Chapter 17 This is Marketing

Part 1

Permission Marketing

It’s anticipated, relevant and personal.

Marketing is about attention. Scarce Attention.

What are spams? Be it through email or through some other method. It’s an attempt to steal our attention which is way too precious to be spent on things which don’t matter to us the way they do for others. We can’t get our attention back once it’s stolen for something insignificant.

But there’s an alternative to seek attention. That is when you deliver anticipated, personal and relevant messages to those who actually want to receive them. The privilege of interacting with people where they will miss you if you were gone.

Permission marketing is realizing that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.

Take it this way. Would you like to talk to someone who is just here to talk about himself without even asking you if you wanted to talk or the one who respects your boundaries and asks you if you are available for them? I would choose the latter.

Pay Attention.

When someone chooses to pay attention they are paying you something valuable, way more valuable than monetary things. Attention gained this way is an important asset that should be valued and not wasted.

Real permission isn’t showing up in a person’s inbox just because you have their email or calling them out of nowhere just because you got their contact number. It’s when you stop showing up, people get concerned. They want you back. You earn the right to have their attention, bit by bit.

Every publisher, every media company, every author of ideas needs to own a permission asset, the privilege of contacting people without a middleman.

Permission should be obvious, very upfront. Your friend has permission to contact you when they are in need but a random person who just got a pass to a conclave doesn’t have the permission to advertise his product to you just because he got in too.

Subscriptions. They are an apparent act of permission. Like newspaper subscription or a milk subscription. You have intentionally given your attention to them because that service is valuable to you.

Spotify’s subscription service is how they seek permission to the ones who are willing to give their attention, to whom the service is valuable and relevant and it’s for whom who will miss it if it’s gone.

When you are asking for permission, you are simply making a promise. A promise that I am offering this and I hope you will give me your permission by listening. But that’s it. That’s all you do. This is your promise and it remains until both sides agree to change it to something else.

TBC…