Permission Based Marketing

Permission based marketing is direct marketing where the audience has communicated an interest in your products or message via an opt-in channel such as a subscription page on your web site.

Benefits of Permission Based Marketing

Permission based marketing is a largely overlooked tool available to the web enabled business. Permission based marketing provides many benefits to companies that make the investment:

• Build new relationships
• Increase customer loyalty
• Increase sales
• Reduce excess inventory
• Balance demand on service companies and infrastructure.

Most mass marketing treats the entire audience the same. A paper brochure or mailer looks the same to a stranger as it does to your best customer. Web enabled, permission based marketing uses information provided by the audience to tailor the message to each member of the audience while still maintaining the efficiencies of mass communication.

By tailoring your messages and including valuable information, you can ensure that your message is desired and read by your audience.

Media & Channels

There are as many media for permission based marketing as you can imagine. A few of the more popular include:

• Newsletters - either about the business or often times these are more effective as industry newsletters, sponsored by your business. The best newsletters are short summaries with links to more detailed information on your web site.
• Sequential messaging - Sequential messaging is much more personal than newsletters or other broadcast information. A sequential message campaign delivers a sequence of usually educational messages to new prospects based on when they first contacted or opted-in. The sequence is designed with more general introductory information at the start of the relationship. When a prospect has been subscribed for a few weeks the messages can tackle more in-depth issues. Sequential messaging is a uniquely powerful tool for building loyal relationships with prospects and customers. A side benefit is that educated customers are often your happiest and most profitable customers.
• Broadcast specials - are a great way to keep your customers interested in your permission based marketing messages. They also serve to fill in your slow times, liquidate slow moving merchandise, or capitalize on special deals from your vendors.
• Reminder notes - From dentist visits to oil changes, just about every business has a recurring sales cycle. Why not touch base with your customers and clients on a regular basis, after a visit or sale or perhaps when subscriptions are expiring.
  

Build Relationships and a Loyal Customer Community

Permission based marketing should be a part of your coordinated marketing effort. Your web site will introduce your business and product to thousands of new prospects. Research shows that most purchases are made after 8 contacts between a company and a sales prospect. Yet it only takes 1/10,000th of a calorie to click away from your web site.

A well executed permission based marketing program is a vital tool to address the gap between an introduction and a business relationship. By presenting prospects with high value well crafted messages, you show that you care and increase your credibility setting the tone for the business relationship to follow. It is this comfort level that helps prospects make buying decisions.

The same benefits apply to your existing customers. A high value messaging campaign validates their original purchasing decision and encourages them to do repeat business with you.

Making it Happen

Implementing a permission based marketing campaign is not expensive. It merely requires a commitment to communicate with customers and prospects. The technology involved is inexpensive or in some cases free. The user interface is simple to operate even for non-technical personnel. The main investment comes in generating a plan for a sustainable communications effort and following through with regular high-value messages to your audience.

E7systems currently has several customers with active permission based marketing programs ranging from direct sales broadcasts to informative newsletters. We work with a combination of custom and off-the-shelf software packages to meet or clients needs at a low cost while providing a robust feature set (when needed).

To further explore how permission based marketing can improve and develop your business, please contact us. We look forward to hearing about your business communications needs.