Single Opt In vs. Double Opt In eMail Leads Debate (2)

Read Single Optin vs. Double Optin e-Mail Leads Debate (Part 1)
First Here ^^^

Single Opt In vs. Double Opt In | List Quality Debate

Another myth they feed you upon is that OBVIOUSLY (so they say…) the resulting extra step will make the Double Opt In List more responsive to your marketing messages and as a result, more willing to buy stuff from you.

Really?

Once again, think with your own brain, please…

If you go shopping, would you appreciate someone to ask you at the cashier's:

"Do you really want to buy this from us? If so, please sign here!…" – just before you were ready to pay for the item?

…because, that is similar to what they claim to happen.

People who are asked twice become 'better clients' – LOL!  What a JOKE!…

If say… 15-30% (the above unconfirmed email pendings) would ALL be the only NON-customers you'd ever get… and ALL the rest would be the 'better customers' who would have taken the extra step of confirming… that leaves you with the 70-85% people who would have become members of your list ANYWAY!!!

I mean, Single Opt In or Double Opt In – they would have landed there from the first place, right? 
Let's dismantle together the…
Single Opt In vs. Double Opt In Myth!

Is it reasonable to assume that from a thin spread source of traffic, sending you visitors/prospects as normally mixed as possible, just as in real life situations… only those 15-30% would be NON-buyers?  Of course NOT!

The industry standards statistics claim that you should convert something like 1% maybe 2%.. or if you're lucky and good at your marketing, maybe 5% of the people exposed to your marketing message into buyers.

The rate increases by exposing them multiple times through the follow up messages, indeed.

From a statistical standpoint, it would be reasonable to assume that the 10% (for the sake of easiness in the maths involved…) potential customers would be spread evenly between your prospects.

That means 10% of the 70-85% which is say… 8% as an average – would be potential buyers already subscribed, no matter if you'd be using Single Opt In or Double Opt In subscription.

This leaves 10% of the 15-30%, which is say… 2% as an average – would be potential buyers that you would loose when using Double Opt In vs. Single Opt In subscription.

Although this helps me showing you that in fact you're loosing buyers by falling into the Single Opt In vs. Double Opt In myth trap…. it doesn't even stop here!  You see, 2% is not even much…

BUT…

The trick is that it refers to the initial exposure, ok? … the product/service that you have marketed to them in the first place.

Now… think only how this multiplies when you start marketing affiliate offers.  Ka'Ching!

Single Opt In vs. Double Opt In is in fact a false problem!

Single Opt In vs. Double Opt In | How To Get Them Both To Work For YOU

I have news for you!  Indeed, it IS possible to have the best of two worlds.   You only need to combine the two systems.

Single Opt In vs. Double Opt In
vs.
Single Opt In OR Double Opt In
vs.
Single Opt In AND Double Opt In

Single Opt In vs. Double Opt In Step by Step Method

• Step 1 )   Build a Single Opt In eMail List to start with.
  • • Offer an initial freebie (ethical bribe) to entice people to subscribe to your eMail Newsletter or eMail List.
    • Use an upsell after the visitor was converted into a list member, on the 'thank you' page of the initial list builder.
      • If they bought go to Step 2.
    • For the people who won't take the upsell, use a downsell, even, to try once more…
      • If they bought, go to Step 2.
      • If they still didn't buy…
    • Add them to your initial Single Opt In Email List and start the follow up sequence, exposing them a few times more to the same initial upsell/downsell offer.
• Step 2 )   Build a Double Opt In Email List ONLY starting from people on your Single Opt In list – NEVER from other sources of traffic!
  • • Offer a BONUS (maybe the so-called un-advertised bonus type … this is sweet!) that has an Opt In Form in order to be sent to them.
    • Use a Double Opt In Email List this time

This way, you'll have as many people as possible entering your list/sales funnel, in the Single Opt In Mode and then you start building the Double Opt In Mode List pruning your initial list a little bit.

