Permission marketing, rather than marketing that sells to people straightaway, is marketing that gets a customer's permission to begin a relationship with them. It is a fundamentally different form of marketing than most marketing, but it plays a big part in what I do and what a lot of our business owners that we work with do.

In a lot of arenas, it's too much to ask people who don't know you to spend money with you. The classic example is a website. If someone who didn't know you two minutes ago arrives at your website, the chances of you getting money out of them are slim. Specifically, less than 1 per cent of people who visit a typical website will buy from that website.

If you use a permission marketing model, you can say to visitors to your website, “You didn't know me 30 seconds ago, but I have some really interesting, useful information. I've put it on a free online video for you. Just give me your name and email address, and here it is." Instead of a 1 per cent response, you'll probably get a 5% to 15% response rate.

Permission marketing is great because then the customer watches your video, they're really into you, and they probably will contact you anyway. If they don't, you've got their email address, and you can follow up with them.