Why don’t I like double opt-in forms?
Here’s my problem with (built-in) double opt-in functionality…
Your email marketing platform sends out a single email (i.e., “Confirm your subscription”)
They assume that the person who just opted in will check their email and click soon-ish
They also assume no other emails are going to “muddy the waters” in the meantime (View Highlight)
Set up all your forms to be single opt-in.
But, before someone is eligible to start getting your actual content (like your newsletter), create a sequence of emails that follows up with them once a day for a few days until they click a link that confirms them.
Once they’ve clicked the confirmation link, now segment them as confirmed and deliver emails as per usual (I follow my own advice – see last week’s issue – and use a confirmed_at custom field to determine if and when someone confirmed.)
And if they never confirm, have your automation automatically unsubscribe them after a few days.
The benefit here is that you have more than one chance to get someone’s eyes on your confirmation email, and after a few days you can make it very clear that it looks like they really didn’t want whatever they opted-in to, and you’ll be deleting their information.
Set up a saved segment where confirmed_at has a value, and then only send your marketing emails to people in that segment.
This way, those in limbo will only get your “don’t forget to confirm” follow-up nudges. (View Highlight)
Note: Crunchy Tactic for opting users into the email list
