Book Brief: Permission Marketing
Web Marketing Today, Issue 59, August 1, 1999
Permission Marketingby Seth Godin
Simon & Schuster, 1999
Hardcover, 255 pages
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and to clearly define Godin's "new" idea he needs to caricature its opposite: "Interruption Marketing ... because the key to each and every ad is to interrupt what the viewers are doing in order to get them to think about something else." Advertising clutter is getting worse, he observes, forcing advertisers to work even harder to capture attention over the din of thousands of ad images per day. "Permission Marketing" on the other hand, "offers the consumer an opportunity to volunteer to be marketed to." Once consumers have given permission for this marketing, they're likely to be much more receptive to the message.
Godin sees "five steps to dating your customer," to gradually gaining increased trust and a stronger relationship:
- Offer the prospect an incentive to volunteer, to "raise his hand." A prize, airline mileage points, the promise of free information, etc. could be the customer's incentive to tell the marketer, "send me more information about this."
- Using the attention offered by the prospect, offer a curriculum over time, teaching the consumer about your product or service.
- Reinforce the incentive to guarantee that the prospect maintains the permission.
- Offer additional incentives to get even more permission from the consumer.
- Over time, leverage the permission to change consumer behavior toward profits.
While Permission Marketing isn't specifically an "Internet book," the issues it raises are the core agenda of Internet marketers. Permission marketing is closely related to the issues of spam (no permission given), opt-in e-mail marketing (permission to e-mail), privacy (permission sometimes assumed and trust breached), and the current "holy grail" of one-to-one marketing. Godin comes with broad experience in both traditional and Internet marketing, including an MBA in marketing from Stanford, success in founding Yoyodyne, and his current position as VP of Direct Marketing for Yahoo!
"You can't build a one-to-one relationship with a customer," says Godin, "unless the customer explicitly agrees to the process." It's important that the marketer carefully judge the level of permission given by a customer and take pains never to violate this level of trust by moving ahead without receiving greater permission.
This level varies. A low level may be permission to send information. Another level may be permission to send products on approval. If you can get to permission to renew automatically unless a service is cancelled, the profits are substantial. Permission could even be granted to do whatever the vendor considers necessary to meet the customer's needs (e.g., permission granted a physician and hospital by a patient).
The book includes the expected "Everything You Know About Marketing on the Web Is Wrong" chapter, case studies (both positive and negative, both traditional and Internet), a 10-question checklist to evaluate a permission marketing program, 10 frequently asked questions about permission and their answers, and a list of the 10 first steps necessary to get started.
Is any of this new? Not really. But Godin has done us all a service by bringing clarity to the crucial issue of customer permission in the marketing process. And, oh yes. Interruption marketing is still necessary -- as the first step of interrupting the customer long enough to get his permission.
You may purchase Permission Marketing at a discount from Amazon.com using this link.
