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Opt-In Email

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Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

Definition

Your opt-in email is extremely important. The opt-in email is when an individual is given the option to receive bulk email in the form of a mailing list, newsletter, or advertising.

That’s the permission piece. That’s that option of choice, that’s me as a reader saying, “I want this content, I have opted in, and I’ve given you my permission to send me content information emails.”

Benefits of single opt-in emails

Single opt-in emails have a number of benefits.

  • Ease for subscribers: They make it easy for subscribers so that they know exactly what they’re signing up for. You want to clearly identify the purpose, the reason of your message, of your email. Why am I signing up? Give me the reason.
  • Fastest way to build a list: A multiple list can be considered with a single opt-in, right? So you want to make it easy to say, “Hey, guess what? You want to sign up for multiple lists? Here’s my single opt-in,” with a few check boxes saying, “I’d like to receive information on,” this, this, this, this. And you’re literally as a reader opting into a variety of lists simultaneously with one opt-in form, which can be very nice if you’re the email marketer.
  • Less lost email: This again is all about saving you time, making you more efficient. If people opt in, you’ve got their message, you’ve got their email, you’ve got the fact that they’ve given you permission. And it gives you a bit more confidence in your overall list.
  • Less technology resources used: It improves your efficiency.

You may notice the theme throughout is that we’re talking about efficiency. Saving time, reducing waste, not collecting bad emails or making the process difficult for your reader, there’s a lot of themes that run through this. And again, pay attention to these things as you’re learning from this slide deck from this presentation. A few more elements of the opt-in email conversation.

Benefits of double opt-in emails

Double opt-in emails have a number of benefits.

  • Higher quality list growth: Double opt-in gives you this higher confidence in the quality of a list. If you have people double opting in saying they opt in initially on a web form or a mobile app form, and then they get an email back, and it says, “Just to confirm. We just want to confirm that this is you, and that you’ve actually signed on for this content.”
  • Opportunity for you to communicate with your subscribers immediately: It’s almost a secret way for you to then have a chance or an opportunity to say, “Hey, we’re glad you signed up, we know you’re here for some good information,” or some interaction, or a newsletter, or what have you, “and here’s a little message from us to new subscribers.”

Remember I talked about opportunities to engage with new subscribers? Your double opt-in email can be a great place for you to engage with those new subscribers, and give them something that your regular readers may not necessarily see, which is a great thing for you to do to incentivize them to say, “Hey, I’m part of this community now,” and share it and let other people know that this list exists.

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Eric Stoller

Eric Stoller is a Higher Education Strategic Communications Consultant and Blogger at Inside Higher Ed. With a background in student affairs, academic advising, wellness, technology, and communications, Eric educates clients and audiences on digital identity development. As a blogger, he generates conversations, answers questions, and provides insight about a variety of tech topics, including Social Media Strategies and Email Marketing.

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

  • Evaluate inbound and outbound email marketing techniques and how they are used in marketing campaigns
  • Critically reflect on practices for managing email data and building an email subscriber base
  • Critically appraise how to optimise email delivery and email open rates for marketing campaigns

Data protection regulations affect almost all aspects of digital marketing. Therefore, DMI has produced a short course on GDPR for all of our students. If you wish to learn more about GDPR, you can do so here:

DMI Short Course: GDPR

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ABOUT THIS DIGITAL MARKETING MODULE

Email Marketing Strategy
Eric Stoller
Skills Expert

The Email Marketing Strategy module will introduce the key concepts of email marketing and enable you to develop the knowledge and skills to build highly effective email campaigns. You will learn how to think like an email marketer and recognize that your subscriber list growth and quality is a key metric for the success of your campaign. Finally, you will recognize the role of various email delivery techniques as well as the importance of balancing frequency and volume of email sends.