Should You Use Double Confirmation On Your Mailing List?
I have always consistently told people that they need to start a mailing list on their site if you have ANY ambitions at all to grow your site. Your mailing list is gold. They are interested readers who were interested enough to give you their email address.
Obviously, however, you want to make subscribing as easy as possible. So, should you throw the extra hurdle in of double confirmation?
Double confirmation is simply sending your new subscriber a confirmation email when they sign up. They will have to click the link in that email before they will receive any emails from your list. I am an avid user of Aweber and they strongly recommend that you use double confirmation.
Interestingly, even though they strongly recommend it, they do provide the option of turning it off. Why?
Double confirmation is a hurdle for your subscriber to jump through. If, for any reason, they don’t get the email or it gets lost in their inbox, they won’t confirm their subscription and they’ll never actually get onto your mailing list. In fact, since Aweber will charge you based on the number of leads in your account, you’re technically paying for this person to be on your list even though they never get any of your messages. Some readers may be unaware that they actually have to do anything else and mistakenly just delete the confirmation email.
So, if you turn this setting off, then the simple act of entering the email address into the subscription form and submitting will add them to your list. No extra steps involved.
You will surely get more subscribers. However, at what risk? Without double confirmation, anybody could subscribe anybody else to your list without their knowledge. This can lead to allegations that you’re a spammer.
My Strategy
I have no interest in spamming anybody and I always want to respect the fact that users subscribed to my messages. So, I always confirm subscriptions – somehow. But, not always through Aweber.
My strategy is this:
- If the list is public (as in a subscription form is publicly viewable right on the website), then I always use double confirmation.
- If the list requires some steps beforehand to get on it, I do not always use double confirmation. For example, I have a list of paying members. My membership software already takes care of them confirming their email address (by them typing it twice). Additionally, people are PAYING to get on the list. That act alone weeds out the bad email addressed. On the “thank you” page, I’ll toss in a subscription form for the Aweber list, pre-fill it using info from the database, then get the new member to confirm their information. That will put them onto the Aweber list without an additional step. No confirmation.
You want to confirm your subscribers somehow. If you’re doing it via other means, don’t bother using Aweber to throw another needless step into the procedure.
Numbers Versus Quality
Some list owners just want a LOT of people on their list and they’ll let the system take care of weeding out the bogus emails. Aweber will weed out bad emails when they bounce. And Aweber will include the link to unsubscribe from the list and include your address (to be CAN-SPAM) compliant.
So, no doubt, many marketers have tested and determined that you can grow a list quicker if you leave off double confirmation. And they’re right.
But, does that make it ethical? What are your thoughts?
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like...
- Why Bloggers Should Start a Mailing List
- Search For Email Mailing List Solution
- Importing List to Aweber - Very Drawn Out
- Publishing a Newsletter
- Synch vBulletin Mailing List with 1-2-All
Comments
Depends on how valuable your target audience and how well do you think it will respond to your emails
Great post. I use the IMMailer on my own site and I use the built in feature for double opt in and it works fine. I send with another service but I use it for the autoresponse and export the “master” list to import into my other service.
Double Opt In Works great and not many people get left behind like you would think.
I’ve found that you can also test by source. Segment the new names on your first mailing and see where the unsubscribes/complaints come from. Find out who needs to be confirmed.
I like to do a negative confirm; i.e., a welcome email that says if you subscribed by mistake you can easily get out now; otherswise do nothing and we will keep you on the list. Tone is important.