Is Email Advertising the same as Opt-In Email Advertising?

Don't buy lists to do email advertisements

Opt-in email advertising, or permission-based email marketing, is a method of advertising via email where the recipients have granted permission to businesses to send such communication. This method is one of several developed by marketers to deal with the growing menace of spam.

Email advertising, on the other hand, is blind email marketing where companies buy or rent email lists and bombard inboxes with unsolicited email advertisements. In a purchased list, all the users may not be interested in the products or services you are offering them. So if you send them promotional emails, they are more likely to classify them as spam. In addition, most of the ISPs today have very stringent criteria when it comes to email advertising. So do email marketing services as a matter of fact. If you use Benchmark Email, for example, you will not even be able to use a bought or rented list because it is a highly respected email marketing service provider that firmly abides by the CAN-SPAM Act.

Blind email advertising with bought or rented lists is a short-term solution that is likely to come back to haunt the sender eventually. It results in a highly dissatisfied recipient, an ineffective email marketing campaign and, in some extreme cases, even legal action.

To avoid this problem, it is better to build an opt-in list for your email advertising campaign. While more time-consuming and resource-intensive than hopping across to the nearest vendor to buy the neighbourhood email list, there are lot of compelling reasons for building your own email list.

1. You avoid inviting unnecessary and expensive litigation.
2. You will not be called a 'spammer'.
3. You send email advertisements to a captive target audience.
4. You can send more personalized communication.
5. You get more return on your investment.

So how do you drive opt-in email advertising? The best way is to put a short and simple signup form on your website. If you use Benchmark Email’s services, you can use the signup form available and customize it using your brand colors, required fields and more. Once customers signup, their details will be added to your email list automatically.

As you probably know, building and managing your own email list takes some effort. While you may lose some time initially, you will gain much more in terms of credibility and effectiveness in the long run. That’s why an increasing number of responsible and intelligent email marketers are now going with opt-in email advertising.