eMail Marketing Tips and Best Practices:

Privacy & Double Opt-in

By James Atkinson, LLB

eMail Marketing Tips: Privacy and Double Opt-in: Privacy and double opt-ins are important issues with email marketing.

Your opt-in offer should include a privacy policy. No one wants to get more spam. Just putting something simple like “I respect your privacy” is very effective. And of course you should respect the privacy of your list members. Test different wordings. You may also want to link to a short privacy policy that opens in a pop-up window.

Tell people how easy it is to unsubscribe.

Say something like, “Leaving my list is easy. Every email comes with an unsubscribe link. Simply click it and I will remove you from the list immediately.”

You can also add: “Subscribers receive a lot of obligation free assistance in solving [XXX problem]”. This has been quite effective for me.

You should also test the text on your “Submit” button. Is it more effective to say something like “Get Instant Access” or “Get Your Obligation-free Report Now!”

Double Opt-in

I recommend using double opt-in email to decrease spam complaints. Double opt-in means that when the user opts-in, your system automatically sends the prospect an email with a link in it to confirm the subscription.

If the prospect doesn’t click the link, the subscription is not confirmed.

It’s important to clearly state that users must open their email and click the link before they will be subscribed. It’s helpful to put a full explanation of this on your opt-in thank you page – you may want to use screenshots or a video to show them what to do.

Sometimes your eMail may get trapped by spam filters. Tell subscribers to add your email address to their address books to ensure they receive your message.

You can direct your prospects from an obligation free publication to an online web page. If you do this you can include many persuasion principles without worrying about Google’s Quality Score – discussed immediately below.

eMail Marketing Tips and Best Practices > Privacy and Double Opt-in > Getting The Opt-in >