Permission-based Marketing: Where Yes Means Yes, and No Means No

Marketing can be powerful, impactful and even helpful; but it can also be annoying and unwanted. These days, marketers are trying to decipher through some blurred lines on whether their message is wanted, appropriate, and even legal.

This is where permission-based marketing can be so powerful.

“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them. It recognizes the new power of the best consumers to ignore marketing. It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.”

As you can imagine, we believe permission-based marketing is the best kind of marketing because it targets the right audience, with the right message. To help you find your voice, below are several situations that are all “Yes” (full permission), and a couple of situations you don’t want to get caught in.

Yes means yes: Situations where your marketing can make a HUGE impact!

Your email list:

If someone is on your email list, it means that they have expressed specific interest in your business. A good email list if full of highly engaged contacts that are expecting you to send them something. **hint, EXPECTING** that’s right, when they signup, they are flat-out asking for it.

Social Media:

Your followers, likes, and community is another place where your audience is interested, engaged and looking for information. Social media platforms give you the voice and audience to kick your marketing into action.

No means no: Critical misses that burn marketers and brands.

Purchasing an audience: If you have a list or an audience that you purchased, you are walking some fine lines. These contacts have not expressed interest, so often your message will appear as unwanted and even intrusive. Because of this, your campaign performance will suffer and you won’t be getting the results you are capable of.

Promotion overload: Remember, you must treat your audience with respect and provide relevant information. If you are always talking about yourself and not providing value, this is a great way to get ignored and lose your audience.

Find your safe word: Just in case you are afraid of crossing a line, there are a couple universal safe words that you should know: “unsubscribe”, “opt-out” “unfollow” and “block”. Always respect your audience’s decision.

Rule of thumb- get permission where you can, and ensure that content is always relevant and interesting to your audience.

If you are looking to build your audience or need help finding the right words, we can help.