Interruption Marketers spend all their time interrupting strangers, in an almost pitiful attempt to bolster popularity and capture attention. Permission Marketers spend as little time and money talking to strangers as they can. Instead they move as quickly as they can to turn strangers into prospects who choose to “opt in” to a series of communications….Since the prospect has agreed to pay attention, it’s much easier to teach him about your product. Instead of filling each ensuing message with entertainment …or with sizzle designed to attract the attention of strangers, the Permission Marketer is able to focus on product benefits - on specific, focused ways this product will help that prospect. Without question, this ability to talk freely over time is the most powerful element of this marketing approach.
Seth Godin, Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers, 1999, p. 46-7, on the value of teaching consumers about a product or service instead of interrupting their most coveted commodity - time.
