Seth Godin lists ten steps to institute Permission Marketing.  The first is to decipher the lifetime value of a new customer.  This illustrates a fundamental difference between Permission Marketing and Trusted Source Marketing.  In the later, the basic question is, can we help our constituency with this improved communication?  Of course this is a value judgment but it is not about how much can I get from my employees but what can I bring to them.

His second step is to create a series of communication suites to turn strangers into friends. Trusted Sources will use this rule in with a different end in mind but using similar methods. Emails, letters, web pages designed to encourage participation are all tools used in both methods.  This step takes time but there is no hurry.  Encourage people to look at the information offered and to respond.  Responses will change future communication because that is a result of dialogue.  Each communication should also encourage action.

Seth insists on measuring the results of all communication.  I agree.  In a dialogue between the Trusted Source and those being influenced the responses are the results.  It is crucial to acknowledge every response in some way.  The negative comments can and will lead to improvements in the process.  The positive ones will inform us of what we are doing well.

In both cases it is essential to realize that not everyone will respond.  Try again and then again.  Trusted Source Marketing is not a one shot attempt to help.  It is a commitment to a process that will, if done with the intent to communicate important information, and to listen for understanding, lead to greater participation in all benefits offered.  It may also lead to elimination of some benefits as unneeded, unnecessary or just plain bad.

Always be testing and measuring expectations. We don’t need to measure level of permission but we do need to measure how effective our communications are.

Seth’s list includes guarding the permission base.  Just as important here, but in a different way. The inherent quality of being a Trusted Source is to be useful and trustworthy.

Michael Gelb, is an author of several books that I have enjoyed including, “Thinking For a Change.”  This book, like all of Michael’s that I have read, focuses on how we think and respond.  The germane notion here is that we all respond differently because we all think differently.

Trusted Source Marketing™ encourages all to think and decide for themselves with a focus on providing good information.