Nearly three quarters of respondents to a new survey agreed that marketing opt-out rates represented a major business threat and close to 60% of brands reported an increase in refusals to share personal data.

The Permission Please survey showed clearly that consumer behaviour varies according to the method of data collection; there is much less willingness to give permission online and on the telephone where the opt-out rates are usually highest.

Consumer awareness, poor targeting and over-communication are seen as major drivers of opt-out but only 22% of marketers recognised the impact of data protection wording on the level of permission received. Less than a third of respondents had tested different permission statements but those that had reported massive variance between the best and worst permission rates achieved.

According to Rosemary Smith, Director of Opt-4: “Permission is a key driver of customer value and electronic platforms seem to be encouraging opt-out.”

Jenny Moseley, co-owner of Opt-4, added “Statements which are vague about data use may trick consumers into giving initial consent, but subsequent unsubscribe rates are very high.”

Mail typically has the lowest opt-out rate of the three main channels and is also the channel of choice for re-permissioning approaches. Some 30% of brands had tried optback-in campaigns with the vast majority (73%) using the mail channel for their conversion efforts.