A Book Review of Seth Godin’s Permission MarketingPermission Marketing in the News

Optism provides permission-based, mobile marketing services to mobile

operators, agencies and brands. Giving mobile subscribers the opportunity

to opt-in to advertising messages based on their preferences is the core

tenant of our service. Our blog series Permission Marketing in the News has

been highlighting mobile and other permission marketing news for the past

year. The leading proponent of permission marketing is Seth Godin who

coined the term in his book Permission Marketing in 1999. To celebrate our

one year anniversary, we are running a series of blog posts summarizing

his book chapter by chapter and analyzing how changes in the mobile and

advertising marketplace have impacted the recommendations in his book.

Blog Series By Optism Team

February 2012

A Book Review of Seth Godin’s Permission MarketingPermission Marketing in the News

Permission Marketing Chapter 1 – Looking Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Permission Marketing Chapter 2 – Permission vs. Interruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Permission Marketing Chapter 3 – The Rise and Fall of Interruption Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Permission Marketing Chapter 4 – Getting down to business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Permission Marketing Chapter 5 – All about trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Permission Marketing Chapter 6 – Permission five ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Permission Marketing Chapter 7 – Permission as a commodity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Permission Marketing Chapter 8 – Seth’s take on web marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Permission Marketing Chapter 9 – Permission-based web marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Permission Marketing Chapter 10 – Case studies then and now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Permission Marketing Chapter 11 – Evaluating a Permission Marketing Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Permission Marketing Chapter 12 – Final questions and answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

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Permission Marketing Chapter 1 Looking Back

May 6, 2011

Chapter One of Permission Marketing by Seth Godin outlines the differences between traditional advertising and permission marketing. Instead of calling it traditional advertising, Godin dubs it interruption marketing because it interrupts us from what we are doing. Godin writes, ”Interruption, because the key to each and every ad is to interrupt what the viewers are doing in order to get them to think about something else.” For example, having to watch a TV commercial interrupts us from watching our favorite TV show. Godin believes trying to convince your audience to buy your product by interrupting them is a challenge.

The difficulty of this challenge has been amplified by the proliferation of media channels and advertising outlets. According to Godin, the average consumer sees about one million marketing messages a year or about 3,000 a day, up substantially from even 10 years ago. The resulting cacophony has forced the audience to increasingly tune out all advertising messages, forcing marketers to further increase the volume of advertisements.

Godin says this “infoglut” has forced marketers to react in four ways. First, they are advertising in stranger and stranger places like parking meters, grocery store receipts and super-imposed graphics

at sporting events. Second, they are making advertisements more controversial and entertaining. One example of this is BMW’s series of high-budget, short films called The Hire with top-notch actors like Clive Owen and Don Cheadle. Third, brands are scrapping long-term campaigns like the Pillsbury Doughboy and trying new approaches to gain the attention of the audience. Fourth, marketers are abandoning advertising and going with direct mail. Since 1999, consumers have opted-out of direct mail lists by the millions, reducing the attractiveness of this marketing opportunity. Additionally, the audience has shifted over from other media to the Internet, forcing those marketing dollars into search engine marketing.

Godin concludes Chapter One by acknowledging the Catch-22 that interruption marketers face. Consumers have a finite amount of attention and money, but there are more products than ever. Marketers need to spend more money to capture consumers’ attention, leading to more advertisements and more tuning out by consumers. This is the Catch-22: The more they spend, the less it works. The less it works, the more they spend. That statement was true in 1999 and it continues to be true today.

Interruption Marketers face a Catch-22: The more they spend, the less it works. The less it works, the more they spend.

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Permission Marketing Chapter 2 Permission vs. Interruption

May 20, 2011

In Chapter Two of Permission Marketing by Seth Godin, he shows how marketers could start using permission marketing instead of interruption marketing.

Godin starts off the chapter by stating a key point about today’s economy: consumers have limited time and attention, while marketers are trying to gain that attention. To illustrate this point, Godin presents an analogy about two gentlemen: the interruption marketer and the permission marketer. Each of them wants to get married but they have different approaches.

The interruption marketer buys an extremely expensive suit. New shoes. Fashionable accessories. Then, working with the best databases and marketing strategists, selects the demographically ideal singles bar. Walking into the singles bar, the Interruption Marketer marches up to the nearest person and proposes marriage. If turned down, the Marketer repeats this process on every person in the bar. If the Marketer comes up empty-handed after spending the entire evening proposing, it is obvious that the blame should be placed on the suit and the shoes. The tailor is fired. The strategy expert who picked the bar is fired. And the Interruption Marketer tries again at a different singles bar.

Meanwhile the permission marketer does it a little bit differently, he tries dating. He goes on a date with someone. If the date goes well, the two of them go on another date. After a few dates, there is a level of sharing and communication. After a few months, the permission marketer proposes marriage. Godin says that marketers should follow this same process when courting future customers in his Five Steps to Dating Your Customer.

1. Offer the prospect an incentive to volunteerWhile interruption marketers spend all day talking to strangers, permission marketers spend as little time and money talking to strangers as they can. Instead, they try to turn strangers into prospects who choose to “opt-in” to a series of communications.

2. Using the attention offered by the prospect, teach the prospect about your product or serviceNow that the consumer is paying attention, the marketer can focus on educating the consumer on the benefits of the product or service without resorting to crazy, attention-grabbing stunts.

3. Reinforce the incentive to guarantee that the prospect maintains the permissionOver time, the offer might get stale, so it is important to refine the offer based on the understanding you have already developed with the prospect.

4. Offer additional incentives to get even more permission from the consumerGain even more knowledge about the consumer.

5. Over time, leverage the permission to change consumer behavior towards profitsNow that you fully understand your consumer, you can tailor a product or service perfectly, based on the prospect’s preference.

