On October 31st, MailChimp made major changes to its email verification process. Before the change, MailChimp required every mailing list to have two-step verification, which means customers would put their email into a form and then receive an email asking them to opt-in and verify their email. Now, two-step verification has been replaced with a one-step verification, allowing customers to simply put their email into a form and automatically be added to your mailing list. You can still opt for two-step verification, but it may not be necessary.
There are benefits to both one-step verification and two-step verification. With one-step verification, customers don’t have to worry about going into their email and searching for the opt-in email. Often, opt-in emails get caught in the spam filter never to be found. This aggravates customers who want to receive your emails, but aren’t able to because the emails get lost in cyberspace. While emails received from companies who use one-step verification may still get caught in a spam filter, your customers aren’t giving up immediately because they are chasing after an email just to opt-in.
One-step verification also allows companies the ability to personalize the introductory email. Instead of having customers receive a standard, “Please confirm you want to receive emails from us,” companies can now send coupons and other email exclusive deals to customers in the very first email that person receives.
The one downside with one-step verification, which two-step verification helps prevent, is that email subscribers can put in a junk email and call it a day. This prevents you from being able to reach out to ongoing customers with special discounts because they effective cut off your line of communication without directly saying, “No thanks.”
One way to prevent this is to give email subscribers an incentive to use their real email. This means sending an email coupon people must redeem to receive a deal. Don’t offer a deal where your customers receive the benefit instantly and never have to see the email. For example, letting customers know that if they give you their email, they will receive a 5-dollar coupon in an email, will cut down on fake emails. However, offering to give customers that 5-dollar discount simply for entering their email into your system won’t have the desired effect because the customers don’t have to follow up on anything.
Neither verification process is better than the other in all situations. To determine which one is right for your business, think about why you’re collecting emails and how you will entice customers to remain engaged with your company even when they are not actively shopping in your store or online for your products.
