Permission MarketingSeth Godin

Chapter Two

Interruption Marketing- Overwhelms consumers with irrelevant informationWastes our most coveted commodity, time

Permission Marketing- Offers the consumer an opportunity to volunteer to be

marketed to- Encourages consumers to participate in a long-term,

interactive marketing campaign

- Consumers are rewarded in some way for paying attention to increasingly relevant messages

The Basics

Chapter Two

- Permission marketers turn clutter to their advantage.  - When there's an abundance of any commodity, the value of that commodity plummets. - Universal scarcity is time and consumers are willing to pay handsomely to save time. - Permission Marketing cuts through the clutter and allows a marketer to speak to prospects as friends, not strangers. - The Internet is the greatest direct mail medium of all time, and the low cost of frequent interaction makes it ideal for Permission Marketing.

Advantages of Permission Marketing

Chapter Two

There are two ways to get married

1. Traditional Interruption Marketing- A single man walks into a bar and proposes to one woman. If

she says no, he goes to the next woman and so on. The message is sent to a mass audience, and is mostly rejected

2. Permission Marketing- Permission Marketing is like dating. It turns strangers into

friends and friends into lifetime customers. Many of the rules of dating apply, and so do many of the benefits.

Getting Married Analogy

Chapter Two

1. Offer the prospect an incentive to volunteer 2. Using the attention offered by the prospect, offer a curriculum over time, teaching the consumer about your product or service 3. Reinforce the incentive to guarantee that the prospect maintains the permission 4. Offer additional incentives to get even more permission from the consumer 5. Over time, leverage the permission to change consumer behavior towards profits

Five steps to “dating” your customer

Chapter Two

Job Search- An interruption marketer looks for a job by sending a resume

to one thousand strangers. A Permission Marketer gets a job by focusing on one company and networking with them, consulting for them, working with them until they trust him enough to offer him a full time position.

Book Publisher- A book publisher who uses interruption marketing sells

children's books by shipping them to bookstores, hoping that the right audience will stumble across them. A Permission Marketer builds book clubs at every school in the country.

Examples

Chapter Four

Permission Marketing- obtaining a new customer (interruption

marketing) is expensive- cousin to One to One marketing approach

The Permission Marketer- works to change his focus from finding as many

prospects as he can to converting the largest number of prospects into customers

- requires an overt agreement from both sides

Getting Permission

Chapter Four

About One to One Marketing- focuses on extracting the maximum value from each customer

instead of spending time and money on finding new ones- ex. Levi’s jeans: offers semi-custom jeans for women made to order

based on personal measurements

- huge savings in inventory risk and advertising

- customer-focused instead of retail focused

- more pressure because each customer is worth more

Example: Streamline Services- service that runs errands for customers, such as buying groceries,

pharmaceuticals, dry cleaning, etc.-customer gives permission for Streamline to access their favorite

products, meds, purchases, and credit cards

***Sometimes gently “firing” a customer is wise when they have negative value

One to One Marketing

Chapter Four

Camp Arowhone case- print ads sell the brochure (not the camp)

- brochure sells the meeting (not the camp)- the meeting sells the camp

- each step expands permission- campers tend to return and bring siblings

Hooked on Phonics-”call (800) ABCDEFG for free info to help your kids”- no downsides, no money, no price mentioned- radio add does not sell the product, just gets

permission

Examples

Chapter Four

Interruption as a Part of Permission Marketing1. Interrupt2. Engage in a bargain3. Exchange data with the customer4. Teach5. Eventually leverage the permission you’ve obtained

Fun Tips- be personal, relevant, specific, always be anticipated (anticipation is better than

expectation).- Gradually raise the level of permission you extract without surprising the

customer

Final Fact- Interruption Marketing is all about the cost-per-view of an ad compared to the

profit-per-view to determine whether the ad is useful or not

Interruption and Permission Marketing

Chapter Five

Trust-Makes the decision for us about where we buy-Experience builds that trust -Pan Am; Million dollar logo

Risk -Individuals will act with calculated risk based on learned

information

“Trust, it turns out, is not an event. You can’t go from anonymity to trusted brand in a day. Instead it’s a step-by-step process that requires time and money and commitment”

Relationships start with…

Chapter Five

One ad isn’t enough -Noise distracts audience from the message

Frequency -Double the length of a fish the weight goes

up by four-Get out there; everywhere

Getting to know each other.

