The Power of Permission in Email Marketing
I already know what you’re thinking: “Oh boy, here comes the big speech about permission being essential to email success. Duh. 🙄”
But it's true! Plus, you've already opened this week's lesson, so let's just get into it already, shall we?
Getting Permission is Essential to Reaching the Inbox — and Your Goals with Email
Sending it right requires you to stack a lot of foundational email blocks together, including authentication, segmentation, list quality, engaging content, and more.
But permission needs to be the keystone of any email house that aspires to live on Inbox Lane, because there’s no quicker way to damage your deliverability than to send emails to people who aren’t expecting to hear from you. Hello, spam complaints! Wish I could say I’m surprised to see you...
What happens when you don’t get permission first? Nothin’ good, that’s for sure.
Why you need to get permission
The essence of permission-based email marketing is that a recipient has given explicit and informed consent to receive email from you. And there are a variety of reasons why you need to care about getting it.
💌 For Legal Reasons
In a lot of parts of the world, it’s required by law to get permission before sending. There’s GDPR in Europe and CASL in Canada. And even in the United States where you can get away with a lot more (thanks to legislation called CAN-SPAM that quite literally says you can send unsolicited spam mail to people as long as you give them the ability to opt out via an unsubscribe link and physical mailing address), there are state-specific laws like CCPA in California that place heavier restrictions on data privacy (which includes email addresses).
The tricky part is you can’t always know where someone is located in the world. Even if you have some historical data indicating they live in the US, it’s possible they’ve since moved to Paris, Prague or one of the Canadian provinces, which means you’re putting yourself at legal risk.
And there are legal consequences. You don’t need to be the biggest spammer in your area to be at risk. Here’s a rundown of citations and fines that have been dished out in Canada, as an example.
Here are the best ways to ensure your emails maintain legal eagle status:
Get explicit consent from subscribers before collecting, using, or storing their data
Provide subscribers with clear information about how their data will be used
Allow subscribers to unsubscribe from emails
But that’s really just the beginning. Because it doesn’t really matter what part of the world you’re livin’ in or sending to, because legality does not equal inbox placement.
💌 You Wanna Reach the Inbox
I’ll say it again: legality ≠ equal inbox placement!
Because at the end of the day, what mailbox providers really care about is keeping their users happy. And they do that by looking at a variety of data signals that help them figure out if their users seem to like the mail that you send.
Sending without permission leads to a laundry list of very common consequences, all of which can negatively impact your deliverability…
Users complain. This is a not-so-slow but very-painful way to murder your inbox placement.
You send to invalid addresses. This can cause a high bounce rate that gets you flagged with your ESP and mailbox providers (MBPs) alike. Addresses given with consent are far more likely to be valid.
Mail goes to the spam folder. Ouch.
Your domain or sending IP gets blocklisted thanks to all those spam complaints. You’re likely also hitting spam traps.
Mail gets rejected by MBPs because you’re blocklisted or recipients are engaging negatively.
Legal issues ($$$). We just talked about this.
Negative brand sentiment. Let’s spend a little more time on this one…
💌 First Impressions Matter
You only get one chance to make a first impression. We all know this.
But there’s this magical thing that happens when we start thinking about email addresses as dollar signs instead of real people. All of a sudden, it’s a numbers game. A race to the bottom.
It’s not until we take a step back and think about what we’re trying to achieve with our email goals beyond just reaching some kind of sales quota that we remember: it’s about connection. It’s about one human speaking to another digitally. It’s about building a relationship.
Which is why it’s so important to build trust, not frustration.
💌 Permission = Higher Intent
When a person actively chooses to subscribe, they're signaling a clear interest in receiving your content.
And while general opt-in rates vary widely by sender (even when in the same industry), a consistent trend is that folks who’ve opted in are far more likely to engage — and convert — than those added without explicit consent. This is particularly true in that honeymoon phase shortly after signup. It’s the perfect time to strike while the permission-based iron is hot.
