Opting in refers to a marketing strategy where the potential consumer allows businesses to send e-mails to their e-mail address.
It is good to send e-mail to potential consumers with their permission, as this ensures that the consumer is a qualified lead; plus, sending e-mails without seeking permission is known as spam.

It is said that” there is no such thing as a free lunch”; yet, offering free giveaways for opting in is a very effective marketing technique.  All businesses need customers and generating new leads and keeping existing ones is the aim of all marketing teams.  One of the easiest ways of doing this is by having your own e-mail list.

Those consumers who are opting in for your e-mail subscription are likely to be better qualified leads as they have shown an interest.  Once you have an e-mail list of your own, it becomes very easy and cost effective to market your product, announce new offers or any other relevant news by sending bulk e-mail to your list.

Joint venture giveaways are also gaining popularity. In this technique, a number of firms get together and each firm provides a product for the giveaway. All firms promote this event to attract potential consumers. Visitors to the giveaway website can choose the products they want and marketers get their e-mail addresses in return.

Following points are worth remembering if you want to use free giveaways for opting in.

•    The giveaway that you offer should be something your prospective leads are interested in. Choose the giveaway according to the profile of your ideal customer.

•    Design your squeeze page in such a way that it is very eye catching and contains just enough information about your offer that will make the reader subscribe to your e-mail list.

•    If you are a part of a joint venture giveaway, make sure you have a very visible gift ranking on the web page. You can increase the response to your offer by continuous promotion of the event.

•    You will also need to have an efficient auto responder software system in place to manage the subscribers

Though some people argue that you will not get qualified leads but only freebie seekers through giveaway events, once a potential consumer subscribes to your list, you can keep him or her subscribed by using free advice, more free offers, relevant news etc., instead of a continuous sales pitch to maintain the interest of subscribers.