Permission Marketing Basics

Published in the Nanaimo Bulletin: September 12, 2008

I’m working with a communications specialist who has been introducing me to a world of web 2.0 marketing opportunities. Kim Lear has got me blogging and I’ve done a few e-mail announcements, just testing the waters. I’ve asked her to explain how a tried and true marketing strategy has been rejuvenated through new technologies. ~Niels Gram

Permission-based marketing is ballooning as an online and mobile marketing strategy.

But what does it mean? And how can small business get in on the action?

Permission-based marketing refers to any form of marketing where the customer has signed up to receive marketing material.

The process is simple. The vendor asks the customer if they would like to receive newsletters, e-mail updates, catalogues or a free magazine subscription.

Why would anyone give permission to be sent advertising? Because they want something. Perhaps they want to be notified of sales and events or they might want exclusive invitations or tips from the vendor.

The Sears catalogue is a classic example.

Once someone asks to be mailed a Sears catalogue, they are on the mailing list for life.

A new technology twist on permission-based marketing is the e-newsletter, or e-mail updates used by many stores, service providers and non-profits.

Businesses which know clients are active computer users are coming up with creative ways to attract and retain business through e-mail marketing.

A massage therapist might offer to e-mail clients breathing exercises each month, and include in the e-mail, ‘Click here to book your appointment for October.’

That simple monthly e-mail would give a client value even after they leave the table. It gives them a gentle reminder to come back – and it makes it easy for them to book an appointment while they are thinking about it.

The trick to a successful permission-based marketing initiative is to give people something they want to receive and of course, make it easy for them to buy.

When it comes to e-mail campaigns, permission is essential. Canadian privacy laws place strict restrictions on the use of people’s contact information. That extends to e-mail addresses and e-mail marketing.

Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act of 2003, otherwise known as CAN-SPAM, is an American Act that marketers worldwide base their best practices on.

The real key to online permission-based marketing is to remember anyone who has given permission to market to them, has also given their trust.

Marketers do well to send people what they asked for, nothing more, nothing less.

And within the e-mail they make it easy for people to buy.

Why Anchoring Works

This article was written by Neil Patton of Pre-Think Inc and first published in his Sept 2008 newsletter. It is being published here with his permission.

ANCHORING – WHY DOES IT WORK?

You receive a mailing from a charity and they suggest the following donation levels: $5,000, $1000, $100, $50, or $10. You receive a second mailing from another charity and they ask you to decide your donation level. On average, which of these two different mailings will result in a higher donation? If you picked the first mailing, with the options from $5,000 to $10, you are correct according to anchoring theory.

Anchoring theory suggests that preliminary data or information will have an “anchoring” effect on how people will make decisions and process information, and will cause a bias towards the anchor. In the case of the charity donations example, the anchoring bias is towards the $5,000.00. While, most of us won’t give $5,000, the presence of that number will make most of us give $100 instead of $50, or $50 instead of $10.

What makes anchoring so fascinating is that quite often we know that the other party is doing it. And they know, that we know, that they are doing it. So why do they do it? Because it works.

Unions start negotiations with sky high demands. TV infomercials sell us products by starting with an inflated price and offering several substantial discounts over the course of 30 seconds (“that’s a 75% discount!“). We even see it in political campaigns. Candidates will attempt to anchor a key idea or belief about themselves (or the other camp) early on in the campaign – regardless of the accuracy or relevance of the claim.

So why does anchoring seem to work? The simple answer is that people are unconsciously lazy and they will rely on the simplest data when it is made available. The study of anchoring evolved from work by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. Considered pioneers in the fledgling field of behavioural economics, they expanded the concept of heuristics, which are the mental shortcuts, often non-rational, which people employ to make decisions.

Tversky and Kahneman’s seminal study had college students write the last two digits of their social insurance number (SIN) on the top of a piece of paper. They were then asked how much they would be willing to pay for expensive wine, inexpensive wine, chocolates, and a book. The results were fascinating. The students with SIN digits ending in 80 to 99 were willing to spend 3X as much as the students with SIN digits from 00 to 19.

Negotiators will use anchoring to help focus and underscore a particular issue they wish to push to the forefront of the other party’s mind. Even when we know rationally that data provided by the other party is inflated or exaggerated, chances are that the effects of anchoring are working.

