Opting Options Dos and Don'ts

Permission Marketing is the current jargon for the politically correct way to manage your customer relationships: you make sure you have consent before you email anything to anybody. There's opt-in and opt-out, double opt-in and double opt-out. It's really a bit of a double bind, with some folks saying unsolicited email is just another way to inform people of all their options, while some folks receiving the unsolicited email are chanting "invasion of privacy." Don't worry (or maybe you should) - lots of lawyers have their teeth firmly clamped to the issue as you read!

I'm going to assume you are not one of those spamming Plutonians, and you really do have your customers' best interests at heart. You want to inform them, and you want to know they want to be informed. Are we on the same page? So here's how to “walk like a Grokian” when it comes to Opting Options.

Any form of opting-in, whether it’s for a newsletter, future mailings, membership, registration or simply a request for information, involves an exchange of value. You get something from your prospect that you want (usually contact and profile information) and your prospect gets something from you that they want. It's a very simple equation. It's only when folks start feeling you’re taking advantage of them that things take a turn for the worse. So do your Permission Marketing with sensitivity, sense and style.

DO make the opt-in procedure simple.

DO swear upon your favorite relative's sainted soul that you won't share this information in any way without the customer's permission. If that’s not your policy, then:

DO make it crystal clear, if you are in the practice of passing along customer information, that this is what you do, make clear the details of what, when and with whom, and give the customer an out if she wants her information to remain private. Then honor that as if your survival depends on it (it does!).

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