A Marketing Lesson from Seth Godin

Seth Godin does it again. Here's a brilliant lesson from the master of permission marketing and author of Purple Cow.

A couple of months ago I received an email inviting me to apply to be a member of Seth Godin's new social networking site, Triiibes - For people who want to lead a tribe and make something happen. 

Of course I responded, got accepted and set up my minimal profile (really need to get that done).

All this is in anticipation of Seth Godin's new book, Tribes, being released later this month. I preordered the book too.

Here's where Godin's marketing lesson comes in, beyond what he's doing with Triiibes. Yesterday, I received a copy of the new book in the mail. It's not the copy I ordered. That's hasn't been shipped yet. It was an advance copy of Tribes with a letter from Seth Godin, thanking me for taking a chance on signing up for Triiibes.com and for preordering the book.

His request...to give the book I ordered away to someone else. He gave me (and probably thousands of others) a free copy so we will give away the copy we paid for, so his ideas spread to even more people.

Here is what's going to happen...

All the early Triiibes adopters buy a book and get a free book.

We give a book away to a friend, colleague or client.

More people join Triiibes.

People begin talking about the book, Triiibes and Seth Godin.

Readers start writing reviews on Amazon.com, on blogs, in ezines.

Readers starting posting quotes on Twitter (already started).

More people buy the book.

More people join Triiibes.

More people talk about Triiibes.

How can you implement this strategy for your own products and services?

It's not really that difficult. You don't have to start your own social networking site, but you could. You can also have a Facebook group for your book or product or service.

You can do a buy one, get one free to spread the buzz. Why not?