Ken Magill is a sensationalist. He writes on topics from the heart and likes to stir the pot a little. While I don’t always agree with what he writes, I believe that his voice is critical to the industry. He makes us all think.
A few days ago, Ken wrote an article titled, Opt-In is Dead, where he argues that, “the term opt-in has become utterly meaningless.” He continues, “What’s more, ‘opt-in e-mail list’ should be redundant. A company shouldn’t have to claim its list is permission based. It simply should be.”
Brilliant post, Ken. Brilliant.
The article certainly stands on its own, but I’ll add a few thoughts. When to question whether or not your email list is opt-in:
1. If you don’t know where your list is from, it is probably not opt-in.
2. If your boss sends you an email list of 10k+ and says, “send this now,” it is probably not opt-in.
3. If you exported your email list from Gmail, Outlook, or some other web based client, it is probably not opt-in.
4. If, after you send to your list, you get a huge number of complaints (>1%), it is probably not opt-in.
Thanks to Ken Magill for the inspiration.
DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices & Deliverability at Bronto
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
If the site makes a practice of pre-checking email opt-in boxes on various registration forms, a good chunk of your list is not opt-in ;-)
Linda -
You should join us in Scottsdale next month for the Email Evolution Conference (http://www.the-dma.org/conferences/emailevolution/). Several us of will be discussing pre-checked opt-in forms (and much much more) in the “Great Email Debate” panel. I have a nice hefty discount code for you in you’re interested…
To your point above that implies “pre-checked is not opt-in”…I could easily see both sides of it. Sounds like a blog post in and of itself.
Thanks for the comment.
DJ Waldow
Director of Best Practices & Deliverability at Bronto