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See FeaturesOpt-in email marketing: Definition, examples, and best practices
Email marketing is an excellent tool that helps drive sales and allows you to reach your customers and clients on a personal level. However, your emails should give customers the right to opt in and out of your mailing list through something like opt-in emails.
While you may want to keep your email list locked in so your audience continues to grow, inactive email recipients can actually hurt the success rate of your email marketing campaign.
Sending an opt-in email to recipients interested in what you have to offer leads to higher conversion rates and better engagement. Knowing what opt-in email marketing is and the best practices for using this marketing strategy will ensure you’re getting the highest return from your marketing efforts.
What is an opt-in email?
An opt-in email is the process of asking permission from prospects to send them marketing emails. This way, they confirm and agree to receive your emails until they withdraw their consent.
Single vs. double opt-in
There are two email opt-in systems you can adopt for your business. One is the single opt-in system, and the other is the double opt-in system.
With the single opt-in, a subscriber will only provide their email information once before you start sending them emails.
The main upside to this method is that you build your mailing list faster, making it easy for subscribers to sign up.
With the double opt-in, there’s an extra step. After providing their email address, users receive a confirmation email asking them to verify that they want to subscribe.
Here’s an example of a confirmation email:

Only when they finish this last step will your email service provider add them to your mailing list.
Though slower, the double opt-in method gives you much more confidence in the quality of your mailing list. Other benefits of double opt-in emails include:
- Protecting you against fake sign-ups, spam bots, and email scams
- A higher open rate, lower opt-out rate, and a lower email bounce rate
What is an opt-out email?
When collecting opt-in emails, you have to give your subscribers a clear way out. It’s included as part of many regulations in the CAN-SPAM Act.
An opt-out email marketing system is an approach that gives your subscribers the option to unsubscribe from your opt-in email list. Some common opt-out wording examples include “unsubscribe” and “unregister.”
Below is an example from Omnisend’s marketing newsletter:

Having an opt-out option helps your business reduce the number of unopened emails and spam complaints.
Watch this helpful YouTube video that discusses opt-out options for sensitive topics:
Opt-in email marketing best practices
When growing your opt-in email marketing list, you can take steps to encourage a higher participation rate and increase the number of people who want to receive your content.
Below, we go over some opt-in email marketing best practices to help you do it right.
1. Simplify the signup process
Make it easy for your prospects to sign up to receive your emails. Only ask for information you must have for your marketing campaign, such as name and email address.
By simplifying the signup process, you’ll have a higher rate of completion because people are less apt to abandon the form before they finish signing up.
Consider using a variety of sign-up forms on your website, including popups, teasers, and landing pages. This can attract a broader range of people, as some may be more likely to use one signup form over another.
Omnisend offers numerous forms and features that can help you collect opt-ins and build a high-quality email list in no time.
2. Incentivize your subscribers
Incentivizing your website visitors to subscribe to receive email offers and information from you can increase your signup rate. An opt-in email example that might incentivize people to subscribe to receive your emails is to offer discounts or provide exclusive content only available to subscribers.
Coupons, limited-time free shipping, and informational ebooks are just a few ideas of what you can offer to get people to opt in to your email list. Offering these types of incentives adds value to your emails and makes people want to open them, ultimately leading to more conversions.
Make sure your subscribers know what to expect when they receive an email from you. This makes it more likely that your subscribers want the information and offers you send.
3. Segment, profile, and target your audience
Your audience comprises a variety of people with their own unique personalities and demographics. To understand your customers better, you can divide them into segments and create profiles to help you target them based on their habits when visiting your website.
For example, you may want to send a welcome email to new subscribers or those who have never purchased from you, while frequent shoppers should get offers with discounts or updates about future sales. Segmenting your audience allows you to send emails that relate to their experience with you.
Creating customer profiles helps you track where customers are in your email marketing funnel so you can continue sending them relevant content. Omnisend can help you design the ideal email marketing opt-in campaign based on your audience’s online behaviors and history with your company.
4. Track subscriber activity and engagements
Once you have permission to send opt-in emails to your subscribers, you’ll need to track their engagement. Tracking your email open and click-through rates gives you insight into whether your subscribers are opening your emails and how often they click on the links in them.
Placing a link in an email allows you to gauge if your subscribers are still interested in your communication because you can easily track how many people click on the link. The higher your open and click-through rates, the more engaged your audience.
If you’re not getting a high engagement from your opt-in email list, you can alter your methods and content. You may find that your audience wants a change, or you need to modify your strategy altogether.
5. Allow subscribers to choose preferences
Your subscribers often have varying levels of interest in receiving marketing emails from your company. So, to give them a sense of control over what you’re sending, you can provide a way for them to set their preferences.
For example, after they complete the signup form, give them an option to receive your emails once a week, bi-monthly, or monthly. You can also let them choose whether they receive promotions, newsletters, or updates on events and sales.
By allowing your subscribers to have a choice regarding your opt-in email marketing, you can ensure they’re more engaged and willing to open anything you send to their inbox. You can occasionally ask them to update their preferences in case they want to hear from you more or less frequently.
Mistakes to avoid with opt-in email marketing
So now you know the best practices for opt-in email marketing, but it can also pay to know the mistakes to avoid with your emailing campaign. Here are some common opt-in email mistakes you want to avoid:
- Unprofessional design or content: You don’t want to clutter your email with so many images your subscribers don’t know what’s going on, or send content that doesn’t match your brand and message. Create emails that look professional and offer useful information or promotions.
- No clear call to action: Make sure your subscribers understand why you’re sending them the email by putting your call to action in an easy-to-find place that makes sense. If your opt-in email is a coupon, allow recipients to click on a button that takes them to a shopping page or, if you’re just sending information, provide a link to another similar article.
- Not removing inactive subscribers: Yes, you want to send content to many subscribers, but if those subscribers never open your emails, there’s no point in sending them. Occasionally, going through your email list to find inactive subscribers can help keep your email marketing campaign focused on your subscribers who show interest.
8 opt-in email examples
These real-life newsletter opt-in examples will show you just how to structure and position your opt-in emails for the most impact.
1. Distorted People

