Permission marketing is a type of advertising in which the people who are supposed to see the ads can choose whether or not to get them. This marketing type is becoming increasingly popular in digital marketing. Seth Godin first introduced the concept in his book “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends, And Friends Into Customers.”
History
Traditional marketing methods often involve interruption – whether a television advertisement that cuts into a TV show or an internet pop-up that interferes with a website. According to Godin, such methods (often referred to as “interruption marketing”) have become less effective in the modern world, where consumers are overloaded with information.
Interruption marketing is essentially a competition to win people’s attention. In today’s world of mass-marketing, people are overloaded with advertisements that compete for their limited time and attention span. Yankelovich, Inc claims the average consumer comes into contact with 1 million advertisements per year – or 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 marketing methods are more difficult and costly to attain the same outcome.
In 1999, Godin observed that successful campaigns were the ones that sought the customer’s consent. From such observations, Godin believed that marketing strategies should be based on the following elements:
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.
These elements were combined to define permission marketing, first publicized in Godin’s book, “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers”, published on May 6, 1999.
Benefits
Permission marketing allows consumers to choose whether or not to be subjected to marketing. This choice can result in better engagement. For example, consumers are more likely to open an email marketing message if they "double opt-in" than a regular "single opt-in." By targeting volunteers, permission marketing improves the odds that consumers pay more attention to the marketing message. Permission marketing thus encourages consumers to engage in a long-standing, cooperative marketing campaign.
Cost-efficiency: Permission marketing employs low cost online tools – social media, search engine optimization, e-mails, etc. Furthermore, businesses can lower their marketing costs by only marketing to consumers who have expressed an interest. High conversion rate: As the targeting audience has expressed an interest in 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. Long-term relationships with customers: Through the usage of social media and e-mails, businesses can interact and build long-term relationships with customers. Marketing reputation: Permission marketing only sends information to those anticipating the information. Therefore, prospects who receive the information feel less discomfort.
Initiation paradox
Supporters of permission marketing claim that it is more effective than interruption marketing, however, this is paradoxical. Permission marketing is inevitably initiated with interruption marketing. To get the attention of a prospective consumer for a permission-based relationship, the first step requires interruption marketing.
Levels
There are five levels of permission in permission marketing. These "levels" measure the degree of permission a consumer has granted to a specific 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 five levels of permission should not be considered a necessary sequential process, as more than one level could apply simultaneously depending on the nature of the business.