What is a Double Opt-In Email and Why Is It Important?

What is Double Opt in Email Marketing?

The first confirmation is when the user fills in a web-based form with their email address to let you know that they want to subscribe to your email newsletter or course. Then, once the initial request is logged by the software, a confirmation email will be sent to the address that was provided.

This is the second ‘opt-in’ with a link that must be clicked by the recipient to confirm that they did request to subscribe. Once this is done, they have ‘double opted in’ and can be fully-added to the email list.

Why Should You Use Double Opt-In for Your Email Lists?

There are many reasons why double-opt in can be a good idea, but many marketers today believe that there are some reasons for using this strategy that make it mandatory. A double opt-in can be used to confirm that the person who provided the email address does want to subscribe.

Without the additional confirmation, then anybody who knows somebody else’s email address could essentially subscribe them to a list of material that they are not interested in receiving.

Double Opt in Email Benefits for Marketers

Along with this, from the perspective of an email marketer, it is important that you are only sending marketing emails to people who genuinely want to receive them.

If you use a single opt in approach without that extra confirmation emails from the recipient, then you may end up damaging your reputation as a sender if you end up with people on your list that do not actually want to be on it.

For example, if somebody enters hundreds of email addresses of people to sign up process for your newsletter and they do not want to be on your list, then you will be wasting time and money sending anything to these subscribers as they are not your target market.

Why You Should Create the Best Double Opt in Emails

The entire point of using double opt-in for your email list is to make sure that you appeal to people who subscribe because they are potential customers for the service or products that you offer.

With double-opt in, you can confirm this since they will usually be happy to click the link in the confirmation email and let you know that yes, they want to receive your marketing emails. Utilising a double opt-in process is one of the most effective things that you can do to maintain high quality for your email list.

How to Reduce Spam Complaints With Double Opt in Email

All email list owners will get some spam complaints and unsubscribes – it comes with the territory. Most people hate spam and anything that looks even a little bit like it is at risk of getting a complaint.

If a person does not remember signing up to your email list, or it wasn’t clear that that’s what they were doing at the time, then this might result in a spam complaint about your address. Even if you have instructions in your newsletter in place to help your subscribers easily unsubscribe if they don’t want to hear from you again, you will still find that some recipients go straight to making a spam complaint.

Using double opt-in allows you to reduce your spam complaints significantly. This is because it is not at as much risk of abuse compared to a single opt-in list. Single opt-in can often lead to more spam complaints that ultimately result in your domain name being banned or blacklisted as the complaints damage your reputation.

Advantages In Capturing Email Addresses Double Opt in Email Capture

There are several advantages of using double opt-in rather than single opt-in. These include:

Get More Qualified Contacts With Double Opt in Email Example

Using a double opt-in strategy will guarantee that your email list only contains email addresses that are valid and belong to people who actually want to hear from you. This is due to the fact that in order to be added to your email list, subscribers need to open the confirmation email and click on the link to confirm that they want to receive emails from you.

This can help with preventing issues that might lead to invalid addresses on your list such as typos when entering an email address or users submitting email addresses that belong to somebody else.

What is a Double Opt in Email and How Can it Help Avoid GDPR Issues?

A double opt-in process means that clients have to confirm that they are happy for you to send marketing messages to them, which ultimately means that you will have a more GDPR-compliant opt-in process.

With double opt-in, you will have a way to show proof of consent for every contact on your email list. Although double opt-in is not required under GDPR, it can be a very useful way to protect your business with easy proof that subscribers have opted in by confirming their email addresses.

Build Stronger Customer Relationships

With a single opt-in process, the first interaction that you will have with any new subscribers is going to be when you send them your first newsletter or regular email campaign.

On the other hand, a double opt-in process will require you to send an initial transactional email that allows subscribers to verify their information.

This gives you the opportunity to get your relationship with them off to a great start by turning it into a welcome email.

You can use this opportunity to showcase your brand, introduce yourself, and send a nice message that makes your new subscriber feel welcome and valued, providing a more personalised experience before they receive your regular email marketing.

Boost Email Deliverability

Along with all the other benefits of double opt-in, choosing this process will also help you achieve better email deliverability. Double opt-in will help you make sure that you are not adding any fake or misspelt email addresses to your contact list.

When you use double opt-in, you will be less likely to get any hard bounces when sending email campaigns. It also helps you ensure that you are only sending messages to people who really want to hear from you and have demonstrated this by taking that extra step in the signup process.

As a result of this, they are more likely to engage with your emails and less likely to mark them as spam or unsubscribe from them.

How to Set Up Double Opt In

How you set up double opt-in for your email list will depend on the email marketing provider that you are using. However, the majority of email marketing tools have a similar process when it comes to setting up double opt-in rather than single opt-in. For example, in Mailchimp, you can select double opt-in for an existing audience or when creating a new target audience.

If you have an existing audience, you can find the double opt-in option in the audience settings menu. You can also go to the opt-in settings page to make global changes if you have multiple audiences. Or, head to subscriber activity to view any individual audiences in your account and change the settings for any that you feel may benefit from the double opt-in process.

How to Edit Double Opt-in Email Mailchimp

In Mailchimp, you can customise your process for double opt-in using the Forms and response emails section in Form Builder. This is where you can design your signup form and any response emails that you will send to guide subscribers through the double opt-in process.

You can edit the email by adding custom text and branding or enable a coupon or special offer to turn the double opt-in process into a welcome email for your new subscribers.

In Mailchimp, you will find the following messages in the double opt-in process:

• Signup form: This is the first experience your potential engaged subscribers have with your brand. To subscribe, they will need to fill out and submit the form. They will need to check a reCAPTCHA box to prevent spambots from adding fake addresses to your audience.
• Signup thankyou: This is a page that thanks your subscriber for signing up and points them to check their email inbox for a confirmation message.
• Opt-in confirmation email: This contains a unique URL that your subscriber will need to click before they are added to your list as a subscribed contact in Mailchimp.
• Confirmation thank you: Subscribers will see a page to thank them once they have confirmed their email address.
• Final welcome email: This is an option email that you can enable to send to your subscribers once the process is complete to welcome them to your list.

When sending marketing emails, a double opt-in process can help you reduce spam complaints, build a high-quality audience, and drive more engagement.