How to Use Double Opt-in Optional to Increase your Email Inbox Delivery Rates

I want to tell you about a little-used feature of Ontraport that can help you get better email delivery rates. 

But first, I need to share a (horror) story from our recent launch.

A few weeks ago we were at the outset of the launch and I made a terrible mistake. One which cost us dearly.

Briefly, here’s what happened: 

I’d written an email that was intended to go out to everyone on our “launch list.” 

So in the spot in our GDoc where I indicate what segment(s) a given email is meant for, I simply put “all” instead of my typical “All LL (Leverage Lounge) subscribers.” I assumed that context clues would make my meaning clear. But I was wrong. 

Taking me literally, my team member queued up my entire list into this automation map.

This includes all kinds of radically inappropriate contacts for this launch, such as past wedding clients (I also have a wedding photography company), guests of those weddings, and other miscellaneous folks from over the years…some of which are old enough that they’ve been turned into “spam traps” (TL;DR – spam traps are really bad and you really don’t want to mail to them because it makes you look like you’re a spammer and can lower your inbox delivery rates). 

Plus, a very large number of those folks hadn’t been mailed by me in ages. That’s like, no-no #1 in email marketing. In fact, it’s so big a deal that I wrote an article all about this a couple of months ago. 

I awoke to find a mountain of unsubs, a warning email from an email monitoring service letting me know that my inboxing reputation had been harmed, and a resulting cold, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. 

And now I have a new project on my hands: to use my considerable knowledge about email delivery optimization to dig ourselves out of the hole that got created when that email went out to all those totes inapropes folks.

I thought: “This is my whole thing! I can’t believe this happened to us!” I was utterly mortified. 

But it goes to show that clarity is king. Being super clear is critically important, not only in our marketing (eg -“a confused prospect won’t convert”) but also in our internal communications with our teams. 

But here’s what I want to share with you today – how my mistake can help you, as well – as part of the larger delivery optimization project we’ve now got on our hands, we’ll be moving our opt-in forms to double opt-in optional. 

If you’re not familiar with this setting, it’s pretty amazing.

Here’s the deal:

Single opt-in: These days, most marketers choose “single opt-in,” which lets you start mailing a lead immediately, as soon as they’ve filled out an opt-in form. 

Double opt-in: This requires that the new lead first clicks a confirmation link in an email that goes out to them to verify they really want to hear from you. 

The upshot to getting people to double opt-in is that the emails to these contacts go out from an ostensibly better email server at Ontraport, creating the conditions for potentially better chances of these emails hitting the inbox. 

Trouble is that since it’s required that they hit the confirm link before you can mail them, some segment of opt-ins list simply won’t do it. In these cases, you’ve now got a contact you literally can’t email. Total bummer.

But there’s a 3rd option: double opt-in optional. This option is the best of both worlds: 

As with double opt-in, if they DO open the confirmation email and click the verification link, you’re golden! Their emails will go out from that better server, and you’ve done yourself and your delivery rates a big favor. 

If not though, since it’s “optional” you can still send them email, it’ll just go out from the standard email servers as your other single opted-in folks.  

There’s a bit of setup involved in moving to double opt-in optional, but nothing major. 

And as far as I know, Ontraport is one of the only platforms out there that even gives its users this option (another big plus of using our fave platform!). Active Campaign nor Keap allows for this. So, there!

Hope you found this helpful!