Re: Permission vs Interruption Marketing

From: Maria Helm <mrs_helm_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Mon 17 Apr 2000 10:45:36 -0400

DANIELLE CORLEY WROTE:
> At this week's Web Advertising 2000 conference in New
> York City, the topic of permission marketing came up
> frequently.

To subjectively analyze "Permission vs Interruption
Marketing", think about the "traditional media". Almost
ALL advertising has can be seen as Interruption based.
TV commercials. Ads in magazines (especially when they
go between the pages of an article?). Billboards
certainly interrupt the view. Most direct mail, which
customers know as "junk mail", would be viewed as
interruption advertising by your customers EVEN if they
signed up for it. So should we suddenly begin to think
that interruption marketing online is an ugly beast? I
don't think so.

Could Permission marketing be more effective than
Interruption? Perhaps. IF you can convince people to
sign up for it. Of course, for them to sign up either
1)They sign up at your site, or by phone or snail mail.
This means they're likely a customer already. So that
takes permission marketing solely into the realm of
repeat business rather than generating new business.
Not bad, but couldn't be your only campaign. 2)You've
hit them elsewhere with *interruption marketing* of
some sort...

Is interruption marketing "annoying, noisy, and almost
a waste of money and time" and possibly "damaging to
your brand". Any advertising done poorly is. As a
consumer, I've signed up for a number of newsletters
(permission marketing!!) only to find them deviod of
interesting content and repetitive in their offerings.
I quickly removed myself from the list. On the other
hand, I've occasionally clicked on a banner ad or link
in email that looked like it offered something I
wanted. If your "interruption advertising" can be
compared to the classic "used car salesman screaming
about how LOW he's willing to go", then it probably is
both "annoying, noisy, and almost a waste of money and
time" and possibly "damaging to your brand".

It's hard to say, though, because I would think "punch
the monkey" falls into that category - and they hit the
top of Nielsen's list in Oct 1999 (1st) and Nov 1999
(2nd).

DANIELLE CORLEY WROTE:
> I can see the value of building a "personalized true
> type font" relationship with your potential customers.
> Do your customers see the value in it???
> I would also agree that current online methods of
> interruption marketing are often annoying and at this
> point, ignored by net savvy Users.

And TV commercials aren't? Just because they don't
click doesn't mean they didn't register in the same way
a TV or magazine ad does. Think about that people.
Maybe we're designing our banners wrong. We're trying
to get people to take an action we know they aren't
willing to take (click now and leave behind what you
came here for.) We should be giving them the
information to buy later like we do in other
advertising. How many banner ads do you see that
"tease" - that don't even have the name of the web
site, product, etc.? Lots, unfortunately. Even the
monkey.

As for drawing the line, we make the same calls here as
we do elsewhere. Would you run a magazine ad in more
than a few pages of the same magazine? Would you create
one of those "screaming maniac" TV commercials? Try to
make some logical comparisons.

And before you create a newsletter and ask people to
sign up, consider how much value they'll find in it,
how often it needs to be sent, how you can make it MORE
valuable. Subscribe to a few yourself. Check out what's
already out there. I don't mind my once-a-week
Campbell's Meal Mail. I can use a few more recipes. I'd
unsubscribe if it was more often, though. But if
someone came along and offered a newsletter once a week
with the Campbell's recipes and a few others, I'd
probably switch. It is of more value to get more VARIED
recipes. I like Campbells, but not enough to eat it
every night of the week. And don't dare take my
Lifeminders away!! But I can't imagine what I could
find of value in a mailing from, say, my
refridgerator's manufacturer. (OK - maybe a few tips on
settings, leftover storage, etc - but it wouldn't last
long.)

SATURATION POINT? Once we ALL start a mailing sign-up,
the market will become saturated at some point.
Consumers don't want mailings from every single company
they buy/have bought from. Think of all the brands of
food, electronics, etc that you buy. They all think
(like we do) that they have something valuable to tell
you and can get their name in front of you that way.
But do you have time to listen to them all? Once this
happens consumers will become just as annoyed with
permission marketing as with the current interruption
marketing. It will begin to fail. Only the valuable
ones will make it...or save it.

One more point. Consumers won't want you to send them a
copy of your print ad. They don't want yet another link
to your web page. They're going to want **useful
content**. You are in marketing. You sell things. You
write copy. But don't let that fool you into thinking
you write things people want to read. You'll need
something interesting to publish. do you think the
marketing department comes up with those Campbell's
recipes? And Lifeminders - well, they get content from
all over! But not every business has the resources to
do this.

Bottom line:
1)We'll never get away from interruption marketing
2)permission marketing is only for repeat business
3)permission marketing must be quality content, or it
  becomes interruption marketing

And that's my two cents worth.
Payments can be emailed to:
Maria Helm
mrs_helm_at_hotmail.com




Received on Mon Apr 17 2000 - 09:45:36 CDT