What is double opt-in?
The term ‘double opt-in’ refers to the process of asking leads to confirm their intent to receive communication from a company, brand, marketer, or advertiser twice.
If you want to gain a more in-depth understanding of this concept, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: How does double opt-in work?
As we have seen earlier, double opt-in works by asking a lead to confirm their intent to receive communication from a company, brand, marketer, or advertiser a second time after they have signified it once.
An example of this would be giving a user the option to tick an ‘I want to receive news about promos’ box on your website and then asking them to confirm their email afterwards. This ensures they actually wanted to receive promotional emails from you and not just accidentally ticked the option.
Question #2: What is the difference between single opt-in and double-opt in?
The main difference between single opt-in and double opt-in can be found in the name: the number of steps involved.
As the name suggests, with single opt-in, you only ask leads to signify their interest in receiving marketing communication from you once, typically via a tick box or call-to-action button on your website. In contrast, as we have seen earlier, double opt-in requires you to ask leads a second time to confirm.
Question #3: What are the benefits of using double opt-in?
The benefits of using double opt-in include:
- More engaged leads
- Fewer spam accounts
- Lower bounce rates
- Higher open rates
- Fewer incorrect email addresses
Let us take closer look at each one:
First, by asking leads to signify their interest in hearing from you twice, you are able to filter out those who may not be as interested in what you have to say. After all, a lead that takes the time to take an extra step to show you they want to receive communication from you is more likely to actually want to hear from you than someone who cannot be bothered to do so.
Second, using double-opt in (i.e., asking leads to confirm their email address) is also a great way to filter out spam accounts and only let higher-quality leads into your mailing list.
Third, by ensuring that most, if not all, the emails in your list are correct and are actually in use, you significantly lower the risk of your marketing emails bouncing.
Fourth, by adding people who have shown a higher level of interest in hearing from you to your list, you also increase your chances of having your marketing emails opened.
Finally, by asking your leads to confirm their email, you can significantly reduce the number of incorrect or inactive email addresses that get added to your list.
Question #4: How effective is double opt-in?
While double opt-in appears to be extremely effective on paper, marketers are still torn as to how effective it is in the real world. After all, just because a lead opts in a second time does not automatically mean they are more interested than someone who does not. Regardless, there are really no massive downsides to implementing double opt-in, so there is really no reason not to do so.
Keep in mind, though, that whichever approach you choose to implement, at the end of the day, the success of your campaigns would still rely more heavily on things such as your subject lines and the content of your marketing emails.
Question #5: When should I use double opt-in?
While there are no actual rules as to when you should use double opt-in, you should definitely consider doing so if you have a high bounce rate since it is a great way to keep incorrect, invalid, inactive, and fake email addresses from getting added into your mailing list.