Before sending marketing emails to your contacts, you should ask for their permission. Theoretically, you have three options:

1. Single Opt-in: A contact enters their email address in a signup form. With this they are immediately registered.
2. Double Opt-in: A contact enters their email address into a signup form. The contact receives an email with a confirmation link and clicks on the link. Only then they are registered.
3. Opt-out: A checkmark is pre-set in a form, by which the contact silently agrees to receive marketing emails unless they manually remove the checkmark.

According to many experts, only the double opt-in method is in line with data protection requirements in the EU and now also in Switzerland.

Yet the method as such is not legally prescribed. The problem is that any person can enter any email address in a form (single opt-in). Only when the person clicks on the confirmation link (double opt-in) do you have the certainty that they have registered personally and really agree to receive marketing emails from you.

Another advantage of double opt-in is that you can be sure that the email address is valid and in use. This means you have better delivery and opening rates. With single opt-in, you don’t have this security.

Please also note that the pure opt-out is in no way GDPR compliant, because it does not count as consent for a contact to not actively object to the data processing.

We therefore always recommend that you get double consent from your contacts when asking for their email addresses.

Here we explain how you can easily implement this with Friendly Automate. We have already pre-installed most of the components for you. With a few adjustments, which we will explain step by step, the double opt-in is ready for use.

What do you need for double opt-in?

To set up double opt-in, you need five components:

1. A website with
2. a form that the contact uses to register for marketing emails.

3. An email with the confirmation link.

4. A simple landing page that opens in the browser when the contact clicks on the confirmation link.

5. A campaign, i.e. a workflow that updates the contact settings in the background.

We have already prepared much of this in your Friendly Automate. You can set up your double opt-in in just a few steps.

Create the double opt-in

Follow these 6 steps to set up your double opt-in:

1. Create a sign-up landing page in Friendly Automate (optional)
2. Set up the sign-up form
3. Embed the form into the sign-up landing page or your website
4. Create a confirmation landing page from our template
5. Create a confirmation email from our template
6. Check and activate the double opt-in campaign

1. Create a sign-up landing page in Friendly Automate (optional)

First, you need a landing page where you will display the sign-up form. You can create a landing page in Friendly Automate or use your own website.

If you are using an externally created website, skip this step.

To create a landing page in Friendly Automate, click on ‘Components’ in your Friendly Automate, then on ‘Landing Pages’, and then on ‘New’ in the top right-hand corner:

You are welcome to use our template. To do so, select the template ‘Friendly DOI 3.0 Signup EN’. Or select ‘Blank’ to design your own landing page. Give the landing page a title and select the correct language.

It's best to save the page already and then click on ‘Builder’ at the top. In the landing page editor, you can now fully customise the layout and content of the page:

The placeholder {form=N} will display the registration form that you have yet to create. Leave the placeholder as it is for the moment.

Then close the editor and save your changes.

2. Set up the sign-up form

Now set up the registration form. To do so, on the left-hand side in Friendly Automate, click on ‘Components’ and then on ‘Forms’. Click on ‘New’ in the top-right corner to create a new form:

Select a ‘New stand-alone form’. Then enter a name, a send action (a text is easiest) and the confirmation text, for example ‘Thank you for signing up!’.

Then switch to the ‘Fields’ tab and select ‘Add a new field’.

Create a form with fields for first and last names and email address, for example. If you need help with this, you can find a simple tutorial here:

You can save your form at any time. Your form could look like this:

In addition, we recommend inserting a link to your privacy policy. To do this, click on ‘Add a new field’ and select ‘Description area’:

You can name the header ‘Privacy policy’, for example. But hide the header by selecting ‘Show header? – No’.

Then switch to the ‘Properties’ tab and enter a text, for example:

• I have read the privacy policy. Find out more about how we process and protect your data.
• We handle your data with care. Find out more in our privacy policy.

Now add the link to your privacy policy by highlighting the corresponding word(s), selecting the link icon and entering the link:

Click ‘OK’ and then add the field to your form:

Your form is now complete. You can save and close it.

3. Embed the form into the sign-up landing page or your website

Now embed the form. As mentioned, you have two options for this: either you use the sign-up landing page from step 1 or you use an externally created website.

Embed the form in the Friendly Automate landing page

This is the simplest approach. To do this, open the sign-up landing page created in step 1 and click on ‘Edit’ and then Builder to access the editor.

Double-click on the field with the placeholder {form=N} and enter the form ID of your registration form there, in our example {form=21}.

Done! The form will now be displayed on your landing page:

Embed the form in an external website

If you want to embed the form in your own website, open it in Friendly Automate and select ‘Automatic’ in the mint-coloured box on the right (recommended; if you have the necessary knowledge, you can of course also choose to embed it manually).

A pop-up window will open. Copy the Javascript code and paste it into your website:

If you need additional guidance, you can check here:

4. Create a confirmation landing page from our template

Now create the landing page that will be displayed to your contacts when they click on the button in the confirmation email. We have also prepared a template for this.

