Should I use double opt-in?
When someone signs up for one of your lists, that person will appear directly in your subscriber list in Laposta. This is called single opt-in and is the standard way our subscribe forms work. It is possible to change this to double opt-in. When using this setting, subscribers are first sent an email with a link. Only after clicking on the link are they added to the mailing list.
Is double opt-in mandatory?
Many people think that using double opt-in is an obligation under the ACM or the GDPR. This is not the case; nowhere in these regulations is the term mentioned. Of course, it is mandatory to include an unsubscribe link in every email. Our program does this automatically.
Benefits of double opt-in
The most commonly mentioned advantage of double opt-in is that you can be sure that the subscription was done by the right person. Because the address must be confirmed, it is not possible to just sign someone up for a newsletter.
It also acts as a filter for incorrectly entered addresses and for spam submissions.
Disadvantages of double opt-in
The main disadvantage of double opt-in is that correct subscriptions are lost. For instance, people forget to click on the link; the confirmation email ends up in spam, or is not recognised or forgotten for some reason. In practice, we see a large (and growing) number of unconfirmed addresses. It is not possible to approach these people again, because that is against the idea of double opt-in.
Advice from Laposta
Our advice is not to use double opt-in. It is less user-friendly and some of the correct subscriptions are lost. As for the objection that it is possible to sign someone else up: that is true, but in practice this hardly ever happens. Moreover, anyone can unsubscribe upon receiving the first newsletter.
Send a welcome email
A good intermediate solution is to send a welcome email, immediately after subscribing. It can contain a small text confirming the subscription, and pointing out the possibility to unsubscribe. Read here how to send a welcome email.
How do I disable or enable double opt-in?
You can disable opt-in by going to the Subscribers tab, selecting the list, and clicking Enrich.
To enable double opt-in, please contact us. This is only possible for paid accounts.
We sometimes disable double opt-in
Sometimes, double opt-in is used to keep spam subscriptions (subscriptions done by bots) out of an active subscriber list. The drawback of this is that an email is sent in our system for each spam subscription. Together, these emails can cause our sender reputation to deteriorate. If such a situation occurs, it can happen that we disable double opt-in.