Godin concludes the chapter by stating that permission marketing is both a philosophy and a process. Permission marketing is anticipated, personal and relevant while interruption marketing is not.

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Permission Marketing Chapter 3 The Rise and Fall of Interruption Marketing

Jun 29, 2011

In Chapter Three of Permission Marketing by Seth Godin, it’s time for a little history.

For anyone born after 1940, it’s hard to imagine a world without omnipresent advertising. After all, industry experts estimate that we are bombarded with between 3000, and 5000, marketing messages a day (Seth estimated 3000, in Permission Marketing; more recent estimates have that number much higher). But as we learn in Chapter 3, it wasn’t always so.

First, the industrial revolution changed the way products were made. Factories made it profitable to produce goods in massive quantities. That in turn meant companies had to cast a much wider net to find customers, giving birth to mass marketing. And then, a surprise: “It wasn’t the factories or the car that caused the big increase in corporate profitability. It was advertising. The economies that came from establishing a product as the leading brand, the huge premiums that were derived by charging extra for a trusted name, dwarfed the savings in product.”

Thus, the golden age of advertising was born. Using the development of Crisco as an example, Seth shows how marketing often played a direct role in product development. (Proctor and Gamble developed Crisco in part to safeguard its supply of cottonseed oil, a key ingredient in its hugely successful Ivory soap.)

As Seth points out, in the uncluttered arena of 20th Century marketing, interruption marketing worked very well. It was scalable, predictable, easy to implement, and enabled many companies to become very profitable. Marketing agencies and their clients became addicted to interruption marketing and failed to see the writing on the wall. As he showed us in Chapters One and Two, with the glut of advertising out there, it’s harder and harder to reach people with interruption marketing. “Just as the fax machine

altered the landscape of courier services and Federal Express, Permission Marketing will change the way companies market products.”

In 1999, Seth knew it would take some time for companies to embrace the opportunities presented by permission marketing. “Many of the big companies will stick to their knitting and remain faithful to the marketing methods that got them to where they are today. This creates mammoth opportunities for new companies, for companies with nothing to lose, for companies with the flexibility and initiative to try a very different way of gaining and keeping customers.”

Well, he was right, it has taken a while, but permission marketing is gaining mindshare every year. From the germ of Seth’s idea – to develop a personal engagement with customers – has blossomed both social media marketing and mobile marketing, both permission marketing strategies. These new forms of marketing embrace the fundamental shift in human behaviour — that individuals are in the driver’s seat, free to find information, resources and people on their own terms — how, when and where they want to.

Today, even the big guns have seen the light. At numerous marketing events, Coca Cola has confirmed that permission mobile marketing has become a focus for the company and its advertising teams are constantly coming up with new and creative ways to maximize its permission-based connections with customers. Unilever representative Rahul Welde spoke at the recent Mobile Marketing Association Forum in Singapore on “the new rules of engagement with digital and mobile consumers.” As our weekly Permission marketing in the news blog demonstrates, Seth’s concepts have hit their stride in 2011.

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Permission Marketing Chapter 4 Getting down to business

Jul 13, 2011

Chapter Three of Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing sold us on the value of permission marketing. In Chapter Four, it’s time to get down to business. Seth starts with an explanation of the relationship between permission marketing and one to one marketing, a concept developed by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers in their book, One to One Future. To help distinguish the two, Seth introduces the five step “prospect” cycle:

One to one marketing starts with customers. Instead of focusing on increasing the number of new customers, a one to one marketer focuses on “keeping customers longer and getting far more money from each of them over time.” The marketer’s challenge is to hang on to and build the customer’s interest in what a brand has to offer and to maximize your “share of the wallet.”

With permission marketing, Seth encourages marketers to focus up stream and begin nurturing “total strangers from the moment they first indicate an interest.” The first challenge is to get a prospect to “raise his hand” and agree to listen to further messages from the brand. Once this initial permission is given, the marketer can steadily build on that foundation, exchanging value for enhanced permission. By staying engaged with the individual, over time the stranger becomes a friend, and the friend becomes a customer. “If the marketing messages you send are anticipated, relevant and personal, they will cut through the clutter and increase the prospect’s knowledge of the benefits you offer.”

The two approaches have a natural synergy and their long-term perspectives encourage marketers to maximize the value of each customer relationship. That, Seth believes, is where the money is: “The true, current value of any one customer is a function of the customer’s future purchases, across all the product lines, brands and services offered by you.”

Clearly, mobile marketing is ideally suited to both permission marketing and one to one marketing. Seth talks broadly about “technology” being an enabler of permission marketing, but in 1999 few could have envisioned just how quickly mobile technology would become a significant presence in people’s lives or how it could be leveraged by permission marketers. Today, however, we know that SMS marketing can reach the pockets of consumers anywhere in the world, even when they are using the most basic of mobile handsets. Permission-based mobile services like Optism enable marketers to precisely target who gets their messages, and when and how often they get them, so they know their messages are relevant. Marketers have access to detailed analytics so they can measure the impact of any campaign and modify exchanges on the fly, based on customers’ responses.

Strangers

→

Friends

→

Customers

→

Loyal Customers

→

Former Customers

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As far back as 1999 it was apparent that customer care and the role of the customer were changing dramatically. If a customer’s true value was to be measured over a longer term, it was clear brands would need to be highly responsive to the customer’s needs. Seth noted, “Customer service has always mattered. But now that power has shifted to the consumer, it matters a great deal more.”

Seth closes out Chapter Four by addressing that all-important question: how do you get people to raise their hands (to opt in) to permission marketing? Most often, he says, it’s through interruption marketing! “Without some way to grab the attention of a stranger, the permission process never starts.”

The best strategy is to start slowly and build. “An interrupted consumer is in no hurry to send you money or promise to invest a lot of time.” You need to start small and offer something really compelling to get the ball rolling. Using a fishing analogy, Seth suggests you need “the most effective, most obvious bait you can find.”