Chapter Five

Reach -Lust -Touching one hundred people is not the same as

reaching twenty-five people four time

Frequency -Love-Past the “getting to know you” phase into the

“finishing sentences” phase

Think love. Not lust.

Chapter Five

Frequency. Awareness. Familiarity. Trust.

Crisco, Tabasco, Campbell’s, Vaseline and Arm & Hammer-These items are integrated into people’s life; little advertising

is needed to inform consumers of products

Permission Marketing -Stop interrupting and begin interacting -Encourages commitment and frequency

Ask first. Thank later.

Chapter Five

Don’t fix it till it stops working!

Change is bad.

Chapter Six

The goal of permission marketing is to move customers up the “permission ladder”

- From strangers to friends to customers- Every step up the ladder, trust, responsibility

and profits grow

Levels of Permission Marketing1. Intravenous2. Points3. Personal Relationships4. Brand Trust5. Situational

The Five Levels of Permission

Chapter Six

-Marketer is making decisions on behalf of the customer

-For example, book of the month clubs or magazine subscriptions

-Why would people do this?-To save time-To save money-They don’t want to make decisions-To avoid stock-outs

-Purchase-upon-approval-Second level of authorization is required by customer

before they are billed, they are able to say no-For example, credit cards you’re charged for having,

even if you don’t use them, or Amazon suggesting items to you

Intravenous Permission Level

Chapter Six

-Customer is given points for purchases or giving their attention to the marketer

-Customer is given more personal attention, which they will respond positively to

-Two types: points liability and chance models

Points Permission Level

Points liability model-every point has a real value associated with it-could possibly cost the marketer more-reward has to have value to the customer

Points Chance Model-instead of guaranteeing a reward, gives more chances to win the reward-marketers must constantly raise the stakes to keep customers interested

Chapter Six

-Effective way to temporarily focus a customer’s attention, but completely dependent on the individual, so the marketer has less control

-Risky because one bad interaction could lose the marketer’s permission with the customer

-This relationship must be constantly maintained

-Most powerful form of marketing for making major shifts in a customer’s behavior

Personal Relationship Permission Level

Chapter Six

-Most common permission level used by marketers

-Expensive, takes a long time to develop, hard to measure, and hard to manipulate

-Brand trust leads to brand extension

-Makes it harder for new brands to break into the market

Brand Trust Permission Level

Chapter Six

-Very time sensitive

-For example, asking for directions, getting advice from a sales clerk about a gift, “Would you like fries with that?”

-Level of quality must be maintained by front-line people: the people who answer phones or work the cash registers

-Marketers must figure out how to turn this interaction into something more

Situation Permission Level

Chapter Six

-Lowest form of permission marketing, but most marketing is spam

-Marketers don’t actually have the customer’s permission

-Forced onto the customer whether they want it or not

-Doesn’t follow the most important pieces in getting a customer’s permission, so it’s unwelcome

***The most important part of permission marketing is that it’s anticipated, personal, and relevant.

Spam

Chapter Seven

Permission rented is permission lost- Transferring information amongst marketers is losing

permission completely- Customers give permission & expect it to not be shared- If companies send “advertisements” that are not asked for

they have lost permission

Traditional Interruption Marketing-Banner Ads, Direct Mailers, etc all have specified “target

lists” which refine, cross reference and research to get the best possible fit

- Multibillion dollar industry of sales of consumer information and transfer of data

Permission is nontransferable

Chapter Seven

Permission Marketing- People care very little about companies, products, other

consumers, and especially being talked to without their permission; people are selfish

- Consumers are in control; not marketers- People are selfish about their time and their attention

Interruption Marketing- Hold people hostage; doesn’t provide them with a want to

pay attention- Doesn’t reward consumers and provides no benefit for

giving permission

- Speaks in a monologue AT consumers not WITH consumers

Permission is Selfish

Chapter Seven

Interruption Marketing- Measures results directly following the marketingi.e. Orders placed after a direct mailer is sent out

Permission Marketing- Begins with an interruption but evolves into a dialogue- Like dating it takes many conversations for a relationship

to flourish

- Social media communications, online B2C forums, instant chat services are all forms of process oriented marketing designed to engage consumers before AND after the sale

Permission is a process, not a moment

Chapter Seven

Interruption Marketing- The customer is at the mercy of the marketer- Marketers can send as many advertisements as

they can afford to do

Permission Marketing- Marketing messages must be created to ensure

that its not the last one- Knowing the end is always a moment away

makes the marketer do a better job

Permission can be cancelled at any time