double opt-in: your confirmation email

[mmj]

Hi,

For those of you who run confirmed (double opt-in) email lists, what does your confirmation email look like?

Have you experimented?

Here's one I wrote. Keep in mind this is really just an experiment but I hope it beats the default Lyris confirmation email.

Are you sure?
Confirm your subscription to the ---- Newsletter

About your subscription
Hi [name]!

My name is Thomas Rutter, and I am the editor of the ---- newsletter. Thanks for your interest! You recently indicated that you wanted to subscribe, and receive ----, ---- and ----.

Your subscription is nearly complete. But...

You now need to confirm your subscription. You can confirm by replying to this message, or by clicking the following link:

Click here to confirm your subscription

We do not spam
Unlike some newsletters, we make sure everybody wants to subscribe before we send any email. We need your confirmation to make absolutely sure that you want to receive the newsletter. We also need to make sure that we have your correct email address.

I look forward to processing your subscription. Please contact me if you have any questions or comments!

Here are some sample ---- for you. If you confirm your subscription, you'll receive ----.

[preview article goes here]

[links to other sample articles goes here]


You have not yet confirmed
If you do not confirm your subscription now, you won't receive the newsletter.

Click here to confirm your subscription

If you're not satisfied, let me know!

Thomas Rutter
Editor, ----.com

Any advice and comments would be welcome.

[billiousness]

it's good but I would not put the sample article or links to other articles in the letter. i would but the features of your newseletter and teh benefits of subscribing to the newsletter. that's just the basics of selling any product and i feel that is what is required to get that confirmation. this is becasue most of the time people just subscribe to a site's newsletter without knowing what's going to be in it. this is your opportunity to sell just the newsletter.

[anode]

I would change

You recently indicated that you wanted to subscribe

to

Somebody(hopefully you) recently indicated that you wanted to subscribe

I would also add the IP address of the person who clicked "Subscribe."

I think the message title needs a bit of work. It's a bit generic and wouldn't make me want to open the e-mail. Maybe something like "Almost there... confirm your subscription to (newsletter name)"?

[mmj]

Actually the message subject line is:

[----] You need to confirm your subscription

Thanks for the suggestions. Has anyone done tests? What sort of confirm rates are you getting?

[Mord]

I wouldn't ask my subscribers to confirm. Sometimes it's a pain.

Even though I am my self on many lists, I don't like to be asked one more time if I am sure and that I should confirm my subscription.

That's my opinion.

[stymiee]

I use this method. It works in the way of not getting any "accidental" sign ups. However, you'd be amazed at how many people screw it up. For me, 1 out of 3 people who start the process of signing up fail to complete it. That's pretty bad. I recently did an experiment where I automatically subscribed everyone who previously failed to complete the process. Less then 5% unsubscribed. I take that as meaning that they just couldn't figure out how to complete the process. I know it's not rocket science, but apparently it was too much for 33% of my users.

[anode]

How timely. This article in today's ClickZ mentions that you have to prove you used double opt-in to get off blacklists. I'm sure anyone who sends out mailing lists knows (or has heard)how easy it is to get onto a few of them, even if you aren't spamming.

[mmj]

Originally Posted by stymiee

I recently did an experiment where I automatically subscribed everyone who previously failed to complete the process. Less then 5% unsubscribed. I take that as meaning that they just couldn't figure out how to complete the process.

I would take it to mean that they thought it was spam, and therefore most people ignored it or blocked it. I've run an unconfirmed list before, but I've never run a list where I asked people to confirm, and then later subscribed the people who didn't confirm anyway. That's very dishonest if you ask me.

I really didn't ask whether you think I should be running a double opt-in list or not. Although I appreciate your intent, that's a decision I made a long time ago. If you want to discuss that, do it in a different thread.

What I wanted to know was whether any of you had done any testing to see what kind of confirmation email worked best, and if so, whether you could give me any tips.

Thanks for your help sofar.

billiousness, I've removed the "content" (article+links) from the subscribe email and streamlined it a bit.

anode, I have modified the subject line. I'll see how it goes.

[stymiee]

Originally Posted by mmj

I would take it to mean that they thought it was spam, and therefore most people ignored it or blocked it. I've run an unconfirmed list before, but I've never run a list where I asked people to confirm, and then later subscribed the people who didn't confirm anyway. That's very dishonest if you ask me.

I really didn't ask whether you think I should be running a double opt-in list or not. Although I appreciate your intent, that's a decision I made a long time ago. If you want to discuss that, do it in a different thread.

What I wanted to know was whether any of you had done any testing to see what kind of confirmation email worked best, and if so, whether you could give me any tips.

Thanks for your help sofar.

billiousness, I've removed the "content" (article+links) from the subscribe email and streamlined it a bit.

anode, I have modified the subject line. I'll see how it goes.

Actually, the point I was getting at was that it seems my users found it difficult to complete the process of signing up. The lack of unsubscribers indicated that they were glad I subscribed them.