Single Opt-in VS Double Opt-in

[Gena]

My issue getting modifying my subscription form so that it is a single
opt-in so that the first email the customer receives is a welcome
email.

There are parameters in the API that seems like this would make it
possible, but I'm obviously not implementing it correctly yet.

public static listSubscribe(string apikey, string id, string
email_address, array merge_vars, string email_type, boolean
double_optin, boolean update_existing, boolean replace_interests,
boolean send_welcome)

I took the eample code and I can use that successfully with double-
optin. The following code is how I'm calling the function

$ip=@$REMOTE_ADDR;
$merges = array('OPTINIP'=>$ip);
if($api->listSubscribe($list_id, $_GET['email'], $merges, 'html',
FALSE) === true) {

1. I'm getting a "Error: You must specify a merge_vars value for the
listSubscribe method"
2. If I replace $merges, with '' it works just fine, but then it's
still doing the double Opt-in

Has anyone successfully set mailchimp with single opt-in? I would
greatly appreciate any help/advise.

Sincle Opt-in is a make-it or break-it deal for our company weather we
can move to MailChimp. My company sells children's clothing, so we
are not too worried about complaints due to the single opt-in
process. Our old subcription process has been like this for years and
we have never received complaints.

Thanks in advance!

[Gena]

I got it! (but am still having another problem). I have no idea if
this is the proper way, but I set the double_optin to false in the
acual API (MCAPI.php). Now the problem is it's subscribing and
confirming when the form is submitted, but the member is still getting
the please confirm subscription email.

[jesse]

First, regarding not doing a double-optin - while you can obviously
get around doing it, we are very opposed to anyone skipping that and
our compliance team will quickly shut you down if they find that and
you start receiving abuse complaints. The option is only available so
that people who have a previous list of opt-in addresses or are
legitimately handling the process on their side can tie into us. Many
people who say things like "Our old subcription process has been like
this for years and we have never received complaints." say that
because they were not using a service or software with robust feedback
loops for gathering abuse complaints. If you all are not willing to
actually use a double-optin process, you may want to find a service
that is less serious about that.

Did you actually edit the MCAPI.php file? If so, undo that - all of
the parameters can (and should) be passed in through the available
method call to $api->listSubscribe().

I would guess that you are having issues for one of two reasons:
* You are using v1.1 of the API wrapper - only v1.2 supports the
send_welcome parameter
* You are using v1.2 but not providing all of the parameters
documented:
http://www.mailchimp.com/api/1.2/listsubscribe.func.php

Also take a look at the send_welcome parameter there and you'll see
why changing the double_optin parameter works (and other caveats for
it). I do seriously doubt that you are receiving the confirmation
email and the welcome email after running that. I'd suggest clearing
out your emails, taking another look at the code and testing again.

jesse

[Gena]

Thank you so much! I will take a look at all of that.

We will re-consider the pros and cons to a single opt-in. I know the
big thing is that we don't want our customers to have to jump through
hoops to get the prommised discount, but I have read mailChimp's
documentation about why double opt-in is better.

Would MailChimp shut us down if we went with a single opt-in but
didn't receive complaints? What robust feedback loops does MailChimp
offer that is not common in other email marketing managers?

Thanks again!
Gena

On Oct 19, 4:47 pm, jesse <je...@mailchimp.com> wrote:
> First, regarding not doing a double-optin- while you can obviously

> get around doing it, we are very opposed to anyone skipping that and
> our compliance team will quickly shut you down if they find that and
> you start receiving abuse complaints. The option is only available so

> that people who have a previous list ofopt-inaddresses or are

> legitimately handling the process on their side can tie into us. Many
> people who say things like "Our old subcription process has been like
> this for years and we have never received complaints." say that
> because they were not using a service or software with robust feedback
> loops for gathering abuse complaints. If you all are not willing to

> actually use a double-optinprocess, you may want to find a service

> that is less serious about that.
>
> Did you actually edit the MCAPI.php file? If so, undo that - all of
> the parameters can (and should) be passed in through the available
> method call to $api->listSubscribe().
>
> I would guess that you are having issues for one of two reasons:
> * You are using v1.1 of the API wrapper - only v1.2 supports the
> send_welcome parameter
> * You are using v1.2 but not providing all of the parameters
> documented:http://www.mailchimp.com/api/1.2/listsubscribe.func.php
>
> Also take a look at the send_welcome parameter there and you'll see
> why changing the double_optin parameter works (and other caveats for
> it). I do seriously doubt that you are receiving the confirmation
> email and the welcome email after running that. I'd suggest clearing
> out your emails, taking another look at the code and testing again.
>
> jesse
>
> On Oct 19, 3:48 pm, Gena <sophiasstylebouti...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > I got it!  (but am still having another problem).  I have no idea if
> > this is the proper way, but I set the double_optin to false in the
> > acual API (MCAPI.php).  Now the problem is it's subscribing and
> > confirming when the form is submitted, but the member is still getting
> > the please confirm subscription email.
>
> > On Oct 19, 1:14 pm, Gena <sophiasstylebouti...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > My issue getting modifying my subscription form so that it is asingle

> > >opt-inso that the first email the customer receives is a welcome

> > > email.
>
> > > There are parameters in the API that seems like this would make it
> > > possible, but I'm obviously not implementing it correctly yet.
>
> > > public static listSubscribe(string apikey, string id, string
> > > email_address, array merge_vars, string email_type, boolean
> > > double_optin, boolean update_existing, boolean replace_interests,
> > > boolean send_welcome)
>
> > > I took the eample code and I can use that successfully with double-
> > >optin.  The following code is how I'm calling the function
>
> > >         $ip=@$REMOTE_ADDR;
> > >         $merges = array('OPTINIP'=>$ip);
> > >         if($api->listSubscribe($list_id, $_GET['email'], $merges, 'html',
> > > FALSE) === true) {
>
> > > 1.  I'm getting a "Error:  You must specify a merge_vars value for the
> > > listSubscribe method"
> > > 2.  If I replace $merges, with '' it works just fine, but then it's
> > > still doing the doubleOpt-in
>

> > > Has anyone successfully set mailchimp withsingleopt-in?  I would
> > > greatly appreciate any help/advise.
>
> > > SincleOpt-inis a make-it or break-it deal for our company weather we

> > > can move to MailChimp.  My company sells children's clothing, so we
> > > are not too worried about complaints due to thesingleopt-in
> > > process.  Our old subcription process has been like this for years and
> > > we have never received complaints.
>

> > > Thanks in advance!- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[jesse]

Gena -
Just to be clear in case we're talking past each other - if you have
customers that are already aware they've opted-in to your newsletter,
such as a check box in their user preferences or during a signup
process, that should be fine. If you are adding customers who are not
aware you'll be contacting them or otherwise collecting and adding
addresses of people who are not completely aware of what you are going
to use it for, then we'll have a problem.

If you aren't receiving complaints, the compliance folks probably
won't notice you. However if they do and they see that you've been
doing single opt-in, there will be little to no chance of a second
chance.

Regarding feeback loops - here's a blog post on the subject that
details that a bit - it's a bit old, but basically if there's a FBL we
are aware of, we're going to plugin into it:
http://www.mailchimp.com/blog/what-should-i-do-about-abuse-complaints/#more-559

If you've been using another ESP, then you may have received data back
from some of them before. As mentioned in that post, most homegrown
solutions or off-the-shelf software would not have access to them as
well as possibly smaller/just getting started ESPs.


jesse