• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 15, 2017

There is much talk coming out of the EU about “affirmative consent.” But what does it mean in email terms?

Generally, it means that the person has shown their intent to subscribe via a double opt-in — signing up, then clicking through a link sent in a confirmation email. That’s the best practice — at least in the U.S. 

But it may not suffice in Europe. Come next May, the GDPR will require that you’ll need permission to even possess data on European citizens, let alone send them anything.

So we may be reaching the age of the triple or even quadruple opt-in, in which the consumer will have to give explicit permission for each of several activities.

The strange thing in the U.S. is that permission-based list building isn’t even the law, although it may be if the states take over from the federal government. Here, in theory, you only have to let people opt out upon demand.Can-Spam requires that you post an opt-out message and mechanism in a visible place, and quickly honor unsubscribe requests. And that’s little enough.

Don’t forget to post a detailed privacy policy, and put it in plain English.

So how do you get people to subscribe — to an email newsletter, say — without making it seem like a negative option?

There are many ways to pull them in: Social media, SEO, digital ads, point-of-purchase, order confirmations, affiliates and direct mail (again, there’s an American talking).

Emphasize the value.

Here are a few tips on how to execute:

• Send an immediate welcome message when someone subscribes. The longer you wait, the more likely it is they will forget about it or lose interest.
• Don’t demand too much information on the sub form — you don’t want to scare people away. You can always qualify them later.
• Don’t barrage subscribers with promotions. Yes, they opted in — to a newsletter. That doesn’t mean they want sales messages eight times a week.