Many of you are familiar with Seth Godin’s best selling Permission Marketing where he discusses how smart businesses market on a basis of permission and opt-in.  But all of us know forgiveness marketing. Forgiveness marketing comes in the form of spam, unsolicited mail, telemarketers, and any other form of marketing first and asking for forgiveness later.

I get a lot of this.  Actually as a REALTOR with the Memphis Association of REALTORS they sell the list to anyone who will buy it.  Therefore I’m constantly opting out of crap I didn’t opt-in for.  This to me is not only annoying but completely reprehensible.   The sad thing is that even though we all receive spam, this form of spam is endorsed by the REALTORS.   Some of you reading this probably practice forgiveness marketing by telemarketing or “e-blasting” people on databases you bought.

It is completely possible to operate your (real estate) business through permission based marketing.  At my company we don’t do any cold calling.  Every person we talked to came off of some lead generation where they filled something out, opted-in to an email list, or inquired about a property for sale.  With all the available technology and tools any business owner, or real estate agent can build a permission business by adding value.  People will want to hear from you if you are genuinely adding value.

Quick note:  I recently promoted a contest at an event and tons of people put their business card in the fish bowl.  Results of ensuing telemarketing were deplorable.  Guilty as charged.  In my defense it was total deviation from procedure.

Technology has made building in-house lead generation simple, achievable, and affordable for anyone.  Start a blog, newsletter, or web site with interesting and unique content and the business will come to you.

You remember that old saying?  ”It’s better to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission?”  The saying really is old, outdated, and totally unacceptable in the new economy.   How about, “It is better to earn permission, than be in the spam folder”?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Over the last few weeks I’ve turned a new leaf on social networking.  I feel like less should be more.  The common theme tends to be more.  More profiles, more networks, more connecting.  Problem statement = more means less time.  Less time means less quality.  Less quality means less impact.   No, I don’t want to have 20,000 friends on my facebook profile.  I don’t want to follow thousands of people on my personal Twitter profile.  Nothing against you but if haven’t personally met you why should I care what you just ate?

Therefore I’ve pared the folks I’m following on Twitter.   However you’ll see my company account is using the courtesy of following follwers on my company Twitter profile.   Mixed emotions, mixed purposes, I guess.

After attending multiple marketing conferences, I’m learning that no one actually has all the answers.  Social networking seems really cool.  And everyone is like, “How do you monetize?”   Maybe you don’t.   Social networking is really the same as normal human interaction, only online.   Have you always asked how to monetize every handshake?

I’m just not sure we are prepared to have good follow up on thousands online handshakes.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Failure no longer is a threat when you’re used to it.    As an entrepreneur you already know this.  If you are working on your first venture or you 10th venture you’ll become familiar with failure.   I no longer worry about it.  It’s going to happen so why worry?   The size of the failures is going to get bigger or smaller depending on if you are in growth mode or not.

If you are content and satisfied you are likely to experience the same threats and challenges that you once failed, but now you’ll succeed.  It’s the new situations that are dangerous.   What’s interesting is I now am not afraid to try new things, change directions on a whim, or slap complacency in the face.

In fact for entrepreneurs complacency can be a deadly disease.  Not changing, not doing, not building can often be the death of business.    Small businesses have the change factor as a weapon to be used in competition.  Fearing failure ensures this weapon won’t be available to you.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

At a birthday party yesterday across the street from me, I happened to be in the room with a group of people all who have traveled internationally on an extensive basis.   My tales of Europe, South and Central America were no match for their travels to Siberia and beyond.  However one particular story was shared by 2 people in the room neither of which have traveled together.

The story was about the Northwest Airlines World Club in the Tokyo airport.  Appently there is a Sappor draft beer mechanism of which every time you pull the tap for a beer, a robot arm extends at the perfect angle giving you no head on the beer.  The story was some memorable that both people could describe the details of the robot and the description of the 3 German dudes who couldn’t stop drinking beers to get another look at it.   Both stories included, “Norwthest World Club”,  and “Sapporo” beer.

I couldn’t help but think how minor that was in the grand scheme of things but yet it told a memorable story which branding was good not only for Sapporo but for Northwest as well.

Is the story about your product as memorable?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’ve noticed that when marketing, going the cheap route there are 2 paths you can choose.   One is cheesy.  An example would be a Memphis car seller here called “It’s All Good Auto Sales.”   He’s always dressed up and is offering entertainment on TV.  In fact everyone in Memphis knows he exists.   It’s cheesy but its fun and everyone gets a good laugh.  The story spreads though.  Kudos to Mark Goodfellow at “It’s All Good…”.  

The second form of cheap marketing is sleazy marketing.  That’s usually where the marketing is done in bad taste and is deceptive.   This can include lying, over hyping, overexaggeration (when people take it for truth), and other tactics.   Often the purpose is to “trick” people into buying becuase, “everyone else is doing it!”   We all know who these guys are.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Representing your product and company in its truest sense is a good strategy.  Tell stories that spread is also a good strategy.  But what about making up stories that spread?   Is that a good strategy?  

I have a lot of competitors in my industry.  One in particular likes to use ficticious marketing campaigns to bolster its brand.   I find this an interesting social experiment.   At first it appears to work.  It’s almost tempting…

“Wait, if I say I’m #1 in my industry, then I must be.”  That seems like maybe just a white lie with no reprecussion.  Well, let’s add another, “We were named blah,blah,blah, by such and such mag.”   No you weren’t.    

Think of all the small business marketing ideas you’ve read about.   Lying or falsifying is not usually one of them.   Let me end this blog with a quote from Ghandi:

Truth alone will endure; all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time….What may appear as truth to one person will often appear as untruth to another person.  But that need not worry the seeker….Truth and untruth often co-exist; good and evil often are found together….Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer and anything that does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of truth and hammered with nonviolence, reject it. – Ghandi

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I just heard an interesting story about some local  businessmen who were in the real estate business and made the business decision (smart when times were good), to create buy their suppliers of their business and the companies that serviced them.   Bascially they created a conglomerate and received a piece of many pies that were involved in the transaction.   Sounds like a good model…”One-Stop-Shop”. 

The main business fed the smaller businesses and suppliers and all was well as long as the main business was doing well.   Unfortunately the main line of business was hurt badly during the real estate crash.  Suddenly no business for not only the main business but all the people down the line too.  This was a big bet, and a calculated bet by some good people that deserve to succeed in the marketplace.   Despite the ability to reap the rewards from all these models they were betting heavy that their core business wouldn’t slow down.   

I think back to what Norm says about not relying too heavily on any one customer.  In this case, the biggest customer for the suppliers was the main business.   These business were succeeding but ultimately failed with the real estate bust.   Diversification is key.   Norm’s rule is to not let one customer be giving you over 10% of your business.   

I think it’s important to follow Norm’s rule in your business.  I do in mine.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

As a CMO, I spend most of my involved in making marketing decisions.  Decisions that will impact my company, how clients perceive us, and how people view the value proposition of my company. 

I started Politics of Marketing to share some of the everyday events (good, bad, and awful) that shape the decisions I make.   Most of the stories here are life experiences, observations,  and lessons learned by being a consumer, entrepreneur, manager, and decision maker.  

I plan on being very frank with the readers of this blog.  I have some stories that will likely mention specific people, places, and details of experiences.   Also I’ll be shouting from the rooftops my love of the marketing industry, how fast changing the technology is, and the impact marketing has on our lives.  Welcome.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.