The 2008 CRM Market Awards: Influential Leaders -- Seth Godin

The Big Thinker:
Seth Godin
marketing guru, author, blogger

If any part of your job deals with marketing, you’ve probably heard of Seth Godin—and even if your job’s got nothing to do with marketing, he’s still worth a listen. He made his name with the concept of “permission marketing”—the title of his 1999 book [You can sign up to receive the first four chapters free here. –Ed.]—which is based upon the idea that effective marketing is dependent on obtaining customer consensus. Godin is also credited with introducing other terms that have entered the mainstream marketing vernacular—such as ideaviruses, purple cows, the dip, and sneezers.

Godin’s blog (www.sethgodin.typepad.com) was recently recognized as one of the “Top 15 Entrepreneur Blogs Worth Reading” by The Wall Street Journal, specifically for its ability to motivate, inspire, and teach. He also founded the recommendation Web site Squidoo.com, where users can create and disseminate content of a particular topic on a single page, or “lens,” and share it with other Internet users—creating a vast network of user-generated content.

In his latest book, Meatball Sundae, released at the end of 2007, Godin extends his marketing knowledge into the digital world and the undeniable trends that have come about as a result. “New Marketing” technologies infiltrating the scene may be dangerously enticing but marketers must keep in mind that to use them is a privilege, not a right—first comes the strategy, then comes the technology.

Godin’s blog and his impressive list of 11 titles, nine of which are international bestsellers, are responsible for the bulk of his impact, but others recognize notable qualities in the thought leader that are often overlooked. “One of the reasons Seth Godin is so influential is that he’s a very, very good writer,” says Richard Pachter, the business-book columnist for the Miami Herald. “Writing with clarity isn’t easy. Expressing big ideas simply is a challenge, but Seth manages to find shortcuts to readers’ synapses that minimize processing time.” 

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The 2008 CRM Market Awards: Influential Leaders -- Introduction

The visionaries shaping the CRM industry.