What Is Opt-In Email Marketing and Why Should You Do It?
Let’s find out what opt-in email marketing is and how it can benefit your businesses together with Viva One Digital, a website design and development agency, based in Bangkok. We will take you through the great advantages you could get from opt-in email marketing.
In this article, we will cover:
- Definition of opt-in email marketing
- Why choose opt-in email marketing
- What to use opt-in email marketing for
- Conclusion
Definition of opt-in email marketing
Opt-in email marketing is when the email marketing campaign collects the email lists using permission-based methods. The opt-in email marketing is when the consumers willingly sign up for the email campaign themselves in order to receive news, promotions, and more from the brand.
To paint the picture, opt-in email marketing is when websites encourage you to subscribe or sign up to get emails about new launches, new promotions, special deals, as well as updates about the brand and articles about the brand’s niche. Opt-in email marketing can be in the form of e-newsletters.
You can see these opt-in email marketing invitations in pop-ups or most frequently at the end of the website pages, as shown in the examples below.
Image from halobeauty.com Image from www.lush.com
Opt-in email marketing has many advantages and we can use this marketing method for various purposes which we will discuss later on in the article.
Why choose opt-in email marketing
Now, let’s talk about what benefits you could get from doing opt-in email marketing instead of doing outbound email marketing that sends emails to potential customers even though they did not request for the emails.
- Cost-Effectiveness
Opt-in email marketing might sound like it would cost a lot and is complicated, but it is not as expensive as you think. It is considered inexpensive compared to the results and benefits you will get from having the email lists of potential customers with high chances of purchasing. This method can help you find and get in touch with the people who are really interested in your brand and products. Without putting effort into the people who do not care for your brand, and solely focused on the ones who do care, any campaign you run is more likely to be successful and profitable.
- Better Communication with Customers
Opt-in email marketing is the way for the brand to build a connection with the customers. It helps make sure you are building a relationship with the people who are the real potential customers. With opt-in email lists, you will be able to provide the content that the customers wanted to see to those who are interested. In return, you get more trust, engagement, and even more sales and profits. It makes the customers in the email lists keep coming back to your websites and maybe buy more products.
- Prevent Being Labeled as Spam
Opt-in email marketing gives the option of the customers to choose to receive the emails. It is like the brand is asking for permission to send the emails. This prevents the customers from getting annoyed or irritated for receiving something that they did not sign up for, which will definitely lead to them reporting the emails as spam.
Being labeled as spam will do no goods to your business email. It takes away the credibility of the business completely. When your business email is reported as spam, less people are going to receive your mail in the inbox, rather, the emails will be sent to spam or junk. Less people are going to open and read the emails and your campaign will not be as successful as you planned.
- Customize Customers’ Experience
Another great advantage of opt-in email marketing is that you can customize the email to fit the customers’ preference. You can customize the types of content for various types of subscribers. For example, for the customers who have made a purchase before, you could send a new promotion campaign of the products they have purchased. For the subscribers who did not make a purchase yet, a special deal for new customers is a good choice. You can also choose to send the emails to the subscribers at the time they are more likely to open and read the emails as well.

What to use opt-in email marketing for
Let’s explore all the things that you could use email marketing for. If you are planning to get any of these purposes done, opt-in email marketing might be able to help you.
- Get visitors to website or social media page
Email marketing can take the people to your website, blog, or social media pages. It helps you increase more followers and engagement rates, leading to a bigger community and more trustworthy brand image.
- Encourage customers to make a purchase
Encourage and invite the subscribers to buy from your business using various methods including showing the brand’s credibility as well as offering special discounts and more.
- Follow up with the unfinished orders
See how many carts are left without checking out in order to give them the encouragement to continue the purchasing process or help them with any problems.
- Increase sales
Send promotions and special deals in emails to encourage and attract the subscribers to buy your products or services in order to increase sales.
- Gain brand visibility
You can use an opt-in email list to gain brand visibility by creating a campaign for your subscribers to share or forward the emails to have their friends sign up to your opt-in email subscription and later on become customers.
Even though you can get a lot of things from opt-in email marketing, it is important to set clear goals and work towards that. Since the methods used to achieve each goal will be different. In order to reach the goals, you will need dedicated emails for each goal, created and customized for each group of subscribers. It may take some effort, but the result will surely be worthwhile.
Conclusion
Opt-in email marketing is when you build the email lists for email marketing campaigns by having the people sign up to get news and updates from brands via email willingly by themselves. It helps ensure that these email lists are the potential buyers who are really interested in your brand,products and services as well as wanting to receive news from the brand in the email. Opt-in email marketing can benefit your business in many ways including building brand recognition and increasing sales.