When someone decides to opt in to your email marketing list it’s often because your website sign-up page did its job effectively or the recipient liked something in your email enough to want to subscribe. So once you’ve hooked them and they’ve signed up and given their permission to receive your marketing emails, is that enough or should you ask them to opt in for a second time?
When recipients are enticed by what they see and want to learn more, they often assume that by opting in to your email they will be receiving emails relating to their chosen item only to discover they are soon receiving all your campaign emails, many of which may be of no interest to them whatsoever. When this happens, recipients are likely forget what it was about your email that attracted them in the first place and pretty soon you’ve got spam complaints on your hands.
The double opt in is designed to prevent this happening by sending another email after a recipient has signed up requesting them to confirm that they definitely wish to opt in to your mailing list, and if the recipient replies then their email address is added but if there’s no reply, then the address is removed and they receive no further emails.
Although a slightly longer process than the single opt in method, the double opt-in will positively confirm that someone knowingly wants to sign up to your email list; a safeguard which should significantly reduce the risk of your emails being blocked or reported as spam but this could all be undone if you fail to send relevant content to your subscribers.
