Optism™

Optism provides permission-based, mobile marketing services. Providing the opportunity for mobile subscribers to opt-in to advertising messages based on their preferences is the core tenant of our service. Our blog series Permission Marketing in the News has been highlighting mobile and other permission marketing news for the past year. The leading proponent of permission marketing is Seth Godin who coined the term in his book Permission Marketing in 1999. To celebrate our one year anniversary, we are running a series of blog posts summarizing his book chapter by chapter and analyzing how changes in the mobile and advertising marketplace have impacted the recommendations in his book.

Here are our summaries of earlier chapters: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Seven.

Chapter Eight is perhaps the chapter that most shows its age. It is also a little more US-centric than other chapters because Seth spends time comparing marketing on the web to marketing on (American) TV networks. That isn’t to say that he thinks the two channels should be treated the same. He opens the chapter by noting, “The idea that the Internet is a medium just like TV supports the old way of thinking about marketing, but it just doesn’t work the same way.”

While Seth’s analysis of the TV world in the US may be due for some revising, his advice to marketers who want to expand to the web are still very valid. He tells marketers to start by answering some key questions as they develop their web marketing strategy:

1. What are we trying to accomplish?
2. Can it be measured?
3. What is the cost of bringing one consumer, one time, to our Web site?
4. What is the cost of having that consumer return?
5. If this works, can we scale it?

We think this kind of analysis is equally valid when developing a permission mobile marketing strategy.

Web marketing myths

The balance of Chapter Eight consists of debunking web marketing myths of the day. Here are some key takeaways with ongoing relevance today.

You can’t evaluate effectiveness by counting hits. “There’s no metric to convert hits to sales, or hits to market share, or hits to branding.” You need a better tool for measuring success.

With permission mobile marketing, you can directly connect a particular campaign with a desired outcome, using a measurable call to action, such as click to call or mobile couponing.

To provide people with a compelling online experience, you need to offer constantly-fresh news or data that is customized to a particular user or event.

Permission mobile marketing enables you to offer fresh content in a timely fashion and you can tailor advertising campaigns to people’s known preferences and interests.

You can’t build a viable business by relying on search engines to find you. “Any single Web site is a very tiny needle in a very big haystack.” You need to create a process that will reduce the randomness and bring relevance into play.

Permission mobile marketing is all about relevance. The people you push to your website through a permission marketing campaign have already been vetted as individuals likely to be interested in your products or services.

You don’t have to embrace cutting edge technologies to succeed. “The vast majority of consumers want mastery of technology, not the cutting edge.”

We know this is true for mobile. SMS may not be the sexiest approach for mobile marketing, but it has been field proven over and over again. And it reaches far more people than mobile apps, particularly in developing economies.

The web permits people to remain anonymous, but “great marketers entice consumers to give up anonymity.”

In fact, as Seth points out, “Permission Marketing rewards individuals for giving of their anonymity.”

In Chapter Nine, Seth delves into permission marketing on the Web.