Once you’re through the door, you can start to expand what you know about the customer and what they know about your products and services, in a mutually-beneficial series of exchanges. As always, it is critical that you, the marketer, provide customers with something of value. Mobile marketing is ideally suited to this kind of approach. You can reach out to customers with short, clear messages and solicit specific information in return. By creating an open channel for the exchange of information, a mobile marketing campaign can help you to maintain that all-important relevancy.

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Permission Marketing Chapter 5 All about trust

Aug 5, 2011

In Chapter Five, Seth tells us that “without trust…there are no sales.” People want to buy from companies they trust. In fact, we’re often willing to pay a little extra to deal with a company that we trust. Trust gives us confidence that the product we’re buying will deliver what we want and that if it doesn’t, we’ll be treated fairly by the seller. It lowers our risk as consumers and that encourages us to open our wallets. “Trust, almost without exception, leads to profit.”

It’s not something, however, that can be created instantly, regardless of how innovative an advertising campaign is. Trust, Seth points out, is built over time. It’s the by-product of a process that in the modern world starts with advertising. Advertising builds awareness. With time and frequent repetition, that awareness grows into familiarity. Finally, with careful management and attention to customer relationships, familiarity becomes trust.

The value of reach vs. repetition in advertising. Seth believes that given a choice between reach and repetition, many marketers would opt for reach. They would choose, for example, a single 30 second Super Bowl commercial or full page ad in The New York Times – advertising that commands a premium price because of its reach. He argues, however, that you’d probably get a better ROI if you put your money on repetition. Why? Because “a single ad, no matter how well produced, no matter how compelling, is almost never enough to sell your product.”

It takes time and repetition for your message to sink in. Time for the audience to stop focusing on the hook you used to grab their attention and start listening to your message. And repetition to get through the clutter of advertising that is everywhere today.

In traditional (interruption) marketing, repetition or frequency is expensive. Fortunately, permission marketing makes frequency more effective and technology dramatically reduces or eliminates the costs. According to Seth, “Permission Marketing is the tool that makes frequency work.”

Today, the thing that is in shortest supply is people’s attention, and that, says Seth, is a game changer. “Creating value through interaction is far more important than solving a consumer’s problem in thirty seconds.” As we’ve seen, permission marketing gives you access to frequency but “it replaces continuing interruption with ongoing interaction.”

Permission mobile marketing, which has evolved since Seth wrote his book, is an ideal vehicle for delivering ads that offer both reach and frequency. Current estimates for mobile subscriptions (reach) are between 4.2 billion and 5 billion. Research has shown that “about 90% of all text messages are read within 3 minutes of their delivery – and over 99% of all text messages are read by the recipient.”

And while you can’t inundate subscribers with repetitive messages, once you’ve received permission to engage with people on their mobiles, there’s an expectation that you will in fact keep in touch with them. Your audience expects you to deliver valuable, relevant content on a regular basis, and of course that content will include and/or reinforce your key messages. According to Seth, “You can’t market a product in one fell swoop. Instead, it’s an interactive process, an approach that takes time and persistence and continual adjustment.” Permission mobile marketing provides a channel that is ideally suited for keeping the conversation going.

Seth also tells us that people are “most likely to respond to advertising that is frequent, focused, and personal.” That sounds like permission mobile marketing too, doesn’t it?

Advertising

→

Awareness

→ Familiarity

→

Trust

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Permission Marketing Chapter 6 Permission five ways

Aug 26, 2011

In Chapter Six, Seth introduces the five levels of permission, warning that “all permission is not created equal.” He covers a lot of ground in this chapter, so we encourage you to go directly to the source. The following paragraphs are only highlights from the book.

The five permission levels are:1. Intravenous (and “purchase on approval” model)2. Points (liability model and chance model)3. Personal relationships4. Brand trust5. Situational

Intravenous permissionAs you can imagine, “intravenous” permission is very high — it gets its name from the kind of permission we provide to medical staff when we’re on intravenous. We grant them permission to use whatever medications they think are appropriate, without necessarily consulting us, and certainly without doing any “comparison shopping.” We trust them to know what’s best for us and we commit to pay for whatever services and drugs they deem appropriate.

Sounds drastic, doesn’t it? We authorize the service provider or marketer to select, administer and charge us for a product or service without checking with us first. In reality, it’s not uncommon. Many of us have that kind of agreement with a home heating oil company.

Another form of intravenous permission, not quite as drastic as full intravenous, is “purchase on approval.” In this case, we are notified of the product or service the marketer selects for us and reserve the right to say no. An example of this kind of permission is the agreement you sign to join a record club.

Seth believes we are willing to provide intravenous permission when we want to:• Savetime• Savemoney

• Don’twanttomakeachoice,and/or• Wanttoavoidrunningoutofsomething

Intravenous permission is a great privilege but it comes with a high risk. If the marketer guesses wrong and sends something we don’t want, or the oil company guesses wrong and we run out, we may quickly withdraw all permission. Today, you could use mobile marketing to help you maintain your valued position, by helping you stay close to the customer. For example, you could use a quick dialogue exchange to fine-tune your automated service and identify any recent blips in the normal situation. You could also use mobile marketing to enhance your understanding of customers’ preferences, so you can tailor product offerings more precisely.

Marketers must be very careful that they don’t abuse this high level of privilege. Beyond the obvious – not making unsuitable or unnecessary purchases on the customer’s behalf – the marketer must continue to offer superior service and pricing. In return for granting intravenous permission, we expect to be treated as a most highly valued customer.

