When a contact submits your sign-up form, Dotdigital needs to confirm their consent before sending them SMS or MMS messages. This article walks you through building that process end-to-end: creating the form, setting up the opt-in and confirmation campaigns, configuring the double opt-in keyword, and building the programs that manage your opted-in and pending contact lists.
Before you start
SMS must be enabled on your account.
You need access to Surveys, pages, and forms to create the sign-up form.
You need access to program builder to create the opt-in programs.
A virtual mobile number must be configured on your account to send the double opt-in campaign.
1. Create a sign-up form
In Surveys, pages, and forms, create a sign-up form for your contacts. Learn how to create a sign-up form in Create a survey or form.
Include the following elements in your form:
Add a Form block: Text box
The text box form block provides a field for the contact to enter their mobile number. Configure the block with these settings:
Set Question type to Contact mobile number.
Set Default country to your preferred default.
To prevent international numbers from being entered, select Show only default.
Learn more in Form: Add a question with a text box.
Capture both email and mobile number
We recommend capturing both email address and mobile number in the same form because collecting them separately creates duplicate contact records.
Use consent check boxes for mobile and email
Add individual checkboxes for email and mobile opt-in. The SMS consent checkbox and the mobile number field must both be optional. Learn more in Add a consent check box.
Add contacts that sign up to a program
In the form's submit actions, you can choose to add contacts to a list or enrol them in a program, such as your welcome plan or opt-in flow. Learn more in Configure submit actions.
2. Create an SMS/MMS double opt-in and confirmation campaign
Create an opt-in campaign
Create a triggered campaign to serve as your double opt-in confirmation. Learn more in Create an SMS campaign.
When setting up your opt-in campaign:
Name the campaign Double Opt-In.
Include the double opt-in keyword in the campaign message.
Example message: Dotdigital: Reply "YES" to receive exclusive news, alerts, promotions, and abandoned cart reminders via SMS. In this example, YES is the double opt-in keyword.
Create a confirmation campaign
Create an SMS campaign with confirmation text that welcomes the contact and explains how to opt out. Learn more in Create an SMS campaign.
Example confirmation text: "Dotdigital: Thank you for joining our community. Visit our website to learn more. Reply HELP for help or STOP to opt out."
3. Set up the double opt-in keyword
Set up the double opt-in keyword using an SMS auto-responder. The auto-responder triggers your SMS/MMS confirmation campaign when a contact replies with "YES".
Learn more in Create a trigger word auto-responder.
Configure the auto-responder with these settings:
Name the auto-responder "Double Opt-In".
Choose the virtual mobile number to use for the SMS/MMS campaign.
Add the trigger word YES.
Select the SMS/MMS confirmation campaign as the trigger.
For Response frequency, select Keep responding with the relevant campaign.
For Actions, choose to add contacts to a list named "SMS Double Opted-In Contacts". This should be your master SMS list of all opted-in contacts.
Activate the auto-responder before use.
4. Create an opt-in program
Create an opt-in program to manage the opt-in process for your contacts. If you're collecting both email and SMS, your program can include both channel nodes to send each campaign.
Learn more in Program builder.
Build the program as follows:
After the start node, add a decision node to check if the mobile number field is not empty.
Connect the Yes route to the SMS/MMS campaign node to send the double opt-in campaign.
After the SMS campaign node, add an Add contact node and add these contacts to a list named "SMS Contacts — Pending Confirmation".
Connect the Add contact node to the email campaign node to continue your opt-in and welcome flow.
Learn more in Two-way decision node, Add contact node, and Email campaign node.
5. Create a program to update the SMS pending confirmation list
Create a program to automatically remove contacts from your pending confirmation list once they've opted in. Learn more in Program builder.
Configure the program as follows:
Set the start node to run daily and every time a contact meets the start node criteria. (verify label)
Set the enrolment rule to trigger from Segment.
In the segment, add a lists block to the Include box and choose the "SMS Double Opted-In" list.
Set the logic to check for contacts who are present in this list.
After the start node, add a Remove contact node to remove these contacts from the "SMS - Pending Confirmation" list.
Learn more in Set up program start rules.
This program keeps the SMS - Pending Confirmation list up to date. When you set up SMS campaigns, exclude contacts on this list to avoid sending to contacts who haven't completed the double opt-in process.
