One question that often arises for email marketers is whether to use a confirmed opt-in process or simply start sending emails to a list of subscribers. (You may have heard this referred to as double opt-in instead, rest assured it’s the same!) While it might seem easier to skip the extra step, using a confirmed opt-in strategy can save you from a range of deliverability and legal issues down the road. So, let’s look at what confirmed opt-in is, why it’s important, best practices to follow, and why it has benefits.
What is confirmed opt-in (or double opt-in)?
It’s hard to execute something when you aren’t entirely sure what it is, so just to be clear. A confirmed opt-in is a process that requires subscribers to verify their email addresses after subscribing to a list.
You know, you click “Subscribe” and immediately get an email saying the equivalent of “Happy you’re here, but please take 2 seconds to confirm you actually meant to do this”. The email then directs you to a confirmation link that you have to click to officially join the mailing list. Until this action is completed, you won’t receive further marketing emails.
The idea behind this is simple—confirm new subscribers genuinely want to receive emails, helping to filter out any mistyped addresses, bots, or uninterested users. It also builds trust (because you’re respecting subscriber preferences from the beginning) and keeps your list clean from the start. Nice and tidy.
Benefits of a confirmed opt-in email strategy
There are several key reasons why adopting a confirmed opt-in approach is essential for a successful email marketing strategy and how it can protect you from trouble in the future:
- Improved deliverability: Sending emails to unengaged recipients or invalid email addresses can significantly harm your deliverability rates. Email providers like Gmail and Outlook monitor how subscribers interact with your emails—if they consistently go unopened, get marked as spam, or get blocked, your sender reputation will suffer. Confirmed opt-ins help you avoid this issue by ensuring that your list only includes people who are actively interested in your content.
- Legal compliance: Data privacy regulations like GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and CASL have strict rules around obtaining consent before sending marketing emails. While single opt-in processes might meet legal standards, confirmed opt-ins go above and beyond by providing additional proof that consent was obtained. This can be useful if you ever need to provide evidence of compliance.
- Higher engagement rates: When people take the extra step to confirm their subscription, it indicates a higher level of interest in your brand. This often translates to better engagement, higher open rates, and more clicks. These are the kinds of subscribers you want to be marketing to—those who are genuinely interested in what you have to say.
- Improved list quality: One of the biggest benefits of confirmed opt-in is maintaining a clean, high-quality email list. Using confirmed opt-in guarantees that the email addresses added to your list are accurate, filtering out inactive or mistyped emails that can cause bounce issues, and that the owner of the address genuinely wants to receive communications. This reduces the chances of fake, mistyped, or malicious emails entering your list, improving engagement rates.
Is confirmed opt-in right for you?
While a confirmed opt-in strategy is generally a good idea for every marketer, it’s particularly important in two circumstances. It’s time to consider confirmed opt-in if your email collection methods are manual, such as sign-up sheets or email entries by cashiers. These processes in particular can lead to typos and invalid entries, so a confirmation step helps keep your list clean.
The other time confirmed opt-in could be a critical improvement is if you're experiencing deliverability issues, such as emails bouncing or landing in spam, re-confirming your recipients can improve list quality. This is especially important if it's been a while since you last obtained consent.
In short, confirmed opt-in helps ensure you’re communicating with valid, engaged recipients, making it a great strategy for improving list hygiene and deliverability
Best practices for using confirmed opt-in
If you’ve already set up a confirmed opt-in or if this is your intro, we want to make sure that you’re getting everything out of it that you can, here are some best practices to ensure you’re setting yourself up for success:
- Set expectations early: When someone signs up, let them know what to expect right away. Be clear about the fact that they’ll need to confirm their email before receiving any further communications from you. This reduces confusion and helps ensure they take action quickly.
- Make it easy to confirm: Your confirmation email should be simple, concise, and easy to understand. The CTA should be prominent and the instructions clear. Avoid cluttering the email with too much information—stick to the essentials, a friendly message, and a clear link to confirm.
- Send a follow-up if necessary: If someone doesn’t confirm after the first email, consider sending a polite reminder. This can be an automated email triggered a few days later, gently nudging them to confirm their interest. Be sure not to overwhelm subscribers with too many reminders, though.
- Offer an incentive: If it aligns with your brand and business model, consider offering an incentive for subscribers to confirm their email. This could be a discount, access to exclusive content, or some other small benefit that encourages users to take the final step. A little extra value can go a long way in driving conversions.
- Have safeguards in place: Like anything good on the Internet, bad actors have found ways to abuse confirmed opt-in systems. One example is list-bombing, adding addresses to unprotected confirmed opt-in sign up forms to flood the recipient with legitimate but unwanted emails to hide malicious activity. For this reason, you should always make sure that your forms are secured with a CAPTCHA.
These elements will get you off to a great and comprehensive start. Now that you’ve got the essentials down check out more on the hows and whys of best practices to build on that foundation.
How to implement confirmed opt-in in Delivra
If you’re using Delivra as your email marketing platform, implementing a confirmed opt-in process is straightforward. Delivra offers built-in functionality for creating a "Confirmed Opt-In" email campaign. Here's a quick overview of how to set it up:
- Create a confirmation email: Start by designing an email that asks recipients to confirm their subscription. Be clear about the value they’ll receive by staying on your list and include a prominent confirmation link.
- Manage unconfirmed contacts: Delivra will hold unconfirmed contacts in a separate segment, allowing you to track who has and hasn’t confirmed. This not only helps you see where you are losing people along the way but keeps things more organized.
- Automate the process: With Delivra’s automation tools, you can easily create a workflow that sends confirmation emails automatically, saving time and ensuring a seamless process. Simply select your confirmation email from the drop-down list to automatically send the confirmation message.
Shape the future of your email list with confidence
In email marketing, the quality of your list is far more important than its size. By using a confirmed opt-in process, you ensure that you’re sending emails to people who actually want to receive them. This not only improves your deliverability and engagement rates but also helps you stay compliant with data privacy laws.
If you’re still debating whether to use a confirmed opt-in process, the benefits far outweigh the effort. Your customer experience team will thank you, and your email metrics will reflect the positive impact.
