Double opt-in strategies:
Keep your list large, your ISP happy, and your customers fulfilled

E-mail’s effectiveness has diminished considerably!

For example, in the past, it was common for a single opt-in list to get as much as a 10% to 20% clickthrough rate. That meant if you had 50,000 names, you could reliably generate 5,000 to 10,000 clicks by simply pushing a button!

Unfortunately, with the increased clutter inside your customers’ inboxes and the added ruthlessness of spam filters, e-mail is no longer a reliable form of communication, and click rates have plummeted.

No matter what you do, if you are using single opt-in (where the users don’t have to confirm), your message is not certain to reach the customer like a first class letter or a telephone call will.

Single opt-in messages have about the same reliability of cheap postal bulk mail. Single opt-in will arrive, but there are no guarantees where it will land or how seriously it will be taken since it may wind up in the user’s bulk box. But, here’s some good news…

There’s an easy way to increase deliverability,
get your messages opened and responded to…

The key is to use a process known as double opt-in, also known as “confirmed opt-in” because new subscribers must confirm their subscription requests by clicking on a link in a follow-up e-mail to be officially added to your list.

Now listen, confirmed opt-in isn’t appropriate in every circumstance since it can dramatically reduce your opt-in rate. Forcing people to take a second action (click on an e-mail link) to get added to your list is bound to have some downside.

However, in many cases, the positives of using confirmed opt-in outweigh the negatives:

• Your list will be far more responsive than a single opt-in list.
  
  
• You will generally save money on list management since you have a smaller number of subscribers.
  
  
• You will receive far fewer spam complaints.
  
  
• Those who do complain will not matter nearly as much since you can prove they subscribed.
  
  

There are generally three applications where confirmed opt-in is appropriate:

• With product buyers: People who purchase from you are usually much friendlier than simple prospects. Asking someone who has spent money with you to confirm their subscription to be added to a buyers follow-up list isn’t a problem, and you should lose no more than about 10% in the confirmation process.
  
  
• With prospects who are receiving a downloadable freebie: Downloadable items, like software, PDFs, and eBooks are especially appropriate since you can make receipt of the freebie contingent on them confirming their subscription. You should lose no more than 15% to 20% of the subscribers, who take that second step to get what they signed up for.
  
  
• With prospects who sign up for a multi-part course: With a multi-part course, or any content delivered over time, it’s a lot easier to get subscribers to confirm their subscription since they generally want all parts of course they are requesting. Expect to lose about 25% to 30% in the confirmation process.
  

Do you have to use confirmed opt-in?

Autoresponder services such as, GetResponse.com, Aweber.com, 1ShoppingCart.com, and others strongly encourage you to use confirmed opt-in since it helps them defend themselves against spam complaints.

If you want to import a large list into your account, they actually require it since they don’t know how the list was originally collected, and may need to prove to their upstream Internet provider they aren’t doing business with spammers.

Additionally, nearly all legitimate hosting services, and even domain registrars (such as GoDaddy.com) require you to use confirmed opt-in or face steep fines if you get a spam complaint.

They shut down your website until you either prove you have a confirmation, or pay up. It’s recommended you investigate your website host and domain registrar for their policies before investing in them, especially if you are using single opt-in and especially if you have a large list to import to their system.

Avoid those that have “zero tolerance” policies or refuse to give clear answers on what their spam complaint procedure is.

If they shut you down without allowing you to prove you did not spam, this will cause problems. Most legitimate businesses using e-mail get occasional complaints from someone who doesn’t remember subscribing.

Confirmed opt-in offers definitive proof you did not send unsolicited e-mail. However, the difficulty with it comes from reduced final subscriber numbers due to the required second step.

You see, many subscribers who sign-up for e-mail lists will not take the time to confirm. They may get busy or forget they signed up for your service to begin with.

Use confirmed opt-in incorrectly, and you may end up losing more than 50% of your original subscribers!

But, it doesn’t have to be this way. What you are about to learn is how you can skyrocket your confirmation rate so that practically every single prospect who is likely to become a customer confirms.

The First Step Is Putting Together An
Effective Confirmation Request E-mail

Most autoresponder services allow you to personalize your confirmation message. This is critical to boosting your confirmed subscriber numbers.
The first part of a successful e-mail is the subject line. Here you must indicate the urgency to take action. Some examples are:

“IMPORTANT: Confirmation Required”


“WAIT: There’s One More Step”


“URGENT: Online Marketing Letter Confirmation”


“RESPONSE REQUIRED: Online Marketing Letter Subscription”


“Please Confirm Your Sign-Up NOW Or Miss-Out On...”


“Confirm Your Subscription To Immediately Get…”

You should test your confirmation subject line to see which one pulls the best results for your business. Generally, if you are offering a freebie, the first two usually work quite well.

Essentially, you want to let subscribers know there is one more step to take, and to remind them about the valuable content they will receive when they do.

TIP: Mention what the confirmation e-mail subject line is going say on the opt-in page, and on your “Thank You” page after the person subscribes.

For example, tell your subscribers the first issue of an e-course series has the subject line, “Online Marketing Issue 1 of 52”. This will alert them to look for this in their inbox and confirm their subscription.

Notice, “1 of 52” wording. You want to set the subscriber up to expect the entire series in your e-course. It’s a time-tested psychological principle that people want to complete a collection or series.

Next, comes the body of the e-mail. Most pre-written confirmation e-mails that come with autoresponder services are ineffective. Instead, you should personalize your message and communicate a few key points. Let’s look at an example:

This sample confirmation e-mail does several things:

1. It reminds subscribers what the offer or subscription is about (remember they may come across the confirmation e-mail a day or two later).
   
