Use verified double opt-in

Learn how to enable double opt-in and customise your confirmation email.

Overview

We class a contact’s opt-in status as verified double when they have opted in to your communications using the Dotdigital double opt-in feature. An automated confirmation email is sent to your contacts when they sign up, or are imported, and these contacts aren't added to your address books until they complete the double opt-in process.

Double opt-in (DOI), also known as confirmed opt-in (COI), is regarded as best practice because it makes sure that your contacts really want to receive your emails.

Double opt-in also protects you from:

• Malicious opt-ins (for example, opt-ins that are made by spam bots)
• Spam complaints

To learn more about how contact opt-in types are classified, check out the Contact opt-in types article.

Enable verified double opt-in

1. Go to Settings > Account > Account settings
2. Under Regulatory settings, select either
   1. Enforce double opt-in for signups from signup forms and some API methods only (default)
      New contacts who are added using a form, or being added individually by API will be sent a double opt-in confirmation email. Bulk contact additions will not trigger a confirmation email.
   2. Enforce double opt-in for all signups, including bulk uploads
      All new contacts will be sent a double opt-in confirmation email, however they are added to the account.
3. Select Save settings at the bottom of the page.
   

Double opt-in confirmation email

By default, a system email is sent out to contacts who are required to confirm their opt-in. The system email looks like this:

It is possible to add your company logo to the system email, or, if you prefer, choose a triggered campaign to send as your double opt-in confirmation email instead of the system email.

To add your company logo to the confirmation email:

1. Go to Contacts > Advanced features then the Subscription settings tab.
2. Select Choose file to upload an image file of your logo.
   

   The logo that you add here is also added to the default resubscribe confirmation email.
   

3. Select Preview to see both the default resubscribe confirmation email and the default verified double opt-in confirmation email.
4. Select Save.

To use a triggered campaign as your double opt-in confirmation email, check out the Customise the double opt-in confirmation email article.

Configure verified double opt-in settings

Campaign to send

Leave this as Default to send the default system confirmation email. If you want to send your own triggered verified double opt-in confirmation email, expand the Campaign to send drop-down menu and choose a campaign from the list.

Double opt-in action

This is the action that happens after contacts click the confirmation link and complete the verified double opt-in process.

You can choose between:

• Show some text
  You can show contacts a short message such as Thanks for the confirmation. You can change this wording by editing it in the Show this text on double opt in completion field.
  
• Go to a page.
  You can enter the URL of a website page in the field underneath, or you can expand the drop-down menu below it to choose a page you've created with our Pages and forms tool.
  

  To learn more about creating a landing page, check out the Create a page article.

Select Save after making your changes.

Verify your contacts

Depending on the option you chose, your contacts are automatically sent either the default confirmation email or the triggered campaign that you selected.

Contacts won't appear in the All Contacts list until they've clicked the confirmation link in the email to complete the double opt-in process. They are held in a pending state until they confirm their opt in.

After contacts complete the double opt-in process, they either see the text that you entered on the Double opt-in settings page, or they're taken to the page you specified. They are also added to the account as live contacts and their opt-in type is set to Verified double.

Pending contacts

Pending contacts are contacts who have been sent a verified double opt-in email but are yet to complete the double opt-in process. You can find them listed under Contacts > Suppressed contacts, then on the Pending contacts tab.

After contacts confirm their opt in, they are removed from this page and added to your contacts.
Information on pending contacts is stored in the Suppressed contacts area until you choose to manually delete them, or you can use the account regulatory settings to automatically expire pending contacts after 30 days.

This is 30 days after the date that they were last sent a verified double opt-in email. To learn how to configure this setting, check out the Managing your account settings and options article.

This helps keep your list manageable, and allows contacts to be re-added to the pending list and sent another round of confirmation emails in the future.

If a pending contact tries to complete the double opt-in process after being deleted, they aren’t added to your contacts. They need to sign up again and be sent a new verified double opt-in email.

Confirmation email limits

• Each contact can be sent a maximum of four confirmation emails.
• You can't send more than one confirmation email to a contact in a five-minute interval.
• Confirmation emails expire after three days.