What is Permission Based Internet Marketing?
Permission marketing is an Internet marketing strategy in which, in an attempt to avoid spamming and to increase customer trust and confidence, permission is asked prior to presenting the customer or potential customer with marketing materials (e.g., ads, emails, etc.). Such marketing is also known as opt-in marketing. This marketing methodology is one of the most, if not the most, effective marketing strategies for selecting highly- targeted customers.
Permission marketing, at its roots, stems from an earlier marketing movement known as relationship marketing. Relationship marketing views the merchant-customer relationship as just that - a relationship, and not merely as a sale or transaction.
One of the primary forms of permission-based marketing is opt-in email. Opt-in email is an email marketing strategy that focuses on a highly-targeted customer. Typically a form is placed on the merchant’s website, providing the customer with an opportunity to sign up for a free newsletter, report, ebook, or the like, allowing the merchant to build a highly-targeted (and hopefully highly-responsive) mailing list. The customer “opts-in” of his or her own accord. This demonstrates a consumer interest in a given merchant’s products and/or services. This marketing tactic is clearly distinct from bulk mailings and spam mailings, which tend to be untargeted (not to mention, typically ineffective and perhaps even illegal!).
Of course, simply because a visitor to a website signs up for a newsletter or report, it doesn’t automatically mean that they are customers eager to buy product. On the contrary, some people will just be interested in the free information and nothing more. This is just a fact of marketing.
The process should not stop upon the visitor filling out the form requesting the free information. The first email contact that the merchant has with the consumer should provide another opportunity to confirm the opt-in (the potential customer should be provided with an opportunity to opt-out at this point before communications and the business relationship progresses to the next level). This is referred to as a double opt-in, and helps ensure the highest quality list possible. That is, a list of people most likely to buy from you and become long-term customers.
Such permission-based marketing tactics are integral to targeted marketing and conversion. Such a strategy is easy to implement as well. Provide your customers with the opportunity to opt-in and opt-out with every communication that you share with them. The conversions and profits will attest to this marketing strategy’s effectiveness.
Justin Michie is an Internet Marketing specialist, small business consultant and author of the best selling Internet Marketing Book, Street Smart Internet Marketing . If you’re interested in learning more about marketing on the internet and/or making money online, you can pick up a copy of his brand new book from www.InternetMarketingBook.com.
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