I’m Derek Johnson with the tatango.com, and I’m answering the question, “What
is a double opt-in and why is it so important?”
So, first off, let’s start with, what is a double opt-in?
There are two different ways that you can opt in mobile subscribers for a mobile messaging
campaign.
One is a mobile opt-in, and one is a web opt-in.
So a mobile opt-in is when a consumer takes out their mobile phone, and text a keyword
to a short code to opt in.
A web opt-in or could be even from a point a sale or some, you know, thing like that,
is when a consumer types in their mobile phone number into a website or a point of sale system,
and clicks a button like a join or subscribe me, and then they would opt in.
A single opt-in is when a consumer does either of those, and then they immediately opted
into the SMS campaign.
And usually, they receive some type of confirmation text message saying, you know, “Hey, congratulations.
You’ve joined the campaign.”
A double opt-in is a little different, and as you can tell from the wording, a double
opt-in, unlike a single opt-in, requires the consumer to reply yes to a text message that
they receive.
So for the mobile opt-in, they would text a keyword to a short code, let’s say pizza,
to 12345, and then before the consumers actually opted in, they would get a text message saying,
” Please reply yes to confirm your consenting,” consent is not a condition of purchase, “And
that you’re consenting to the terms and conditions of the mobile messaging campaign.
When they reply yes and only when they’re replied yes are they opted in to the SMS campaign.
Similar structure for the web side, but I feel like it’s even more important to have
a double opt-in on the website, and I’ll explain why.
On the web side, when a consumer enters their mobile phone number into the website, and
they click join, they’re gonna to send a text message and say please reply yes to receive
automated messages and consent is not a condition of purchase,” and that terms and conditions
apply and that they’re consenting to those terms and conditions, and then they would
reply yes to opt-in.
The reason why it’s so important on the web side, is that someone can type another
person’s phone number into that web form, and with a single opt-in, you would be opting
in that person that really never opted in the first place.
With a double opt-in, that person would receive one text message saying, “Please reply yes
to confirm that you want to receive text messages.”
And if they didn’t want to receive text messages, they wouldn’t reply yes and they
would be opted in for future text messages.
So it’s a great way to make sure that only the people that wanna receive your text messages
are actually opted in.
There’s another reason to why double opt-in is so important.
It’s that by getting people to reply via text message to consent to what is in the
opt-in text message, which is, you know, consent is not a condition of purchase and that you’re
gonna receive messages via an auto dialing system, which is all TCPA compliance language,
and that they’re consenting to the terms and conditions of the text messaging campaign.
All those things, because they’re applying yes in a text message, means that you have
a record in your SMS provider history that you can easily pull up and see to ensure that
they have consented to everything that you put in front of them.
If you do it through the mobile, a mobile opt-in or even a web opt-in, and you do a
single opt-in, a consumer can easily claim that they never saw any of the terms and conditions.
They didn’t realize that consent was not a condition of purchase, or that they were
not, you know, opting in for a recurring messages sent via an auto dialing system.
Because maybe they didn’t see it or maybe a friend told them to text it in.
Maybe, you know, their website, you know, the bottom of the website had all the information
and it didn’t show ’em because they can only see the top of the website.
There are so many different reasons.
And that’s the reason why you wanna stick with a double opt-in, is because double opt-in
ensure that not only the customer saw all the thing, the consent, and gave the consent,
but also, you have a record of it in a clear, you know, easy to print record because, you
know, it’s one phone number.
It’s just, you know, here’s them opting in, here’s their consent, replying yes,
and then here’s the confirmation message.
So, you know, it’s a very, very, very easy way to prove that the customer knew what they
were opting into in the first place.
So, that’s the answer to, “What is a double opt-in and why is it so important?”