Middlemen are the backbone of modern marketing.
They’re all names you know. Google for search; Meta, X and TikTok for social media; Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and Amazon Ads for advertising.
All the power in digital has been in the hands of the middlemen since the beginning. Why? Access to audience. They gave users value through technology solutions and content, then sold access and reach to that audience to marketers and advertisers that wanted to reach prospects.
Marketers got addicted to that cheap attention, but it’s going away.
Right now we’re at a tipping point. Social media likes and follows are lower. Google is cutting organic traffic to sites with its Search Generative Experience (SGE), snippets and paid search. Publishers are cutting back on personally identifiable data filters because of privacy rules. The middlemen are losing value.
It’s time to cut out the middleman and go back to what works: your own audience. Here’s why you should embrace permission-based marketing.
Why Permission Matters
Here’s a real-world example of what the current middleman landscape looks like.
I pulled out my phone as I was writing this article and opened Facebook. Every second post on my timeline was from someone I don’t know. Some of them were advertisements.
I have Facebook for three reasons: to be part of local marketing groups, to manage the RMDS Facebook page and to see what’s happening in my friends’ lives. At this point, that third item is compromised. I’m constantly being interrupted from the things that I want to see by things I don’t want to see. I’m not engaging with those posts.
The best way to actually engage your audience is to get permission to talk to them directly. Don’t be one more post they scroll by — reach them off the timeline.
When you’re on social media, you’re only visible when the platform decides to make you visible (or you pay for visibility). You can’t reach people one on one unless you’re directly messaging them … and if you’re using the platform’s direct message feature, you might as well be using a channel you control, like email or SMS. Email and SMS are DMing at scale, and they feel personalized — which is hard to do with DMs.
Instead of using social media and trying to get noticed organically or paying for impressions, get access to your audience’s inbox. Once you have it, you own that access and you can use it to engage them and build a relationship.
What Makes Permission-Based Marketing Different?
Permission-based channels like email and SMS don’t have a middleman. You have your audience member’s email address or phone number — the only thing standing between you and them is whether they choose to read what you send.
The inbox is crowded too, but the difference between it and Google or social media is that everything in that inbox is something they chose to sign up for. You’re already past the first hurdle.
I’ve signed up for several email lists because I like those brands’ social media posts: Ed Zitron, Blackbird Spyplane, Cole Schafer and Milk Road, for example. I still see their posts occasionally, but even though I follow them, I’m not sure I’ll actually catch everything they put out. But now that they’re in my inbox, I can see every single time they create something I’m interested in reading — and they tend to go more in depth in emails, which lend themselves to longer-form content.
That doesn’t mean I read every email. But it means that every single time they send one, I at least see the subject line and have a choice of whether to read it or not.
When you eliminate the middleman, you can tell your audience what you actually want to say. Are you worried about censorship? Are you trying to adjust your message to fit platform norms? Stop worrying about that when you have permission to talk directly.
Permission to talk to someone directly is a powerful thing. You’re no longer interrupting what they want — you ARE what they want.
How To Use Permission-Based Channels
The big caveat for permission-based channels is that you have to sign people up (and provide them enough value to keep them signed up). Here are the basics of the process.
Create a Permission List
You need a list of people that give you permission to send them information, either through email or text messaging (SMS). There are pros and cons to both.
Email allows for longer-form content. It’s often used to build authority and establish that you know what you’re talking about. Think of email as a relationship-building tool first, a selling tool second. You’re in it for the long haul. For more information, see our article “Email Marketing for Everyone Else.”
SMS is different. People consider their text inboxes more personal than their email inboxes; that means you have to be more careful about what you send. SMS is best used to cement an existing relationship with a specific CTA — for example, local businesses offering deals to people through a loyalty program, or influencers notifying their audience of giveaways or livestreams. SMS is a “sell first” channel. For more information, see our article “SMS Makes Marketing Personal.”
Either way, you need a list that people want to sign up for. Both email and SMS are useful; if you have the bandwidth and the business case, use both. But if you’re going to use just one, lean on email if you’re a digital business and SMS if you’re primarily brick and mortar.
Capture Information
You have your list. The next step is to fill it by capturing information.
For emails (and some SMS applications), build a landing page. This is a page that has a brief description of the benefits for signing up, a call to action (CTA) and a form to capture people’s name and email address or phone number.
Your landing page may just be “sign up here and get our newsletter” or “sign up here and get special deals via SMS,” but you might need more incentive. Consider offering another benefit:
- Promotion: Discount, chance to win, free item/service on signup.
- Download/Access: Whitepaper, case study, course.
- Convenience: Receipts in inbox, loyalty program (take a look at something like MyLowe’s or Autozone Rewards).
- Prestige: Membership of some sort of exclusive club.
Once people have signed up, make sure you have some sort of confirmation message set up so you get good data and don’t run afoul of privacy laws. People can be wary of giving their information away, and if you comply with regulations and show yourself trustworthy, they’ll be more likely to consider you legitimate.
Serve Your List
Once people sign up for your list, they expect ongoing value. There are multiple ways you can provide that value:
- Email: The primary ongoing value is usually a newsletter of some sort. What that newsletter looks like will be different depending on the industry and the audience. Access to promotions also provides long-term value.
- SMS: SMS primarily provides value through notifications of immediate benefits, promotions and specials.
- Autoresponder Sequence: Autoresponder sequences can be set up both on email and SMS. They allow you to create a preset sequence of messages that serve a specific purpose like getting people to sign up for a product or service or providing information about a specific subject broken down by topics. (We actually have a promotion going through May 31, 2024 for autoresponders … check it out here.)
Make sure your audience doesn’t regret signing up; they can always unsubscribe if they don’t feel like there’s value, or they may completely ignore your messages and trigger a soft unsubscribe as your messages may start getting filtered as spam. Don’t let that happen.
Permission is Power
Middlemen have dominated digital marketing for years, but as their value declines, it’s important to have alternatives. A permission-based list is one of the most powerful ways to market to your audience. Build one and use it. Not sure how to get started? We can help. Just drop us a line, anytime.
Best Regards,
David Brandon
Copywriter
Rainmaker Digital Services