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Points permissionPoints or loyalty credits are a “formalized, scalable approach to attracting and keeping the prospect’s attention.” Unlike traditional marketing techniques, points systems can be tightly monitored and costed. Points are used to reward us for the frequency and value of our purchases or for paying attention. In 1999, when Seth was writing Permission Marketing, he noted that it was much easier to focus on rewarding buying behaviour. “Proving that an individual paid attention is difficult, especially if there’s a large audience.” Today, mobile marketing helps to address this challenge. Research has shown that “97% of mobile subscribers will read a text message within four minutes of receipt.” That’s a whole lot of attention that wasn’t readily available and trackable in 1999!

Seth believes, “the best marketing programs get better over time” and points programs can be “a remarkably inexpensive way to attract and keep exactly the right people.” Consumers are willing to pay attention to these programs because they “have a good time. They feel smart. They feel in control. They feel safe. They like getting me-mail, not e-mail (every interaction is anticipated, personal, and relevant, not to mention unique, to them).”

Seth goes on to describe two types of points programs, liability and chance, and closes with some advice on how to build the most effective points programs. A key piece of advice? “The program must be built with permission overtly included. Consumers must understand from the first day that the marketer will be watching their actions and will be using the data to send focused, relevant, personal messages to them.” That sounds familiar doesn’t it? Permission mobile marketing is 100% aligned with this advice.

Personal relationship permissionPersonal relationships are an extremely valuable form of permission, but Seth ranks this permission third because it isn’t scalable. (Remember, Permission Marketing was written in the pre-social media era, before we all had thousands of “friends”!) Personal relationships are also “slow and difficult to make deeper.” That said, Seth believes, “By identifying the right individuals and working to earn their trust and permission, retail and business-to-business marketers can make a huge impact on their bottom line.”

He notes, that “personal permission is the most powerful form of permission for making major shifts in a consumer’s behavior.”

You can leverage that personal relationship to move someone to a higher level of permission, or to sell them custom products, very expensive products or complex products that require people to commit significant energy into understanding them.

Permission mobile marketing is an excellent way to maintain and strengthen personal relationships. You connect with people on their personal mobile, so you’re effectively getting together with them in their personal space. The calls to action supported, which include click to call or click through to a web page, allow you to encourage people to delve deeper, but you let them control the experience. You’re demonstrating your respect for them but also making yourself accessible. With mobile marketing, you can tailor offerings to the person, so the content is more relevant and has value. When you combine mobile marketing with social media, the effect can be very powerful in creating personal permission.Seth recommends, “If you’re a professional with deep permission from qualified prospects, the single best way to improve your business is not by finding more clients, but by selling more stuff to the people who have given you permission already.”

Brand trust permissionBrand trust is the traditional home of interruption marketing. Seth believes “brand trust is dramatically overrated. It’s extraordinarily expensive to create, takes a long time to develop, is hard to measure, and is harder still to manipulate.” He admits it is also “the most common way marketers practice their craft.”

Marketers use our trust in a particular brand to sell us additional products under the same brand. If we like the new product, the status granted both products is enhanced. Of course the reverse is also true: if the new product fails to deliver on the brand promise, both products suffer.

Seth notes, “The power of brand trust can be truly significant.” It can be very difficult for a new product to wedge its way into the market if the space is already occupied by a strong brand. And it will take a lot of time and money to get the new product’s message heard.

In the end, Seth acknowledges that brand permission is a worthwhile level of permission, “but it must be guarded, and tended to, and invested in.”

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Mobile marketing campaigns can be used very effectively to maintain a brand’s image and create awareness. Of course it is essential that the brand avoid any spam-like programs which could seriously damage a brand’s image. In Ghana, Volkswagen chose a mobile marketing campaign to quickly alert car shoppers to the availability of a new shipment of vehicles. Mobile marketing is also excellent at reinforcing brand campaigns in concert with traditional media.

Situational permissionSituational permission is very useful, time sensitive, and usually preceded by “May I help you?” It’s the permission we grant when we’re in a store or on the phone and we agree to listen to someone tell us about a product or service. The consumer initiates the process, so permission is clear and input from the marketer is welcome. The “will to buy” is present and very real, so it’s a golden opportunity for the marketer.

Usually, the marketers with situational permission are the sales people on the floor. Training and presentation are key factors for success here. A situational permission can evaporate in an instant if the front line people fail to meet the consumer’s expectations. If a lineup is too long, the sales clerk doesn’t know the product well, the waiter looks sloppy or the phone caller sits on hold too long, the marketing opportunity is lost.

Mobile marketing campaigns can be used to drive customers into a store, to create the situational permission. This was the case

with an adidas Originals campaign in Cairo. The sports retailer used mobile marketing to reach out to people with an interest in fashion and sports and encourage them to visit a new store. Mobile marketing is also a means of delivering mobile coupons. Once the coupon pushes people across the threshold, in-store marketers have an excellent opportunity to sell additional items. Seth cites those famous words, “Do you want fries with that?” as an example of how a well-trained staff can leverage situational permission to significantly impact a company’s bottom line.

SpamThe last “permission” category Seth covers in Chapter Six is that non-permission category, spam. Some marketers believe if “an advertisement is relevant, it’s not spam.” Seth doesn’t agree. “The most important part of the permission troika — anticipated, personal, and relevant — is anticipated. And spam is not just unanticipated, it’s dreaded.”

In some markets, spam is a very real threat to the success of mobile marketing. (See our recent blog on the situation in India.) Responsible service providers, industry experts and ecosystem organizations like the Mobile Marketing Association are all vocal in their opposition to mobile marketing spam. At Optism, we rely on 100% opted in audiences that are fully expecting brand communications. We encourage everyone to do the same.

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Permission Marketing Chapter 7 Permission as a commodity

Sep 16, 2011

In Chapter Seven, Seth explores “working with Permission as a commodity.” He provides four rules to help marketers do this:1. Permission is nontransferrable.2. Permission is selfish.3. Permission is a process, not a moment.4. Permission can be canceled at any time.

