If you’re looking for ways to improve your inbound marketing strategy, a type of marketing that helps potential customers find your business, you’ve come to the right place.
Opt-in is one way to help bring attention to your business. But what is it exactly? Good question. In this post, you’re going to learn what opt-in is and why you need one for your business.
Opt-in is a permission-based strategy where a business solicits consent before sending promotional offers and content about their business via email newsletter.
Let’s say you’re online and landed on a clothing website. A pop-up will usually appear, offering a discount or another incentive if you give them your email address. Once you subscribe, you receive emails about the business, including new arrivals, blog posts, and sales.
There are two types of opt-in—a single opt-in and a double opt-in. These opt-ins are usually presented as pop-ups, downloadable materials, or landing pages. Let’s look at the differences between the two.
A single opt-in means the visitor only has to do a single action to subscribe to your email marketing.
For example, when you go onto Revolve’s website, a pop-up appears that suggests signing up for the newsletter.
From there, you receive a welcome email like the one below:
Most eCommerce websites choose the single opt-in method as they want to collect as many email addresses as possible. Here are some of the pros and cons of a single opt-in:
Double opt-in means that visitors who sign up as a subscriber need to go through an extra step to verify their email address. Essentially, instead of a welcome email, visitors will be sent a confirmation email to verify their email address before receiving more emails.
This opt-in method is popular with a variety of businesses like SaaS companies, agencies, and eCommerce stores.
Short answer: Yes. There are nearly 100 billion spam emails sent daily (yeah, it’s a lot), and you don’t want your business to be considered spam. While opt-ins will boost your marketing efforts, they’re also required for most, if not all, countries.
The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003 lists all requirements for email sending. Businesses must represent their identity and intentions, including a way for subscribers to opt-out of receiving emails.
Having an opt-in on your website that publishes a disclaimer about your marketing intentions creates transparency for your audience.
By being honest with your customers, you’re building trust with them. And as we all know, trust is key for any business-customer relationship. Read this post for more information on how to build trust and brand loyalty.
Having an email opt-in can help build your mailing list of an interested audience. Whether they’ve purchased something from your business or not, they’ll be connected to your business through your email campaigns.
With time, they’ll become more aware of your business and what you offer (and eventually make a purchase).
As a business owner, it’s important you know who your audience is. Of course, audience research helps greatly with that, but the more research, the better.
With visitors subscribing to your email marketing, you can gain more information about what your audience is interested in and what they engage with the most. This can help you with your future marketing campaigns and product development.
If someone opts in to receive your emails, they’re more likely to open and engage with them. Why? Because they took the steps to connect with your business.
If someone receives emails they didn’t subscribe to, they’re less likely to open them up because they think it’s spam. And what happens to spam? It ends up in the trash.
Once a visitor has subscribed to receive emails, your business has already connected with them on an emotional level. It’s a great step forward.
From there, it’s easy to engage with customers and fill them in on new products, sales, etc. You can also send them “personal emails” like a thank you or welcome message.
If you’re building a website for your business, you want to make sure you’re following requirements and guidelines for best practices.
The good thing about opt-ins is that they boost your marketing and help your business at the same time, a real win-win. Now all you have to do is add an opt-in to your website.
The information provided on this page is for information, educational, and/or editorial purposes only. It is not intended to indicate any affiliation between Tailor Brands and any other brand or logo identified on this page.
Natasha Ivanovic is a Vancouver-born creative writer that started her writing career as a freelancer while studying for her Master’s in Investigative Psychology. On the weekends, she writes short stories for her blog, TheLonelySerb, and cuddles with her bulldog, Bob.
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