Permission Marketing - What's That?
Posted On: 2007-04-26
Permission marketing is one of those terms that many people in this industry don't quite understand. All too often we take the view that if a person has landed on one of our sites then we don't need their permission to market to them ... and in some ways that's perfectly true. But in other ways it's very wide of the mark.
I can well remember a leading adult marketer continually repeating on the newbie board he ran that if a surfer hit our site he should expect to see ads and even see so many ads that the content the surfer was looking for was almost smothered in advertising. So to that marketer's way of thinking a surfer was already giving permission to the marketer to pepper him with advertising just by being on their site.
Of course, the surfer's view was always going to be the exact opposite. The surfer wasn't really giving anyone permission to overwhelm him with advertising. All he was doing was hitting the site to look at the images he might find there and if that was all he was doing then how could that be interpreted as giving permission?
So with two completely opposing points of view was there ever any middle ground? Of course not! Adult marketers have gone on filling their sites with banners and text links while surfers have ignored them to the point where they don't even see them anymore. And that means that our sales are dropping because we don't have the surfer's permission to market to them.
Now lots of adult marketers would read that and burst out laughing. Why do we need permission to market to anyone? If surfers come to our site then they should expect it shouldn't they?
Of course they should expect to encounter marketing but they're not going to be happy about it and these days the more marketing they get thrown in their faces the less chance there is of selling them on the products we're marketing.
If you don't follow that then just stop and think for a moment about your telephone. Do you ever buy anything from a telemarketer who calls you and tries to sell you something? More than likely you don't because you didn't invite that marketer to call you, you didn't want to be interrupted by a phone call from someone you didn't know and so there is an immediate barrier between you and the marketer. And that's a barrier that most marketers can't climb over.
It will either take an exceptional marketer - of which there are few who work the telephones - or an exceptional product to overcome the barrier, the resistance, which you have to being cold-called.
While advertising on an adult site isn't quite the same as being cold-called by a telemarketer it is still unwanted marketing as far as most surfers are concerned and so you are facing an almost insurmountable hurdle from the moment the surfer hits your page. So how do you overcome this hurdle?
The simple solution is that you get the surfer to give you permission to market to him. That sounds rather obvious doesn't it? At the same time it sounds almost impossible to achieve ... but maybe it isn't quite so hard to achieve as you might think.
Marketing is more than just getting in the face of the surfer and shouting 'BUY THIS! BUY THIS! BUY THIS!'. Marketing is getting alongside the surfer and meeting him where he is at.
To do that you need to identify his needs and wants and see where your product fits in with those needs and wants. You need to appeal to him on that level and get him interested in what you are trying to sell him. Once you have him interested you will soon have his or her permission to tell him more.
Of course if you want to achieve that you're going to have to give up your reliance on banners, blinking arrows and text ads produced by your sponsor. You're going to have to sit down and work hard at producing your own relevant sales text ... that doesn't always look like sales text. And you're going to have to spend time thinking about the people who are landing on your galleries and free sites. Think about what their needs might be, think about what approach will work best with them and think about whether your product really is relevant to them too.
If you begin to do that you'll find that your interest in marketing and the psychology behind marketing will expand but don't be afraid. Instead jump in and enjoy it because it's exciting, it's interesting and it's going to make you a lot more money than you will make if you keep on trying to sell stuff to people who don't want to listen to your message.
Permission marketing - it's all about having the opportunity to turn every second of every day into a chance to sell something to people who want to buy.