Permission Marketing
"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."--BOOK JACKET.
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- > What should I read, watch or listen to in order to catch up on today's approach to selling, do you have some recommendations?
It really depends on where you are in this journey.
Learning to use online channels, in my opinion, requires a lot of work. Companies like Google have useful material. Frankly, this subject is wide and deep. I got into it starting about twenty years ago.Seth Godin Permission marketing Tribes: We need you to lead us All marketers are liars This is marketing Etc. Ries & Trout Positioning: The battle for your mind The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing Etc. Scientific Advertising - Claude Hopkins https://www.foundingsales.com/ The Little Red Book of Selling - GitomerPerhaps others can suggest books or courses/videos on best practices for online marketing and optimization that are more up to date.
I'll warn you that at some point in my journey I hated the fact that I had more business books by my bed than engineering books. It was frustrating until I reached what I call "cruise altitude" and had enough capabilities and understanding to do well.
- My #1 recommendation would be to read Seth Godin, he has a blog[1] and he writes daily. More often than not, each week he has a piece of advice that ends up being really valuable.
One day after reading his blog for several months, I asked myself -- if this is what he offers for free, I wonder how good his books must be! And that's how I started reading his books. I would recommend you Purple Cow, Ideavirus and Permission Marketing, but most of them are very good.
- In the offline world, much of what "trends" is stuff that hacks people's reward system.
E.g., high-fructose corn syrup, french fries, nicotine, slot machines.
It's bad for us long term, but satisfies our evolved physiological needs in the short term.
Most of the trending content on social media is the same, and much of modern news and commerce has adapted to it.
From what you've said, you're trying to win at the same game, against people/companies who are far more experienced, skilled, resourced and cynical than you.
The answer: don't play that game.
Find a small niche of people you can satisfy with earnestly good quality content.
Think really small - like, 5-10 people, who you can get to know personally and whose interests you can address really really well.
Then grow gradually.
It will seem painfully slow at first, but with a consistent effort over a long enough period of time, you can achieve exponential growth and eventually build a huge audience that really cares about what you have to offer.
One of the best people to follow for guidance on how to do this is Seth Godin. Follow his daily blogs/emails, and read his books, particularly Linchpin, Permission Marketing, Purple Cow and The Dip.
Simon Sinek is another person worth paying attention to.
- This.
Too many clients (from an agency perspective) are implicitly given good advice "Your potential customer base isn't interested in this" but someone has to ask "How do we get them to see it anyway?"
They have forgotten that potential customers don't have to do business with them. They have options. Time for folks to re-read Seth Godin's "Permission Marketing", it seems.
- Cribbed from an older answer of mine, to a different question[1], but pretty much my "recommended reading list".
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5591319#up_5591574
0. The Four Steps to the Epiphany - it's not strictly about "marketing" in and of itself, but it certainly touches on elements of marketing, and should be required reading for any startup founder, IMO.
1. Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore (more marketing strategy / product strategy than marketing tactics, but a valuable read)
2. Lookup the current textbook for "Marketing 101" (or it's equivalent) at a nearby college. Go buy the book and read it, even if you don't take the class. If you have time and money, take the class.
3. The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. I'm deep into studying Chet's approach now, and his book has some great stuff on it. If you can, get hold of his videos from the program he did with Anthony Robbins titled "Ultimate Business Mastery System." You can safely skip the Tony Robbins part, but Chet delivers some good stuff.
4. In Search of Stupidity by Merrill Rick Chapman.
5. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler
6. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries and Jack Trout
7. Re-Positioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin
8. The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al Ries and Laura Ries
9. Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin
10. Successful Business Research: Straight to the Numbers You Need - Fast! by Rhonda Abrams. This is good for learning about how to find the numbers you'll want to use to put together a first cut of a marketing plan. Think your "target market" is "screw, nut and bolt manufacturers in the southeast with more than 500 employees"? Then you need to know how many of those even exist, before you know if the market is even theoretically worth pursuing. Think your market is "adolescent girls in Massachusetts?" Then you might want population demographics and birth rates, etc. This is a good basic, (and cheap) book with some good pointers on how to get started on that kind of market research.
11. Marketing High Technology by William H. Davidow
12. How to Drive Your Competition Crazy: Creating Disruption for Fun and Profit by Guy Kawasaki
13. I'm a big Seth Godin fan, I'd say read anything and everything by him. The Purple Cow stands out in my memory as a particularly good one. Permission Marketing is good as well.
14. The Cluetrain Manifesto
Also, I don't have any specific titles handy (I'm out of town consulting right now, unfortunately, so I can't even walk into the other room and check), but just go to a good used book store near you (if you have one) and find a couple of cheap used textbooks on "marketing research" and "marketing strategy". The exact title won't matter, you just want something you can read through and get the high level stuff. You're not trying to become an MBA, just to learn the language and the broad brush stroke overview of what goes on.
Some more suggestions in another old thread:
- Well, if you're willing to throw yourself into the role, somebody has to deal with marketing, PR, strategy, sales, business development, bookkeeping, regulatory compliance, making coffee, taking out the trash, etc.
So yeah.. there are a LOT of places for a non-technical co-founder to add value. Since most techies aren't very marketing-savvy, I'd suggest you go buy every marketing book you can get your hands on, and do a deep dive.
OK, maybe not literally every marketing book. But if you're interested, here are a few items I'd recommend to a budding would-be marketer.
Permission Marketing - Seth Godin
All Marketers Are Liars - Seth Godin
Purple Cow - Seth Godin
Unleashing The Ideavirus - Seth Godin
Positioning - Jack Trout and Al Ries
Differentiate or Die - Jack Trout
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - Al Ries
Repositioning - Jack Trout
Marketing Warfare - Al Ries
The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding - Al Ries and Laura Ries
The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema
Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
Trust Me, I'm Lying - Confessions of a Media Manipulator - Ryan Holiday
Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore
If this is a B2B play, I'd read Steve Blank's The Four Steps to the Epiphany first though. Otherwise, I'd suggest starting with The Discipline of Market Leaders and then go to All Marketers Are Liars.
What kind of duties would you be doing in a role like this? Writing web copy; writing press releases; writing whitepapers; writing blog posts; recording screencasts & demo videos; setting up mailing lists; running the Web, Twitter, Facebook, G+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Youtube, etc., presence; talking to potential customers and soliciting feedback; developing a marketing strategy, PR strategy, etc; working with your cofounders to choose a "value discipline" (See The Discipline of Market Leaders) and putting an operating model in place to fulfill that discipline; possibly talking to potential investors; talking to potential partners, doing business development; and SOOOOOOO very much more.
