Confirmed opt-in (COI) is essential to maintaining a high-quality email list. Without it, you’ll be at risk of sending emails to bots, fake accounts, and spam traps which can hurt deliverability and cost usage in your account.
Fortunately, implementing COI is easy! And there are several ways you can do it.
Implement COI with a checkbox.
Using a checkbox is by far the easiest way to implement COI. Simply add a checkbox to your account registration, forms, checkout, or any other method of collecting leads and ask for explicit consent to deliver marketing emails.
Here are some text options to use for the checkbox.
- “Also subscribe me to the newsletter.”
- “Also send me promotions and offers.”
- “I consent to receiving the occasional email.”
When the checkbox is selected you can store that data in your CRM or newsletter tool with a custom field or a tag and when you send email blasts you only send them to subscribers that gave explicit consent.
Implement COI with double opt-in.
Double opt-in is the preferred method of collecting explicit consent, as it requires additional action from the subscriber to confirm their subscription. Double opt-in is also a requirement for the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL).
Most CRMs offer a built-in way to implement double opt-in.
Here’s how to implement double opt-in in popular WordPress email plugins.
- Groundhogg
- FluentCRM
- The Newsletter Plugin
If you don’t see your plugin listed, here’s how double opt-in works.
- A new lead subscribes to a form on your website, this gives implied consent. In your CRM their status should be unconfirmed.
- You send an email that includes a confirmation link that has explicit text to confirm their subscription.
- When the new subscriber clicks the “Confirm my email address” link, this gives explicit consent. In your CRM their status should now be confirmed.
- When sending marketing to your list, you should only send emails to those who gave explicit consent such that their status is confirmed.
