Benefits of Email Verification

It is essential that as governmental anti-spam regulations continue to evolve; we continue to adapt. In this article, we outline why we use a double opt-in process as well as the advantages of a double opt-in.

Anti-spam laws can vary depending on the recipient’s state or country. For example, there are thirty-seven individual states that currently have laws further regulating unsolicited electronic mail in addition to the baseline efforts of our nation’s CAN-SPAM regulation which was enacted over a decade ago. Laws in Canada, Europe, and California already require opt-in confirmation as opposed to the dated opt-out policy of the 2003 CAN-SPAM regulation. There are already several proposals for the U.S. to join Canada and Europe in nationally requiring opt-in confirmation.

To ensure we remain compliant, and that emails reach their intended audience, we are rolling out an Opt-in process for newly added email addresses. This means that every new email address saved for a client will receive a confirmation email. The client must confirm their email address, prior to receiving Email Campaigns and/or other email communications from your business. This ensures your clients are interested in receiving your emails, and helps keep invalid email addresses off your list.

Key advantages of the Opt-In process include:

• Cleaner data in terms of accurate client email addresses. They have to have a valid email address to opt-in.
• Emails becoming more deliverable with the reduction of unverified email addresses
• You're protected from malicious attacks that report your emails as spam. Since we collect IP information from a new client when they sign up, you'll have proof that they confirmed their interest in your list.
• People (such as your competition—yes, this happens quite a lot) won't be able to sign up other people who don’t give permission to be added to your list. This means fewer spam complaints.
• If a person or malicious bot enters an email address with a typo, you won't accidentally send a campaign to a client who never opted-in or to an email address that could bounce.
• If challenged, legally confirmed opt-in is the only way that you can prove that a person actually opted-in. Of course, if you manage your list subscriptions via an opt-in mechanism, you should be able to avoid any legal action.

Disadvantages? Some marketers worry that a lot of people will never follow through with the confirmation link. But we have to ask: if someone’s unwilling to click your confirmation link, is it likely they’re really going to read your emails or respond to them in any way?