Permission Marketing

 It’s not too late…

“…it’s not too late to start a permission marketing campaign, but it would have been better in 1999. It’s not too late to start treating your customers with respect or build ideas that spread either.”

That’s a quote from Seth Godin, author of Permission Marketing, still the seminal work that predicted the forces within advertising that have forever changed how we in the media make money and deal with clients and our audience. I read it in 1999. I told every client who would listen about it then, and ever since.

I once again saw Seth speak at the CRS in Nashville a couple of weeks ago. I attend his speeches as often as I can and encourage clients and friends in our business to come with me. Seth never wastes your time.

Still, 10 years along and I know of no radio station in the US or Europe actually carrying out the true principles of Permission Marketing. Not one. Some get close but fudge when it comes to Sales and clients needing added value and/or promotions, as if that were a valid excuse for spamming our listeners. Most stations treat their web site and database as an extension of their broadcast, cluttering it up in the exact same ways: interrupting as obtrusively as possible, rather than serving as a conduit between motivated buyer and willing seller.

As Seth says, “Nodding is fun to watch, but largely ineffective.”

Are you noddig now?

You realize everything about your station has changed dramatically and with stunning rapidity in the last 6 months. You see it, but you’re frozen. The economy has you spooked. Change is hard work, and you’re already on over-load.

It’s not too late to start over. It’s not too late to get it right this time.

Doubt sees the obstacles, faith sees the way.