Forms Are Great, But Confirmed Opt-In Is Better

Are you spending hours upon hours curating engaging, click-worthy content, only to notice that you have low engagement, high unsubscribes and spam complaints? A list of opted-in prospects is great, but what happens when they input false or incorrect contact information, or sign up on a whim. By setting up Confirmed Opt-In (also known as Double Opt-In), you can be at ease knowing you’re collecting email addresses from a valid and monitored inbox, and of prospects who want to receive and read your content.

What is Confirmed Opt-In?

A Confirmed Opt-In (COI) is a process where a marketer obtains explicit consent from prospects to receive marketing emails. 

Setting it up adds a few more steps to the Single Opt-in process but is generally easy:

1. A contact fills out your form and selects the consent check-box (single opt-in)
2. They receive the opt-in confirmation email, open it and click the button to confirm.
3. Their record is updated as an opted-in contact, along with other important details like when they confirmed their opt-in.

It may be a regulatory requirement in certain regions, so make sure you do your research to understand whether your prospects require a COI. It’s currently required in Austria, Germany, Greece, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Norway (source).

Benefits of COI for Email Marketing

While it can take more time to set up, the payoff is worth the effort:

• Higher email engagement rates (opens/clicks): Prospects are interested in receiving your marketing emails and are more likely to purchase your products/services.
• Lower bounce rates/spam complaints and a better sending reputation: No fake emails entering your database and causing high bounce rates or spam traps that end up harming your sending reputation. 
• A well-documented record of opt-in: With this auditable trail, if a recipient reports the email as spam, you will have proof to support your list’s opt-in integrity.
• And generally a good, clean database. 

Setting up Confirmed Opt-In

There are a number of ways to set up COI. Here’s a basic overview of how to set it up in Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) instance. 

1. Create two lists to capture opt-ins
   • Confirmed Opt-in
   • Not confirmed Opt-in
2. Create a landing page that a prospect is directed to once they confirm their opt-in.
3. Create a custom redirect link that sends prospects to the landing page above
   • Add the following completion actions to the custom redirect:
     1. Remove prospect from Not confirmed Opt-in list
     2. Add prospect to Confirmed Opt-in list
4. Set up an auto-responder email to capture COI
   • Add the custom redirect link (identified in the above step) to the call to action button to capture the COI
5. Add the following completion actions to the form/form handler that captures consent to receive Marketing Communications:
   • Add prospects to the Not confirmed Opt-in list 
   • Send auto-responder email to capture their COI

Quality or Quantity

COI is a great way to level up your email marketing strategy; ensuring a healthy database full of ‘real’ and engaged prospects. And with sales and marketing always looking for quality over quantity, COI will ensure it gets you there.

What questions do you have about Confirmed Opt-in? Let’s hear it in the comments below.