There are many who believe that using a double opt-in procedure to add subscribers, members, or names to a list is necessary to be sure that you are only signing up those who really want to be signed up. I disagree.
What is double opt-in? Suppose you visit my web site and complete the form to subscribe to my prestigious ezine. I then send an email to you, asking you to respond by replying or clicking a link if you really want to subscribe. Unless you do this, you will not be subscribed.
Why is this necessary? Well, the general thinking goes, someone else might visit my web page, and complete the form using your name and email address, thus subscribing you without your permission.
Sound reasonable? Why should I object to that?
Well, suppose you go into a newsagent today to buy a magazine. You select your magazine and take it to the counter. The salesperson says to you, “Well, just to be sure you really do want to buy this magazine, I will send a letter out to you. When you receive it, just sign the form and send it back to me. When I receive that, I will send the magazine to you.”
See a problem there? It delays your receivinging your magazine. It makes it more difficult for you to get your magazine. It involves the possibility of something going wrong with the process, such as your mail getting stolen or lost, with the result that you never get your magazine. And it treats you a little like an idiot. You want to buy a magazine … are you sure you want to buy the magazine? … well, if you’re sure …
There’s something fundamentally flawed in the process from the magazine (or ezine) publisher’s perspective, too. Statistics show that if we have to ask you twice, we lose a high percentage of our customers. A lot of people subscribe, but fail to respond to the opt-in confirmation email. Perhaps it didn’t even arrive, because of ISP email filtering. Probably it just got deleted with all the spam. Or perhaps they have forgotten why they wanted to subscribe to the ezine in the first place.
Still, there remains the threat that the subscription could be fake. How does double opt-in protect you from being subscribed without your knowledge? By sending you an email asking you to confirm your intention to subscribe.
I don’t use double opt-in. So what happens when you subscribe to my ezine? I send you an email which includes an “unsubscribe” instruction.
So, what’s the difference between opt-in and double opt-in?
With double opt-in, you get an email asking you to confirm you subscription. With my single opt-in, you get an email telling you how to unsubscribe if you wish.
That’s it – both send you one email.
But with the single opt-in process, the email I send you is a welcoming one. I thank you for subscribing. I tell you about the good things you will receive in the ezine as a result of your subscribing. I give you some freebies for subscribing – ebooks and software. The “welcome” email is a positive one, whereas the double opt-in’s confirmation email is potentially negative – “Are you sure you want to subscribe?” Now that’s a really bad marketing ploy – asking a question which has a 50% chance of getting a negative answer – especially after the customer has already said “yes”.
My point is that providing the single opt-in welcome email contains an easy unsubscribe instruction, there is no more overhead on the subscriber than using a double opt-in system – both send just one email – but one is negative, the other positive.
The double opt-in process does all the things you just don’t want to do in marketing:
make it hard for the customer to obtain the product; delay the customer’s receipt of the product; offer the customer another opportunity to say “No” – after he/she has already said “yes”; introduce an extra step which may go wrong – undelivered or unread email; treat the customer like an idiot.
Double opt-in? Completely unnecessary, offers no conceivable benefits, and a very poor marketing strategy. No thanks, not for this ezine publisher.
Kerry Green, of HermitWare, publishes Webmasters Digest
ezine, which gives information of value to webmasters and
internet marketers, and free advertising to its
subscribers. He is also the author of several ebooks and
software programs. You can view his website here:
http://www.tmbamall.com/hermitware.
