Do you find that your meticulously put together marketing missives aren’t generating the kind of attention that they should be? Are your responses lacking in enthusiasm and relevancy? If so, consider that your content and your messages may not as relevant as you make them out to be. Or perhaps you have no idea what IS relevant to your target audience.
Permission marketing is a term coined and popularized by Seth Godin in the early 1990’s. It basically involves asking (and receiving) permission to educate people about your products and services.

Of course, all of that entails that you also provide added value while convincingly and truthfully relating your product to a client’s business needs, which is what makes the marketing model perfect for well-established and start-up companies. Generations-old enterprises can reinvent themselves and develop a fresher image through permission marketing, while start-ups that are struggling to build their consumer base can increase sales and evolve their reputations.

Here, I’ve compiled some great tips to help you make it big in the world of permission marketing.
1. Permission and content marketing make a fantastic pair. In fact, one of the easiest ways to get your target audience to pay attention to your marketing messages is by offering them unique content that,

• Is tailored to their interests
• Solves problems that they can’t find answers to
• Gives them tips to enhance their experiences

So, if you want to get clients on to your ‘permitted’ list, you’re going to have to provide them with regular, entertaining, relevant content. They expect it and you just won’t do as well as you could be doing if you’re failing to deliver on content. This includes case studies, reports and white papers for B2B enterprises and product-related infotainment for consumer-oriented businesses.

2. Every business organization that takes itself seriously must have a customer database. When it comes to permission marketing, growing that database with the right customers is absolutely essential. While many companies favor organic expansion, an increasing number of marketing professional find it well worth their investment to purchase a list from a mailing list vendor.

Most vendors offer a great many selects that can be utilized to compile a list of contacts that are highly likely to be interested in your products or services. By using multiple lists that reflects several different kinds of prospects, you’ll slowly be able to see what kind of audience is most likely to help you meet your business goals.

3. Educate and entertain. The point of permission marketing is to tell people about your products in an entertaining manner – hopefully that entertainment serves as a catalyst to get them interested in your product or at the very least, your brand.

4. Permission marketing is very much like social media marketing in that they both strive to establish two-way relationships between business and client. However, remember that this relationship revolves less around the business and more around the client. The only way the business becomes involved with the client is by providing a solution to the problem. In light of this, remember to talk to your clients about THEIR needs and concerns and how to best tackle them with your company’s product or service line.

5. Remember how your business relationship with your client began? When you first met it was all hunky-dory. They had a problem, you had a solution, the enthusiasm flowed, things got done and they liked the material you sent them. The whole thing probably took a few weeks or less.

6. Now, if you’ve been sending them content for over a year based on the problems that they faced during your initial contact, what’s to say that their priorities haven’t changed? Businesses are evolving constantly and it’s down to you to keep up with the pace of change. That’s why we advocate asking your clients for feedback on a regular basis, this will help you tailor your content and enrich your relationships.

Sources
http://www.bizeasesupport.com
http://www.esalesdata.com
http://www.sellingcommunications.com

Author's Bio: 

Linda Mentzer is a published author and senior marketing manager for an information management company that has helped sell thousands of software products on a global scale. With over 11 years of experience in electronic marketing techniques, Linda has authored articles for several leading business journals, worldwide.