How to get permission
Alright, enough with the big speech. Hopefully by now, you’re bought into the fact that sending unsolicited emails is a bad idea — and more importantly, getting permission is a GREAT idea! Not only for deliverability, but also for building a bridge of trust and loyalty with your subscribers.
A few things to consider when it comes to gathering all that sweet, sweet, permission-based nectar.
💌 Pick Your Process
There are two main forms of opt-in you’ll be choosing between…and which one you choose will depend on what you’re trying to achieve with your email program.
Single Opt-in (SOI)
This one is the lowest permission-based barrier to entry for new subscribers.
Upside: your list will grow as quickly as is safely possible.
Downside: you might not be collecting an opt-in from who you think you are: SOI processes can be rife with mistyped email addresses, bot sign-ups, and distractible subscribers who may not realize that they’ve actually just agreed to an email relationship with your brand.
Confirmed Opt-in (COI)
This one is also commonly referred to as Double Opt-in (DOI).
Let’s start with the downside this time: requiring people to click on a confirmation link that’s sent to them via email before adding them to a mailing list adds red tape up front. Your list will be smaller than if you went the SOI route.
Upside: this extra step has been shown to drive higher engagement rates, which are not only good for deliverability, but also give you greater confidence in the quality of your database and the long-term interest of recipients.
If your business relies on repeat purchases, or if your company’s sales cycle is long, your primary goal may be to keep subscribers in your inner circle long enough to impress them with your fantastic content and keep your brand at the top of their mind when it comes time to buy. While
💌 Plant Your Seeds
The beauty of permission-based email is that there’s a lot of flexibility in the ways you can collect an opt-in from potential subscribers.
Completing a form to sign up for your company’s newsletter
Checking an opt-in box to receive additional promotions via email on a sign-up form or at the point of purchase
Signing up to receive offers from you during partner marketing activities like events and joint webinars
Allowing your team to scan their attendee badge at an industry event after having a meaningful conversation (or trading their email address in kind for that awesome swag you were givin’ out)
The cool part? You get to decide what information they need to share, what mailing list(s) they’ll be added to, how often they’ll hear from you, what content they’ll receive, and whether they need to confirm their subscription before kicking things off.
You can even offer a preference center, giving them greater control over aspects such as frequency and type(s) of content.
The only thing you can’t do (if you care about reaching the inbox) is mislead users during the signup process — or skip it altogether.
💌 Protect Your Forms from Abuse
I don’t care how you do it. There are multiple options to choose from depending on where you’re hosting your signup form, including CAPTCHA, hCAPTCHA, and Google’s invisible reCAPTCHA.
Yes, this does add an additional step to your signup process.
YES, most people around the world despise them.
And no, these protections aren’t fool-proof.
But the alternative is having bots abuse your sign up form, which can lead to deliverability issues, over-spending by sending to bogus addresses, in some cases, needing to trash the majority of your list because you can’t separate the bots from the nots.
💌 Prioritize Recipient Preferences
This could be an entire lesson on its own, and maybe it will be one day! For now, I’ll just leave you with this…
Stop requiring sign-ups from work addresses!
It might seem counter-intuitive (or downright confusing) for B2B, but only until you consider these figures:
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in January 2024, the median tenure for workers ages 25 to 34 was 2.7 years.
Depending on the industry and report you read, the average employee turnover rate in B2B is between 22% - 30%.
If you’re looking to hold onto those hard-earned subscribers of yours, even when they switch jobs or are temporarily out of work, consider allowing them to give any address they like, including their personal address. This allows you to maintain a relationship with them across multiple different roles and companies.
🎶 This is the end 🎶
Ultimately, the type of opt-in process you decide to implement will vary depending on your industry, your goals with email, and the kinds of content you’ll send after someone signs up.
Just be sure you’re collecting an opt-in from every single subscriber and properly setting their expectations before pushing 'Send'!
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