Easy, isn't it? I hope I was able to help you see the light of truth in the eternal Single Opt In vs. Double Opt In Debate…

Single Optin vs. Double Optin e-Mail Leads Debate (1)

Single Optin vs. Double Optin | The Myth

The Single Optin vs. Double Optin process is basically the same – technically - less one supplemental barrier: the confirmation e-Mail.

Advocates of the Double Optin Solution claim that using the Double Optin will generate a far more valuable e-Mail list than the former option….

BUT…

the key thing here is the emphasys on
'far more' – which is a MYTH.

In fact, the fiercest advocates of Double Optin are usually the third party autoresponder services (such as AWeber or GetResponse for instance.)  For them it is much better to have their customers using the Double Optin rather than the Single Optin subscription, because it helps them keeping their email services whitelisted, due to less possible spam complaints.

Now, just imagine that you would run such a business yourself.  While you may probably vouch for your own e-Mail marketing campaigns to be spam free, as a legitimate e-Mail marketer… would you do the same with ALL your customers?  I bet I know the answer…

Sometimes, this myth goes beyond the simple misunderstanding, whereas some people claim it would be a CAN-SPAM requirement, instead of only a practice.  Consequently, many newcomers will take it as a fact and further pass on this information as a given, helping to maintain the Single Optin vs. Double Optin myth alive and strong.

You may be surprised BUT The
Double Optin Mode is NOT a CAN-SPAM requirement!

It is only considered to be among the best practices in e-Mail marketing; but to be honest it only appears to be so amongst the e-Mail list owners who'd be using such third party autoresponder services as mentioned before: AWeber, or GetResponse being the biggest players in the autoresponders' industry – but not the only ones!

Now… don't get me wrong!  If you have fallen into this Single Optin vs. Double Optin myth trap and really want to believe it… be my guest! 
Feel free to loose something like 25% up to even 35% of your AR form subscribers – or even up to 50% according to some sources online.

However, IF you still have some doubts and you are always in search for truth, I would encourage you to think first and foremost.

Let me help you here a little bit.  Thinking outside the box isn't always that easy…

Single Optin vs. Double Optin | The Difference

The Single Optin vs. Double Optin difference consists – as I said before – in one supplemental barrier for the latter: the confirmation e-mail.

People will visit your web page or will get an e-Mail newsletter forwarded by a friend, etc… and will try to subscribe online or by eMail to your e-Mail list.

They will input some personal info into the fields, at least their e mail address and maybe some more (first name, last name and whatever you decided to ask for: beware, the more you ask, the less people will submit it!) 

Now the autoresponder script (be it self hosted or a web based autoresponder service – doesn't matter) will send an email to the prospect's address.

Single Optin vs. Double Optin Steps:

Here is the Single Optin vs. Double Optin Difference in this process.  With the Single Opt In, the prospect will get a 'thank you' email, telling them again why and where they subscribed and offering them a link back to another resource of yours as a bonus, or the same initial 'ethical bribe' you offered to persuade them to subscribe, or…

…whatever… maybe your blog and a call to action to comment?  

Your choice. 

Bottom line is, the visitor/prospect is already on the list, no matter IF they see this 'thank you' email immediately or not! 

You can send more messages to them already.  
IF you follow all the other rules of Opt Email Marketing Best Practices like the unsubscribe link, etc… you're safe and you are already complying with the CAN-SPAM requirements – contrary to what you've been told until now, maybe…  
The email list subscribers' IP address, date and time of subscription bits of info are already collected into the database and you have proof now that they willingly offered their emails and agreed to receive communications from you. 

With the Double OptIn though…

…an intermediary email will be sent, telling your prospects that they need to click on a confirmation link, to make sure they really wanted to be subscribed.  

To be honest, this extra step will probably help you get rid of wrong email addresses (typos) or people who would just input anything in there, only to get to the next step of the process, or who would even use somebody else email's in which case you would end up sending emails to people who didn't even visit your website initially. 

This is the BIG 'scarecrow' they use as an argument to make you believe Double Optin is better than Single Optin…

BUT… Really? 

