Email Opt-Out Best Practice

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Jordyn Landberg
Jordyn Landberg ✭
Tenth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
in Blackbaud Luminate Online® & Blackbaud TeamRaiser® Discussions
For many of our forms, we have enabled constituents to select to opt-out of email and mail communications. However, we want to grow our lists and I am debating whether or not we should automatically opt everyone in and require them to manually unsubscribe. What is best practice for offering opt-out upon completing a form? 
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  • Daryl Bunker
    Daryl Bunker ✭
    Eighth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Name Dropper Photogenic
    If you want to grow your lists, I would opt them in automatically whenever they fill out a survey or make a donation. If they want to unsubscribe, you should have at least 1 link on your emails to allow them to do so. And if you don't already, start paying attention to your inactive constituents. There's no sense in sending out emails to people that have been inactive for a certain period of time, so you can add them to a suppression group.
  • Erik Leaver
    Erik Leaver ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Hi Jordyn,


    While opt-outs (requiring the subscriber to uncheck the box) used to be the best-practice, the trend is now toward opt-ins. GDPR, as well as increasing penalties for being flagged as spam, is the cause for that trend. This is the first step of your constituent journey & you want it to be based on informed consent.


    I would suggest offering opt-ins on all of your forms, and for those who are donating/event registration, adding a subscribe link in the receipt/ticket. as a "second-chance".


    My colleagues Will Hull and Rachael Ahrens helped lead a two-part webinar in March & April talking about methods to responsibly grow & engage housefiles, "Spring Has Sprung: Tips To Grow And Nurture Your Supporters". 


    Good luck!

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