Double opt in

Double opt-in is a registration system on a mailing list, through which the subscriber expressly and unequivocally accepts their consent to receive messages at the email address provided during the signup process.

The subscription form process for capturing email addresses and validating them with double opt-in is easy to understand:

• The subscriber visits our website or landing page where we have the double opt-in registration form and fills in the fields (including their email address).
• They will only have to accept the conditions of use and click on the subscription confirmation button.
• Automatically, an email is sent to confirm the registration; the subscriber will only be activated when they click on the confirmation link to activate their subscription.
• If they click on the link, they will go through the double opt-in process and will be able to start receiving emails from the sender.
• If the answer is negative or there is no response to this confirmation email, the user has not confirmed the subscription and will therefore not be able to receive messages from the sender.

1. Differences between single opt-in and double opt-in

There is a simpler system for adding email addresses to our contact lists, it is single opt-in where, unlike double opt-in, the user only has to enter their email and accept the terms of use to be registered and start receiving emails.

But this doesn’t guarantee us that the registered email is correct, nor that it was registered by the subscribers themselves, which is why double opt-in is safer.

On the other hand, double opt-in goes a step further and, by asking for confirmation again, allows us to be sure that the person who provided us with the email is the rightful owner of the data and therefore we are confident that we will send a newsletter to an engaged subscriber.

2. Advantages of double opt-in

Without a doubt, using double opt-in is the best option for our email marketing campaigns to have excellent results, avoid reputation problems and will be sent to a high quality email list. Some of the main advantages of using double opt-in forms are:

– Goodbye to spamtraps or email traps. No one will be able to add spamtraps to their email lists and you will keep your reputation with ISPs as high as possible.

– Adding more qualified contacts. By only working with double opt-in subscribers, you will be sure that all registered contacts are truly interested in your brand.

– Increasing open rates. Since subscribers registered on our list took the trouble to open the confirmation email and click on the link to confirm subscription, we will know that they are interested in our campaigns, which will increase open rates.

– Quality databases (leads). The subscriber’s need to confirm their consent by email; this process insures that non-existent or uninteresting addresses will not be added to our list (such as incorrect data), which improves the bounce rate.

– The email added will always be correct: by reading and confirming the data entered, we are sure that we are not registering incorrect or outdated data in our database.

– Improves the delivery rate of email marketing campaigns: Having a clean database of only people interested in our messages helps us to improve our sender score reputation.

3. Disadvantages of double opt-in forms

Double opt-in is the best way to ensure your databases are of excellent quality, but it has a significant disadvantage compared to single opt-in:

Double opt-in databases show much lower growth than databases created through single opt-in, the reason is very simple: Some of the subscribers will not open the confirmation email and therefore will not be registered in the database. The percentage of users who don’t confirm varies according to the sectors, but is usually around 10% on average.