Email Marketing - Single Opt In vs Double Opt In

Hey BHW,

So I am in the process of starting my first email marketing campaign :clap2: yeah I'm pretty excited too!

Anyways...I know that double opt in emails are obviously always better since the user said he/she wants the to be on your email list 2 times rather than 1 time.

BUT

For a double opt in email there is a chance that:
A. The initial email that requests permission to email the said user gets lost
and/or
B. The user decides that he/she does not want to receive emails and rejects the proposition to receive more emails!

So boys and girls - what do y'all think?

P.S. why isn't there a dedicated section in this forum for Email Marketing?

Best,
hesalin

Really? Not one reply? Did I post this in the right section?

If no one replies I will assume no one knows and I will update it after doing some A/B testing. But then we'll all have to wait a few weeks!

Anyways,

:snowwave:Merry Xmas :snowwave:

You haven't received replies as your thread pretty much answered itself. It's not clear what you're wanting from other people. If it's an opinion, then you gave just about all the opinion there is to give. I agree that double opt-in is always better, however your rate of confirmation will usually be quite low and you'll loose subscribers. Personally, for my campaigns I use single opt-in and deal with the odd unsubscribe from time to time.

To answer your question as simply as possible, yes, of course there is a chance for both instances to happen. For the first one, if the email was sent but not delivered or spam boxed then the recipient will never be able to opt-in at all. For the second one, people always change their minds on what emails they want to receive. Some sign up for deals or coupons and once they get it they unsubscribe. That's why fresh, targeted, new data is always the best.

SpookCash said:

You haven't received replies as your thread pretty much answered itself. It's not clear what you're wanting from other people. If it's an opinion, then you gave just about all the opinion there is to give. I agree that double opt-in is always better, however your rate of confirmation will usually be quite low and you'll loose subscribers. Personally, for my campaigns I use single opt-in and deal with the odd unsubscribe from time to time.

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Well everything I said was purely based on theory. I don't want an opinion, I want people to say what actually works better for them based on hard numbers! I'm guessing you have experimented with both single and double opt-ins and made more progress with single?

Hey there!

single opt in is when they go through"Loop 1" then if there hot enough of a lead they will do the 2nd one you throw at them.

If you have a high ticket item it is best to do this. If not, 1 is good enough.

hesallin said:

Well everything I said was purely based on theory. I don't want an opinion, I want people to say what actually works better for them based on hard numbers! I'm guessing you have experimented with both single and double opt-ins and made more progress with single?

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Ahh ok, yes back in the day I would use double opt-in and my confirmation rate was awful, it just wasn't justifiable. So single opt-in all the way!

I will hit this one.

Double opt in is great if you are planning on moving between email providers. Try moving a single opt in list from mailchimp to aweber. Not happening.


In my opinion double opt in works if you have a super high value offer. Then you will get it done. Otherwise you will lose lots of people. I have lost over 60 percent with this.

Single opt in works. Especially if you have an engaging newsletter. I have a single opt in list that gets the (first 5 messages) over 70 percent open rate. Might be more with plaintext.

The BEST way is to use an autoresponder that allows you to insert the confirmation link in messages.

I have one autoresponder that is single opt in but in every message there is a link at the bottom that says something to this effect...

Click here to ensure you continue receiving our emails.

Which is obviously the confirmed opt in link.

Depends on what you are after. I find i can build enough of a relationship and offer enough value to ensure i dont get flagged by spam and also get a decent response rate. However if you plan on blatantly spamming the crap outta your list then you will want double opt in protection.

xha44a said:

The BEST way is to use an autoresponder that allows you to insert the confirmation link in messages.

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Wow!!! Truly great advice thanks! I am about to go and try this method out!

It's hard to find autoresponders that do that. Mine is part of a shoppingcart package. Though it's really dumb for companies like Aweber not to do that - it would increase double opt ins for sure. This way you wouldn't lose the numbers and they would have cleaner lists... I really don't see what there is not to like about that. Someone seriously needs to start a mover/shaker autoresponder with all the bells and whistles because the current affordable mainstream ones are pathetic.

xha44a said:

It's hard to find autoresponders that do that. Mine is part of a shoppingcart package. Though it's really dumb for companies like Aweber not to do that - it would increase double opt ins for sure. This way you wouldn't lose the numbers and they would have cleaner lists... I really don't see what there is not to like about that. Someone seriously needs to start a mover/shaker autoresponder with all the bells and whistles because the current affordable mainstream ones are pathetic.

Click to expand...

So you're saying one can't do this with Aweber? Cuz thats the email provider I use. Any ideas on which email providers do allow this?

On the other hand, I heard that if one uses a "bad/not well known" email provider more mail will go into the spam folder? Is that true as well? (In which case it just might be better to stay with Aweber and just do single opt-ins.)

Hi,

If you're using Aweber I would say stick with Single Opt-In. As far as I know you can't do it with Aweber. Also, Aweber from my experience with them (7 years I think?) is pretty slow to implement anything new and great. Don't expect them to help with that. Single Opt-In + Amazing content on aweber will get you places. I started a new list a while back (runs a couple weeks) which is information heavy, but when I put a plug to them from 600 subscribers I got some 40 sales and no spam complaints. It's all how you approach it and it's certainly not for spamming the heck out of people.

That said the provider I was thinking about when I mentioned that to you is a all-in-one shoppingcart/email marketing provider - searching 1sc in Google will pull them up.

Deliverability isn't an issue with them - as far as email reaching the inbox I am not totally sure.

XH

Double optin is a waste of time. People are lazy, the more work you give them, the more of them you will lose just because of lazyness...