The man Business Week calls ‘the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age’ explains ‘Permission Marketing’-the groundbreaking concept that enables marketers to shape their message so that consumers will willingly accept it.

Whether it is the TV business that breaks into well known program, or the telemarketing phone call that disrupts a family group dinner, traditional marketing is based on the wish of snatching our attention away from whatever we are doing. Seth Godin calls this Interruption Advertising, and, as businesses are discovering, it no longer works.

Instead of annoying potential customers by interrupting their most coveted commodity-time-Permission Marketing offers consumers incentives to simply accept marketing voluntarily. Today this Internet pioneer presents a fundamentally different way of thinking about marketing products. By reaching out only to those who have signaled an interest in learning even more about a item, Permission Marketing enables companies to build up long-term human relationships with customers, generate trust, build brand consciousness — and greatly improve the chances of making a sale.