The Science Of Permission Marketing After 25 Years!

Seth Godin’s Seminal Work Stands Up

Today revisits one of the classics, lets slip into the Go Back machine and see if the ideas Seth Godin pioneered 25 years ago today as see if it still stands up, shall we?

For simple context, in 1999 a relatively new author launched a book that would change the way many of us think about marketing.

The book was, Permission Marketing. The author – Seth Godin. And 25 years later this book is still having an impact and dictating norms. 

In this post I’m going to hit on: 

• What is permission marketing
• How to gain permission…
• What to do with it once you have it 
• And what things Godin was too early for  in his work, and how to apply it!

I’m glad you’re here…let’s get to it. 

Defining Permission Marketing:

Permission Marketing is an alternative to “traditional forms” of advertising – which strives to gain attention by interrupting people. 

Y’all know what I’m talking about. Think TV ads, ads before a YouTube video, pop-up ads on a website, radio and magazine ads. The list goes on… 

Decades ago, this model of interrupting people proved unbelievably profitable and helped to build a range of brands that are still with us today. 

• Frosted Flakes
• Star-Kist Tuna
• Green Giant
• Every P&G brand
• And so many more…

But that was a different time. With every passing year these traditional forms have become less and less effective. Today, the name of the game is attention. 

If you’re a brand, or an influencer, your goal is to gain attention and hold on to it.

Not an easy thing to do. Not today. Even with a big marketing war chest. There’s too much noise out there. 

So, Godin takes an alternate approach. 

Instead of shouting and then shouting louder he argues to ask for permission to start a conversation. A conversation that over time will turn strangers into friends. And friends into long-term customers. 

Marketers can do this by communicating with individuals who have already shown interest in their product/service.

Once that happens, they have now earned something very valuable: trust. And with it they can deliver anticipated, relevant, and personalized messages, that will drive results.

That’s it in a nutshell. Get people to raise their hand, gain their permission to interact, then over deliver value once you have them.

The concept is simple. The execution…not so much. 

It’s All About Providing Value:

Gaining permission begins with providing value to your target customer. Back in ’99 when Godin first released his book, he achieved permission by giving away the first four chapters for FREE. 

This idea might not seem like such a big deal in 2024. But back then it was breakthrough. Authors just weren’t doing this. And four chapters!!! Unheard of. 

But Godin realized if he was going to capture a large audience – he needed to do something bold. Giving away four chapters provided a ton of value. It also created millions of downloads and literally changed changing the course of his career. Side note: if you want to read more about the book launch go here.  

So, what can you do today to gain permission? Here are three approaches: 

1. Incentives: The most popular way gain permission is by providing an incentive. This is often referred to as a lead magnet in marketing today. This could be a discount. Give us your email and receive 10% off your first order. You can provide a free whitepaper, a trial version of a product, exclusive content, or access to content or a person. The key is value, value, value. 

2. Entertaining Content: In today’s world entertaining content can be an extremely effective gateway to permission. Case in point, Mr. Beast. He now has an audience of 320 MILLION!! How has he been able to do that? He creates videos people want to watch. And this has given him permission to launch Mr. Beast burgers and his candy bar, Feastables. A candy company that may just displace a Hershey!

3. Education: In today’s world How To videos are an enormous category — from cooking to running to everything in between. And they work. According to a study done by Google/Ipsos, how to videos earn THE most attention on YouTube – bypassing song and even gaming videos. As a marketer, determine the problems your customers are facing and show them how they can be solved. 

Next, what do you do once your customer has raised their hand and wants to engage? 

What To Do Once You’ve Gained Permission:

Now that you have permission – what are you going to do with it? 

The one thing not to do…don’t jump into pitch mode!! This happens all too often. 

As soon as I raise my hand – my phone is blowing up with people reaching out to close me on something. 

Permission marketing doesn’t work that way. It’s a slower build…but it’s a longer burn. 

Done the right way you will be able to retain more customers over a longer period of time. And make more money. 

Here are three ways to nurture the relationship.

1. Continue adding value: Permission doesn’t stop the minute someone raises their hand. That’s just the first step. You’ve crossed an important threshold, now you need to keep going. Continue to provide content your customers want – that leads to greater trust, more permission and a higher likelihood they will buy and continue to buy your product or service. 

2. Don’t overwhelm: You got permission that doesn’t mean you can bombard people with messages. Instead focus on quality and relevant content rather than overwhelming them with more noise. 

3. Personalize the message: Use the information you’ve gathered to personalize your content. Use names, preferences, or behavioral info (like previous interactions) to tailor your message. Your customers are providing you with info to help enhance the experience. Be human and use it. Show them you respect their attention and deliver the content that aligns what they are looking for. 

In many ways, permission marketing is like the Gary Vaynerchuck book Jab, Jab, Right Hook. 

You give way more value BEFORE asking for a sale. 

Things Godin Missed:

Seth Godin is good…but even he couldn’t predict all the changes that would occur over 25 years. 

So, what things did he miss? Here are three:

1. A focus on email marketing: Godin puts his focus on the email marketing channel. It’s huge and arguably one of the most important channels even today…but because this was written and published in ’99, there’s no talk of social media and the HUGE impact it has on marketing. 

Social media allows brands to interact with consumers in both permission-based (following) and interruptive ways (ads in their feed). The type of engagement on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are just more than Godin could have anticipated.

2. Over-simplification: Godin discuss permission marketing as a linear progression where relationships deepen over time. In other words, stranger → friend → customer. In today’s world it just not that simple. Customer journeys are much more fragmented and much more complex.

The customer of 2024 typically takes a nonlinear and unpredictable path with touchpoints across multiple channels (email, social media, apps). People might jump in and out of a marketing funnel and give permission in one channel but not in others.

3. Evolving expectations: As the amount of content and noise continues to soar, we have become more and more jaded regarding any form of marketing. Our BS detectors have become finely tuned. And the expectations we have on brands and marketers have changed. The ability to gain permission has become much more complex and nuanced. Something Godin just couldn’t see happening. 

Godin himself admits there were some shortcomings. He describes this in his blog post Ten Years of Permission Marketing:

“There’s a lot of updating that the book could use, because when I wrote it there was no Google, Facebook, Twitter, universal email access, widespread high bandwidth connectivity, browsers that rarely crashed or iPhones. 

But I’m going to let it stand as is, because keeping it up to date is a never ending task. 

I hope the general concepts stand the test of time. 

Short version: Don’t be selfish. You’re not in charge. Make promises and keep them. It’s like dating. It’s an asset, it’s expensive and it’s worth it.”

Did it stand the test of time? Oh hells yeah. Thank you, Mr. Godin!