About Double Opt-in

Mailchimp offers 2 opt-in processes for email and SMS: single opt-in and double opt-in. Both options collect email addresses and phone numbers safely to help you grow your audience.

Depending on your organization’s needs or other requirements, you may need to enable double opt-in, which includes an extra confirmation step that verifies each email address or phone number.

In this article, you'll learn about double opt-in and how to use it.

How double opt-in works

Double opt-in includes 2 steps. In step 1, a potential subscribed contact fills out and submits your online signup form. In step 2, they'll receive a confirmation email or text message and click a link to verify their email or phone number. Then, they’re added to your Mailchimp audience as a subscribed contact.

Enable double opt-in

Enable double opt-in for any audience in your account. This is done differently for email contacts and SMS contacts.

For email contacts

Choose to enable double opt-in for your email contacts when you create a new audience in Mailchimp. If you have an existing audience, go to your audience settings to enable double opt-in. If you have multiple audiences, you can make global changes for your email contacts on the Opt-In Settings page. View subscriber activity for individual audiences in your account to determine if any of your email contacts may benefit from the double opt-in process, which can help improve open rates.

Create a Mailchimp Audience
Change Audience Name and Defaults
Choose Opt-In Settings

• Double opt-in for email contacts can only be enabled for Mailchimp signup forms. If you need help with a form integration or the API, contact your developer, or hire a Mailchimp Expert.
• If your primary contact address is in the EU, some of your audiences may already use double opt-in as the default for your email contacts. If you prefer to use single opt-in for your email contacts, you can make that change in each audience's settings or on the Opt-In Settings page.

For SMS contacts

If you have an approved SMS Marketing program, enable or disable double opt-in for your connected audience. If you plan to send abandoned cart text messages to your contacts, double opt-in is required. If you disable double opt-in while you have an active abandoned cart SMS journey, sending will be paused and disclosures on your signup forms and landing pages will be removed.

Double opt-in can be enabled or disabled in the Opt-in Preference section of your SMS settings page. If you indicated interest in sending abandoned cart text messages on your SMS Marketing application, double opt-in is automatically enabled.

Customize the double opt-in process for email

Customize your double opt-in process for your email contacts in the Forms and response emails section of Mailchimp's form builder.

In the form builder, design your Mailchimp signup form and your response emails that guide your potential subscribed contacts through their double opt-in signup.

Think of these resources as your opportunity to onboard new subscribed contacts and introduce them to your brand. Add branded assets and custom text to your form, or enable a welcome email with a coupon or special offer for new subscribed contacts.

These messages are included in the double opt-in process for email.

• Signup form
  The signup form is the first experience your potential subscribed contacts will have with your brand. They'll fill out the form and click to submit it.

• reCAPTCHA confirmation
  After someone fills out your signup form, they'll need to check a reCAPTCHA box. This required step keeps spambots from adding fake data to your audience, and can't be turned off or edited.

  

• Signup thank you page
  This page tells your potential subscriber to check their email for a confirmation message. If you don't want us to show this page, redirect to a custom signup thank you page on your website.

• Opt-in confirmation email
  The confirmation email contains a unique URL that your potential subscriber must click before we can add them to your audience as a subscribed contact. Customize the text and design of the email to match your organization's branding and style.

• Confirmation thank you page
  Subscribers see this page after they've clicked to verify their email address. You can also redirect to a custom confirmation page on your website.

• Final welcome email
  This optional email is disabled by default, but you can enable a welcome email at any time. We'll deliver this email after a subscriber confirms their subscription and sees the confirmation thank you page. Some people use this message to send their new subscribers a welcome message, coupons or promo codes. You can also accomplish this with an automated welcome email.

Next steps

Now that you know the basics of the double opt-in process for email and SMS, here are some resources to help with next steps.

• Single Opt-in vs. Double Opt-in
  Learn the difference between the 2 opt-in processes for your email and SMS contacts.
• How Form Builder Works
  Learn how to customize your Mailchimp signup form, welcome emails, and other response emails for your email contacts.
• Enable or Disable the Final Welcome Email
  Learn how to enable or disable a welcome email for your new subscribed email contacts.
• Create and Promote an SMS Marketing Signup Form
  Learn how to create and share a signup form for new subscribed SMS contacts.
• Create an Abandoned Cart Customer Journey Map
  Learn how to use the Customer Journey Builder to send abandoned cart emails or text messages to your contacts.