Double opt-in allows you to require that contacts actively confirm their subscription before they are added to your email database.

You can create a double opt-in database, a double opt-in email or a double opt-in web form, here's how this works:

• A customer signs up to receive your emails via a web form.
• The customer is added to the double opt-In database in Acoustic Campaign in a pre opt-in state.
• A pre opt-in autoresponder is sent to the customer with a link to a double opt-In confirmation form.
• The customer's information is added to the double opt-In database and the contact is ready to receive emails.
• The welcome e-mail/subscription confirmation is sent to the customer (optional, depending on the set up).

Note: To remain GDPR compliant, contacts that remain in a pre opt-in state for longer than 30 days will be routinely removed from the database. To receive emails, contacts removed must restart and complete the full opt-in process.

Create a double opt-in database

A double opt-in database ensures that your contact has access to and uses the account they are using as their database contact information. If double opt-in database is

1. In Data go to Databases > Create.
2. Select Double Opt-In Database under What type of database would you like to create? You might see only options for standard database (which is a single opt-in database), test list, seed list, and suppression list. In this case, the Double Opt-in Database option must be enabled by Support.
3. Give the database a name.
4. Click Select to save the database in the Shared folder.
5. Select the Shared folder tab and click Select.
6. Select Next.
7. You can create any fields you need using the following steps. In this example, the following steps create a field for customer first name, a birthday field with the values to be entered in a date format only, and a gender field.
8. Enter First_Name in the Field Name field. Then click Add Field.
9. Choose Date from the Field Type drop-down list and click Add Field. This allows you to add a birthday field with the values to be entered in a date format only. After the database / list is saved you cannot change the field type.
10. Now add a field for gender. There are only two choices for gender values so select Selection (choose one) from the Field Type drop-down list. Click Add Field.
11. You must add the values for the Gender field. Click the Edit link to define the values.
12. Enter Female in the New Value field and click Add.
13. Enter Male in the New Value field and click Add.
14. Select Save.
15. Select the Edit link next to the First_Name field that we added to make it a Required field.
16. Enter Valued Customer in the Default Value field and click Save.
17. Click Create to create the database.

After the double opt-in database is created, the double opt-in database summary screen shows you how many contacts are in your database and how many are in a pre-opt-in state (unconfirmed subscription).

Resend the opt-in confirmation email

Acoustic Campaign has a safety net for contacts who accidentally misplace or delete the confirmation email. If a contact loses the confirmation email, they can opt-in again and another confirmation email is sent to them.

In order to prevent malicious use of the resend function, limits are placed on the number of times a resend can occur. The first time a contact attempts to opt into the database, a confirmation email is sent to that contact. The second time a contact attempts to opt in to the database a confirmation email is also sent to that contact. On all subsequent attempts to opt-in, Acoustic Campaign determines if the last attempt to opt-in was in the current calendar day. If it was, then an email is not sent. If the last attempt to opt-in was not in the current calendar day, then a confirmation email is sent.

By default, the resend restriction rules are turned on. However, the owner of the database or the Organization Administrator can switch these rules off at a database level. This is done by accessing the Settings for the database and clearing the Enable Pre Opt-in Confirmation Resend Restrictions check box.

View pre opt-in records via the API

A double opt-in database might contain contacts in a pre opt-in state, which means they have received the autoresponder asking them to confirm their subscription, but have yet to confirm. When they exist in a pre opt-in state, you can not see their email address in the Acoustic Campaign user interface. However, there is a work-around to identify them through the API.

You can identify contacts who are in the pre opt-in status by running a Raw Recipient Data Export API on the SENT and SUPPRESSED event of the Autoresponder's Mailing ID. This gives you all the email addresses that Acoustic Campaign has been told to send the pre opt-in autoresponder to, and conveniently excludes contacts who have fully opted in.

So if Contact A triggered the autoresponder and confirmed their Opt In status, and Contact B triggered the autoresponder but did not click the confirm link, then only Contact B appears in the Raw Recipient Data Export API file generated from the XML included in this article. In order to obtain the Mailing ID, you can go to your Autoresponder, and then hover over the pre opt-in autoresponder's email name. Alternatively, you can click into the double opt-in database and click the autoresponders tab there to show the correct autoresponder.

API XML CODE with Sent Mailing ID

<Envelope><Body>
		<RawRecipientDataExport>
		<EVENT_DATE_START>07/01/2015 00:00:00</EVENT_DATE_START>
		<EVENT_DATE_END>07/27/2015 23:59:00</EVENT_DATE_END>
		<EXPORT_FORMAT>0</EXPORT_FORMAT>
		<MAILING>
		<MAILING_ID>49173666</MAILING_ID>
		</MAILING>
		<SENT/>
		<SUPPRESSED/>
		</RawRecipientDataExport>
		</Body></Envelope>

The reason you might want to include the <SUPPRESSED/> tag is in the case where the contact 'triggered' the Autoresponder but was suppressed (because they may exist in the organization or global suppression List).

Make sure the EVENT_DATE_START and EVENT_DATE_END includes the entire time range you are looking for sent autoresponders. For example, if your double opt-in database has been opting in contacts since April, and you only include an EVENT_DATE range between June and August, then you will only retrieve contacts who triggered the autoresponder between June and August (excluding the contacts who may have entered a pre opt-in state in May).

Pre opt-in contacts have not given permission for their information to be known. Use this API info only when needed to resend to pre opt-in contacts to complete opt-in process of a double opt-in database.

Change a double opt-in database to a single opt-in database

This can be done by exporting your double opt-in database (be sure to select Export Contacts, Opt-Outs, Snoozes and Undeliverables to capture all contacts within the database), importing the database as a single opt-in database and giving the database a new name.