Since the implementation of GDPR, we’ve heard a little, a lot, enormously about the practice of the opt-in, which consists of obtaining people’s consent in order to be able to send them marketing emails.
But what about double opt-in—where is it in all of this, and is it important?
First, let’s define what double opt-in
It’s a practice designed to send a validation email following a signup, inviting the person to confirm their account. This way, the contact receives an email with a CTA asking them to click it.
This practice is not mandatory.
You’ve probably already come across double opt-in. You subscribed to a newsletter or created an account on an online site and received an email in your inbox asking you to confirm your account.
However, data transfer can put your company at risk.
Alright, but what is the purpose of this practice?
The goal is to ensure that the collected email is indeed valid (correct spelling, no errors when the contact enters the email address, no spam) so you can then optimize deliverability by avoiding sending emails to contacts that bounce.
In fact, it’s better to send an email to john.doe@example.com than to jon.doe@example.com which doesn’t exist.
This allows you to maintain good hygiene for your contact database.
Sending emails to “bad” contacts will have a negative impact both on your KPIs (open rate, click-through rate) and on the reputation of your domain name. In today’s marketing, the information about your contacts is valuable
Another positive aspect of double opt-in is a better qualification of your leads. A contact who makes the effort to open and then click in the email to confirm their account will potentially be more interested than a contact who doesn’t click. It is therefore genuinely beneficial for your business.
Does double opt-in have any drawbacks?
YES, like any practice.
First, there are the interested leads who might receive your email as spam (yes, that can happen). So there are very slim chances that these people will complete the process.
Next, there’s the lead who opens your email and thinks they’ll confirm the account tomorrow because they don’t have time at the moment. The next day, though, they forget and will never confirm their account. Too bad, because they did show interest in your activity.
Or simply, some people won’t go all the way through the procedure.
That’s what a study carried out in 2017 by Mailchimp shows.
“After analysis by our data analysts, most of those who did not complete the double opt-in process are people who did not anticipate the confirmation message.”
In conclusion, double opt-in is an interesting practice for improving your leads’ engagement rate and optimizing the deliverability of your emails (and therefore your e-reputation), but you need to take into account the fact that it may potentially cause you to lose a good portion of potential customers.
