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Opt-in Defined

Opt-in refers to users actively giving their permission to be notified for specific purposes, such as promotions and marketing. It is considered best practice to seek opt-in permission from users before including them in your messaging campaigns. Earning opt-in permission before messaging is also legally required in many countries for specific channels, although the opt-in process and timing of the request can vary between devices and platforms. 

Asking a user to opt-in to specific channel communications reduces the possibility that they will block notifications or uninstall your application. It also leads to higher message click-through rates and conversion rates because users then expect communication from your brand.

How to Use it in a Sentence

You must opt in to receive notifications on your phone.

The opt-in rate for a channel refers to the percentage of visitors or users that made an opt-in conversion out of the total number of visitors or viewers that were shown an opt-in prompt.

10 conversions/ 100 total website visitors x 100 = 10% opt-in rate

The opt-in rate for mobile push notifications is between 81-90% for Android devices and between 44-51% for iOS devices. The drastic difference in opt-in rate between devices is due to the fact that Android automatically subscribes users to push notifications with the option to opt-out, whereas iOS requires users to opt-in before receiving notifications.

To improve iOS opt-in rates and ensure Android users stay opted-in to messaging, it's considered best practice to create a pre-permission prompt.

Creating a pre-permission prompt that appears before the native prompt can help provide users with context prior to the opt-in decision. With OneSigna's in-app messaging tool, it's quick and easy to implement a pre-permission prompt in your iOS app.

OneSignal has tools to help you earn opt-in permission by channel and purpose. For example, we provide an opt-in permission prompt for web and mobile push notifications and email, as well as a mobile location sharing opt-in prompt.

When it comes to writing prompt messages, there are a few tricks and best practices to keep in mind. Check out this helpful guide on how to write more compelling pre-permission prompts.

No, in-app messages don't require opt-in permission. Instead, users must be active inside the app in order to see these messages. The fact that in-app messages don't require opt-in permission makes them an excellent channel for engaging a wider audience — including users that are unsubscribed to email and push notifications. They are also an ideal channel for earning opt-in permission for other channels such as push notifications. Learn how to use in-app messaging to create a better iOS permission prompt.

An email marketing opt-in rate is the percentage of visitors to your site that subscribe to your email list. For instance, if 12 out of 100 site visitors subscribe to receive emails, your email opt-in rate would be 12%.

The average email opt-in rate is around 2-5%, although that number varies significantly between industries and platforms. Despite relatively low opt-in rates compared to push notifications, email is still an incredibly valuable channel for marketing and has been proven to generate significant ROI.

Many apps require users to provide their email addresses to create an account. In such cases, when a user provides their email address, they may also be prompted to receive marketing communication. Marketing emails must include an unsubscribe link, whereas transactional emails from brands do not.