With Springbot, you have two choices on how your email subscribers can opt-in to your list -- single opt-in and double opt-in. Both help you collect new email addresses easily and protect your subscribers, but depending on your store's needs (and how you might be affected by GDPR laws), double opt-in may be a good option for your business. With this opt-in process, your new subscribers will receive an extra confirmation email that will properly verify them and add them to your list.
How Does Double Opt-In Work?
When someone signs up for your Email List via a Springbot Sign Up Form they will get a confirmation email sent to their email address. They will verify their email address through a button in this email.
Turning On Double Opt-In
Click Store > Settings at the top of the dashboard. Under Email Setup, you'll see a checkbox next to "Turn On Double Opt-in Email Confirmation". Click Save to properly update your account.
Email List Management
Once you've turned on double opt-in, you'll see a column on your Email Lists page named "Unconfirmed". This will show you how many people are on your list, but have not officially verified their address. You will not be able to send emails to anyone who is Unconfirmed.
Adding New Subscribers to Your Email Lists with Double Opt-In
When adding new subscribers to your email list, you'll now see two checkboxes:
Send a Confirmation email to uploaded contacts: This will send a double opt-in confirmation email to each email address in the uploaded list. If these subscribers have previously consented to being on your email list, you may uncheck this box.
This person gave me permission to email them: This is required, as you should only be sending emails to those who have given you permission to do so.
Setting Up Your Confirmation Email
How do I get my current subscribers to re-confirm?
If you're in the UK or EU, this is definitely something you'll want to consider (per GDPR). If you're based elsewhere, this is still something that may benefit your store. You want to make sure you have a healthy list at all times, and verifying the preferences of your subscriber base is a huge piece of this.
If it has been a while since you have confirmed your subscribers, we recommend emailing all of your subscribers to verify their consent. The easiest way to do this is to take your existing email list and upload the same contacts again to a new list. Then you'll be able to trigger your Confirmation Flow automatically to those recipients.
To do this, you'll first export your email list to a CSV. You'll then want to take these existing subscribers, and upload them into a brand new list on your Email Lists page. When you upload these emails to the list, be sure to click both of the check boxes seen below:
This will then trigger you Confirmation Flow right away.
For this re-engagement email, you might want to consider updating the copy of your Confirmation Flow a little bit, so it is better targeted toward these subscribers who already know about your store, but just need to confirm their subscription again.
You'll still want to keep the email simple, but can use verbiage similar to the below instead of the default:
[[store name]] is dedicated to your privacy and complying with new data protection regulations. In order for you to keep receiving key information on our promotions, sales, personalized marketing offers, news, and more, you'll need to update your preferences by clicking the link below:
Going forward, you'll only be able to send emails to those who have confirmed their subscription. What's important to remember is quality, not quantity. If you have thousands of subscribers who aren't engaging with your emails, or don't even want to hear from you, this can have negative impacts on your sender reputation. While re-engaging your list might mean that your total subscriber count decreases, you'll be emailing a more engaged list going forward which is the true goal! More information here.