Email Marketing
Which Is Better: Single Optin or Double Optin?
Email Marketing Professionals are constantly debating the value of single optin vs double optin when it comes to building their lists.
What do these terms mean in reference to your email marketing efforts?
Single optin simply means that someone can enter any information in to a capture form and they are automatically subscribed and/or given access to the free ebook, software, etc… that is being offered by the email marketer.
Double optin means that once the form is submitted, the person will receive an email asking them to confirm their request. Typically, the confirmation is accomplished by having the subscriber click a uniquely coded link.
The most common argument for using the single optin method is that some email marketing practitioners believe it helps build a larger list.
The claim is that people are unlikely to take that extra step to click a confirmation link so you could end up losing out on potential prospects.
The most common argument for using the double optin method for email marketing is that email marketers want to know that the prospects they are generating are:
- Real humans that read their emails.
- Genuinely interested in receiving the information being offered.
Someone using the single optin method may think that they have 5,000 prospects in their email marketing database but may actually have somewhere around 3,000 because 2,000 are nothing more than junk emails, spam traps, or bots.
While 3,000 prospects is nothing to take lightly, consider that if 2,000 of those addresses are not valid, that means the ebook, software, download, etc… that was being offered has essentially been stolen if you did not ask those prospects to confirm before receiving your offer.
Another big factor for Email Marketing is deliverability.
If your list is cluttered with unknown or garbage email addresses, this can have a negative impact on your overall deliverability. Many email service providers will begin blocking domains that are known to repeatedly send to email addresses that don’t exist. Over time, this can result in your messages not being delivered to the real prospects that you do have. What good are those real prospects if your message can’t be delivered to them?
Some proponents of single optin hold the position that it doesn’t matter since email marketing is so inexpensive. “Why should we care if some of the email addresses in our list don’t really exist? Email marketing is so cheap anyway.”
This is a flawed perspective. Those bad email addresses could be costing you more than you realize.
Not only is your deliverability affected, meaning that your message may not be getting through to even the good email addresses, but you may be overpaying your autoresponder service provider.
AutoResponder companies like Aweber, GetResponse, Constant Contact, iContact, etc… charge on a sliding scale meaning the larger your list, the more you will pay each month.
When their system looks at your account, they see the total number of prospects. So if you have 5,000 records but only 3,000 are actually deliverable, you are paying too much.
The idea behind using technology like autoresponders and email marketing should be to help your business increase sales while reducing expenses. Using single optin to build your email marketing lists could cost you not only in efficiency but also in your pocketbook.
To learn more about TrafficWave Double Optin AutoResponder system with proven highest deliverability, visit it online here:
We have added training from Marketing Survival Skills that you can use for you primary business on our personal TrafficWave team. We will send you a welcome email with our training site as soon as we see you come through…
Make it a great day!


Hey I like single opt in the best because you know for sure that you get the Lead but double opt in is OK too because those tend to be a more targeted Lead.
Cool Dave,
I used to think single was better to just build a quick list. But after switching to double and my open rates are so much better because I know everyone has at least checked their email and confirmed it. Better chance to get opens that way… I also get 90% confirming too so I am still building a faster list with quality…
Mike
MIke,
Another good piece of learning for my budding business. Thanks!
Look forward to working with you.
Harv
Hey Mike!
You know this has been a question that I have thought about for a LONG time! I never really made a decision about it but I agree with you here. I’m pretty sure that if you can choose between quality and quantity, you should ALWAYS choose quality when it comes to your leads. Thanks for sharing your insight.
~Erin