“Permission rented is permission lost”Seth’s first rule is very much in keeping with a mobile marketing best practice: the permissions you have been granted should not be shared, sold or traded to anyone else. This is very different from traditional marketing practices where selling and trading consumer data is a multibillion-dollar business. For Seth, “Permission Marketing is at odds with the secret sorting and evaluation of data.” As we’ve been reminded throughout the book, permission marketing delivers advertising that is “anticipated, personal, and relevant.” Brand messages that are received from an unknown source, from someone who has simply bought a consumer’s contact information, aren’t anticipated — they take the consumer by surprise. “And when you surprise a consumer, not only do you void permission, you increase fear.”

Today, data mining continues to be very big business. But mobile marketers must be particularly diligent about addressing people’s fears of unwanted advertising (spam) and the uncontrolled use of their personal information. People consider their mobile devices very personal and they are not at all interested in receiving unwanted, unanticipated contact on it. Mobile marketing is most effective when it can be tailored to an individual’s personal preferences and lifestyle. That means, consumers must be willing to share information about themselves and they won’t do that if they don’t trust the system. Marketers can overcome these fears by demonstrating their respect for the customer. Be open, honest and clear about what someone is opting in for. Spell out in simple and straightforward terms what you will be doing (and not doing!) with an individual’s personal information and how it will be safeguarded.

Being selfish is okInterruption marketing is based on the notion that if you interrupt enough people, you’ll make a sale. Doesn’t matter how many people you interrupt; the focus is on the sale. Permission marketing takes the opposite approach. With permission marketing, “the marketer is not in control, the consumer is. And the consumer is selfish.” Consumers only care about things that are relevant to their lifestyles, so you have to give them “a reason to pay attention.”

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Back in Chapter One, Seth explained that people today are over-exposed to advertising, so getting their attention is a challenge. Interruption marketers go to extremes, developing clever hooks to grab our attention. Permission marketers “make every single interaction selfish for the consumer.” At every step of the interaction, they focus on answering the consumer’s “What’s in it for me?” For example, affinity or loyalty programs are effective because they clearly reward consumers every time they pay attention.

Mobile marketing is an excellent vehicle for building and sustaining a loyalty program. In fact, the most successful mobile marketing campaigns are based on providing the consumer with content and rewards that are relevant to them personally. Remember, the rewards don’t always have to be monetary.

From interruption moment to ongoing dialogueUnlike interruption marketing, which is focused on the moment, permission marketing is a process. “It begins with an interruption but rapidly becomes a dialogue.” To keep the permission going, marketers must keep the consumer engaged by offering content that is relevant to them. If they fail to do this, the relationship

ends. Seth provides examples of how several companies, including his own, have created an ongoing dialogue. “By investing in the process and testing the results of the investment,” these companies have strengthened and enhanced the original permission granted.

Mobile marketing offers you many ways to keep the conversation going and it is clearly ideally suited to a relationship based on dialogue.

How to keep from getting your head cut offSeth illustrates his last point — that with permission marketing “consumers can cancel permission at any time” — by recounting the story of an Arab king with a fondness for cutting off people’s heads. The point behind the story is that as a marketer, you need to keep the customer wanting more. “Every communication must be crafted with the goal of ensuring that it’s not the last one.” Permission marketing, says Seth, “makes the marketer do a better job.”

Mobile marketers can — and certainly should — adhere to Seth’s four rules for working with permission as a commodity. Permission to directly engage with consumers is clearly a very valuable commodity, worth nurturing and protecting.

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Permission Marketing Chapter 8 Seth’s take on web marketing

Oct 13, 2011

Chapter Eight is perhaps the chapter that most shows its age. It is also a little more US-centric than other chapters because Seth spends time comparing marketing on the web to marketing on (American) TV networks. That isn’t to say that he thinks the two channels should be treated the same. He opens the chapter by noting, “The idea that the Internet is a medium just like TV supports the old way of thinking about marketing, but it just doesn’t work the same way.”

While Seth’s analysis of the TV world in the US may be due for some revising, his advice to marketers who want to expand to the web are still very valid. He tells marketers to start by answering some key questions as they develop their web marketing strategy:

1. What are we trying to accomplish?2. Can it be measured?3. What is the cost of bringing one consumer, one time, to our Web site?4. What is the cost of having that consumer return?5. If this works, can we scale it?

We think this kind of analysis is equally valid when developing a permission mobile marketing strategy.

Web marketing mythsThe balance of Chapter Eight consists of debunking web marketing myths of the day. Here are some key takeaways with ongoing relevance today.

You can’t evaluate effectiveness by counting hits. “There’s no metric to convert hits to sales, or hits to market share, or hits to branding.” You need a better tool for measuring success.With permission mobile marketing, you can directly connect a particular campaign with a desired outcome, using a measurable call to action, such as click to call or mobile couponing.

To provide people with a compelling online experience, you need to offer constantly-fresh news or data that is customized to a particular user or event.

Permission mobile marketing enables you to offer fresh content in a timely fashion and you can tailor advertising campaigns to people’s known preferences and interests.

You can’t build a viable business by relying on search engines to find you. “Any single Web site is a very tiny needle in a very big haystack.” You need to create a process that will reduce the randomness and bring relevance into play.

Permission mobile marketing is all about relevance. The people you push to your website through a permission marketing campaign have already been vetted as individuals likely to be interested in your products or services.

You don’t have to embrace cutting edge technologies to succeed. “The vast majority of consumers want mastery of technology, not the cutting edge.”

We know this is true for mobile. SMS may not be the sexiest approach for mobile marketing, but it has been field proven over and over again. And it reaches far more people than mobile apps, particularly in developing economies.

The web permits people to remain anonymous, but “great marketers entice consumers to give up anonymity.”

In fact, as Seth points out, “Permission Marketing rewards individuals for giving of their anonymity.”

