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About The Book

The man Business Week calls "the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age" explains "Permission Marketing"—the groundbreaking concept that enables marketers to shape their message so that consumers will willingly accept it.

Whether it is the TV commercial that breaks into our favorite program, or the telemarketing phone call that disrupts a family dinner, traditional advertising is based on the hope of snatching our attention away from whatever we are doing. Seth Godin calls this Interruption Marketing, and, as companies are discovering, it no longer works.

Instead of annoying potential customers by interrupting their most coveted commodity—time—Permission Marketing offers consumers incentives to accept advertising voluntarily. Now this Internet pioneer introduces a fundamentally different way of thinking about advertising products and services. By reaching out only to those individuals who have signaled an interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers, create trust, build brand awareness—and greatly improve the chances of making a sale.

Reading Group Guide

Discussion Group Questions
1. What is the allowable for your company's product? If you don't know, how would you compute it?
2. What is the lifetime value of a customer to your company?
3. How could a curriculum approach to marketing help increase your sales?
4. Is Permission Marketing better at prospecting or retention? Why?
5. Is mass media dead? What role do ads play in your company's future?

About The Author

Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, speaker, and the bestselling author of a number of business books, including E-Marketing—the first book ever published on how to do business online—as well as Permission MarketingThis is MarketingThe Practice, and The Song of Significance.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 14, 1999)
  • Length: 224 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780684836331

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Raves and Reviews

Tom Peters Seth Godin moves to the front ranks of Internet Marketing Gurus with this masterful book. It's trite to say it, but this is a real "must read."

Business Week Seth Godin is the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age.

Robert Tercek Senior Vice-President, Sony Pictures Entertainment The principles of Permission Marketing are incredibly valuable to everyone involved in media today.

Lester Wunderman Chairman-Emeritus of Wunderman Cato Johnson, the largest direct-marketing firm in the world; author of Being Direct. Advertisers are going to have to learn how to deliver messages with frequency and low cost if they are to cope with the increasing competition for the consumer's attention. Seth Godin's Permission Marketing is a big idea.

William C. Taylor Founding Editor, Fast Company Godin and his colleagues are working to persuade some of the most powerful companies in the world to reinvent how they relate to their customers. His argument is as stark as it is radical: Advertising just doesn't work as well as it used to -- in part because there's so much of it, in part because people have learned to ignore it, in part because the rise of the Net means that companies can go beyond it.

Mark Kwamme CEO, CKS Group Permission Marketing is a testament to Godin's profound grasp of digital marketing. "Interruption Marketers" everywhere would do well to read this book.

Eric Hippeau Chaiman, Ziff-Davis, Inc. Finally, here's a measurable method for marketing in a world filled with clutter.

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