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.

Includes index.

Foreword /Don Peppers -- The marketing crisis that money won't solve -- Permission marketing: the way to make advertising work again -- The evolution of mass advertising -- Getting started: focus on share of customer, not market share -- How frequency builds trust and permission facilitates frequency -- The five levels of permission -- Working with permission as a commodity -- Everthing you know about marketing on the web is wrong! -- Permission marketing in the context of the web -- Case studies -- How to evaluate a permission marketing program -- The permission FAQ.