Why do we need Double Opt-In?

Everyone dealing with email marketing wants to know how not to go to Spam folder, and only a few understand that it is possible to secure oneself at the very beginning of communication with clients - through registration or subscription form.

It all started with Single Opt-in

Single Opt-in is the most popular way of adding a contact to your contact list when a client completes a form on website. In this case contact list may get non-existent emails, as well as wrong emails because of mistyping or fake subscribers. Surely, you can always configure email validation:

It reduces number of typos, but doesn’t protect from non-existent emails (bots, blocked email addresses, fake subscribers).

What is Double Opt-in then?

Double Opt-in means double confirmation of email address. A user should not only submit his/her email address at website, but also confirm his/her subscription from email received to his/her email address.

It eliminates “nonworking” email addresses when indicated email address is specified incorrectly or subscription form is filled by bot.

Metrics	Single Opt-in	Double Opt-in
Convenience for clients	A user doesn’t need to check received email to confirm email address.	For some lazy users it is huge work to type email address, let alone its confirmation.
Welcome series	There is no need to wait for email address confirmation and to configure Welcome series, you can start at once with promotional campaigns	Welcome series configured in advance is sent automatically after user’s confirmation of email address
Contact list growth	Contact list grows faster, as each email address indicated in subscription form is added to this contact list	All contacts are added to contact list, but email campaign is sent to those contacts, who have confirmed email address from received email.
Contact list activity	Quantity does not always mean quality. A lot of email addresses may be inactive or a client indicates this email address to view special offers on website and he\she is not interested in receiving email campaigns.	Smaller, but “cleaner” client list is more efficient, as user’s additional step shows that he/she is more interested in email campaign, than those who have not confirmed their email addresses.
Going to Spam folder	Inactive email addresses constantly added to client list spoil sender’s reputation.	Only existing email addresses are added to contact list. Additional step of email confirmation protects you from sending emails to nonexistent email addresses.
Email providers	If you have Single Opt-in, email providers can distrust that your contact list is collected legally, as it will contain incorrect email addresses and spam traps.	In case of suspicion in sending spam Double Opt-In is one of strong proofs that you comply with the rules and collect contact list legally.

Users hate spam and everything that looks like spam. If a user clicks button Subscribe two times, it is unlikely that he/she forgets about this subscription. Double Opt-In decreases Spam reports up to 1%. For your reputation each mark as spam is important, because email providers may block your user and no apologies will help you. Double Opt-In is really a great tool to protect your contact list and your reputation.

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How to customize Double Opt-In?

1. Registration/Subscription form

This is the first step in communication with a client. Potential subscriber fills Subscription form and clicks Subscribe button. Don’t forget to inform your client that he/she needs to confirm email address specified in the form. To do this you can either direct your client to Thank you page with a text like: “Thank you for registration. Please check your email for further instructions” or specify these instructions in your Subscription form.

2. Confirmation email

This email must contain a button for confirmation of subscription. It is desirable to remove any unnecessary details, such as links, buttons, even website menu, so that nothing could distract your client from required action. If a client opens email, but doesn’t click the button, he/she is added to contact list, but is not added to the mailing list for sending campaign. A contact becomes active only after clicking Confirmation button.

If a client hasn’t received confirmation email, it means that email address has been specified incorrectly and it should be specified again.

3. “Thank you for subscribing” page

It is naturally that after clicking Confirmation button your client wants to know that everything has been done correctly. A kind of page like “Thank you for subscribing” shows your client that he/she has subscribed successfully.

4. Email with bonus

If you are still convinced that Double Opt-in can reduce number of subscribers, offer your clients a bonus for subscribing and send welcome email with the promised bonus only when a client has confirmed subscription.

If you are committed to email marketing, customize Double Opt-In. In this way you ensure that your contact list contains only subscribers interested in your email letters and decrease the risks for your reputation. Having configured Double Opt-In, you may concentrate on testing bonuses for your subscribers, number of emails and other experiments to increase subscription confirmation rate. But this is another and very interesting story, we will certainly tell you it next time.

See you!:)