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I just finished the book Permission Marketing by Seth Godin and was astounded by the clarity it brought me about where marketing has been and where it may be going. Despite the fact that it was written during the Cretaceous Period (circa 1999) and came complete with outdated company examples, implementation strategies that focused on flash games and cheesy contests, and little to no mention of online social networks, it’s central premise came through with startling clarity. The big idea is this, interruption marketing (i.e. spam, whether in the form of an unsolicited Cialis emails or the latest Ford television commercial) is losing effectiveness which means permission marketing (i.e “opt in” marketing strategies) where your communication is expected and even anticipated, are the future.

Interruption marketing is done with the intention to (no surprise here) interrupt whatever a person is doing and hammer your marketing message into their brains.  Your strategy is to create an add that appeals to the largest number of people possible, interrupt the masses via t.v., radio, email, or some other form of advertising, with the hope that they’ll go out and purchase your product right then or at least remember it enough to purchase later.  Not too many years ago this strategy ruled the day and with a huge budget and a dash of luck, you could dominate a market.  The product itself barely mattered, what mattered is that you could interrupt thousands or millions of people.  This is the same mentality that continues to encourage marketers to dish out millions of dollars for a 30 second Superbowl spot.  Interruption marketing is based around a broad message, intended for a broad audience, that raises brand awareness, and eventually to leads sales.

This was genius when information was scarce and a quality advertisement was the marvel of the modern world.  It was still pretty effective when only a few companies had the capital and manpower to advertise on a mass scale.  However, in an era where the average person experiences upwards of 3,000 marketing messages per day (and growing), it’s marketing suicide.  Folks are tuning out the noise and getting awfully good at ignoring your spam.  So what’s a marketer to do in this environment?  Most have opted to turn up the noise: increase the frequency, increase they hype, increase the craziness.  Do whatever it takes to grab peoples attention for 30 second bytes.  Godin thinks there’s a better way.

Instead of running advertisements to raise brand awareness you need to get busy creating a “permission asset”.  This is a list of people who have opted into communication with you, not necessarily paying customers, but a group of people who have raised their hands and requested more information about who you are and what you may be able to offer them.  If interruption marketing is like a Vegas wedding, then permission marketing is like dating.  Interestingly enough, there is still an interruption aspect to even the best permission marketing campaign because there must be a strategy to let people opt into the relationship.  This could come in the form of radio spots, television commercials, or banner adds however, instead of enticing them to marry you immediately (by purchasing) you’re giving them an incentive to date you.  Godin contends that over the years the permission marketing folks will win big because they’re building an asset as opposed to relying on interruption marketing over and over and over.  Let’s say you have $20,000 dollars to spend on advertising.  Instead of running that glossy full page add in Time Magazine with the beautiful women, dancing monkey, and 50% off sale.  Why not offer people some incentive/ clear path to opt into communicating with you.  Maybe it’s a website link at the bottom of your add that says, subscribe to our blog and win a $20,000 dream cruise for two.  What’s important is that you’re building a tribe of people who have given you permission to have a relationship with them.