Do you like being interrupted? Most marketing and advertising is based on interrupting you. It sounds harsh, but it’s what mass media relies on, and it works.
But sometimes there are so many messages bombarding us, we suffer from interruption overload and turn everything off. This is better known as sitting down with a good book.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a company ask your permission to market to you? Smart marketers do it all the time, and are successful. This marketing tip you are reading is a form of permission marketing, you have given me permission (through subscribing) to send this to you every two weeks. Following a business on FaceBook or Twitter is also giving them permission to market to you. Once you opt in to an email or social media, you become a prospect, and a valued one at that. This is a great opportunity for the business to market directly to you.
So, if your business is thinking about jumping on the permission marketing bandwagon, there are four basic rules you need to follow:
- Permission must be granted. If it isn’t, you can’t assume you have permission to market. Buying names and addresses, then sending direct mail, is not permission. It’s spamming. Smart business owners do not spam
- Permission is selfish. Your prospects will grant you permission only if they clearly see that there’s something in it for them. Remember, you’ve only got a short time to communicate what that something is.
- Permission can be revoked. As easily as permission is granted, it can be withdrawn. On the other hand, it can intensify over time. The intensity depends upon the quality of interaction between you and your customers.
- Permission can’t be transferred. Think of marketing as going out on a date. You just can’t give a friend the authority to go out on a date in your place.
Once you get a prospect to opt in to what you have to offer, do it right. Give information that has value to the reader and don’t overdo it with too many messages or useless information.