Internet Marketing: Six Ways to Improve Your Double Opt-In Rates

You probably know that having a double opt-in* process for your newsletter/ezine list is a must in business-to-business email marketing. It can be a confusing process to implement, depending on your ezine subscriber management system, but the benefits are clear:

• less chance of being called a spammer by someone who doesn't remember filling in the form (or because someone else filled out the form with their email address);
• fewer bad email addresses in your list;
• some mailing list delivery services require it!

BUT--sometimes your would-be subscribers don't click that link they receive from you in the confirmation email. And so you lose 10, 20, even 50% of your "subscribers". Arghh! How can you improve your opt-in rates? Generally, the more compelling and relevant your "offer" is to folks, and the easier it is for them to complete the process, the better opt-in rate you will enjoy.

1. Have some really strong copy that describes your ezine and the benefits they will receive.
2. Provide an incentive for folks to subscribe. A free ebook, ecourse, etc.
3. Remind folks that they must confirm (click the link in the confirmation email) to receive the incentive. You can do this on the signup or thank you page.
4. Help them make sure they receive the confirmation email, by offering a page explaining how to add your ezine to their whitelist.
5. Show them how to confirm. A snapshot of the confirmation email, with the confirmation link circled, is one way to make it crystal-clear.
6. Make sure your confirmation email matches the description of your ezine. Use the same wording, etc. Nothing will reduce your confirmation rates like using the generic confirmation email text!

Implement these permission-based email marketing best practices, and watch your subscription confirmations soar!

*Double opt-in defined:

1. new subscriber fills out a form on your site
2. your list management software sends a confirmation email with a special coded link
3. new subscriber clicks the link
4. subscriber is added to your list

Single opt-in eliminates steps 2 and 3.

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Comments

[Justin Premick]

Great advice on consistency and guiding people through the confirmation!

Re: your suggestion #5 - have you tried using audio or even video? You may find that it raises your confirm rate even more than images - we found our own confirm rate to be higher when using video as compared to using text, image or audio on the thank-you page and recommend to all businesses to try it out.

[Terri Z]

Justin,

That's an excellent suggestion! Do you have a favorite video tool you use to do this? (maybe something cheap/free, for solo entrepreneurs who might not need to use video often?)

[Justin Premick]

I use Camtasia which is a paid-for product, but there are some cheap/free video tools out there. I can't vouch for it personally as I haven't used it, but you might try CamStudio:

http://www.camstudio.org/

Which is a free software.

Hope this helps!

[David Tupica]

I also use Camtasia. Adding the audio and video to your website tends to get the prospects attentions and increases my click through rate and increased sales, also.

[Peter Koning]

I have a hackersafe account, which shows the site is secure and professional. I also have audio on the home page to explain the benefits further. A professional opt-in page helps too.

Using a strictly managed double opt-in system like http://productinfo.aweber.com also helps deliverability of the confirmation message - without that the new subscribers have no way to get on the list.

I think single opt-in is on its way out due to the risks you mention.

[SylviaVictor]

Ofcourse a nice suggestion, i think you have missed something...

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[Dave]

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