(def) Interrupt Vs Permission Marketing
from "Permission Marketing", by Seth Godin
"....For ninety years, marketers have relied on one form of
advertising almost exclusively. I call it Interruption
Marketing. 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....'
'...Advertising is not why we pay attention. Yet marketers
must make us pay attention for the ads to work. If they
don't interrupt our train of thought by planting some sort
of seed in our conscious or subconscious, the ads fail.
Wasted money. If an ad falls in the forest and no one
notices, there is no ad....'
'...The easiest way to contrast the Interruption Marketer with
the Permission Marketer is with an analogy about getting
married. It also serves to exemplify how sending multiple
individualized messages over time works better than a
single message, no matter how impressive that single
message is....'
THE FIVE STEPS TO DATING YOUR CUSTOMER
'..Every marketer must offer the prospective customer an
incentive for volunteering. In the vernacular of dating,
that means you have to offer something that makes it
interesting enough to go out on a first date. A first date,
after all, represents a big investment in time, money and
ego. So there better be reason enough to volunteer.
Without a selfish reason to continue dating, your new
potential customer (and your new potential date) will
refuse you a second chance. If you don't provide a
benefit to the consumer for paying attention, your offer
will suffer the same fate as every other ad campaign that's
vying for their attention. It will be ignored.
The incentive you offer to the customer can range from
information, to entertainment, to a sweepstakes, to
outright payment for the prospect's attention. But the
incentive must be overt, obvious and clearly delivered.
This is the most obvious difference between Permission
Marketing and Interruption Marketing. Interruption
Marketers spend all of their time interrupting strangers, in
an almost pitiful attempt to bolster popularity and capture
attention. Permission Marketers spend as little time and
money talking to strangers as they can. Instead, they
move as quickly as they can to turn strangers into
prospects who choose to "opt-in" to a series of
communications.
Second, using the attention offered by the consumer, the
marketer offers a curriculum over time, teaching the
consumer about the product or service he has to offer.
The Permission Marketer knows that the first date is an
opportunity to sell the other person on a second date.
Every step along the way has to be interesting, useful and
relevant.
Since the prospect has agreed to pay attention, it's much
easier to teach them about your product. Instead of filling
each ensuing message with entertainment designed to
attract attention, or with sizzle designed to attract the
attention of strangers, the Permission Marketer is able to
focus on product benefits -- on specific, focused ways
this product will help that prospect. Without question,
this ability to talk freely over time is the most powerful
element of this marketing approach.
The third step involves reinforcing the incentive. Over
time, any incentive wears out. Just as your date may tire
of even the finest restaurant, the prospective customer
may show fatigue with the same repeated incentive. The
Permission Marketer must work to reinforce the
incentive, to be sure that the attention continues. This is
surprisingly easy. Because this is a two-way dialogue,
not a narcissistic monologue, the marketer can adjust the
incentives being offered and fine tune them for each
prospect.
Along with reinforcing the incentive, the fourth step is to
increase the level of permission the marketer receives
from the potential customer. Now I won't go into detail
on what step of the dating process this corresponds to,
but in marketing terms, the goal is to motivate the
consumer to give more and more permission over time.
Permission to gather more data about the customer's
personal life, or hobbies, or interests. Permission to offer
a new category of product for the customer's
consideration. Permission to provide a product sample.
The range of permission you can obtain from a customer
is very wide, and limited only by its relevance to the
customer.
Over time, the marketer uses the permission he's obtained
to change consumer behavior, that is, get them to say, "I
do." That's how you turn permission into profits. After
permission is granted, that's how it becomes a truly
significant asset for the marketer. Now you can live
happily ever after by repeating the aforementioned
process while selling your customer more and more
products. In other words, the fifth and final step is to
leverage your permission into a profitable situation for
both of you. Remember, you have access to the most
valuable thing a customer can offer - attention...."
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[Summary]
Five Steps to Dating Your Customer
1. Offer the prospect an incentive to volunteer
2. Using the attention offered by the prospect, offer a
curriculum over time, teaching the consumer about your
product or service
3. Reinforce the incentive to guarantee that the prospect
maintains the permission
4. Offer additional incentives to get even more permission
from the consumer
5. Over time, leverage the permission to change consumer
behavior towards profits |
