We talked in our previous blog about the need to ensure that you are not sending unwanted communication to consumers. The critical thing is for a consumer to have opted in to receive communication from you, whether directly or via a relevant third party.
However, there is not just one form of opting in. There is single opt-in and double opt-in – in this blog post we will be talking about what is the difference and which one is the best for you.
Single opt-in
A consumer becomes aware of you by email or by visiting your website. You present them with the opportunity to sign up to receive communications from you. They are sufficiently interested in what you offer to agree to let you have their precious contact details, including an email address, in order for you to send them some info. You then send them a confirmation email, letting them know their sign-up was successful and that they will begin to receive emails from you immediately.
Double opt-in
The consumer once again signs up on your website or via an email to receive more information from you. You then send a confirmation email to the consumer to verify that a real person (as opposed to some automated programme) actually signed up to receive more information. Verification then comes in the form of the consumer having to take action to confirm their email address and subscription, usually by clicking a link within the body of a confirmation email. Once that step is taken, the recipient will then be able to start receiving further emails from you.
Which option should you choose?
With single opt-in there is no additional step for the subscriber to take. With one piece of form-filling, they can start to receive further information. However, from your point of view, you can be open to robot-type form filling – rogue enquiries that lead nowhere, waste your time and increase your bounce rate. However, there are significant benefits to the consumer who does not need to waste time proving an extra layer of verification. Customers which are partially interested are more likely to purchase your product or service as they can become more interested. This is because they don’t have to opt in a second time which they could see as a waste of time.
With double opt-in, as mentioned a whole extra layer is imposed, potentially making the partially interested consumer lose patience and give up on registering. However, you do ensure far greater integrity to your data and smart consumers understand that you are in fact putting a good check and balance in place. Plus, if they’ve jumped through that extra hoop, your double opted-in consumer has already proved to be someone definitely interested in your products or services which could lead to a potential sale. With double opt-in the risk that a customer might decide to not follow up with the second email and loose patience or interest is quite high, if they are required to check for a second email. They could have even not known a second email was sent. This would help to segment your audience and also could help you to find out what demographic is more interested in your product. Double opt-in helps to ensure that you are only sending out emails to those who are interested and have give consent to receiving these emails and that it isn’t being sent to an automated email.
Here at BDP we can help you to discuss these different options further, call our sales team on 0333 200 1860 or email us at [email protected]