To clarify the three types of digital opt-in procedures when communicating with recipients and prospects the following is a layman’s term guide which should cover off any confusion around this area. Starting with the all essential signing up of new recipients to receive future digital marketing communications there are two well known procedures known as SINGLE opt-in or DOUBLE opt-in. Another form of opt-in which I will cover in this article is the SOFT opt-in.

SINGLE opt-in relates to a prospect indicating that they would like to receive future digital marketing messages from your brand or organisation via your supplied channels. They are then added to the relevant data file or segment for future broadcasts. Best practice procedure is to send them a welcome email or confirmation message to indicate their inclusion and offer them an opportunity to adjust their preferences and indicate what their key interests are. You should use this opportunity to cross sell, up sell and drive the user to your website for a possible first purchase. The use of a welcome discount or special offer is very common in these types of messages.

DOUBLE opt-in involves following-up the previous step to authenticate the user’s details. This is done by sending the new subscriber a further communication preferably in real-time with a confirmation link. They will then need to click this link before their opt-in is accepted and their email address is added to your data file or segment. This is an essential step to completing their registration as this eliminates the risk of fraudulent and 3rd party registrations. The DOUBLE opt-in process is often noted as a best practice however; it is not at all a legal requirement. To outline a further benefit of this, when a user is notified that they will need to respond to your confirmation email it should prompt them to retrieve your email. If it has been directed to their junk folder by their spam filter or settings you could benefit your future inbox delivery based on this engagement.

SOFT opt-in is a muddy waters topic for most digital marketers but can apply in some circumstances as an exception to the rule in digital marketing. This type of opt-in has usually been collected during sale negotiations or at the time of purchasing of goods or services. These messages should only contain the marketing of similar or related products and can only be sent on the basis that you have given the recipient opportunities to object to receiving future marketing communications when their details were harvested. You should also include the opportunity to unsubscribe (opt-out) on every future message and should only continue to send to the recipients if they do not opt-out. The opt-out should be as easy and direct as possible and should allow the option to STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE from any future marketing communications.

The term opt-out refers to several methods by which individuals can avoid receiving unsolicited product or service information. This ability is usually associated with direct marketing campaigns such as telemarketing, e-mail marketing, or direct mail.

UNSUBSCRIBE/opt-out law states that you are obligated to allow recipients of your communications to opt-out or unsubscribe at any given time that they may wish to do so. Regardless of which digital marketing channel you are using it is highly recommended that that you comply with any opt-out requests as soon as possible. This begs the question, why market to an audience that are not interested or engaged with your offering?

You may send a confirmation message to confirm the completion of their unsubscription from future marketing messages broadcasted by your your brand or organisation.

If you have anything you would like me to add to this or would like any additional information with regards to this please comment or send me an email on: inemailwetrust@gmail.com