What's an opt-in?
It’s the way that a company gets their user to give their consent to become a subscriber. There are 2 different opt-in: the single opt-in and the double opt-in, which are explained below.
Difference between the opt-in:
Soft opt-in (single opt-in): this method obtains consent from a roundabout way, for example, a user would need to unselect a preselected field if he doesn’t want to be subscribed. This method doesn’t require the user to do any explicit or conscious actions after having entered his email address. This method is not relevant with the new laws.
Double opt-in: this is exactly what it’s called; it is a method where you ask for a double confirmation to each user. With this method, the user needs to give consent to everything the company wants to send to him, for example, newsletters, promotions, updates and new articles, etc. After entering their email addresses the users will receive a confirmation email, until they click on the link, the company won’t be able to contact those users.
Why would you use the single opt-in? This method is useful when you want to grow your list quickly since your contacts don’t get lost in the confirmation email. However, there are some drawbacks when using this method. This method increases the chances of having a lesser quality list since you add contacts without verifying the addresses and without knowing if they are really interested in your emails. Furthermore, the “delivery” statistics might be lower as well as the engagement statistics since the emails are not confirmed by double opt-in. This method also requires more time; it needs more attention since it is more vulnerable to spams and hard bounces. A higher spam rate can harm your reputation. As mentioned above, this method won’t be accepted when trying to send emails to European contacts. Furthermore, this method is on a downward reputation? On the legal side since consents collected with it are not explicit. We recommend using the second method, particularly since eFlyerMaker is already consistent with the GDPR laws with our double opt-in consent.
Why would you use the double opt-in method? Since all your subscribers had to confirm twice their interest for your emails (entering your form once and then confirming with the opt-in email), you are able to know that these email addresses are good and the risk of them bouncing is minimized. It is therefore QUALITY before QUANTITY. These contacts have engaged twice with your company, the chances of them continuing to engage with your email campaigns is higher than the chances with the previous method since they are expecting your emails, therefore they will be on the look out for them in their inbox and spam box which is a good thing for your statistics. Your deliverability and engagement statistics will grow for the better. Just like with the single opt-in method, there are drawbacks with this double opt-in method. With this one you are going to work harder to grow your contact list since it requires more effort from the users.
