Single and Double Opt-In Email Newsletter Subscription

Newsletter Software, Bulk Email Software, Mailing List Management and Email Marketing Software

 

Single and Double Opt-In Email Newsletter Subscription

MailList Controller supports both Single and Double Opt-In.

 

 

Single Opt-In (Internal)

With a single opt-in process, an address is automatically added to the relevant mailing list as soon as it's submitted, e.g. through a sign-up form at a website. After adding the new member the program can send an optional "welcome message".

How it works:

  • The user fills out a subscribe form on your webpage.

  • The script send a "Subscribe" request to the list email address and shows the "thank you" page.

  • MailList Controller receives the message during the next "Synchonization" and adds the user.

The user only has to fill out the form and click on "Submit" . The single opt-in process is easy and direct - there are no further steps required by the user.

 

 

Double Opt-In (Internal)

Double opt-in means the submitted address is not immediatley added to the mailing list. Instead an email is first sent to the email address, requesting confirmation. The recipient can confirm the request by replying to the confirmation message.

The email address is only added to the mailing list, if the recipient responds to the confirmation email. After adding the new member the program sends an autoresponder - welcome message. The confirmation process is failsafe and very simple. All the new member has to do is to click "Reply" and "Send".

How it works:

  • The user fills out a subscribe form on your webpage.

  • The script send a "Subscribe" request to the list email address and shows the "thank you" page.

  • MailList Controller receives the message during the next "Synchonization", adds the user to the list with status "Pending" and sends a message to the user requesting confirmation of the newsletter subscription.

  • The user receives the message, click on "Reply" and sends the message back to the list email address.

  • MailList Controller receives the message during the next "Synchonization" and changes the status of the member from "Pending" to "Subscriber".

The main advantage of the double opt-in process is, that only confirmed addresses will be added ot the list. 

The disadvantages of the double opt-in process are that it can take some time before the user will get the confirmation message - and that if the confirmation message was blocked by a spam-filter, then the user will not receive the message, which makes it impossible for the user to complete the subscribe process.

 

 

Custom Double Opt-In (External) with Single Opt-In (Internal)

The program receives the initial "Subscribe" message - sent e.g. from a webform - during the "List Synchronization". This means it can take a while (depending on your settings) before the message "requesting confirmation" will be sent to the new subscriber.

There is an alternative by using an External Double Opt-In Solution with an Internal Single Opt-In Process.

This can be done e.g. by using a custom php script which handles the double opt-in process and sends a regular single opt-in subscribe message to the program after the (external) double opt-in process was completed.

Sample:


  • The user fills out a webform on your webpage.

  • The script sends a message "requesting confirmation" to the new subscriber immediately. 
    The message contains a link to a second script.

  • If the user clicks on the link, then the second script will send an email in the required format to the list email address and shows some kind of "thank you" page.

  • MailList Controller receives the message during the next "Synchonization" and adds the user using single opt-in. (the address was already confirmed by the script before, so an additional confirmation is not required - its important, that the list is configured to single opt-in!).

There are also other alternatives possible, e.g. using a php-script which saves the values to a SQL database instead of including the member data in the "requesting confirmation" message.

Please note: 
The Custom Double Opt-In (External) process is only recommended for advanced users with good php skills.