HTML Email: A Guide to Opt-In
The opt-in is supreme in bulk email marketing. This is because bulk email marketing or the procedure of sending HTML email marketing offers can only happen once the user has voluntarily opted-in. This might seem to be an infringement of free trade from a vendor standpoint; after all, why should anyone stand in the way of you and a potential customer? If telemarketers can exist, then why not bulk email marketers. The reason for this lies in the distant cousins of the bulk email marketing family called spammers. Spammers pretty much ruined the industry with their unsolicited bulk email marketing practices. To give you an idea, spam traffic in the world numbers in the billions every few hours. This makes for an unimaginable amount of spam mail in a year. If not for the power of spam filters, your mailbox would be choked with these mails and you would end up losing mail box space.
So, considering what lies on the other side of the fence, you would have to stick to being a legitimate marketing executer in the email marketing space, and to do this, you have to get opt ins. There are two types of opt-ins that you should know about before you start to send HTML email to people for marketing purposes.
The first type of opt-in is called the single opt-in where the prospective client leaves his or her email address in a sign-on form and that becomes the opt-in approval. The email address can also be taken as part of a previous purchase detail that was captured and that can also legally form an opt-in. The other sort of opt-in is called a double opt-in. A double opt-in is one in which a confirmation email is sent after the prospective customer has offered his or her email address in a sign on form. This confirmation email contains a link which then confirms sign-up. Both of these methods of opt-in are legal but the second method is usually preferred as it is an ultimate failsafe against getting spam complaints that one has to contend with.
Placing these sign on forms for opt-ins in crucial places is also paramount. The first place to naturally start with is your own website as this should attract an adequate number of customers as well. The other places that you can place sign on forms are partner websites and also social networking websites. This can be done by creating fan pages and placing a sign on link in this page.
It is important to always have your opt-in address list for sending marketing HTML email ready for inspection. This is because many bulk email marketers are mistaken for spammers and the distinguishing factor is only in the opt-ins. Spammers won’t bother with opt-ins while bulk email marketers live off them. ISPs are usually the first people that you will have to show evidence of a double opt-in to. This is required to avoid being cast into the blacklist.
Jamie Colbs is a html email newsletter templates best practices activist advocate for Benchmark Email , a leading Web and permission-based email marketing service. Author Links Business/Social Networking Links Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/html-email-a-guide-to-optin-1377729.html
Business URL: http://www.benchmarkemail.com/email-marketing/html-email-templates
Twitter URL: http://twitter.com/benchmarkemail