The Single Optin vs. Double Optin Difference would fall in the range of about 15…17% minimum (based on my own experience and early experiments) up to maybe say… 30%  (according to some web sources) of people who, for various reasons, would NOT click that extra confirmation link:

• They subscribe at work initially and forget they have to confirm when they arrive home; meanwhile their Inbox pushes down the confirmation email under a pile of new ones they received since and they simply never see it again;
• The AR services are so crowded sometimes that the confirmation email fires off much too late and the same as above applies, even if the prospect never moved from their PC…
• The confirmation email lands into the Spam/Bulk folder for whatever reason and gets deleted later, automatically…

and so forth…

Now, let me ask you a question…

"DO the above reasons seem to be related to ill-intentioned or stupid people
who would only want to harm you or alternatively
only want to get the freebie you're offering?"

NO!

You would be loosing valuable prospects instead – prospects who might become customers sooner or later – only because you were driven to think Double Optin is better than Single Optin…

Read More From Steve Lorenzo – Email Marketing Specialist On –
Single Opt In vs. Double Opt In eMail Leads Debate (Part 2) <<<

I rest my Single Optin vs. Double Optin Buyers Myth case! 

Email Subject Must NOT Trigger Email Blocking

The first step in order to get your email read is to have your email land in the recipient’s Inbox instead of the Spam or Bulk folders, hence the email subject must have a low email spam score to avoid the email blocking on the way from the sender to the final recipient
(your target reader).

To ensure a smooth delivery and avoid the email block, you should keep in mind a few good email subject lines best practices, such as:

Spam Subject – Shouldn’t Be Used Ever!

Don’t use HTML subject lines written in CAPITALS ONLY!
It is similar to when someone yells at you – I would delete such an email promptly as soon as I’d get a glimpse at its subject line.

Don’t use spammy subject lines filled with crazy characters like the one below:

.•*`¯¯`*•. . . CAN YOU SAY, FREEDOM??? IS THIS YOU? . . .•*`¯¯`*•.

Nothing screams ‘spam subject‘ louder than these…

The first thing someone will do IF somehow the spam email manages to get through the email spam filters along its way… is to delete it.
So in the end, you not only risk being blacklisted for this behavior, but you will get no benefit from these spam emails, anyway - nobody reads them.

If you’re not sure (although the example above is pretty obvious) run your email through a spam trap software or anti-spam service to determine your email spam score.

As a rule of thumb, try to keep your spam scores as low as possible.  There is no accepted standard, each service has its own rules.  Read carefully to see what is the maximum upper spam limit and keep safely below that.

Write Clever Email Subject Lines

Finally, don’t use too many punctuation signs.  It is unnatural to send an email to a friend and end it with 2 or 3 exclamation marks, isn’t it?

A question mark, though, is different – it helps build curiosity and the desire to open the email and find the answer.

To write catchy subject lines for emails you should try to raise your readers curiosity.  Leave something only suggested instead of full disclosure…
(isn’t innuendo always more powerful than direct proposals?)

Ask a question, give them a hint of what they’ll find inside the email body, but keep the subject line clean and as short as possible.

A length of maximum 20 words would be a good upper limit, but keeping it under 5 is far, far better.

The best subject lines for email marketing are designed with only one purpose in mind – make the reader open the email.

Best Marketing Headlines for Good Email Subjects

To come up with good email subjects you should first start by looking around to the media.

Newspaper Headlines would be a very good starting point.
Remember, the writers are trained professionals who know how to write the perfect headline to make people curious and want to read more on the following page.

This is very similar to follow up email marketing, where the email subject headline is followed in many email clients by a short excerpt (the part that people would be able to see in the email preview pane) that is specifically designed to make them willing to read more.

The newpaper headlines are followed by a short text excerpt of the article itself, to give the reader a glimpse of what is all about and then it simply says you should read the rest on page 16…

…the same technique is also applied on blog posts where there is sometimes a [more tag] that would split the post allowing the reader to follow it on a separate page.

Writing email subject lines is no different from writing the best headlines for newspapers or magazines.

