New Intuit Mailchimp Report Reveals What Marketers Overlook at the Opt-In Moment and Why It Matters - Press release

Sep 13, 2026

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February 4, 2026, Intuit Mailchimp released “The Art of the Opt-In: Why List Building is Only the Beginning,” based on findings from thousands of marketers and consumers. The report explains how opt-in expectations shape brand-customer relationships, highlighting gaps between signup requests and consumer trust, including friction from early phone-number collection. It outlines opportunities through high-intent moments, age-based trust differences, and list-quality practices like automation and omnichannel orchestration.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLetters

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time1 min

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New Intuit Mailchimp report overview

Opt-in moment expectations and data quality

Trust differences by age and signup friction

Gap between marketing strategies and consumer preferences

Automation and omnichannel orchestration insights

February 4 , 2026 New Intuit Mailchimp Report Reveals What Marketers Overlook at the Opt-In Moment and Why It Matters The Art of the Opt-In finds that trust, timing, and restraint at sign-up shape engagement, data quality, and retention across email and SMS The opt-in moment sets expectations for the entire brand-customer relationship , and many marketers overestimate how much data consumers wish to share. But tying signup requests to high-intent behaviors , like browsing or checkout, could bridge the gap. Trust builds differently across age groups. In fact, 39% of Gen Z assume brands will follow privacy laws compared to just 19% among Baby Boomers. After sign-up , high-performing lists rely on personalization , relevance , cadence , and automated execution. But less than one-third of marketers consider their email and SMS lists to be “very high quality” and only 8% see opt-in conversion rates above 20% . MOUNTAIN VIEW , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Intuit Inc. ( Nasdaq: INTU) , the global financial technology platform that makes Intuit TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp , today released a new report, The Art of the Opt-In: Why List Building is Only the Beginning. Developed by Intuit Mailchimp and Ascend2 , this report includes findings from thousands of marketers and consumers across the United States , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Australia/ New Zealand , outlining practical guidance to close the gap between consumer expectations and marketing execution at opt-in and beyond. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: [https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260204721675/en/](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260204721675/en/) Opt-in strategy can shape not just how subscribers engage , but whether brands have what they need to keep those relationships relevant and valuable. “As tracking and retargeting become more complex , the opt-in stands out as one of the few moments when a brand can earn a direct relationship-with permission ,” said Matt Cimino , product manager at Intuit Mailchimp. “Sign-up is the first signal that someone is willing to engage , and what a brand does in that moment sets expectations for everything that comes next.” The data shows that early opt-in decisions can shape not just how subscribers engage , but whether brands have what they need to keep those relationships relevant and valuable. The modern consumer is skeptical about inviting a brand into the inbox; marketers prove they belong there by asking for (and , later, acting on) data that allows for a personalized , benefitdriven customer conversation. The Striking Gap Between Marketing Strategies and Consumer Preferences The Art of the Opt-In report found that nearly all marketers maintain email and SMS lists , but less than one-third consider their lists to be “very high quality ,” and only 8% see conversion rates above 20% . Lack of sophisticated tools may be a factor; only 1 in 5 brands (21%) have fully automated their email and text campaigns , and only a third feel very confident that they can track which channels drive sign-ups. Meanwhile , most consumers have noticed an uptick in marketing emails and texts , but only 40% say they are paying more attention , and about a quarter admit they are tuning out these channels more than they did a year ago. Those who stay subscribed say they want content that actually adds value (56%) and messages at a frequency that doesn't feel like spam (40%) . But many opt-in strategies misjudge customer trust from the start: 65% of brands ask for a phone number in their popup forms , for example , but only 28% of consumers are willing to hand it over, suggesting that brands are overstepping consumer trust thresholds by asking for high-friction data too early. “Most opt-ins come up short because they’re created only thinking about what the business needs , not what the customer actually wants ,” explains Cimino. Instead of relyi

FAQs

What is the main focus of Intuit Mailchimp’s new opt-in report?

The report focuses on why the opt-in moment matters and how signup choices shape engagement, data quality, and retention across email and SMS.

Why do many brands struggle with opt-in conversion and list quality?

Many marketers rate their lists as low quality and only a small share sees high conversion rates, often due to limited automation, weak tracking confidence, and signup requests that exceed consumer trust thresholds.

Which strategies does the report recommend to improve opt-in outcomes?

It recommends aligning signup requests with high-intent behaviors (like browsing and checkout), using trust-building personalization such as relevance and cadence, and enabling automation and omnichannel orchestration across channels.

Sep 13, 2026

Upload by Fez