Confirming a Sign-Up Twice

One click before the list

Somebody types their email address into your sign-up form. With single opt-in, the address goes straight onto your list.

With double opt-in, they receive an email asking them to confirm, and join only when they click the link in it.

It sounds like an obstacle, and some people never click. But what reaches the list after that step is cleaner, easier to defend under CASL, and made up of people who have already opened one of your emails.

In most email services it is a setting, and some now default to single opt-in on new forms. Worth checking which yours uses.

What single opt-in lets in

• Typos: a missing letter, gmial.com, an address that bounces forever.
• Fake addresses typed to get past a form.
• Bots that fill in every form they can find.
• Other people's addresses, entered as a joke or a nuisance.
• Abandoned addresses kept running to catch careless senders.

The last does damage you cannot see. Mailbox providers and spam-blocking services keep some old addresses alive to catch senders who mail people who never asked, and every message that lands in one counts against you.

What CASL asks for

Canada's anti-spam law requires consent before you send commercial email, a clear identification of who you are, and an unsubscribe that works within ten business days.

If a recipient complains, the burden is on you to show that consent was given. That is where double opt-in earns its place.

A confirmed sign-up leaves a record: which form, the wording beside it, the date and time, and a click from the inbox itself. It is the strongest evidence that the address belongs to the person who asked.

CASL does not require double opt-in, and single opt-in with good records is lawful.

Either way, the form must name your business, describe what you will send, and say that people can withdraw their consent whenever they like, with no box ticked in advance.

A list that reads

People who confirm have shown three things: the address works, they check it, and they wanted your emails enough to click once.

That matters beyond the list itself. Gmail and Outlook watch how recipients treat a sender's messages: whether they open them, delete them unread or mark them as spam.

A list of people who asked, and proved it, produces fewer bounces and fewer complaints, which helps every later email reach the inbox rather than the junk folder.

The cost, honestly

Some genuine people will not confirm. The email lands in a spam folder or the Promotions tab, or arrives while they are busy and slips down the inbox.

So the list grows more slowly, which feels like a loss to anyone who reports the subscriber count as a measure of success.

Mostly it is not. An address that never confirms rarely belonged to somebody who would have read anything. But some losses are real, which is why the confirmation step has to be well made.

Making the confirmation easy

The thank-you page should say plainly that an email is on its way, who it is from and what its subject says.

Suggest checking the spam folder or the Promotions tab if it has not arrived within a few minutes.

Send it immediately, from the name customers know you by, with a subject such as "Please confirm your subscription". Keep the body to one sentence and one button, with nothing to sell.

After the click, show a page confirming it worked, and send a welcome email that says what will arrive and how often.

A worked example

A specialty running store with two locations collected sign-ups three ways: a form on its website, a tablet at the counter, and the same tablet at its booth at race expos.

The list grew quickly. Then every newsletter produced a long report of bounces, a handful of complaints from people who said they had never signed up, and a few addresses that were plainly jokes.

The expo tablet was the main source. People typed quickly, standing up, a race kit in one hand, and some typed a friend's address to get a second entry in the draw.

The store switched every form to double opt-in. At the booth, staff now ask each person to check their phone and tap the confirmation before they walk away, which takes seconds.

The list grows more slowly. Addresses that never received the confirmation never reach it, so the bounce report has shrunk to almost nothing, and every complaint can be answered with a dated record.

The subscribers you already have

Switching on double opt-in does not mean asking every existing subscriber to confirm again. A mass reconfirmation loses genuine readers who simply ignore it.

Keep the subscribers whose consent you can show. Remove addresses that bounce, and consider removing those that have not opened anything in a long time.

Then confirm every new sign-up from now on, so the list gets cleaner with each one.

Keeping the record

Your email service stores the sign-up and confirmation time for each address. Export them now and then, so the record does not depend on one account.

Keep a copy of the form's wording each time it changes, with the date. A consent record means little if nobody can show what the person agreed to.

For paper sign-ups at events, keep the sheets.

The counter-case

Single opt-in is defensible in some places.

An address collected at checkout, with a clear consent box and a completed order behind it, has already proved it works: the receipt arrived. A small list built in person, where you know each subscriber, carries little risk either.

Receipts and order updates do not need consent, though CASL still expects them to identify you and offer an unsubscribe.

And double opt-in does not rescue a poorly worded form. For any public sign-up form, though, confirm the address before it joins the list.

Setting it up

1. Find the confirmation setting in your email service.
2. Switch it on for every sign-up form.
3. Write a plain subject line for the confirmation.
4. Explain on the thank-you page what to expect.
5. Ask event sign-ups to confirm before leaving.
6. Save the form wording each time it changes.
7. Remove bounced addresses from the existing list.

Step four decides how many genuine people confirm. Somebody told what is coming, from whom and where to look, finds it; somebody who closes the page unwarned often never does.

Why the newsletter itself should not go out from a personal inbox is covered in sending a newsletter from your own inbox.

Frequently asked questions

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