Opt-In is Dead

The term opt-in has become utterly meaningless. And marketers made it that way. Everyone who’s got an e-mail list says it’s opted-in no matter how their file was built. These days, the term rolls off marketers’ tongues like “best-of-breed,” “core competency” and “paradigm shift.”

It’s like mass case of marketing Tourette Syndrome. They can’t help saying “opt-in” and when they do, they’ve conveyed nothing.

What’s more, “opt-in e-mail list” should be redundant. A company shouldn’t have to claim its list is permission based. It simply should be.

And no, I’m not about to launch into an anti-marketing screed. Marketing is essential to a free society. Sales is a noble profession. Countries that do away with sales and marketing tend to launch re-education camps and gulags.

And please understand I have not become a frothing-at-the-keyboard anti-spam crusader. Spamming is stupid. It endangers marketers’ ability to deliver their messages to even their best customers. But I personally don’t get all that worked up about the few unsolicited messages a day that get past spam filters and end up in my inbox.

But some marketers have made the term opt-in more than meaningless. They’ve made it an annoyance.

Case in point: A spam e-mail recently arrived in my inbox from a company ironically named MarketSmart Communications touting the ability to reach investors for my firm.

Ken.Magill_at_Penton.com is clearly on a compiled list of “decision makers” somewhere.

Never mind that the only decision I make of any importance is when to crack open that first beer and when to stop before I make an ass of myself. [I’m not always on the mark with that second decision.]

MarketSmart’s message was a classic case of opt-in as a meaningless annoyance.

“Add investors, market your company now for the new year,” said the subject line. “Heighten your company’s exposure with our opt-in e-mail campaigns,” said a subhead.

Opt-in? Really?

Sure, it’s possible MarketSmart’s own e-mail file is permission based, but why in the world would anyone who has been spammed by this outfit believe it?

And get this: The message had no physical address or unsubscribe mechanism in the footer, a boneheaded violation of the Can Spam Act.

Turns out MarketSmart is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, so maybe its e-mail designers aren’t aware of the U.S. Can Spam Act, a law that requires the bare minimum of responsible behavior from e-mail marketers. But they should be. After all, they’re touting their e-mail marketing expertise.

It is these types of efforts that over the last 10 or 12 years have turned the term opt-in from something meaningful to an eye roller.

And no, I’m not expecting marketers to stop using the term opt in. I would simply like more of them to know it has been so diluted by abusive e-mailers that when people hear it, a significant percentage reflexively think they’re being fed a load of crap.