What permission marketing is and how does it work?

In the same way the internet has changed people’s everyday lives, it has also changed consumer relations. 

Although physical stores are still quite common, we can often notice a preference for online shopping. Therefore, the ways to market products have also changed. 

New available resources, updated tools, and different methods have been incorporated by companies in all areas of activity.

Nowadays, businesses are reaching out with this new type of consumer and not simply advertising products or services all the time.

Having easy access to what they are looking for, potential customers have a lot more power of choice, and they are the ones who determine the rules on how they want to get to know a company, product or service.

This new reality is known as permission marketing, and this is the subject we’ll address today.

But first, what is permission marketing?

Permission marketing is every marketing strategy used to advertise a product, service or brand that is not intrusive.

As the name itself suggests, it’s a form of marketing that relies on the expressed permission of potential customers before advertising.

In other words, consumers only receive the advertising material that they really want, which greatly improves the relationship between the company and its customers and boost engagement.

However, several brands still make the mistake of advertising excessively. When they discover they can use the internet to send email to thousands of people at the same time, a few entrepreneurs end up using this strategy without taking the user’s experience into account.

The main goal of permission marketing is to put an end to this type of error and to use only marketing strategies that respect the wishes of consumers when it comes to receiving promotional material.

What are the advantages of permission marketing?

Now that you know a bit more about the concept of permission marketing, we’ll check out the main advantages of putting this strategy in practice:

1. Brand credibility 

Whenever a company advertises its products or services with permission marketing in mind, it’s making it clear that it cares about its potential customers. 

By requesting someone’s permission to send them an email or other advertising material, people can see that you actually care about what they wish to receive.  

Letting customers know you care is sure to increase your brand’s credibility and to improve how your company is seen by customers.

2. Saving money 

Permission marketing helps you to avoid unnecessary expenses, since you only invest in actions for those who wish to learn more about your business, i.e., who already have a certain interest in what you are offering.

Therefore, in addition to being a strategy that is more respectful towards customers, it also gives you a hand in saving resources such as time and money.

3. Increased Sales 

The conversion rate is one of the main forms of measuring how your marketing strategies are working.

By focusing your marketing efforts on the right audience, your conversion rate will probably increase; after all, customers really want to receive your promotional messages and based on that assumption, chances of making a sale increase significantly. 

4. Focus on communication 

Another major advantage of permission marketing, from a strategic point of view, is that it allows you to focus on the communication itself, in other words, on the content you deliver to your audience. 

Assuming that your email contact list has already shown interest in your product, you can create better quality content, which is more likely to satisfy this audience’s needs. 

This means that you can think about a suitable language style for your audience, in addition to being able to continue communicating with them even after a purchase is made.

5.  Reduced spamming 

How many email marketing campaigns have you carried out which had poor results? 

This might have happened because the majority of emails sent went directly to your potential customer’s email SPAM box.

In practice, a lot of emails go directly to the trash. 

From the moment a person allows you to communicate with them via the internet, the chances of your messages going to the SPAM box are slimmer.

In addition, you have probably noticed how companies send several emails without asking for permission.

If you avoid this type of practice, you are helping to reduce SPAM.

How to permission marketing works

1. Prioritize content creation 

To get permission from your audience, so you can contact them, it’s necessary to prioritize the creation of relevant content. 

You’ll only be able to attract people’s interest to your business if you produce free, quality content.

Begin by creating a blog and offering texts that answer people’s questions about your niche. This way you allow users to learn more about your brand and to realize that you’re an authority in your field.

But don’t stop there!

After establishing contact with people, keep on creating quality material so that they keep an interest in your product.

2. Pay attention to your SEO strategy

Another important tip when applying permission marketing is to pay attention to the SEO of the material being produced. 

The use of optimization techniques for search mechanisms makes all the difference. After all, what’s the use of writing fantastic texts if no one can find your content when searching for a keyword in your market?

Therefore, study SEO techniques, make an extra effort when choosing keywords, pay attention to content scannability and to all other actions that help provide relevance to your text.

3. Use email capturing forms 

To put permission marketing into practice, you need to give potential customers the option of receiving your content.

Creating a blog and keeping it updated isn’t quite enough. Of course, this is extremely important, but the most interesting thing here is maintaining close communication with users.

Therefore, create forms in which people can sign up to receive a newsletter, for example.

You can make these forms available on your social media or even on your blog. Thus, when readers are ready to learn more about your products or services, they can sign up to receive this type of information. 

4. Send rich material

Once someone subscribes to one of your email lists, they will naturally expect to receive your material. 

At this time, sending only offers and ads is not enough. Invest in rich material, which truly adds value to the routine of those reading your email. 

Provide ebooks, infographics, white papers and other material related to your market and that can help your potential customers’ pain. 

Before making a sale, you need to delight clients, and sending exclusive, free and truly useful material is the first step of this business relationship.

5. Respect your customer 

At the beginning of this article, we talked about how permission marketing makes the relationship between companies and customers more ethical and respectful. 

So, if users wish to unsubscribe and not receive your material anymore, this decision must be respected immediately. 

In other words, even if they have accepted to receive your emails, offers and content in general, perhaps they no longer wish to receive this type of information.

Therefore, keep your email unsubscribe form visible so that anyone can stop receiving your material if they decide to do so. 

This is one of the most important aspects of permission marketing, because it will make it clear that customers’ wishes will be promptly respected.

Invest in quality content

You may have noticed that permission marketing is not a single action, but, in fact, it’s linked to several other advertising strategies. 

The main goal of this post was to show you that to have a good relationship with your potential customers, you need to gain their trust first.

And asking for their permission to send your advertising material is the first step to do so.

We also talked a lot about content creation, which is one of the most important aspects to consider when we want to build our authority. And if you want to learn more about this topic, check out our article on how to build authority.