Why thought leadership is all about permission

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In 1999, the author and entrepreneur Seth Godin published Permission Marketing: Turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers. The premise of the book was simple. According to Godin, traditional marketing has always been about interrupting the audience and trying to attract their attention – consider for example, the advertisements in the middle of a TV programme or alongside a newspaper article.

But, in a world where audiences are bombarded with messages and information from a multitude of different sources, it is increasingly difficult to attract the consumer’s attention with unrequested information. Instead, Godin argued, marketers need to adopt a permission-based model, in which they earn the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to the people who actually want to get them.

So how do these principles apply to the world of thought leadership? At FT Longitude, we believe list of brazil cell phone numbers that good thought leadership should always share those three elements of being anticipated, personal and relevant.

It should be anticipated
A brand that invests in thought leadership becomes known and valued for its content. Over time, customers will expect to see insightful information – and, when they realise that they can derive value from that content, they are open to being contacted and give their permission for this. This is very different from a more sales-driven approach, in which the information is far less likely to have intrinsic value for the customer.