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Two-Click Survey Results: What Level of Permission to You Get from Most of your Email Subscribers?

The answer…
11% --> Double opt-in (have to check an unchecked box and respond to confirmation email)
26% --> Confirmed opt-in (have to check an unchecked box, plus they receive a welcome email allowing them to immediately opt out)
22% --> Single opt-in (have to check an unchecked box)
22% --> Negative opt-in (have to uncheck a pre-checked box not to be opted in)
20% --> Opt out (are automatically opted in and have to opt out to get off your list)

Are you surprised by the results? Share your comments below.

Also, visit the eec homepage to answer the latest Two-Click Survey question:
Which channel does email have the most synergies with?

-->See more Two-Click Survey Results.

Posted on May 30, 2008 5:29 PM | Permalink

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Comments (5)

Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO):

Who came up with the definitions used in this survey? Your definitions of double opt-in and confirmed opt-in are not at all what the industry at large has established. This survey is wildly misleading.

Posted by Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO) | June 2, 2008 5:02 PM

Posted on June 2, 2008 17:02

Chad White:

We used the definitions used by Return Path (http://www.returnpath.net/blog/2008/03/are-you-getting-the-right-kind.php).

There are definitely some variations in how these terms are defined, which is why we defined each term.

How would you define those terms?

Posted by Chad White | June 2, 2008 5:16 PM

Posted on June 2, 2008 17:16

Ricardo Juarez Jr:

20% --> Opt out (are automatically opted in and have to opt out to get off your list)

Would have expected that number to be much lower.

Posted by Ricardo Juarez Jr | June 3, 2008 2:57 PM

Posted on June 3, 2008 14:57

Robert Mathews:

The Return Path definitions are pure nonsense. They were written by their VP of Sales, and they're right out of the spammer playbook of redefining widely accepted terms to make it look like they're playing by the rules.

"Double opt in" means the same thing as "confirmed opt in" to every reputable anti-spam organization.

In the term "confirmed opt in", the SUBSCRIBER confirms the subscription (by acting on an e-mail sent to the subscriber's address), not the sender. What's being "confirmed" is that the sender has the correct address and that the subscriber wasn't signed up against their wishes.

If a list sender has records showing this kind of confirmation, then the sender can prove that the messages are solicited. If the sender doesn't, then there's no way to tell if people were subscribed against their will due to typos (or due to malicious subscriptions designed to annoy).

I run the mail system for a medium sized hosting company (tens of thousands of mailboxes), and if anyone sends list mail to our customers that isn't what is called "double opt in" on your poll, we'd permanently block all mail from that sender, to all our customers, as soon as we received the first complaint.

The standard for mailing list mail has been "double opt in" for years now. Anything else is considered spam by most people who run incoming mail systems. If you're sending mail, use "double opt in" to protect yourself.

Posted by Robert Mathews | June 17, 2008 1:44 PM

Posted on June 17, 2008 13:44

Chad White:

Thanks for your comments, Robert. Because of the response to this poll the eec's Measurement Accuracy Roundtable will now be working to standardize these definitions. Stay tuned for a position statement and call for comments. When we've collectively decided on the stardard definitions, we'll rerun this poll to get cleaner numbers.

Posted by Chad White | June 17, 2008 1:54 PM

Posted on June 17, 2008 13:54

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the voices of email

The Email Experience Council's membership includes many of the brightest and most committed email marketing experts. We're pleased to have some of them share their insights here on these pages. Our blog contributors include:

Jordan Ayan is the chairman of Create-It!, a technology consulting organization, as well as the CEO of SubscriberMail, one of the leading email marketing companies. A two-time book author, a patent holder and a frequent speaker, Jordan has more than 20 years of experience in direct and database marketing. Read more.

Nicholas Einstein is director of strategic and analytic services at Datran Media. Specializing in email and CRM strategy, he helps some of America’s top brands leverage online channels to communicate more effectively with their customers and prospects.

Lisa Harmon is a principal at Smith-Harmon, a creative services consultancy dedicated to email marketing strategy and production. She works with marketers to increase clickthrough, maximize revenue, and infuse delight into their email creative. Lisa is also the blogger behind edm.smith-harmon.com, an ongoing commentary on the best (and worst!) in email marketing creative. Read more.

Chip House is ExactTarget's VP of marketing services, leading the teams responsible for client success. He was named to BtoB Magazine’s 2005 “Who’s Who in B-To-B,” for being a vocal proponent of legitimate commercial email and an active lobbyist regarding spam and privacy issues. Read more.

Marco Marini is the CEO of ClickMail Marketing (CMM) and an acknowledged expert in e-marketing with over a decade and half's-worth of experience in the field. Before taking over as CEO, he was CMM's VP of Marketing & Operations. Marini has also held key marketing positions with CyberSource, eHealthInsurance, DoveBid and IBM Canada.

Stephanie Miller is VP of strategic services for Return Path, the leading email performance company. She works with marketers to earn a higher ROI and response from their acquisition and retention email programs—developing content, contact and segmentation strategies, along with testing, measurement and production programs. Read more.

Erick Mott is communications director at email service provider Lyris. He has 20 years of experience from enterprise, SMB, agency and start-up marketing, communications and innovation roles at companies including Habeas, Nokia, MarkMonitor, GlobalFluency, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Philips Electronics and two of his own start-ups. Read more.

Jeanniey Mullen is the Email Experience Council's founder and the global EVP and CMO of global online publishing company Zinio. She is a thought leader and visionary in the email and digital marketing field. A columnist for ClickZ, she has published numerous papers and is a frequent speaker. Read more.

Kevin Senne is the Strategic Deliverability Director for Premiere Global Services. Kevin has been heavily involved in all facets of email marketing for more than a decade and he previously managed Email Operations for Travelocity.com. Kevin specializes in deliverability, strategy, and social media integratio and he focuses on helping marketers become permission-based one-to-one marketers. Read more.

Charles Stiles is the VP of worldwide business development at Goodmail Systems. In his role, Charles is focused on helping generate a better understanding of the email environment and potential solutions for a better consumer experience. He currently serves as the chairman for the Messaging Anti-Abuse Work Group. Read more.

Jeremy Swift is director of client relations for email service provider BlueHornet. He helped form BlueHornet’s founding team in 2000 and has been responsible for client services and marketing strategy since the company’s inception. Jeremy is known for his ability to articulate technical information in ways that clearly resonate with today’s online marketer.

Kara Trivunovic currently serves as the senior director of strategic services for StrongMail Systems, where she is responsible for helping marketers optimize their email marketing programs for greater returns. Most recently Kara was founder and principal of The Email Advisor, a respected email marketing consultancy. Prior to launching The Email Advisor, Kara led strategic services for the email division of Premiere Global Services. Kara brings a unique perspective to the space having worked on the client, agency and provider side for 10 years.

Chris Wheeleris the director of deliverability at Bronto Software. He is leading the charge for ensuring both Bronto's customers and staff are well informed about email marketing practices and technology as well as being the face of Bronto deliverability externally. Previously, Chris created the internal deliverability program at Amazon.com alongside program managing the operations of the email team and was at an ESP leading a team of deliverability consultants. Besides being a frequent contributor on Deliverability.com, Chris is a part of many email industry forums, both business and technical. Read more.

Chad White is the research director at Smith-Harmon, an email marketing strategy and creative services agency. He is the founder of the Retail Email Blog, a blog dedicated to tracking the email marketing practices of the largest online retailers. Chad regularly writes major research reports on email marketing and is an Email Insider columnist for MediaPost. Read more.