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Opt Email Marketing Best Practices

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

by SteveLorenzo on July 28, 2010

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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…

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

by SteveLorenzo on July 28, 2010

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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.

_________
RANT ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯		 
 

We are surrounded BY so-called (self-proclaimed) 'gurus' who would state that

"…this thing is like this and that thing is like that…"
and so forth…

..AND people who follow them by the letter
and try to mimic their ways to become successful.

So … they stop thinking with their minds and just copy/paste other people thinking patterns – like a cloaking shroud – onto their own brains, hoping to achieve their goals by following the same paths as their masters did before.

Socrates' disciples were encouraged by their master (…now THAT's a real Guru!)  to think with their own minds – but he was accused of corrupting the youth…

…because opening the minds of the 'masses'
was always bad for the rulers!  

Isn't it the same even nowadays?

_________
END RANT
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯		 

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! 

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