Loyalty glossary · 10. Marketing and engagement (20)
Opt In
Opt in is a member's explicit consent to receive marketing or participate in a loyalty feature, distinguished from passive acceptance by default.
Opt in is the only consent model that produces data worth using. A default opt out hides the true level of interest, because everyone is counted whether they chose or not. A programme that defaults to opt out reports reach it never earned.
Pre ticked boxes are not opt in. They are a dark pattern dressed as a convenience, and they create a liability under data protection law. A member who did not click the box has not given consent, no matter what the database says.
Work the difference in points, because that is where opt in shows up first. An opted-in member redeems on average 1,200 points per year. A member who never opted in redeems 450 points per year. The 750 point gap is the premium the programme earns by asking for consent once, and it repeats every 12 months.
The trap is measuring opt-in rate as a success metric. A rate of 80 percent achieved through a pre ticked box is worthless, because it counts people who never made a choice. The only rate that matters is the re-confirmation rate after 12 months, which shows whether the consent survives contact with the programme.
An opted-in base also changes the cost of the programme. Members who asked to hear from the brand do not need to be bought back with bonus points every month. A programme can spend its earn budget on better redemption options instead of on reactivation campaigns that produce nothing but clicks.
Opt in is moving from a marketing permission to a data permission. The next wave of loyalty programmes will ask members to opt in to specific uses of their purchase history, not just to emails. Programmes that treat consent as a one-time checkbox will find themselves asking a second time with a lower response.