Permission Marketing
By Seth Godin
Simon & Schuster, 1999 - 255 pages

If you are in the marketing field I believe Seth Godin is a guy who knows his stuff.  He and Jay Abraham are gurus on the subject.  His books are normally very timely and his more recent book, Unleasing the IdeaVirus (a book on viral marketing), builds upon what he writes in this book.  I have also read Kim McPherson’s Permission based E-mail marketing that Works!  While both are excellent books about the subject I believe Mr. Godin goes into more depth about why current marketing efforts are becoming inefficient and how the Internet can change the overall efficiency of marketing through better targeting and lower cost delivery (e-mail).  I believe he understands the big picture better than most. 

I am trying to continue my reading on e-mail marketing before launching my e-business and I have found Mr. Godin’s books to be very easy to read and have me saying “That’s why so and so does this and that….” 

Conclusion:  A must read, definitely worth the money. 

About the Author: Seth Godin was founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, the industry's leading interactive direct marketing company, which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998.  After Yoyodyne was sold Godin joined Yahoo as head of permission-marketing where he helped integrate direct marketing, permission marketing, and Internet promotions into the company's Fusion Marketing Online program for its clients worldwide.  In January 2000, Godin left to pursue personal interests and continues to serve as an external advisor, consultant, and friend to Yahoo! Godin currently is a Fast Company contributing editor. He writes about change and how corporations and individuals can successfully deal with the massive rifts our economy is facing. Mr. Godin holds an MBA from Stanford and was called "The Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by Business Week.