But I also quickly realized that our unwavering commitment to honesty and transparency in all aspects of our business – including marketing – is crucial, and might even serve as a marketing strategy in itself.
When you sign up for AzireVPN, we don’t ask for your name, address, or any personal details. You can provide an email address for account recovery, but it’s completely optional. The backend data we have on our customers is limited to a username (which you choose yourself), an email address (if you decide to provide one), the account creation date, and the account expiration date. If the account has been inactive for six months, even this data is deleted. After that, we couldn’t contact you even if we wanted to.
What does it mean for marketing? Well, simply put, we have a very limited way to contact our existing customers – not to mention potential new clients.
Strict privacy protocols = limited promotional potential?
Many companies make a lot of money by taking advantage of people’s data. Digital marketing experts have mastered the art of using consumer data to achieve better results, target potential buyers, continuously bombarding them with ads across all platforms. Is it fair? Probably not – not to the consumer, at least. But that’s what works in today’s marketing landscape.
AzireVPN has made me stop and think about the ethics of the marketing industry in general. At AzireVPN, we believe in honest marketing. Buying false reviews to mislead potential customers or tying them into subscription plans they can’t easily cancel might work short term – but will only get you so far.
So instead of using tracking ads and making empty promises, our goal is to empower people to make an informed decision when choosing a VPN. That's why you’ll never see us paying influencers to make fake claims about our service. That’s just not how we operate as a business. We do our best to clearly present our benefits without pretending to be something we’re not – ultimately, it’s up to you, the consumer, to decide if our service meets your needs.
I can truly say that my time at AzireVPN has changed the way I think about marketing altogether. While it may require more time and creativity, I truly believe that successful marketing strategies can coexist with digital privacy and ethical practices. Moreover, it has been a highly rewarding journey to witness the growth of the AzireVPN brand through solely ethical marketing practices. I know that most of our clients share our values and genuinely appreciate the service we provide, and that’s an incredible feeling.
And that's not all. One of the best parts of this journey has been seeing my technical colleagues create and design custom in-house solutions for the tools that I used to take for granted. Whether it’s email or social media marketing tools, website or app functionality – it’s truly incredible to see what can be achieved without relying on third-party services. Minimizing the risk of data leaks or third-party interference is always an added bonus.
Whenever I’ve needed a specific marketing tool, my colleagues have gone above and beyond to deliver exactly what is needed. For example, when I needed to send out a survey, the AzireVPN co-owner and software developer custom-built an anonymous feedback form on our own website in just a few days time. The new AzireVPN website redesign, by the way, was built entirely in-house, too.
What kind of marketing do we do?
If you’d like to learn more about our marketing practices, feel free to visit our About page.
In a nutshell – we share updates on social media (X, Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and Reddit) and publish articles on the AzireVPN blog. We take our user privacy seriously and will might use the email addresses of those clients who have added it, to share the most essential information with you. We promise to keep you informed about potential server issues, new features, and occasionally, special deals. You can always choose to unsubscribe – just remember that if you withdraw your email address, we won’t be able to reach out unless you contact us directly.
We’ve also recently launched a new live video series, which you can find on our official YouTube channel, featuring all our past and upcoming videos.
In conclusion
As mentioned, at AzireVPN, we are committed to not making false promises or exaggerating what a VPN can do. Our transparency extends beyond our server infrastructure to how we handle your data, market our service, and operate as a company.
Throughout this journey, as a marketing manager, I have faced the challenge of balancing transparency with the need to protect the privacy of employees who prefer not to share their personal information publicly. I believe we’ve successfully navigated this balance!
Working at AzireVPN has taught me that choosing a VPN is about more than just finding the fastest server or the lowest price. It’s about trusting that your provider has your best interests at heart. And with AzireVPN, I know exactly what’s happening with my data.
Privacy first, no exceptions.
AzireVPN was created in Stockholm, Sweden in 2012 with a mission of becoming a market-leading VPN service that helps people avoid censorship and interception on the internet. With WireGuard, Blind Operator and zero logs policy, today AzireVPN is one of the leading privacy-oriented VPN services with owned and dedicated servers worldwide.
AzireVPN is part of Malwarebytes, a global leader in real-time cyber protection.
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