How to Leverage Double Opt-in Subscription to Boost a Mailing List

In the field of digital marketing, subscribers represent the basis for establishing a thriving business and this concept is increasingly understood. Having a potential customer’s contact information available on their own free will and getting straight to their inbox with every message is one of the best strategies to increase sales, but you have to be careful.

When a person joins a subscriber list, they do so because they find something interesting about the brand. It may be to receive a free gift or because the content they share is really useful for their purposes. This opens the door for that person to become a loyal customer of the brand in the future.

The problem is that errors can sometimes occur in this process. Misplacing some data or falling victim to a bot attack are also common occurrences and that is why it is so useful to activate the double opt-in in system, as it is the one that allows, in short, to ensure that it is a real person who really wants to belong to that list of subscribers.

This is a system that can be easily activated through the use of different strategies. What must be taken into account is that it should be a simple process for users to comply with so that they feel motivated to complete the whole cycle and generate that valuable linkage.

The basic underwriting process

Creating the cycle for a person to subscribe to a mailing list is usually very simple. It is enough to place a form and that the person enters their data and accepts the process. These data are sent to the email marketing software that is contracted and are included in the list of subscribers.

With this, the business owner will have the data available to start communicating with their audience and send them messages that are of interest to them, not only with free content, but also with promotions and offers of products or services for them to buy.

When the double opt-in option is included, the aim is to check that the whole process was done consciously and that the person who has subscribed is genuine and willing to receive the communications.

While it may seem that any business owner would be better off with a very large subscriber list and that it is not worthwhile to go through this process, the reality is that having a large contact list requires a payment to the email marketing software that provides the service, so it is essential to maintain it only with those users who are active and have the potential to become a customer in the future.

In addition to the above, email companies (such as Gmail), track the behaviour of a particular email sender and use this to validate and place messages in the main tab, promotions or send it straight to spam. As this is not convenient, it is better to have everything clean and organized.

Common mistakes in underwriting processes 

We can assure you that becoming someone’s subscriber can be very simple indeed. However, that does not exempt from mistakes that can cause damage to the mailing list. Here are a few:

1. If they have entered the wrong email address: this is a very common mistake because sometimes people write messages quickly. So, even if they are interested in being part of the list, if they entered the wrong information, they will not receive the communications and the relationship will not be established. There are cases in which the email marketing software can detect errors if they are general, for example writing Gmeil instead of Gmail, but others, such as changing one letter of a name for another, does not assume them and, therefore, includes it in the mailing list.
2. Someone else receiving the mails: to be part of a list, the user must give authorization. If the email address entered is not correct and someone else starts receiving the messages without your consent, this would violate the privacy policy and could lead to legal problems.
3. Data entered by a malicious bot: this exists, and it is impossible to cover the sun with a finger. Malicious software is capable of entering data that looks real, but it is not, and it can cause serious damage to the lists. This is because it is not just one bot that operates on the internet, there are hundreds and thousands, which would result in many negative subscribers that end up producing bounces in email marketing campaigns and causing damage at the level of statistics.
4. They want to harm the company: this is a less likely, but not an impossible situation. It occurs when a company (sometimes a competitor) seeks to affect the mailing list of another and creates hundreds of fake subscribers that it adds to the list through the form. In this case, problems such as those mentioned in the previous point would occur.

Methods to use double opt-in

Since we are clear on the need to put this method into practice, we now let you know the possible actions that can be taken:

1. Use a captcha: the captcha is one of the methods to ensure that it is a human who is performing the action. To activate it, you are usually asked to confirm a series of images, click on a button or give the result of a mathematical operation. It avoids bots, but does not tackle the problem of incorrect data entry.
2. Confirmation email: this is the best strategy in any case. Through the confirmation email, it is possible to ensure that it is a real user and that their details were entered properly. The same process explained above is followed, with the addition of an email in the email marketing software that is sent when a person enters their email address. They will then receive it in their inbox and only need to confirm.

With this data, it is easier to understand the importance of this type of confirmation for any business’ subscriber list. At the end of the day, it only takes a few minutes more time out of the process and in return, it gives peace of mind.