Verify your existing subscribers for GDPR

To verify existing subscribers for GDPR, you first set up new subscribers to go through a double opt-in subscription process. Then, you create a segment for existing subscribers who have not been verified through the double opt-in process, and ask for their consent. This walkthrough describes how to:

• Set up your email list for soft double opt-in
• Create a segment for unverified recipients

A. Set up your email list for Soft double opt-in

To set up soft double opt-in for your mailing list:

1. In the top navigation bar, hover your mouse over the Audience tab and then click Email lists.
2. Click the name of the email list you want to verify.
3. In the menu on the left, click Set your settings.
4. Navigate to the Opt-in Settings section and select Soft double opt-in.
   
5. To set up the verification email that your subscribers receive,  fill out the following fields:
   
   • From - select the name that you want to display as the sender.
   • Subject line - enter the email message title, for example, Confirm your subscription to mailing list.
   • Message - check the default confirmation message. You can edit the HTML message in our editor. Make sure that you include the #VerificationLink# tag.
6. Click Save.
7. (Optional) Navigate to the Landing page URL field, enter the URL of your confirmation page and click Save.

B. Create a segment for unverified subscribers

When the double opt-in process is set up for every new recipient, you must find all the recipients who are not yet verified through a double opt-in process and ask for their consent. To do this, you create a segment containing those unverified recipients.

To create a segment for unverified subscribers:

1. In the top navigation bar, hover your mouse over the Audience tab and click Segments.
2. On the Audience page, hover your mouse over New, and click Segment.
3. In the Select email list dialog, choose the email list where you want to create a segment and then click Start.
   
4. Click Create custom segment to create your own segment.
5. In the Segment name field, enter the name of your new segment. Make sure to use something that makes it easy to identify your segment and corresponding target audience.
6. In the Fetch field, in the first drop-down list, select All.
7. In the second drop-down list, select All.
8. To set criteria for your segment, go to the Rules fields consisting of three drop-down lists.
9. In the first drop-down list, select Verified for Double Opt-in.
10. In the second drop-down list, select is false. This way all the subscribers who have not been verified via the double opt-in mechanism are selected by this segment.
11. Click Save segment.
    Note: When you have segmented your email list, you can contact the non-verified subscribers by including them in a campaign, and asking them to re-subscribe to your email list. Everyone who re-subscribes receives the confirmation e-mail you created, confirming their consent. Because the segment is dynamic, every subscriber who gets verified is automatically removed from the segment.