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Permission Marketing Chapter 9Permission-based web marketing

Oct 27, 2011

Seth starts Chapter Nine with a look at the impact the Internet will have on the world. In 1999, the Internet – or at least broad public access to it – was still very new. Still, it was already making billionaires out of the visionaries who figured out quickly how to make the most of this new phenomenon.

Seth identifies six key benefits that the Internet offers direct marketers – many of which we can now also claim for mobile marketing. With some paraphrasing and modernizing of Seth’s original text, these benefits are:

1. No postage costs

2. Testing any campaign or initiative can be completed very quickly

3. Response rates are high

4. You can educate people about your product and build their appreciation for its virtues over time (referred to by Seth as “curriculum marketing”

5. Once you’ve made a connection with someone, you can keep the conversation going with little or no additional cost

6. Printing is free (printing is done by the consumer, not you)

Seth goes on to explore “five simple steps to any PermissionMarketing campaign in the context of the Internet.” These steps will really resonate with permission mobile marketers – they are undoubtedly part of your current campaigns and if they aren’t, maybe they should be.

1. Offer a prospect an incentive for opting in. This incentive doesn’t have to be monetary — there are many ways to reward a customer for paying attention.

2. Use the attention being offered by consumers to teach them about your product or service. With a mobile

marketing campaign, you learn more about your customers as they learn more about your offerings. Mobile is a natural for this kind of marketing. A dialogue-based campaign is ideal for keeping the conversation going.

3. Use the two-way nature of your engagement with customers to make sure they are paying attention. “By encouraging responses, it’s easy to determine who’s involved in the campaign and easier still to upgrade the rewards to consumers to maintain their interest.”

4. Offer additional incentives to get more permission from customers. Unlike mass marketing campaigns, which deliver the same rewards and content to every customer, a web- or mobile-based campaign can be customized “for an audience of one.” That custom package can offer content and rewards that are tailored to the individual customer’s preferences.

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5. Over time, you can change consumers’ behavior to generate profits. You can build a responsive, receptive audience who “want and expect to hear from you on a personal and relevant topic related to purchases.”

Seth reinforces a message from earlier chapters: building an opted-in audience can take some time, but permission marketers cannot skip this step. Renting or buying contact lists does not work. Without the consumer’s explicit opt-in, your messages will be perceived as spam and could do serious damage to your brand.

Permission marketing and your web siteSeth writes, “Your Web site should be 100 percent focused on signing up strangers to give you permission to market to them.” He also notes that it’s important to be very transparent with people. “The more explicit the opt-in, the more valuable the permission. Tricking people into giving their e-mail address is a waste of time.”We’ve noticed something similar with mobile opt-ins. We don’t recommend that a brand use a flashy contest with a big prize as an incentive for opting in. If you do, you’re likely to end up with a large number of people who are just in it for the prize and quickly opt out once the contest is over. It’s far more valuable to have people opt in who are genuinely interested in what you have to say. Of course, there should be a reward, but keep the reward related to your overall brand story.

The rest of Chapter Nine provides advice on how to set up your permission-based web site.

1. Test and optimize your offer

2. Make the permission overt and clear

3. Use computers, not people, to send and receive information

4. Focus on mastery – online consumers need to feel smart

Much of Seth’s web advice is relevant today and lots of it can be readily adapted to mobile marketing. Seth also offers this caution when addressing the privacy issue: “Jeopardizing one’s privacy is the single largest reason given by consumers for not shopping online and for not opting in to promotions and marketing programs online.” As we saw in our recent blog on the importance of respecting people’s privacy, this issue is just as hot today as it was in 1999.

For additional mobile marketing “getting started” advice, check out our Opt-in best practices blog. Also, you might want to listen to the three-part podcast between MobileGroove’s Peggy Anne Salz and Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland. The podcasts cover topics such as using mobile for customer service and for targeted moments (such as when a customer is in a buying mindset). In the final instalment of their conversation, Sutherland talks about how marketers should focus on the value exchange and develop strategies for improving consumers’ experience.

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Permission Marketing Chapter 10Case studies then and now

Nov 23, 2011

In Chapter 10, Seth provides examples of companies that “have done it right, and some that haven’t.” Some of the companies he focuses on have thrived and continue to be dynamic retailers today, such as AOL and Amazon. Others – even some of the ones that were using permission marketing effectively – have disappeared. As we all know, the last 12 years have been tough ones!

The case studies provide good examples of permission marketing techniques in practice. Today, we can supplement Seth’s email-focused case studies with ones from the permission-based mobile marketing world.

Reach receptive audiences with targeted messagesSeth starts us off with an example of an opportunity missed. A kosher gourmet shop is advertising the availability of Passover dishes in an expensive, general population publication (The New York Times). It would be far more cost effective to use direct advertising for these special-purpose products to a targeted audience. As a result, “the ad is wasted on the 95 percent or more of readers who have no interest in or desire for this product.” Adding insult to injury, the ad the shop uses doesn’t work visually – it’s too small and the call to action is unclear.

Instead, the shop owners should collect contact information from their customers throughout the year (with their permission, of course) and then use this targeted list to alert people to their Passover offerings. The store could also reach out to religious communities in the area to again reach a targeted, receptive audience. “By delivering a message that was anticipated, personal, and relevant, the shop could have dramatically cut marketing costs while it built profits.” Best of all, once the store has built its permission base, the cost of reselling to its target audience is negligible.

Mobile has proven itself to be an effective means for building a targeted customer database. Our Permission Marketing in the News blogs highlight these types of campaigns on a regular basis. For example, we recently read how New York & Co. built its database of 180,000 loyalists using SMS. The retailer believes its SMS alerts program has enabled them “to broaden the way our customers can reach us to find out about new promotions and exclusive offers and events.”

