Issue #183 All About Email

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Hi, friend. 👋

Welcome to Issue #183 of All About Email!

Last week, we concluded our discussion of newsletter monetisation with some practical advice and tips on creating revenue streams.

This week, we discuss double opt-in and whether you should use it. The topic is controversial in the email industry, and a LinkedIn post sparked my interest.

Let’s go! 👇

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The Post that Stopped the Scroll!

It all started with a post and the image below, but some comments got me thinking, too. 🤔

Marketers have always had strong opinions on this, and there are good arguments for and against both.

I’m not calling out Beth, either. Despite the strong image hook (click-bait), her post makes some excellent points.

In a follow-up comment, Beth doesn’t rule out double opt-in entirely, especially if you don’t have access to “prevention tools”.

🚨 However, some comments concerned me more than the post itself, and some points about the post itself need further consideration.

Real World Data and that “Friction”

Beth talks about the “friction” that double-opt-in adds to your newsletter, and I get that.

So does Klaviyo, and they have recently devised a way to remove this friction.

📉 I use double opt-in for all my newsletters; some might argue it comes with a cost.

⚡️ However, “it depends”.

What I mean by that, friend, is your audience. I have two very different audiences; one is much better at double opt-in than the other. 👇

Let’s look at some data from my two newsletters since the turn of the year:

• 35 subscribers failed to confirm opt-in for All About Email.

• 2 subscribers failed to confirm opt-in for Loop WP.

If I go back to almost a year ago, when I joined Beehiiv, then it’s closer to:

• 70 subscribers that could have been added to All About Email

• 25 subscribers that could have been to Loop WP.

🧠 Those numbers would have been even higher without Beehiiv’s “Smart Nudge” feature, which sends new subscribers another email reminder 48 hours later if they don’t respond to your welcome message.

Is Double Opt-In a Legal Requirement?

😀 I am totally fine with those numbers, and here’s why I’m all for double opt-in:

• If subscribers can’t click on a single CTA in a very short email, what are the chances of engagement in my usual 800 - 1000+ word emails with dozens of links?

• Double opt-in has been encouraged since iOS 15 and Apple MPP (remember that?)

• Improved deliverability. 💪

• ESPs are using (or encouraging) double opt-in as the default.

• Double opt-in “helps” with GDPR compliance.

• It is a legal requirement in some countries, states, and regions.

🤔 Not convinced by double opt-in yet, friend?

Check out some additional reading in Mail Mondays #Issue 131 (the old name for this newsletter), where I make even more of a case for double opt-in.

Please ignore the silly prediction in that issue. It was wrong, and I was rightly called out for it. 🤣

(I’m not laying a total smack down on single opt-in; I get it, and I share more understanding of its potential case in Mail Mondays.)

List Bombing and Referrals

⚠️ This is one major point in a case for double opt-in.

You’ve got your spam protection in place (honeypot, reCaptcha or both), and all is well, but riddle me this…what if someone uses a referral/recommendation tool like SparkLoop, Kit or Beehiiv and that person doesn’t have protection?

They get list bombed, and have your newsletter set up as a referral (and the referral is pre-checked). 😱

That happened to me on October 20th, 2024. A Yahoo spam bot list bombed a colleague and, in the process, tried to sign up 41 fake email addresses (or scraped) to my list.

🚨 Except I have double opt-in and not one of these spam email addresses got on my list! 🎉

Then, of course, in the case of people making legitimate mistakes (typos) or submitting the complete email address, double opt-in helps with that too.

🤔 So, friend, I want to know what you use.

That’s it for this week 👋

⏭️ Next week, it’s either going to be all about the replies to this week’s newsletter or we’ll be chatting about Gmail clipping.

Unless, of course, I finally get access to “Manage Subscriptions” in Gmail.

See you next week! 😀

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Sponsorship Opportunities

🚨 If you’re interested in sponsoring the “All About Email” newsletter, you can find all the details in this Google Doc. I currently have “Classified” slots and a Main Sponsor slot available.

Email Marketing News & Tips

This week's excellent and insightful email news & tips:

• AI Hub Launch - A real-time co-editing and commenting system with a smoother workflow than ever. (Stripo)

• Beyond Open Rates - The Metrics That Matter for Email Success. (Email Labs)

• It’s Here! Sort of… - Gmail’s “Manage Subscriptions” feature is here, but seemingly only in the US. (Natalia Zacholska)

• New to Me - A never-ending swipe file of email marketing examples. (Email Marketing Examples)

• Mailbox Provider AI - Apple Intelligence. (SendGrid)

• Shipping Emails - eCommerce Transactional Emails Playbook (Magnet Monster)

• Next Generation - How Are Journalism Schools Teaching Newsletter Skills? (Inbox Collective)

• A Story - SMTPUTF8 Errors and Bad Encoding. (Spam Resource)

• 45-Day Challenge - Trying to grow a newsletter with social media “SUCKS”. So we're trying something different. (Growth in Reverse)

• Spam Trigger Words - The stuff of legend. (Alison Gootee)

• Easy to Generate - Make the case for BIMI with the new Valimail BIMI Simulator Report (Valimail)

• View Original - Google and Alignment Update. (Word to the Wise)

• Newsletter Growth - 11 Social Proof Tips That Actually Work. (Beehiiv)

• Get Inspired - The Best 267 Music Email Examples in 2025. (Really Good Emails)

• List Hygiene - How to handle mailbox full blocks. (SendGrid)

If you have a question about this email or email marketing, reply, and I will answer you as soon as possible.

I hope you have a great week! 👋