With single opt-in, you let people sign up to your newsletter, subscription or whatever by simply clicking once on a link or filling in a contact form etc.

But double opt-in takes this a stage further and you have to get the person to either return an email confirming their registration or  click on another link in an email to confirm.

Hence it is a two-step process to register.  This extra step will mean you lose some people, who would have otherwise registered with just the single opt-in, but there are advantages to double opt-in and it becomes law in May 2018 with the European Directive General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

From May 2018, consent for processing personal data and any Marketing communications must be freely given and unambiguous i.e.no pre-ticked boxes, generic descriptions or over complicated terms and conditions.

GDPR also states that companies must keep a record of how and when the customer gave such consent. The double opt-in method is considered the easiest way to comply.

If you’re offering incentive to get people to sign up to your subscription or newsletter etc. then there are likely to be many people who sign up but with fake email addresses and spambots that try to sign up.  This means that many of the email addresses on your list will be bogus and hence you will be wasting your time sending out emails to them.

Double opt-in takes care of this as only people who give correct email addresses will sign up and if the second stage of confirmation has not put them off then you have a better quality email list.

So, double-opt-in as well as becoming a legal requirement may actually help you.

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