Offer people an incentive to raise their handsPermission marketing is all about encouraging people to opt in to receive advertising rather than hoping to catch their attention by interrupting them. As we explored in Chapter 1, people are becoming immune to advertising, so it is taking more and more money and creativity to catch people’s attention. Most advertising falls on deaf ears.

Some of Seth’s case studies demonstrate how permission marketing can cut through the advertising clutter and catch people’s attention. Step one is to develop a permission marketing strategy that “gives consumers a selfish reason to raise their hands.” Once you’ve made the initial connection, you can continue to reward loyalty, while providing additional information about your products or services. With permission marketing, the goal is to build an ongoing relationship with an engaged audience.

Seth uses American Airlines’ AAdvantage program as an example for how to reward people for raising their hands. “Frequent fliers receive special privileges, recognition, and mileage awards, so the more they fly, the more services and benefits they receive.”

Today, mobile marketing campaigns are often used to build a loyalty program. Recently, Alon Brands, who operates hundreds of

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gas stations and 7-Eleven stores in the U.S., leveraged mobile’s conversational nature to “build an opt-in database that would enable it to conduct future marketing efforts more efficiently and would lay the groundwork for a loyalty program.”

Mobile coupons are also a popular way to attract people’s attention and encourage them to opt in to a mobile marketing program, as we saw in Geo-Targeted Shoppers Show Strong Purchase Intent.

Deliver campaigns that are anticipated, personal and relevantSeth contrasts the million-dollar TV ads that car manufacturers rely on with permission-based campaigns in which car dealers connected directly with potential customers. The dealers used their existing knowledge of customers to build excitement about new models. The information they provided customers was relevant because it concerned brands the dealers knew the customers were interested in. A series of contacts were made, with each providing a bit more information on the chosen brand. One dealer engaged customers in a dialogue about their preferred features, so people felt vested in the new car being introduced. Instead of the high level, untargeted messaging of a TV ad, people received personal letters with relevant information and calls to action. Both dealers were extremely successful with their permission-based campaigns.

adidas® has found permission mobile marketing an effective way to reach audiences with targeted messaging. Early in 2011, adidas used Optism-enabled Mobinil Ads to increase awareness and drive traffic to a new Originals® store in Cairo. That campaign achieved a 35% response rate. Later in the year, adidas chose mobile to

introduce an opted-in audience to their new adiPower® Predator product line. The campaign was sent to people with a known interest in sports and fashion. The mobile campaign was delivered in the message recipient’s preferred language, and achieved a 28% response rate with Arabic audiences and 18.5% with English speaking audiences.

According to adidas’ marketing manager, Bugra Hatipoglu, “Working with Optism and Mobinil enabled our adiPower® Predator campaign to have more impact. The use of MMS to reach a targeted audience allowed us to engage customers in a two-way conversation. We achieved an impressive 28% response rate and enriched our understanding of our customers.”

Provide a positive experienceFittingly, Seth closes his case studies by looking at both My Yahoo! and Yoyodyne, Seth’s direct marketing company which he has since sold to Yahoo! In both cases, people who raise their hands and provide permission are rewarded with special privileges. And in exchange for small amounts of personal information, they receive advertising about products that suit their lifestyles.

Optism is also purpose-built to provide people with a positive, permission mobile marketing experience that lets customers control their own experiences. The customer identifies what areas he or she is interested in and can always choose to opt out. Dialogue-based campaigns enable marketers to develop a deeper understanding of what customers are interested in. Over time, this understanding enables marketers to offer even more tailored experiences, so advertising is always relevant.

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Permission Marketing Chapter 11Evaluating a Permission Marketing Program

Dec 8, 2011

In Chapter 11, Seth looks at the ten questions to ask when evaluating any marketing program:

1. What’s the bait?

2. What does an incremental permission cost?

3. How deep is the permission that is granted?

4. How much does incremental frequency cost?

5. What’s the active response rate to communications?

6. What are the issues regarding compression?

7. Is the company treating the permission as an asset?

8. How is the permission being leveraged?

9. How is the permission level being increased?

10. What is the expected lifetime of one permission?

All of these questions merit attention, but we’re going to focus in on a few key ones that are highly relevant for a permission-based mobile marketing campaign.

What’s the bait?Seth makes it very clear that you must offer people a reward in exchange for raising their hands and providing you with their permission. After all, they are giving you something very valuable – their attention. This is one area where creativity can really pay off. Seth tells us, “marketers that offer better bait with a more obvious benefit will always attract more consumers than their competition.” He also advises marketers to choose a bait that “resonates with the product or service you offer.” That way, you’ll be more likely to attract people who will be genuinely interested in your offering.

We’ve written in the past about offering compelling bait as part of our blog on opt-in best practices. We’ve also provided advice

on incentives in our blog on getting down to business with conversational advertising.

We agree wholeheartedly with Seth, the bait doesn’t have to be a prize. “It could be a coupon, information about an interesting subject, entertainment, or membership to a privileged group.” At Optism, we often discourage brands from using flashy prizes for opt-ins. That strategy tends to attract people who aren’t really interested in your messages, they’re simply interested in the prize. You want to invest your time and energy with people who are genuinely interested in the kind of products and services you offer.

Honor the permission being grantedSeth warns marketers to respect the level of permission granted. “If someone gives you the right to send him a catalog, that’s all he’s given you. Being overt about exactly what the consumer can expect ensures that there will be no misunderstandings and no canceled permissions.” At Optism, we fully endorse this sentiment. Mobiles are very personal. People must feel confident that they are in control of what they experience on their mobiles and transparency about what you are doing with their permission or information is paramount.

Increasing permission levels by building trustSeth writes, “Without proper care, the permission will fade. But by focusing on how to earn more and more trust…the marketer can increase the permission, making it a more valuable asset over time.” This is very true with mobile marketing as well. It’s important to stay engaged with people over time. Mobile marketing is ideally suited to a conversational style of engagement with people, one in which you keep in contact and gradually learn more about each other and build trust over time.

