Email Marketing Pros and Cons of Subscriber Opt-In Methods

So far in our series on Email Marketing we’ve talked about subscriber ‘capture’, target market, and subscription forms. You already know that you need to have a well placed ‘subscriber capture’ system. Regardless of whether or not you are using widgets on your Facebook Landing Page, your website, or within your Twitter Tweets you need to make a decision on how your subscribers will opt-in.

There are varying opt-in methods — each with pros and cons.

Why you want to use an opt-in method of obtaining subscribers:

• Email lists that are built using opt-in techniques exhibit higher subscriber retention rates than lists built without permission
• An opt-in lists engages more valuable prospects and customers — they are actively interested in your products/services
• Opt-in lists remove the negative stigma of spam emails that can lead to being black-listed or blocked.

Types of opt-ins:

• Opt-in acquisition — where you meet people at networking events, conferences or workshops and they express an interest either via form, verbally, or going to an online web page to subscribe
• Confirmed opt-in acquisition — this is the same as the opt-in acquisition as above BUT the subscriber receives a welcome email confirming their subscription
• Double opt-in acquisition  — this is an even stronger permission based opt-in method. The subscriber signs up AND then receives a verification link by email.

The double opt-in acquisition method is an excellent way to confirm that the subscriber really wants to receive news from you; HOWEVER, some visitors will forget to verify the subscription and the process may not complete or the verification email ends up in their junk mail box since they have not yet whitelisted you as an approved email sender. We still recommend considering double opt-in because these individuals are less likely to unsubscribe or make spam complaints. It also protects your list from malicious activity because you are able to confirm that the owner of the email address was the person who signed up to receive your newsletter.

There are many variables involved to achieve success with content marketing but at Original Ginger it’s part of what we do. Give us a call at 778.298.1966.