Top Permission Pass campaigns

[paxton]

What is a permission pass email?

It's an email that asks the question, “Do you want more email from us?” Smart email marketers send these to their inactive contacts as a last effort before cleaning them from their lists. After the campaign is sent and the click results are in, those who remain inactive are removed from future emails. Anyone who grants permission by clicking the campaign, is sent more of the same email. This leaves a 100% opted in list for future marketing emails. Click rate and open rate will rise, and the probability of ending up in the spam folder will fall.

What does a good permission pass email look like?

Simple.

Here are the top permission pass campaigns I have come across. To be updated and ranked as new additions come in:

1. Toast themed

 Here is an example of a thank you / confirmation page the CTA would link to:

Thank you page

2. Cheeky wording

 

3. It's Complicated

 

4. Kitten

 

[MRushton]

Hello, 

A bit late to the game, we synced a large group from mailchimp who were opted-in there, but many were old accounts etc so running one of these was an idea for us however I assume these all have to be set to 'marketing contacts'? As we wanted to clean the list, we didn't set this status (and doing so would take us way over our limit). Thanks *M

[paxton]

You could do multiple if you would like. Sometimes people send the first and say that this is our first attempt at reaching back out, after 2 more emails without a response we will officially opt you out of future emails. Then in a week or so send another, and one week after that send a final attempt.

The most important thing is that you do what you say and actually opt them out at the end of the campaign. Do not make it so they can receive another email from you unless they take action on their end to resubscribe.

[DRahn83]

There is a good example article here: www.leadgenius.com/resources/executing-permission-pass-data-with-leadgenius-a-comprehensive-guide

[jillworth]

Hi @paxton this is very helpful.  I am looking to create a permission pass email campaign.  One question I have is the email that goes out to subscribers sent only one time or multiple times?  If folks dont pay attention to it or delete it is that their only shot?  I guess my question is somewhat relative since if they arent looking at our emails then they might not look at this one either!  

[pdeguzman]

Hey Paxton,

Is there anything different that needs to be done with permission pass emails to make it GDPR compliant? 

[PamCotton]

Hello @pdeguzman 

I was able to find a HubSpot blog post with more information on how to "Make Your Mailing List GDPR-Friendly with HubSpot Permission Pass Campaign that I believe will help furthermore on your question.

Kindly,

Pam

[krislensherrill]

This post was so helpful-- thank you! I'm looking to do a permission pass like email to all of our subscribers to ask them if they would like to subscribe to a separate email newsletter for a blog that we do. However, I'm not sure how to properly allocate the "subscribe buttons" to make sure that if they opt-in, they're added to a separate list for this specific newsletter. Also, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but any help with this would be great!

[pdwinston]

Hi @krislensherrill, there are probably a variety of ways you could do this, but one approach would be to create a workflow (found under automation) to capture people signing up for your new subscription.

I'd start workflow from scratch, and you can set the trigger to be either a Call-to-Action that you place in the email, or it could simply be a link within a specific marketing email. 

People who click on the trigger you use would then be added to a static list (e.g., new subs), that you create and have ready when building the workflow.

p.s. I *think* (but have not used) there is an option to create automated bog subscriptions, in which case maybe you could place a link to that bllog subscription form, and skip the workflow process. https://knowledge.hubspot.com/cos-blog/set-up-your-blog-subscription-features-in-hubspot

[pwinston]

Paxton, very helpful post. Out of curiosity, what exactly does the "opt-in" call to action button do, since the recipient is already on your list? Just record a click to give you a signal intent and activity, or are you creating a list or some sort of workflow using the permission post....?

Thanks,

Paul

[paxton]

@pwinston, this is actually a question that comes up often when looking at these examples. The opt-in button's purpose is to record clicks. This way you know which of your contacts have given you permission. A smart list built to collect the contacts who click that specific link will enable you to segment this group out.

The opt-out button in that example really only has aesthetic value because we are assuming opt-out by default. After the permission pass has been sent out and a few days are allowed for the clicks to come in, any contacts that have not clicked opt-in should be suppressed from future campaigns.

[Anna_PW]

Hi there,

This is really useful @paxton. Can you tell me a bit more what happens after a contact clicks on either of the buttons? What LP / TY are they taken to and what's the wording on both? From what you described I don't believe you take them to the email preferences page?

Thanks,

Anna

[paxton]

Here's a great customer example of subscription confirmation TY: https://pos.toasttab.com/email-subscription-renewed

For the unsubscribe button, you could lead users to an unsubscribe confirmation page. Number 9 on this post of ours is a personal fave.

[Anna_PW]

Thanks a lot @paxton. Very useful 🙂 

[roisinkirby]

Super useful @paxton thank you! Also reading this, I couldn't resist this gif...