In order for followers to receive your updates, they need to be active. To make followers active, there are two processes in the market.
The Smart Opt-In™ process is a new, patent-pending process which follow.it developed which combines all the advantages of both single- and double opt-in, without having any of its drawbacks.
It works as follows:
- When your visitors enter their email (either in a follow form, or on your feed’s follow page), we perform a couple of checks:
- Is the user based in a country/region which makes a double-opt in process mandatory by law (such as Canada, Australia, and the EU)?
- Is the user’s email address listed on spam lists (based on publically available spam lists as well as our internally compiled spam lists)?
- Is the email from a high-risk domain?
- Are there any other irregularities (e.g. long string of numbers) in the email which justify classifying it as a medium- or high-risk email?
- (And several other criteria)
If one of such criteria is met, a double-opt in process will be applied, i.e. users first need to click on the confirmation button in the email we send to them right after initial opt-in.
- If the email doesn’t match any of the criteria above, the user will enter an enhanced single-opt in process: the user receives a request to confirm the subscription, however a) it is not mandatory for the user to click on the confirmation link to be active (see below) and b) this email – unlike the confirmation email in the double opt-in process above – also contains an opt-out link/button.
From that point, 3 scenarios are possible:
- User clicks on confirmation link: In this case user is fully confirmed and active, and will receive your notifications going forward.
- User clicks on decline-link: In this case the user is not active and will not receive your notifications.
- User doesn’t do anything: In the spirit of the single opt-in process, this user is active and will receive your notifications going forward. However, the user will see an additional line where the subscription can be accepted or declined.
If user confirms the subscription in those update-emails, the user is set to fully confirmed, and will not see the additional line in future emails.
If the user declines it, the user is set to inactive and will not receive your notifications going forward.
If the user does not take any action, i.e. neither clicks on the confirmation nor decline-link in the emails, the notifications will still be sent to the user in the future, and still contain the additional line.
This will continue until the user confirmed or declined it, or, if neither of those two action is done, our system may set the user to inactive if all of the following criteria are met:
- A lot of emails have been sent to the user
- The user has been receiving emails for a duration of minimum 6-12 months
- The user hasn’t interacted with any of those emails (opened or clicked)
The Smart Opt-in TM process ensures that you get the highest possible number of active followers, while safeguarding your and our reputation, and maximizing deliverability rates!
