Invite Customers With Permission Marketing

In 1999, Seth Godin published a book and in it he coined the term “permission marketing”. This phrase has since been integral in developing the rules of communication that marketers from around the world still follow today.

Essentially, Mr. Godin was illustrating how companies needed to shift the way they communicated with potential customers. Rather than using a shotgun effect and blasting hundreds of thousands of people with sales material, he advised inviting the audience to participate. In other words, to give the audience the opportunity to opt-in if they wanted to receive more information.

With permission marketing you are assured that the people you are connecting with – want to receive your communications and are interested in what you have to say. Your communications are:

• Rich with content that the customer wants to know more about
• Anticipated by the customer and therefore more likely to be opened and read
• Personal and full of content that is specially target to the customer

Whether you are familiar with the term permission marketing or not, it is highly likely that you have experienced the concept. Any time that you subscribe to a blog and confirm that you want to receive email notifications of new posts you are participating in permission marketing.

The modern consumer no longer responds to mass-market advertisements. Even if the advertisement is for something they need or are interested in they will flat out ignore it. For this reason, marketers have had to change their focus from sending out general content full of sales jargon to developing connections with people and communicating in a way that is passionate and real. The problem is, how do you find these people in order to develop the connection? Social media is the answer.

The social media revolution has forever changed the way business is conducted and in fact, has had a greater impact on consumer behavior than even online shopping. As any good inbound marketer can tell you, the best way to communicate with potential customers is to go where they are – and they are on social media.

While the concept of permission marketing was established more than ten years prior to the big Facebook takeover, social media has made permission marketing that much more relevant in today’s marketing strategies. You simply cannot conduct business in this day and age without an online presence and that must include at least one social media platform. The fact is, regardless of what industry you are in, your audience participates in social media activities.

The fundamental concept behind permission marketing is to ask for permission before you send a communication. Social media provides the ‘foot in the door’ so that you can ask permission. When you interact with customers on their preferred social media platform you begin to gain their trust and earn credibility. If you are strategic about your interactions you know how important it is to be authentic in your posts and give honest insights into who you are as a brand.

As you engage your audience through social media communications you inspire curiosity about your company and when you provide the opportunity to give permission – they will. Suddenly, rather than purchasing lists and making cold calls in an effort to generate new leads, you can rely on permission marketing to build a list full of leads who have confirmed they are interested in what you have to say and have asked for more communication from you.

Now more than ever permission marketing is essential to earning trust and integrity among your audience. There is no way to conduct a successful business without interacting on social media platforms. The next logical step is leveraging that connection that you have made into a permission marketing opportunity and growing your list of leads.