To do this, in your Friendly Automate, click on ‘Components’ on the left, then ‘Landing Pages’, and then ‘New’ at the top right:

Select ‘Friendly DOI 3.0 Confirmation EN’ as the template. Give the landing page a title and select the correct language.

It's best to save the page already and then click on ‘Builder’ at the top. In the landing page editor, once again you can fully customise the layout and content of the page:

You can basically leave the page as it is. You will probably want to change the company name. To do this, simply double-click on the text field and edit the name:

You can make as many changes as you like; for example, you can insert a company logo at the top by dragging the ‘Image’ block onto the landing page:

Once you are satisfied with the page, close the editor and save the page.

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Make a note of the page URL. You will need it to check the double opt-in campaign.

5. Create a confirmation email from our template

Now create the email that your contacts receive to confirm their email address. We have already prepared this for you.

To do this, in Friendly Automate, click on ‘Channels’ on the left, then ‘Emails’, and then ‘New’ at the top right:

A pop-up window will open. Select a ‘New template email’:

Select the template ‘Friendly DOI 3.0 Signup EN’ again. Enter a subject and an internal name for the email and select the correct language.

Save and then click on ‘Builder’ at the top. In the email editor, you can now customise the layout and content:

You can essentially leave the email as it is. However, you will need to change the company name and address (at the top and in the footer). To do this, simply double-click on the relevant fields and edit the text:

To change the link to the company website, highlight the link text, click on the link symbol and adjust the URL there.

Now check the confirmation link and adjust it if necessary. To do this, click on the black button, then on the brush at the top, and adjust the URL on the right.

Enter the URL of the confirmation landing page in Friendly Automate or your own confirmation landing page here.

When you are satisfied with the email, close the editor and save the email.

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Make a note of the internal name of the email. You will need it to check the double opt-in campaign.

6. Check and activate the double opt-in campaign

The double opt-in campaign is already pre-installed in your Friendly Automate. To access it, click on Campaigns on the left and then on ‘Double opt-in campaign’.

The campaign is basically set up. You just have to link your emails, forms and landing pages.

To do this, open the campaign by clicking on ‘Edit’ at the top and then on ‘Start campaign builder’.

This is what the pre-installed campaign looks like:

Now check the individual steps. (You should not change any of the campaign steps that we have put in brackets. These are just to explain what happens in this step.)

1. Sign-up form: The campaign is triggered by filling out the sign-up form. Check that the correct form is displayed here. The best way to do this is to compare the ID displayed here with the ID of your form.

By the way, you can also add more forms here if you use different sign-up forms. The double opt-in can run through the same campaign.

2. (Double opt-in confirmed? In this step, we ask whether the contact has already gone through the double opt-in process before. This is important if the contact has already signed up for a newsletter. Such contacts should not receive a confirmation email again.)
3. Send double opt-in email: We are now sending the confirmation email to contacts who have not yet completed the double opt-in process. Link the correct email address here.
4. (Add Do Not Contact: After the confirmation email has been sent, the contact is initially blocked from receiving marketing messages until they have clicked on the confirmation link. This is important, in case the entry was made in error or is fraudulent.)
5. Confirmation link clicked in the email: In this step, we ask whether the confirmation link has been clicked by the contact. Check here whether the link points to your confirmation landing page. You do not have to enter the full link, just a unique part of the URL.

6. (Update contact: If the contact has successfully clicked on the confirmation link in the confirmation email, we note this in the contact card with a corresponding switch. This prevents the double opt-in from being triggered several times, see campaign step 2.)

7. (Remove Do Not Contact: After confirmation, we will unblock the contact again for marketing messages.)
8. Optional – Add tag: This step is not pre-installed. If you wish, you can add an additional tag to the contact card that confirms the double opt-in. The advantage of tags is that they are displayed directly on the right in the contact card and you can see immediately whether the contact has successfully completed the double opt-in.
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To add this step, select an ‘Action’, then ‘Adjust Contact Tags’, name the step and enter a suitable tag under ‘Add Tags’, for example ‘DOI confirmed’.

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Pro Tip: If you want, you can send a welcome email at this point. To do this, first create your welcome email.

Then add an additional campaign step at the end of the campaign. Select an ‘Action’ and then ‘Send email’. Name the step, select your email and schedule the send time, for example 5 minutes later.

Your campaign is now set up. You can close the campaign builder.

To activate the campaign, set the ‘Published’ switch to ‘Yes’.

You can now save and close the campaign.

All done! You have set up a sign-up page with a sign-up form, a confirmation email, a confirmation landing page and a campaign, and thus a functioning double opt-in. The double opt-in status of your contacts is now displayed in the corresponding contact field.

What next?

Of course, this is just the start of the process. From now on, you can use the successful double opt-in status as a filter in segments to roll out marketing messages or campaigns only to confirmed contacts.

To do this, add the filter ‘Double Optin – equals – Yes’ to your segments.