   
2. Subscribers are resold on the valuable benefits of the information or freebie they are about to get (why they subscribed in the first place). This gives them a sense of urgency and pushes them to click on.
   
   
3. It explains why the confirmation process is needed.
   
   
4. In encourages the recipient to whitelist and/or unblock the senders e-mail.
   
   

You should apply these simple ingredients to all your double opt-in e-mail collection efforts. Simple enough, but easily overlooked.

Three strategies to make confirmed opt-in work at full power

Strategy #1: Hold-off delivering the valuable information prospects want until they confirm.

Whenever you collect e-mail addresses, you are making a value trade. The visitor gets access to information they desire and you get them to agree to receive future communications in return.

When the customer fills in your opt-in form, you want to make sure they realize the process is not complete, and there is still another step they must take to complete the transaction.

Let your prospects know they must confirm before they sign-up, and if you are using a NameSqueeze. page, test using a “Thank you” page instead of immediately sending them to your salesletter.

After they sign-up you can either force the subscriber to check their e-mail or give them the option to click a button and view your sales page. An example of sites that force the prospect to check their inbox is:

• http://www.nicheadvice.com/ab/
  
  

You really need to test using a Thank You page since not all markets respond the same. In some cases, a Thank You will increase the confirm rate, but decrease your conversion rate. In others, it won’t.


Strategy #2: Offer an incentive to confirm.

This can be in the form of a special e-report, a chance to win a package that’s for sale, a sweepstakes, or simply valuable information (such as a report or ebook).

The more valuable the offer, the more hoops the prospect is willing to jump through to get it. Let your prospects know as soon as they hit the confirmation link in their inbox, they’ll be sent to a page where they can pick up their valuable incentive.

An advantage of using an incentive is that it gives a reason for subscribers to make sure the spam filters are not stopping e-mail from you.

Often when spam filters are blocking your e-mail to certain customers, you have no way of knowing about it. And less tech savvy subscribers aren’t going to take the time to whitelist e-mail from you.

With a valuable incentive, they’re going to take the time to read your instructions, including how to whitelist e-mail coming from you with their ISP or e-mail provider.

A very costly error many marketers make…

In the opt-in sales pitch, you always want to use a freebie or incentive that is closely related to your main product.

For instance, let’s say you offer a free e-report on how to gain more energy by changing your diet. But the product you’re selling focuses on how to lose weight.

The problem is that you’re going to lose some people who would have otherwise become customers because someone who wants to lose weight (your target customer) may not care much about gaining energy.

You’re going to attract a less targeted audience than you could.

You always want to promote the benefits and end-results of what you’re offering with your freebie and make sure if it offers a taste of what the main product or service you are promoting has to offer.


Strategy #3: Use innovation to create excitement, urgency, and anticipation.

There’s always the tendency to follow the crowd. No matter how creative or experienced a marketer you are, at some point, you just follow the formula.

It makes the process of decision-making easier and allows you to get work done faster because you can duplicate another’s strategy or market. You should be aware that right under your nose is an amazing opportunity.

Because most people aren’t particularly creative, for the few who innovate, you have an opportunity to stand out from the crowd and make prospects stop dead in their tracks by shocking and surprising them with interesting, fun-to-read offers.

Let’s face it. Most people are bored. They get into the flow of daily habits, and experience the same things each day.

Use a twist to capture their undivided attention!

Applied to confirmed opt-in strategy, doing things a little bit different virtually guarantees subscribers are going to take the simple step of clicking on the confirmation link.

This can be as simple as creating curiosity by asking a question of interest and only giving the answer once the person confirms.

For example…

• A promoter who is selling a seminar may say, “Check your inbox to confirm your subscription and find-out who the mystery speaker at the workshop.”
  
  
• A page with an IQ test on it may say at the bottom, “Check your inbox and confirm your subscription to find-out what your IQ is.”
  
  

Another tactic to grab a subscriber’s attention is to use auto-playing audio or video on your Thank You page, reminding the user to confirm as soon as they receive the confirmation e-mail.

A great example is at:

• http://www.aweber.com/
  

While auto-play audio can be annoying, this is a perfect application for it. Of course, you’ll need to test to see how it affects:

• Your confirmation rate
  
• Your overall conversion rate
  

Here’s another unique way to differentiate the opt-in page and create excitement:

• http://www.undergroundonlineseminar.com/specialops
  
  

Two cases for single opt-in

There are a few times when you may want to use single opt-in:

• If your metrics favor a per-lead model: If you are selling leads, or are using an offline follow up system, confirmed opt-in will unnecessarily reduce your subscriber count.
  
  
• If your leads are untargeted: General interest lists that can be monetized with the confirmed opt-in of offers should continue to stick with single opt-in.
  
  

If this is the case, you want to be absolutely clear on the e-mail policies with your web host and domain registrar.

An advantage of the confirmed opt-in is that you are weeding out those who are unlikely to buy in the first place.

You’re qualifying the prospects by making them raise their hands and step forward, moving them from a passive lead to an active one.

Conclusion

For many situations, confirmed opt-in is the smart way to run your business.

With your domain registrar, web host, and autoresponder service, it eliminates the issue of spam complaints, and transforms e-mail from an unreliable method of promotion into a steady revenue stream.

And though you lose some subscribers, by using the right strategies you can eliminate those unlikely to buy from you in the first place!

Respectfully,


Hans Klein