|
E-Marketing Articles
Permission Email Marketing: Single vs. Double Opt-In
The best and most profitable way you can use
Email Marketing is to develop personal one-on-one relationships
with your clients and prospects. These personal relationships are the key to the
long-term success of your business.
Effective Email Marketing is based on two pillars: permission
and respect for privacy.
In order to send customers or prospects a message, you must first
get their permission (they must opt-in to your mailing list).
At the same time, you must agree to never sell or share your
list with anybody else.
Opt-in Email Marketing (also called Permission-Based Email Marketing)
has proven to produce the best response rates compared to other
marketing methods, such as direct traditional mail or banner advertisements.
Opt-In Email comes in two forms: "single" opt-in and
"double" opt-in.
A "single" opt-in list is usually
created by inviting members to join via a web form or by sending an email
message to a "subscribe" email address. Once readers send the
form or the email message, they are subscribed to the list.
A "double" opt-in list, also called a "confirmed"
opt-in list, requires the subscriber to reply to a confirmation message to
activate the subscription.
The advantage of the "single" opt-in method are that your list will grow
faster. However, there are some pitfalls, like the
fact that people may subscribe friends or family, who may not want to receive
your messages and who could, in the worse case scenario, accuse you of spam.
The advantages of the "double" opt-in method is that you will have a higher
quality list (since only interested readers will take the time to go
through your confirmation process). "Double" opt-in lists also command
higher advertising rates because they get far better responses
from readers. Double confirmation also makes list administration
easier, by keeping the email list clean with valid
addresses of willing subscribers (clean lists are also delivered faster,
because the server doesn't spend time retrying bad addresses).
The main disadvantage of "double" opt-in lists is that many people may
not understand your confirmation message or may not want to go through the extra
step. Some Email Marketing companies consider the percentage of
people who fail to confirm to be as high as 50%.
All things considered, we strongly recommend the
"double" opt-in approach. It is not only the most ethical
way to create a list, but the one that builds more valuable
memberships. Also, with the current increase of anti-spam legislation,
double confirmation may soon become the only safeguard against being blacklisted
by anti-spam organizations.
Finally, a couple of suggestions on Opt-In Email Marketing etiquette:
- Always include a short line of text at the beginning of the
message reminding your readers that they are receiving your email because they
subscribed to your mailing list. This is important because we
receive so much email these days that we may easily forget that we have
subscribed to any particular list.
- Always include clear and easy-to-follow
instructions to unsubscribe. You must not make your subscribers
jump through hoops if they want to stop receiving your messages. You must
either include an "unsubscribe link" (which most mailing list
hosts will provide) or a "mailto link" where readers can send a
blank message to unsubscribe.
You can freely reprint this article. Just
include the following resource box at the end:
Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net
) a website and newsletter that gives you useful advice on web design and
Internet marketing, one free tip at a time
|
|
