Double Opt-In Vs Single Opt-in

[trafficwave]

The debate between whether single or double opt-in is better will most likely rage on for years to come and (like most things in life) will always be argued from a matter of personal perspective.

Personally, I'm a big fan of double opt-in because I believe (based on my own experience) that it is better to have a list of ACTUAL humans that want your information rather than a list that has a combination of real humans, junk emails, bots, spam traps, etc...

A recent experience really solidified this for me as we were helping a new client transfer their lists from a couple of the more popular autoresponder services.

They had exported a list of just over 5,000 subscribers between the two autoresponder services they had been using. When the lists were imported in to their new account, we found that well over 1,400 of them were unknown, junk, or bouncing.

By "junk", I mean addresses like aaa@asdf.com, asdfasdfa@alj;ljk.com, etc...

Other records included actual bits of css information and no contact information, at all.

It seems that this person had been offering various downloads and people were just entering junk information in to the form so that they could get to the free download.

This marketer was under the mistaken impression that they had generated a list of 5,000+ actual prospects. When in reality, over 1,400 had just grabbed the download and run off.

One school of thought says, "Yeah, but he had over 3,000 real humans that got his download and he can follow up with them."

But consider this:

Due to so many junk emails being in the list, it's entirely possible that his deliverability was in the toilet. What good are the valid emails if your message won't get delivered to them?

Due to using single opt-in, a number of people were essentially stealing from this marketer. Sure, the download was "free" but the understanding was that they get the download in exchange for valid contact information.

How many opportunities for follow-ups, add-on sales, upgrades, etc... were lost due to an email address that was entered incorrectly? Mistakes do happen.

And how much money was he literally throwing away with these other autoresponder services because they charge based on the list size? His account may have shown over 5,000 but in reality only 3,000 or so were real!

Kinda makes you wonder if these companies that charge based on list size love the single optin method because it can artificially inflate the subscriber count which allows them to charge more.

[Daniel Brock]

I am still unsure..

A problem with double opt in is if you are paying for PPC traffic. It will almost double your conversion cost...

One problem I noticed about my single opt-in lists is people are more buck wild with their SPAM complaints. I guess because they don't say 'yes' to your original email, they are more likely to associate you with SPAM.

[JayXtreme]

NO amount of forum discussion or speculation will ever solve this "dilemma" for any business...

The only way to truly know whether double or single opt-in is best for you in YOUR business is to test, and then test again... finished with a healthy dash of testing

I use various autoresponder services, and switch between double and single opt-in as necessary in each niche... what works in one, will be wasteful in another..

Peace

Jay

p.s. The "problem" you describe above is almost exclusive to the "I.M." and "Make Money Online" niches in my experience... I've never had a poodle owner cheat my opt-in for a freebie

[mikeyman120]

I'm on aweber and don't see any option to change to single optin. So I use double and it seems ok. I get a lot of reconfirms.

Mike

[mfleisch]

Double opt in is the only way to go. If someone goes through the process, I have found that they are more receptive to future messages you have to offer. When I was using single opt-in a number of years ago, the unsubscribe rate was much higher.

I think that double opt-in is the norm and the benefits far outweigh the costs. If someone doesn't want my information I don't want them on my list, plain and simple.

[trafficwave]

Originally Posted by Daniel Brock

I am still unsure..

A problem with double opt in is if you are paying for PPC traffic. It will almost double your conversion cost...

Have you tested that in your marketing to be sure? I use PPC and get a very good conversion rate.

Originally Posted by Daniel Brock

One problem I noticed about my single opt-in lists is people are more buck wild with their SPAM complaints. I guess because they don't say 'yes' to your original email, they are more likely to associate you with SPAM.

The true cost of that could include decreased deliverability; not to mention the headaches of having to deal with or address what may be "frivolous" spam complaints.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

The "problem" you describe above is almost exclusive to the "I.M." and "Make Money Online" niches in my experience... I've never had a poodle owner cheat my opt-in for a freebie

No - they can't use the keyboard: they're too busy putting gloves on to protect their fingers from those nasty, yappy little creatures.

[trafficwave]

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

The only way to truly know whether double or single opt-in is best for you in YOUR business is to test, and then test again... finished with a healthy dash of testing

Excellent point.

At the end of the day, each marketer really needs to do that which works best for them. And the only way to know: Testing.

I wonder if anyone can share specifics on subscription/confirmation/conversion rates from any testing they've done.

Anyone?

Bueller?

Bueller?

[trafficwave]

And then I found it. I love Google ....

Split Test SHOCKER! | The Total Package

This article is not affiliated in any way with my own site. I just thought his results were interesting and made a very good point.

[Joshua.E1]

That is true in both, so there is no right or wrong in this aspect. Of course using single opt in is the easier choice than double opt-in.