What is double opt-in email marketing?

Are you wondering about the quality of your email list? Or do you want to make sure your subscribers want to read the email marketing you send?

You may find your answer in double opt-in, a process that ensures the best possible experience for your customers. Instead of single opt-in, double opt-in provides an additional step in the verification process.

To ensure the best results from your email marketing campaigns, keep reading to learn what double opt-in is and how to set it up.

double opt-in vs single opt-in

In one step, users can subscribe to emails using a single opt-in. This means that the only thing users have to do in order to subscribe is to type in their email address in the required field. Single opt-in is helpful for marketing teams who want the process of signing up for automated emails to be as quick as possible.

One huge benefit of a single opt-in is the opportunity to grow your email list quickly. The simplicity of automatically subscribing users is helpful if you want a detailed contact list.

On the other hand, double opt-in provides an additional confirmation step to verify each email address you add to your contact database. When this setting is enabled, contacts created will receive a follow-up email with a link to confirm their email subscription.

This extra step can be useful for generating high-quality leads for your email campaigns. Someone who enters their email in the text box may not know that they have subscribed to your email newsletter, and feel disappointed when they start receiving emails. By using double opt-in, you’re ensuring every site visitor Wants To subscribe to our newsletters.

Another great asset to double opt-in email? You can create them directly in your HubSpot CRM, regardless of the version you have. After you create them in HubSpot, you can send them created in HubSpot to your contacts.

If you’re a HubSpot customer, keep reading to learn how you can implement double opt-in for your emails today.

HubSpot users can configure both single and double opt-in by creating an email campaign and setting it up within HubSpot’s CRM. This feature is available for the free Marketing Tools, Marketing Hub Starter, Basic, Professional, and Enterprise.

It’s important to note that in HubSpot, double opt-in forms are specific to the email account that confirmed the subscription, so if contacts update their emails, they’ll need to subscribe again.

Now, learn how to set up double opt-in.

How to set up double opt-in

For this walkthrough, all you’ll need is your HubSpot dashboard and copy for double opt-in. The whole process should only take about 20 minutes.

1. Access Email Options

Access your email options by clicking the “Settings” graphic, in the upper right corner of the HubSpot toolbar. The picture below shows what you should see when you open Settings.

On the left side of the toolbar, you want to click on “Marketing,” > “Email,” > “Subscriptions.” If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you’ll see the double opt-in features and customization tools. From here you will create and publish emails.

2. Create an Opt-in Email

Before you can enable double opt-in, you must create an email that includes the subscription option. To do this, click on “Publish opt-in email”. I’ve given an example of this below and noted three important factors that an email should have.

First, clicking “Edit Description” lets you customize the subject line and preview the text. Second, make sure the “Confirm your subscription” option is in the body of your email. Third, click “Next” > “Update” to make sure your email is published and saved.

3. Customize feature

Back in the “Subscriptions” tab, (I just clicked the “Back” button), enable the opt-in switch by toggling it to “On”. From there, you can customize the way you view your email by filling in some of the fields pictured below.

Under “Enabled options,” you can choose how subscribers will see your email.

• Enable only for certain pages: Selecting this will ensure that you have certain HubSpot pages enabled for double opt-in.
• Disable for certain pages only: This will enable double opt-in on all HubSpot pages. New contacts created via the API or import will need to confirm their membership type using their email link.

If you choose, you can also create a new page in the dropdown menu field and publish a follow-up email that customers will receive after confirming their subscription.

And from there, you have the whole double opt-in set up to send to your contacts. On the Contact controls, you’ll see an option to send them a double opt-in email. Remember, in order for a customer to sign-up for your marketing emails, they must open your double opt-in to manually confirm their intent.

Double opt-in is a great way to get a feel for the contacts who would be most interested in your content. This can make your metrics more accurate when reporting email marketing ROI. Plus, you’ll be able to customize emails based on response rates, making them even more targeted to your audience.

For more on email marketing, check out our ultimate guide Here,