This is one example of opt-in email marketing that uses an exit popup signup form. With exit popups, the opt-in email marketing software tracks the cursor, and when the visitor seems like they want to exit the site, an opt-in email form appears.
This examples offers a 10% discount on the first order to incentivize visitors who sign up.
In the popup, Distorted People keeps it simple. The form only asks for the prospect’s name and email address.
The CTA button is also creative and isn’t as plain and obvious as simply asking visitors to subscribe.
2. Modern Me Boutique

This Modern Me Boutique opt-in email template is an innovative way of collecting email information. It’s more creative and interactive than most popups.
Here, the prospective customer gets to spin the wheel to win a prize. To spin the wheel, they have to provide their email address.
This form doesn’t ask people to make any purchase. Instead, it focuses on the reward the customer gets rather than what they have to give. It’s also colorful and visually appealing.
This opt-in email template uses Omnisend’s wheel of fortune feature.
Omnisend has many interesting exit pop-up sign-up email forms you can try out. Get started free.
3. She Simply Shops

This is one example of how you can embed opt-in email forms on your website, as the position can vary. For instance, you can have this at the bottom of every page, as shown above, or on the right side, as with the forms on blog pages.
It gives visitors an extra opportunity to sign up.
The above opt-in email template is brief and only asks for the subscriber’s email address. It also uses the “fear of missing out” phrase to make visitors sign up so they get access to the latest deals.
The opt-in email form also lets people know exactly what to expect when they sign up, and it does that upfront. Visitors can expect promotional emails and other updates — and they get a 10% discount on their purchase.
4. All Birds

With ecommerce marketing, you don’t have to always offer discounts when collecting information for your opt-in emails. Instead, you can use All Birds’s approach and just get visitors excited about all the email updates they will get.
Using discounts can sometimes create an expectation in your customers’ minds that you may not always be able to fulfill.
This opt-in email template promises the audience that they’ll be alerted whenever an interesting sale is compelling enough to get them to sign up.
All Birds uses the opt-in form in different ways including popups. The example is of one embedded on their home page.
Another thing this email opt-in wording example does well is create a sense of exclusivity in subscribers’ minds by asking, “Want first dibs?”
5. Stelton

With this newsletter opt-in option, there aren’t any price-cut offerings, unlike what most ecommerce stores offer. It shows that if you can’t offer freebies, such as coupons and discounts, you can offer value in many other forms.
This newsletter opt-in example does just that, promising free blog content for readers, offering free tips and guides.
Besides, subscribers will also expect promotional updates in their inboxes as they provide this information upfront.
6. Recess

This tiny popup on the bottom of the page on Recess’ website is another way you can use forms to collect opt-in emails.
Unlike other popups, the positioning is ideal as it doesn’t interrupt your visitors’ activities on your website. Rather, it appears as a small box at the bottom of the site and takes up very little space on the page.
Recess also offers an incentive, a coupon code for customers to get 10% off their purchase.
7. Ripped Body

This website uses its homepage as a landing page to collect information for opt-in emails. Here are some things this opt-in marketing page does right:
The first thing you see on the Ripped Body site is compelling copy urging its fitness-enthusiast audience to fix their diet.
Then, a nutrition guide and a meal course is offered to the audience that subscribe to the opt-in email list.
The copy also uses social proof to improve its credibility, urging subscribers to join an existing list of 100,000 people.
Further down the landing page is more social proof in the form of statistics:

All this adds to Ripped Body’s credibility, which is further boosted by the opt-out option placed clearly in the copy.
8. Frank Body

This site’s opt-in form examples pops up on the bottom left side of your screen a few minutes into browsing the website. This location is ideal, as it’s hard to miss. The copy also lets visitors know what to expect if they subscribe: new products, tips, and more.
It offers an incentive of a 10% discount on the buyer’s first purchase. Since it’s the first thing visitors see when they read the opt-in email form, they’re likely to be motivated to make a purchase.
Create better opt-in email signup forms
When collecting information for opt-in emails, you always need your readers’ permission. The best way to do that is using a double opt-in system, ensuring your mailing list only comprises people genuinely interested in your emails.
Besides offering value, getting creative with your email signup forms and creating compelling copies and CTAs is critical. The above email examples show you just how to achieve this.
With opt-in email marketing software like Omnisend, you’ll get creative, customizable double opt-in email examples you can use to grow your sales. And they’re available on every plan, so you can sign up for free and try them out today.
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