Seth Godin takes a well-earned victory lap on the 10th anniversary of the publication of Permission Marketing. Reading that book a year into my marketing career was a true scales-from-my-eyes moment. It made me believe that marketing was about honesty and delivering value rather than sleight-of-hand and emotional manipulation. It has shaped my career, informs every marketing decision I make and is the underlying theme of nearly every one of my posts on this blog.
I re-read the book a couple years ago and realized that some of it sounds dated, as even Godin admits in the post linked above. One could argue that the Cluetrain Manifesto, which also turns 10 this year, was more prescient (the manifesto’s first thesis, “Markets are conversations,” certainly seems like a good description of the Age of Twitter). It’s also ironic that, while Godin has had some modest business wins with Yoyodyne and Squidoo, the only truly successful business he has built by applying his concepts has been Seth Godin, Inc.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to overstate how much the concept he helped popularize has shaped marketing over the past decade. AdWords. RSS. TiVo. Amazon’s recommendation engine. Some of them pre-date the book’s publication, but they all grew out of the notion that businesses should treat their customers not as mindless sheep but as human beings worthy of their respect. Much like the special effects in “Star Wars”, Godin’s ideas have become so widely accepted and copied that we now take most of them for granted (though the battle is far from won, as you could probably tell just by glancing at the number of messages in your spam folder).
If you’ve never read Permission Marketing, I highly recommend picking up a copy. But if you don’t have time, Godin closes his post with a pretty good summary:
Don’t be selfish. You’re not in charge. Make promises and keep them. It’s like dating. It’s an asset, it’s expensive and it’s worth it.
Happy anniversary, Seth. And thanks.
