How to properly measure opt-ins to improve campaigns

Kristina: Opt-ins have been around for a long time in email - what trends are you seeing with companies using opt-in strategies?

Stacy Adams, Vice President of Marketing, MBlox: Beyond regulatory compliance, opt-in strategies are interesting because they invite the consumer to engage - an opportunity that they're free to decline. That agreement begins the relationship on a solid foundation of mutual trust. However, many brands quickly wreck that trust by flooding the consumer with far more "engagement" than desired. Companies are forgetting the entire premise of opt-in: care. This lack of care is one of the big reasons why email open rates have plummeted to 22 percent. Maybe the answer to increased engagement via email is not just sending more email. The opt-in protects consumers and gives them choices, so brands need to be mindful of exploiting the opted-in relationship by sending too many messages or not sending messages relevant to the consumer. This goes for all messaging channels, especially those deemed very personal to the audience, like SMS. This is why StarStar offers brands a great avenue to express care for customers. When the customer controls the interaction, they pull information on their own terms, leading to increased trust and loyalty.

Kristina: How can brands better measure opt-in strategies and how can those measurements be used to increase engagement?

Stacy: No matter the platform, it's important to listen and respond. Gather both behavioral and location data on the level of engagement through the relationship and analyze it on an individual and mass scale to determine what, when and how often consumers want to hear from your brand. Unfortunately, once a consumer has opted-out, it's very difficult to re-engage through the same medium, so a brand should start slowly with the amount of messages sent, testing different offers and analyzing interaction with those messages to build a smart strategy of right time, right place, right message. Shedding light on consumer motivation and subsequent action allows brands to further tailor content that benefits both parties.

More from Stacy and MBlox tomorrow, including her top 3 tips to create a solid multi-channel strategy.

Image via Shutterstock

Tags: advertising, email marketing, MBlox, opt in advertising