Opt-in projects are difficult.

There's a battle between marketing & legal. There are dozens of scenarios to account for. And serious implications if you get it wrong.

Most companies struggle. Their opt-in process has gaps, errors, and is non-compliant.

That's why you have to take time when building your opt-in process. And this diagram can help bring some clarity.

There are 6 things you need to think about:

1. DATA SOURCES: different sources of data will have different opt-in requirements and may not capture EXPLICIT opt-in. You can't forget to account for all ways data is entering your database
2. COUNTRY: countries have different requirements e.g. implicit, explicit single, or explicit double
3. OPT-IN STATUS: are they already opted in? Are they unsubscribed?
4. SALES VS. MARKETING: are your rules different for sales vs. marketing?
5. CONSENT: did they agree to opt-in?
6. DATA UPDATES: this is to enforce your opt-in policy using segmentations for different opt-in status values
   

Once you have this info draw out the diagram, get it approved by legal & marketing, and build in your MAP.

For Marketo, this is built using triggers for each 01 step then request campaigns stringing all the decision nodes.

Check out an example of an opt-in flow below.

Link to Whimsical Diagram | Link to downloadable PNG