You Have My Permission - The Downfall of Mass Marketing . . .

Here we are in February of 2010, the social media phenomenon is in full swing, Oprah is tweeting, corporations have a facebook fan page and people of all ages from 14-84 are plugging into a different way of communication.  I was reading an interview of Seth Godin from the year 2005, in this interview he talked about “Permission Based Marketing”.

To identify what this is let’s look at what it is not.  Traditionally a company has leveraged mass marketing to convey their message to the public hoping that this wide and broad blast would land a % of customers.  This traditional way of marketing has been used for many decades and traditionally was the “way” to market.  We as a consuming public would get unanticipated and impersonal messages by marketers who would deliver a message that was important to them and not necessarily important to us.

This method has for years become less and less effective as the general public is blasted with an insane amount of advertising all day long.  Today, we are trained to quickly and effectively tune out the messages that we don’t want to hear.  The example Seth used in this interview was very visual and will help you understand the difference in mass marketing verses, individual “permission” marketing or “privilege” marketing.

For those that are married, let’s take you back to when you were single.  If you were out at a restaurant as a single person and you saw someone who you were attracted to.  Was your first “move” to walk up and say, “Hi my name is John Smith and I have these qualities, Will you MARRY ME?”  Then when you are rejected, move directly to the next person until eventually you found someone that said, yes.

No, your first move was a conversation, which ultimately lead to the privilege of having another conversation, which then lead to the privilege of a date, etc.  See as a marketer you should be seeking the “permission” or “privilege” to engage your potential future client.  Not the immediate sale or rejection.

Whether you are in direct selling, traditional bricks and mortar business, network marketing or online marketing, you will need to learn how to transition your marketing from the mass market approach to building a list of “followers” who allow you the privilege to “engage” them.  This “privilege” will build a relationship of frequency and trust that will ultimately lead to a client with whom you gain “wallet” share verses mass market share.

Social media allows you to tap into the personal relationship of your current and future clients.  It allows you to build bonds of trust and nurture a privilege based marketing relationship.  This relationship becomes a vital asset to your business that cannot be replaced by anyone other than yourself.  Just as when you were dating you cannot send a “substitute” to stand in for you.

In conclusion, mass marketing is on a downward spiral and is daily becoming less effective for business.  We are quickly heading back to the way it used to be 100 years ago, where the only option was a personal relationship with the customer.  A relationship built on frequency, trust and providing value.

Evaluate your business practices and take steps of action to continually move into a “privilege” based relationship with your clients.  For consulting and direction on how you can implement this into your business, contact me for an analysis of your current business practices.

Keep On Charging,

Joshua Valentine

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