Promotional emails that are specific, individualized and informative about certain subjects to the recipients are known in the trade as opt-in emails.
The major difference between the opt-in emails and randomly sent viral emails is the first provide the relevant promotions to the people who had chosen to receive the information. Hence, this form of marketing is more effective despite higher costs and more laborious.
In a typical opt-in email, the recipient will be provided with information on the chosen subject, relevant tips or newsletter and sometimes even special discount limited to the recipients who opt-in. An individual may receive updates and pre-launch discount from his internet marketing gurus when he chose to sign up for the opt-in mail list.
There are two commonly used type of opt-in email, namely the "single opt-in" and the "double opt-in". The first refers to the forms available readily for the potential recipient to sign up on a webpage. Those who had opt-in will automatically became part of the opt-in list.
The "double opt-in" on the other hand, will require the recipients to re-confirm their interests by replying to an automatically generated email. This is often done to ensure the authenticity of the recipients and protect the opt-in emails from the spam filters. The additional step may also help to capture the genuine interested potential clients with higher conversion rate in a secured email list. This is an excellent way for building a long term relationship with your prospect.
For those who are looking for an easy solution, there is the option of buying or borrowing someone else's email list. These companies can help send out promotional emails to potential clients on any desired lists. Rest assured that the list is made up of interested individuals and if the recipients are not paying to receive the emails, this may be a promising way of marketing.
However, there is a price tag to this sort of services. They do not come cheap, roughly in the ball park of 10 to 20 cents for each email address. When multiplying that with the number of emails to send out to each email address before able to convert into profit, the cost can be quite substantial. Unless this cost is bearable, else there are many other methods to help generate a healthy opt-in email list.
One simple and subtle way of generating opt-in email list is through "opt-in series" email promotion. This can be done by directing potential clients to leave their names and primary email address when they became attracted to the tempting free gifts, samples, articles, videos or useful tips to download on specific websites. Once they do so, the marketer can now send out a series of personalized emails or messages on regular intervals automatically.