Optimise opt-ins In all probability, those who have chosen to opt-in will be active readers of your emails. Recipients who aren’t expecting to or didn’t agree to receive your messages will either delete them without clicking through, or mark them as spam. If the latter happens it can be very risky, as it leads ISPs to label all your mail as spam. Optimising your opt-in process is a surefire way to improve your deliverability. The best way to do this is to build in a double opt-in mechanism (such as a follow-up email to a sign-up form). Taking this simple step ensures that any user entering your database has explicitly given their consent to receive your communications. Ask for preferences Keeping up with what your audience wants is one of the most important elements of email marketing. A simple way to discover how often your subscribers want to hear from you and even what exactly they want to hear is a preference centre. This gives users options other than simply unsubscribing, such as altering the frequency of your email sequences or changing the topics they want to engage with. It’s also possible for subscribers to change their personal details through this form, avoiding the all-too-common problem of a list peppered with invalid email addresses. The Inbound Marketing Playbook / 81