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People have a very personal relationship with their mobiles, so you need to approach them in a very human way. In a recent Mobile Marketing Association webinar, “Thinking Human: How to Optimize and Sustain Consumer Engagement” Optism’s Mihai Vlad explores how you can use a human touch to demonstrate that your content is worth paying attention to.

Aiming for longevityAs Seth points out, the level of effort that goes into getting someone’s permission should be tempered by the anticipated lifespan of the permission. “If permission is transient…the amount the marketer is willing to invest should be less than it would be when the permission can last for a very long time.”

With permission mobile marketing, you can open a communication channel that stays open indefinitely. If you keep up your end of the bargain, there’s no reason for the permission to end. Deliver content that is relevant and of value to your message recipients. Listen to what people tell you and pay close attention to their feedback, so you can continually refine your offerings to suit their preferences. Respect their wishes in terms of how you communicate, the frequency of messages, preferred language, and so on. Make sure you continue to merit their trust by safeguarding the information they have shared with you and – by now it should go without saying – never, ever sell, trade or in any other way abuse the permission you have been granted. For more advice on how to stay engaged with people, check out “Keeping the conversation going in permission mobile marketing.”

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Permission Marketing Chapter 12Final questions and answers

Dec 14, 2011

In Chapter 12, Seth answers frequently asked questions about permission marketing. Not all of these apply in today’s world or to mobile marketing, but we can learn valuable lessons from many of them. The sections below cover a few that are particularly relevant for mobile marketing.

Do you need a website?No you don’t, says Seth. Permission marketing, he goes on, “works in any medium where the consumer can be engaged in dialogue.” Clearly, mobile fits the bill. In fact, mobile is ideally suited to dialogue. In addition to the obvious choice of voice, virtually every mobile phone on the planet supports basic (SMS) texting. As we’ve highlighted many times in this blog, SMS can be a very effective way to build relationships with people. The one-on-one connection between brand and consumer that a permission-based mobile marketing campaign offers aligns perfectly with Seth’s doctrine of delivering messages that are “anticipated, personal, and relevant.”Mobile marketing is also effective at what Seth calls “curriculum marketing” – slowly educating the consumer about your product and services through an ongoing conversation. “You can use interactivity to gain information about your prospects in a dialogue.” As you each learn more about the other, the relationship deepens and you can increase the relevance of the information you provide.

What’s the difference between permission marketing and what you’re doing now?

In this section, Seth introduces an analogy to illustrate the difference: interruption marketers are hunters; permission marketers are farmers.

Hunters use lots of ammunition and just keep firing until they hit something. “You can take a day or a week or a month off from this endeavor and it won’t take you long to get back into successfully bagging a few.”

Farmers do more preparation up front and ongoing work, “hoeing, planting, watering, and harvesting.” The payback is more predictable, “but it takes regular effort and focus. If you take a month off, you might lose your entire crop.” The bonus for farmers, however, is that their approach scales. “Once you get good at it, you can plant ever more seeds and harvest ever more crops.”

We definitely advocate that marketers consider mobile marketing an investment. As your relationship deepens, your rewards will increase. We’ve seen it: the response rates achieved when remarketing to a committed audience are well beyond any interruption marketer’s dreams.

How important is testing?Very! And this is certainly something that we would advocate marketers do with mobile marketing campaigns. Seth writes, “Aggressively testing every element of a permission campaign can double or triple its effectiveness.”

In our roundup of mobile marketing news, we’ve often covered marketers who are testing different approaches. In September, for example, we looked at Mobile Marketer’s report on Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s testing of mobile devices to increase sales. In their digital marketing blog, Mobile Storm reminded its readers that, “In marketing to the mobile channel, it’s important to test all variables to determine what produces the highest engagement, response and conversion. Elements like sending patterns, calls-to-action and even the contact acquisition strategy all affect the success of your campaign in the end.” At Optism, we are able to provide marketers and brands with detailed metrics on the success of any campaign very quickly, so messaging can be tweaked “on the fly” to maximize effectiveness.

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What are the biggest stumbling blocks?Seth focused on the challenges of initiating a new approach to marketing from within an organization focused on interruption marketing. In the past few years, we’ve seen similar challenges as marketers first approached mobile. The medium was unfamiliar – and admittedly presented some challenges to creative folks because of the various platforms. In the early days, there were few roadmaps for how to do it or examples of brands making it work. And everyone needed convincing that mobile was worth the effort. That’s all changed today. When the world’s most recognized brands, include Coca-Cola and Starbucks are leading with extensive mobile strategies, it’s clear mobile has “arrived.” At Mobile World Congress in February, CEO Eric Schmidt told us that at Google, “We understand that the new rule is mobile first.”

Chapter 12 closes with an outline of the critical first steps Seth recommends to anyone wanted to get started with permission marketing. We highly recommend you check this list out. In our blogs, we’ve also highlighted places you can look for guidance if you’re just getting started with mobile marketing, including various Mobile Marketing Association publications, such as the MMA Code of Conduct and U.S. Consumer Best Practices, and recent

white paper, “Building Permission Based Mobile Marketing.” On our website, we provide examples of campaign solutions, along with case studies of successful campaigns. In our briefing room on MobileGroove, Peggy Anne Salz has feature podcasts and interviews with leading ecosystem members that offer timely advice from different perspectives. The web is alive with mobile marketing advice from every corner of the globe.

We hope you have enjoyed our chapter-by-chapter

review of Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing. Seth’s

subtitle for the book is “Turning strangers into friends

and friends into customers.” We’re tempted to write an

additional subtitle, “Teaching marketers a whole new

approach to marketing in our digital world” – a world

that most definitely includes mobile.