You only need to be creative and inject into them some human passion and feelings, especially to be able to raise curiosity, but sometimes also envy or greed, etc…

Professional Email Subject Lines Writers Always Test The Results

Whatever your idea for the best email subject lines would be, it is always clever to test before sending to a large number of people.

Email segmenting and subject lines split testing are the best practices these days, but I have a trick to share that I’m always using even before testing on real people.

The Advanced Marketing Institute Group has a tool on their website to help analyze headlines and email subject lines and give them a score based on three different segments:

• Intellectual
• Empathetic
• Spiritual

The Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) – as they call it – has a maximum value of 100, but common headlines
only reach values of up to 25-30% usually.

On their website there is a…

>>headline analyzer<<

…free testing tool that I found to be an excellent resource as my
email subject line tester.

Go for it, play with it for a while, try to get the higher EMV possible score.

Then post your findings on the comments below.

I have written a 100 EMV headline that I will share with you later, as a prize for reading all these, but till then, let’s play with it for a while first.

Let’s find together, the best email subject head line ever!

Automatic Responders working for you all around the clock

The Atomatic Responder – as the name shows – was in the beginning just a piece of software or a server script that was automatically sending ‘Reply To’ messages whenever someone was trying to contact you while on holidays…  It was also called a Vacation Responder.  They are still available, even as features of other software like email clients – the most commonly used email clients being Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc… – or as features of your webmail accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, to name only a few.

But while the feature is still available, all that is by now ancient history.  In the early days of heavier than air flight, the canvas-wooden made planes were having big wings, even two or three of them, to help getting the high air buoyancy they needed.

Nowadays, the fighter jets have very tiny wings…as a matter of fact, sometimes the large wings do them more harm than good, hence the variable geometry wing technology of the latest military fighter planes.

So, what’s the difference between them?

Speed and power, I’d say.

The modern state-of-the-art Automatic Responder needs the same:

• speed – to be able to send many emails per second, hence the nickname bulk email blast mailer
• power – to be able to deal with large lists of customers and email prospects it gathers in its database

The Automatic Responder evolved… Meet the new generation of Autoresponders.

Autoresponders come now in two ‘flavors’

Autoresponders – software or service?

This a debate for at least two different posts, I guess.  But suffice it to say that both email marketing solutions have strengths and weaknesses, pros and cons – all depending rather on the user than the technology itself…

Very briefly, as I cover this topic in depth elsewhere: How to choose an autoresponder – service or self hosted script?

The third party service would take care of all the technical burden.  If you are technically challenged, it is the best way to go.

Just be what you are, John – the owner of “John Smith & Son Bakery” – who better knows to make bread, not deal with software…

The self hosted autoresponder script however, gives you a better grasp at all the data you are gathering.  It is all in your yard, no worries about the flops of any other business than yours.  Now, if I recall correctly the “John Smith & Son Bakery” has a little ‘Son’ in there, meaning that there might be, after all, a younger geek somewhere?  If so, you should carefully consider the second option too.

BUT, being given this background, let us see John… what exactly can an autoresponder (be it a software/script on your own hosting account or a rented third party email management service) do for you and your business.

Benefits of using an Autoresponder to automate your online business

Here is a list I compiled for you, John:

1. free up your time
2. make more sales
3. follow-up with prospective customers
4. keep in contact with past customers
5. automate your business

Do not be mistaken… all that automation comes for a price, though.  BUT it’s worth every penny!

You will have more time to take care of what you do best and you are an expert at:  your own business.  While there will be always ‘someone’ to reply-to your customers’ email requests, send them follow-up email sequence messages to keep reminding them of your business and maybe… yes, maybe… but rather certainly at some point, convert prospective customers into buyers…

..and all this time you were baking bread, John!

Isn’t that wonderful?

Just imagine having even a modest 1-2% rate of success.  Could you afford to employ a salesman with the same results?  I bet you can’t!