With election campaigns this fall in Canada and the United States watch for the use of anchoring. “Stephane Dion’s green shift is a tax grab.” “Stephen Harper has a hidden agenda.” “Obama is not ready to lead.” “McCain is a continuation of George W. Bush.” Remember, they will say these things because they often work.

Tips on Anchoring

1. By getting your number, data, or information out first you have the advantage of anchoring. When it is important, get your anchored position out before the other party does.
2. Anchoring needs to be credible. Exaggeration is a perfectly good strategy, but make sure that your anchor is somewhat credible.
3. When the other party attempts to use anchoring against you, identify it as such, and if need be, let the party know that you know what they are doing.

Neil Patton is a negotiator and co-founder of Pre-Think Inc.

Mind Maps for Africa

One of my clients is a new media start up. Their mission is to create high quality media about African communities, and distribute it via the internet to people (African and nonAfrican) who want to know what is going on, at a grassroots level, in the developing nations.

Brilliant! I’m in. But what am I in for?

I signed up to write their newsletter and strategize a community building campaign. But a month into the project I learned a big lesson about working with a start up. They have to start everything! On top of trying to get some great media made and distributed, my client is setting up the infrastructure for the business, the internal communication flow, the financing, the website…

So one day we hit a wall. We were trying to talk about campaign plans when all of a sudden my client confessed that he couldn’t focus because his mind was swimming with unanswered questions about the basic structure of his company.

Now, I’m not really a, there-there-sort of girl. If challenge is in the air, I’m genetically predisposed to work on a solution. So I got out my note pad and said, “Draw it.” The first tool I pull out of my problem-solving kit is the mind map.

Whether I’m piecing together a tricky argument for a proposal, condensing research and interviews into articles, or strategizing a campaign, I use mind maps to quickly capture the essential ideas, and connect the dots on the fly. Mind maps help me break through writer’s block, uncover unimagined angles, focus my efforts, and I even use them to flush out my business objectives.

When I showed my client the technique I use, we were able to very quickly map the bare bones internal structure of his company. From there he quickly mapped the department priorities and the communication flow – all the things that were swimming in his mind. With all that down on paper, he had something he could look at and play with visually until it made sense. And we could get back to the meeting!

Since he found the process so useful, we started a mind map for the campaign. We identified who is currently in the company’s social network, who they are working to partner with, who they are making media for and about, who has a confirmed interest, and we started connecting the dots.

Why mind maps are such a powerful business tool: When the essence of an idea is captured on paper, and made visual, the analytic left brain is able to rest, and the creative right brain is able to visualize previously unseen connections and possibilities. And then, when the right brain takes a rest, the left brain can see what’s been going on, and plot next steps.

As a writer / media maker, this is essential. (If I can’t make new creative connections I have to get out of the game.)

As a business person, it is both fruitful, and fundamental and can be used for everything from long-term planning to operations management.

And simply as a human on the planet, it is empowering. I did an experiment and started using mind maps to journal my day. Doing mind maps at night was a fun way to capture my day, and after doing a few I was able to flip through them and see some really interesting patterns, patterns I’m not sure I would have noticed in a written diary.

The gush ends here. I love mind maps. I use them for my business. I’m becoming evangelical about them with my clients. And now, as a result of having spent about an hour mapping with my client (instead of dumping, or fretting):

• Villages Connected has a corporate road map
• I have the basis for my campaign strategy, and
• we are building a fabulous audience for fantastically important media about Africa.

To learn more about Villages Connected join our Facebook group. (The website is mapped but it still needs to be coded! Implementation is another article:)

To see some examples of mind maps, here are two to compare.

The one pictured here was created with Freemind the free software I use, click here to see the original mind map overview of the book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton. The map was published on Litemind.

This one about social media is visually less vibrant but very useful.Click on the nodes to see the layers.

You can use mind maps differently for different goals. You might find that one type of map works for you, but doesn’t communicate anything to anyone else. The one here is great for giving people an engaging quick reference but creating and placing the graphics would slow the process if you are just trying to get ideas down quickly. A pen and paper is as good as any software, if not better, so don’t get hung up on how you map – just try it.

Do you use Mind Maps? Post a comment and share how they help you in your work.

For a step by step guide to mind mapping read this article on Litemind.