A double opt-in confirmation process is a valuable tool for protecting your sender reputation and email deliverability. This is especially true when used for offline sign-ups, open sign-up forms, highly incentivized sign-ups, co-registrations, and other instances that tend to generate high bounce and complaint rates. However, many brands hesitate to use it because they feel requiring people to confirm their subscription by clicking a link in their sign-up confirmation request email causes fewer people to complete the subscription process.
Of course, that’s absolutely true. After all, the primary purpose of a double opt-in process is to screen out risky sign-ups. In an ideal world, all email addresses that aren’t confirmed would be spam traps, email bots, malicious sign-ups, or people who aren’t really interested in receiving your emails and will likely unsubscribe or report your emails as spam.
However, we know that some truly interested people never confirm their subscription for a variety of reasons. To minimize that as much as possible, follow these four best practices:
1. Make it abundantly clear further action is required
After someone completes your registration or email sign-up form, send them to a confirmation page that makes it clear that the process isn’t complete yet. For example, use a title like:
- You’re not done yet
- One more step
- Check your inbox
Then provide clear instructions about confirming their sign-up. Those instructions are often as simple as:
- Click the link in the email we just sent to [person’s email address].
- To verify your email address, please click the “Confirm Email Address” link in the email we just sent you.
- We just sent you an email. Click the “Verify Email” link so we know we have the right address.
- We want to make sure we’re emailing the right address. Please click the link in the email we just sent to [person’s email address].
Simple is better. Try to limit your headline and instructions to 30 words or less, and remove all banners, navigation bars, social media links, secondary messaging, and other distractions from your sign-up confirmation page.
With today’s short attention spans, you want to compel the subscriber to take the next action quickly, so they don’t abandon the process midstream. That said, consumers are very familiar with confirming not only their email addresses but also their cell phone numbers. Stick with established language and don’t try to be too clever or original.
2. Create a clear call-to-action in your subject line and preview text
While many brands tend to use a clear subject line like, “Activate My Subscription” or “Confirm your [BRAND] account,” they don’t always support that with good preview text. That’s another critical element of an email’s envelope content.
Use visible or hidden preheader text to provide further instructions, such as:
- Click the link in this email to complete your account creation.
- Complete your registration by clicking the VERIFY link in this email.
- Verify your email address by clicking the link in this email.
