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What is permission-based email?

Permission-based email simply means that the email is sent to people who want it — in contrast to unsolicited email or spam. This definition is typically expanded to mean that every person that you send an email message to has given their permission, whether direct or implied, for you to do so.

Many people, and certainly email marketers, have varying definitions of what exactly constitutes permission-based email. Express Email Marketing defines permission-based email as meaning that the recipient clearly and specifically granted permission for you to send emails to them. The basic characteristic of direct permission is that the recipient had to, at some point, opt in and join your subscriber list. Express Email Marketing lets you create an opt-in list by allowing you to create and place on the Internet a sign-up form that subscribers can use to join your mailing list.

With Express Email Marketing, you can take the concept of permission-based email one step further by enabling a confirmed opt-in policy for building your subscriber list. Enabling the confirmed opt-in option in Express Email Marketing automatically sends each new subscriber a confirmation email message that they must respond to in order to be included in the subscriber list. This policy guards against the possibility that the new subscriber was added by a third party without their knowledge or permission. The confirmation email message contains a link that the subscriber must click in order to confirm that they do in fact want their email address added to your mailing list.

A confirmed opt-in policy is the strictest method of maintaining a permission-based subscriber list. However, requiring that the new subscriber confirm their desire to join your list adds another step to the process and may result in the loss of a portion of the new subscribers who do not respond to the confirmation email message.