From M/Cyclopedia of New Media
- Originally coined by Seth Godin in 1999, the term “permission marketing�? or “privacy marketing�? means e-marketing to consumers only after obtaining their consent to do so. It requires people to give their permission to receiving e-marketing tactics rather than choosing to reject only after they have been targeted. An example would be a company asking if a consumer if he or she would like to receive news and information about the company or company’s product via email. In this case, permission is sought from the customer before any direct marketing activity is carried out. This form of marketing is used by email marketers, telephone marketers and internet marketers and it gives consumers the choice to maintain their privacy from the marketing activities of companies.
- As the Internet becomes increasingly saturated with marketing and advertising schemes, analysts believe that users have been conditioned to ignore the marks of these marketing methods. Some marketers believe that permission marketing is a more effective marketing tool as it is based on a more personal level in contrast to other broad marketing methods like mass marketing and national advertising.
- Godin believes that a problem with mass marketing is that it fights for the attention of audiences by ‘interrupting’ them (Godin as cited in Taylor, 1998, p. 198). In contrast, he states that the challenge of permission marketing would be to persuade consumers to agree to accept having their attention held (Godin as cited in Taylor, 1998, p. 198). In return, the company will offer more information about their product or service in hope that the consumers will be keen to find out even more. The permission marketing method seeks to establish a mutually beneficially relationship between the company and the consumer.
Permission Marketing – Guidelines
- According to Godin, the first rule of permission marketing is to base it on ‘selfishness’ (Godin as cited in Taylor, 1998, p. 198). This is taken into consideration when the marketer understands that consumers will only be willing to communicate if they know what they will receive in return. When consumers pay attention to the messages or communicate with the company, the company should reward the consumers. It works mainly on the big idea that communication between the marketer and the consumer can be facilitated freely and frequently, as long as the consumer has already granted their permission to do so.
Permission Marketing - Case Study - H&R Block: Premium Tax
- H&R Block introduced a new service called Premium Tax targeted at a group of higher-income customers. However, it was a service that needed to be explained before customers would understand what this Premium Tax was about.
- Their internet banner which said “H&R Block: We'll pay your taxes sweepstakes�? had more than 50,000 responses from people who paid taxes and knew what H&R Block was. In order to gain a chance to have their taxes paid by H&R, the consumers gave the company permission to tell them more about Premium Tax. In this case, permission marketing worked effectively in getting the attention of their target group and eliciting enough interest to gain their permission to further promote the service.
Other Examples of Permission Marketing Campaigns
- Million Dollar Webcrawl Sweepstakes
References
--Jamie Tang 00:03, 28 Oct 2005 (EST)
