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:
- In the top navigation bar, hover your mouse over the Audience tab and then click Email lists.
- Click the name of the email list you want to verify.
- In the menu on the left, click Set your settings.
- Navigate to the Opt-in Settings section and select Soft double opt-in.
- 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.
- Click Save.
- (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:
- In the top navigation bar, hover your mouse over the Audience tab and click Segments.
- On the Audience page, hover your mouse over New, and click Segment.
- In the Select email list dialog, choose the email list where you want to create a segment and then click Start.
- Click Create custom segment to create your own segment.
- 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.
- In the Fetch field, in the first drop-down list, select All.
- In the second drop-down list, select All.
- To set criteria for your segment, go to the Rules fields consisting of three drop-down lists.
- In the first drop-down list, select Verified for Double Opt-in.
- 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.
- 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.