As a marketer, I think double opt-in is the right thing to do to build/maintain list quality. It comes at a cost with smaller lists and potentially longer lag times before campaigns can reach people. Treat people like you want to be treated especially if people are choosing to engage with your brand directly.

As a consumer, it’s a nice gesture but almost useless for marketing campaigns. It does not connote any higher levels of trust. Emails come in from so many sources (both solicited and unsolicited) that I hardly ever know how I ended up on a particular list. Even if company A asks me to double opt in, companies B, C, D, and Q have already sold or scraped my address 10 times over. My inbox is flooded no matter what even though I am a voracious unsubscriber.

The exception to my cynicism above is transactional and security-related emails (password recovery, account verification, 2FA, etc.). I DEFINITELY want those accounts to be double opt-in so my info doesn’t end up in the wrong hands just in case I mistype something.

I used to be a fan of it back in the day, but today it is rare that I use it or see clients use it when growing their email lists. Reducing friction during the conversion process seems to take priority for many clients above and beyond concerns about list hygine. Not saying that’s the right approach, but it’s just what I’ve seen personally.

Hey Kyle! Chelsea from Unbounce here 👋.

I have to echo both Andrew and Nich here in that it does help with list quality but I’m more on team “reduce friction.” Personally, I find it annoying to double opt-in (especially on mobile), so I air on the side of not using it where I don’t have to. But I’d say keep an eye on the quality of your list (bounce rate, unsubscribes, etc.) and if you’re seeing poor results you could always try it out, depending on the size of your list.

Always happy to chat email marketing if you wanna go deeper. 🙂

As visitor (subscriber), I find the double opt-in annoying. Feels unnecessary.