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What is email double opt-in?

Businesses looking at ways to best comply with GDPR regulations and those who want to ensure their customer emails are validated can set up double opt-in for their email subscribers.

With double opt-in enabled, when subscribers share their email address, they have to click on an email they receive (or consent page if applicable) to confirm their consent to receive communication.

You can now automate double opt-in, so contact details aren’t being stored in any subscription lists before consent is provided to receive communication, improving data protection. This also ensures that the email provided by the customer is valid, improving email deliverability and email domain reputation by eliminating junk sign ups and bot clicks.


Steps to enable automated double opt-in for contacts

Creating a double opt-in customer journey

  • To enable this feature for your new sign ups or subscribers, click on Marketing Automation and select Customer Journeys from the Left Nav Bar. 

  • Click on Create journey, then Create from scratch to create a new journey to enable double opt-in for your customers.


  • Give your journey a name and save. The Journey builder should open up, allowing you to edit this journey.

  • Now, you can choose a trigger for the opt-in request. These can range from when a contact is added to a list, has signed up with a form, or has performed an activity. As soon as a contact meets this condition, a confirmation email will go out to them.



Note: If you would like to send the double opt-in to a list of sign ups or subscribers instead of event based triggers (such as email activity) you can create this list before you set up your journey. You can go through this article to understand more about lists and how to create them. You might also find value in these articles on web forms and lists/segments to help you auto-populate a list of new sign ups or existing contacts you want double opt-in triggered for.



  • With the trigger configured, you can add the email opt-in action block to your journey. You can use this action block in any customer journey where you want to automate double opt-in.



Configuring confirmation email & consent page

  • You can configure the confirmation email and settings in the double opt-in action block. 


Note: Email double opt-in journey is configured in such a way that your existing subscribed and unsubscribed contacts will not receive this confirmation email. Such contacts will pass through the opt-in block to the next block in the journey.


  • You can choose where the confirmation takes place.

  1. With a click on the consent page

  2. On the request email, with a click


Note: It is recommended that you confirm consent from your subscribers using the consent page as it’s possible certain ESPs (Email Service Providers) or Anti-Spam/Anti-Virus solutions might run scripts that emulate email clicks to scan for threats. In this scenario, confirmation could be registered without a physical click. Consent pages can also help you mitigate potential bot clicks so you maintain a cleaner customer database.

  • You can also choose default subscription preferences for subscribers upon their confirmation.

  • Click on Customize template to make modifications to the appearance and content of the email. 


  • You can also edit the content and appearance of the consent page and confirmation page here.


Going live with email double opt-in

  • Once you’ve configured the email and the consent page, the contact will move to the third block if they click and confirm their subscription. 

  • Now you can choose additional steps you may want to perform once you have recorded their consent, such as automatically adding them to a list or sending them a welcome email.




With the conditions and emails configured for double opt-in, you should be ready to take the journey live by clicking on Start Journey. It’s recommended you test out the journey to ensure it is working as expected.

Now that you have automated double opt-in for your customers, you can use the final list populated through this journey in your campaigns, sending messages only to your confirmed subscribers.


Note: Confirmation emails will be counted towards the total number of marketing emails available to you in your current plan. The contacts who receive the confirmation email would be considered as marketing contacts.


If you face any issues setting up email double opt-in, please reach out to [email protected]