Permission marketing

Permission marketing is a relatively new term, which was coined and developed by the entrepreneur, Seth Godin. Traditional methods of marketing often revolve around the idea of attracting the customer’s attention away from whatever they are doing – whether it is a television advertisement that cuts into a TV show, or an internet pop-up that interferes with a website. According to Seth Godin, such traditional methods of advertising (often referred to as “Interruption marketing”), have become less effective in the modern world, where consumers are overloaded with information. Therefore, Godin has developed the idea of permission marketing. Permission marketing is the opposite of interruption marketing; instead of interrupting the customer with unrequested information, permission marketing aims to sell goods and services only when the prospect gives consent in advance to receive the marketing information.

Opt-in email is a prime example of Permission marketing, where Internet users sign-up (in other words give permission) to receive information about a certain product or a service. Supporters of Permission marketing claim it to be effective, as the potential client would be more interested in information that was requested in advance. It is also more cost-efficient in comparison to traditional marketing methods, as businesses only need to target consumers who have expressed an interest in their product.

Permission marketing vs. Interruption marketing

Interruption marketing is essentially a competition to win people’s attention. Twenty years ago, when the internet was not as common, it was relatively easier to win people’s attention. However, in today’s world of mass-marketing, people are consistently overloaded with advertisements that compete for their limited time and attention span. The average consumer is said to come into contact with 1 million advertisements per year – which is nearly 3000 per day. When there is an overflow of interruptions, people’s inevitable response is to disregard them, tune them out, and refuse to respond to them. Such traditional methods of marketing have thus become more difficult and costly – increasing the number of exposures is now required to attain the same outcome.

Permission Marketing, in contrast, offers an opportunity for the consumers to choose whether or not to be subjugated to marketing. By only targeting such volunteers, Permission Marketing assures that the consumers pay more attention to the marketing message. Permission Marketing thus encourages consumers to engage in a long-standing, cooperative marketing campaign.

The 5 Levels of Permission Marketing

There are 5 levels of permission in Permission Marketing:

1. Situational Permission: The prospect permits the business to come into contact by providing their personal information.
2. Brand Trust: The prospect permits the business to continue supplying their needs.
3. Personal Relationship: The prospect’s permission is granted because of a personal relationship that he/she has with someone in the provider organization.
4. Points Permission: At this stage, the customer has agreed to receive goods or services and has allowed the business to collect their personal data. This is usually because they are provided with incentives, such as exchangeable points or an opportunity to earn a prize.
5. Intravenous Permission: The supplier has now taken over the supply function for a specific good or a service; the customer is completely dependent on the business.

At each successive level of the permission framework, the business achieves a higher efficiency state, with a decrease in marketing cost. Thus, businesses usually aim to achieve the “intravenous permission” level. However, the 5 levels of permission should not be considered as a necessary sequential process, as more than one level could apply simultaneously depending on the nature of the business.

Examples of Permission Marketing

After Permission Marketing was first introduced in 1999, it inspired a large number of firms and companies to establish permission-based marketing agencies, campaigns, and platforms. It has also largely contributed to the development and the expansion of the social media, which heavily utilizes the methods of permission marketing; “friending”, “liking”, and “following”, all closely associates to the idea of Permission Marketing. Facebook is a prime example – whether it is to post, share, or amplify, the marketer would have to send a friend request (or a permission) to the potential prospects. Other notable examples of permission marketing are listed below:

Huffington Post

Huffington Post is an American online news aggregator and blog which offers original content including the areas including politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, etc. The Huffington Post has a clear permission marketing-based approach: the readers will be required to register on the site using their social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.). The registration implies that readers have given the permission for Huffington Post to send them marketing information, such as newsletters.

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website which enables its users to upload, view, and share videos. Many firms utilize YouTube as part of their social media marketing strategy to promote their products and services. Firms specifically make use of the “subscribing” feature to establish a permission-based relationship with their customers. Subscription would imply that viewers have given permission for the business to market them with updated information, campaign, etc.

Sundance Vacations

Sundance Vacations is a travel company that allows customers to buy vacations in bulk. The company employs a method of permission marketing by going out to sporting events, shows and more and getting people to sign up to win their annual sweepstakes. The entry forms that are filled out contain an agreement that says the company is allowed to contact the person filling the form at the methods provided by the entrant. The potential client's signature is considered a form of consent to contact them, which allows the company to then email and phone market to entrants.

History

Permission marketing was first publicized in Seth Godin’s book, “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers”, published on May 6, 1999. Seth Godin is the founder of the Yoyodyne Entertainment, and his experience as an entrepreneur helped cultivate his new philosophy. He observed that successful campaigns were the ones that sought for customer’s consent. From such observations, Godin believed that marketing strategies should be based on the following elements – “anticipated, personal, and relevant”. The three elements were then put together to define Permission marketing.

• Anticipated: people will anticipate the service/product information from the company.
• Personal: the marketing information explicitly relates to the customer.
• Relevant: the marketing information is something that the consumer is interested in.

Benefits and Limitations of Permission Marketing

Benefits

• Cost Efficient: Permission Marketing employs low cost online tools – social media, search engine optimization, e-mails, etc. Furthermore, by only marketing to consumers who have expressed an interest, businesses can lower their marketing costs.

• High Conversion Rate: As the targeting audience are those who has expressed an interest to the product, it is easier to convert the leads into sales.

• Personalization: Permission marketing allows businesses to run personalized campaigns; it allows them to target specific audiences according to their age, gender, geographical location, etc.

• Establish Long-Term Relationships with the Customer: Through the usage of social media and e-mails, businesses can interact and build long-term relationships with the customers.

• Maintains Marketing Reputation: Unlike Interruption marketing where consumers are bombarded with marketing messages, Permission marketing only sends information to those who are anticipating the information. Therefore, prospects who receive the information do not feel discomfort.

Limitations

• Though supporters of Permission marketing claim it to be effective over Interruption Marketing, there is a paradox. Permission marketing is inevitably initiated with Interruption Marketing. To develop a permission-based relationship with a prospect, the very first step is always in the form of traditional marketing, where the marketer has to win the prospects attention.