But the AR (as the autoresponder is usually referred to) doesn’t need to eat, to drink, to sleep, to play, to ****, to take a break and make a vacation trip somewhere…  even when YOU have to do so yourself, John!

Work on your follow up e mail sequence only once – then enjoy all the benefits.

Build a targeted email list of prospects and have an always fresh pool of new leads for your business.

Seems to precious of a word (leads) for a bakery?  It might be John, but no matter if you call them so or any other way, they will still add more to your bottomline in the end…and that is what counts, after all.

Ok, I’m a bit tired now and this tends to become too long, so I will add more thoughts about mass email marketing employing automatic auto responders on some future articles.  Happy email blast (or blasts?) to you all!

Steve Lorenzo, SEOVirtuoso
Email Marketing Specialist

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Opt In eMail Marketing

Opt In eMail Marketing is – in a few words – the art of using current email technology to replace old snail mail obsolete ways on the quest to convert your casual visitors into recurring customers.

Do not be mistaken… although it is mostly used on the Internet, in fact can be also used to transform offline prospects into online readers of your weekly or monthly email newsletter and thus into future to be buying customers.

Picture this in your mind please… would you rather joggle your motorcycle’s gas throttle to climb up the hill with no effort, or sweat pumping your heart out pedaling your bicycle up the slope to reach the same spot?

I know where I would like to be… dunno about YOU, though.

Anyway, back to the point: opt in e mail marketing is the easier way to go IF you know what to do and how to do it properly.  It is a strategic decision you need to make at the very beginning of your adventure when plunging into the world of Internet Marketing.

Bringing your business online is a logical step nowadays, but do you really know what to do to succeed at building a profitable Internet business?

It takes more than an HTML web page plastered on a pride domain name that bears no SEO value in itself and unless you’re a world known brand already (but then you wouldn’t read my rants here, would you?) having no future and bringing no real value to your financial wealth.  Nothing more than another visit card, maybe this time more evolved (electronic visit card, that is.)

Assuming your business is “John Smith & Son Bakery” (hey, John Smith… if YOU are reading this, pardon me, I was not thinking of you in particular, man! …But all John’s and Jane’s out there, ok?  We’re cool, right?) – a web page bearing that name would definitely look great for your ego… but would bring you no more clients than you already have.

The same old same old, isn’t it?  Auntie Marge from down the street and Big Joe from the corner.  After all, they witnessed your birth, how could they buy from another baker?

However, back to square one now, presuming you would know all about building a prominent web presence (I’m not going to detail that here, because it is another topic) and you see a steady traffic to your website aka visitors/surfers maybe buyers from time to time… do you think they will come back soon?  Do you think they will be like Auntie Marge and Big Joe?  No, No, No, Sir!  They won’t!

Here comes the beauty of the email marketing solution.

YOU, my dear John, will be soon able to summon them back to your bakery with one click of the mouse.  Powerful, isn’t it?

This is what we call recycled traffic.

You write an email promotion to your targeted email list, you send an email blast from your autoresponder service and voila!  They all rush back to your website.  I leave the issues of delivering all those hot breads ordered online by your customers on your expert hands – after all, you can hardly wait, I’m sure!

The people who saw it yesterday, but the ones who saw it the day before yesterday too… and before that… since the day you’ve finally decided to favor the e-mail marketing automation… till the time you may decide to sell your business for a million and retire happily to your dream island.  Ditto!

Now, if you ask me how to do that, then obviously you need a complete Internet Marketing Plan, setup by an Internet Marketing Specialist (Would you consider me?  Would you?!!  WOW!) – but make sure that it will include the mighty email marketing solution.  I rest my case.

I will teach you all you need to know about Internet Marketing and Email Marketing and Search Engine Optimization and Traffic Generation and Affiliate Marketing and…

…But stop!

On this blog here I will only focus on the Permission Based eMail Marketing, Opt In eMail List Building and List Management and all the tools you need to run an effective email marketing campaign – see you on the follow up email sequence…

Welcome to my email newsletter!

Steve Lorenzo, SEOVirtuoso
Email Marketing Specialist

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