Any tips for handling unconfirmed subscribers?
I've got almost 50 "unconfirmed subscribers" for my personal newsletter
These are people who signed up, but never double-opted-in. I.e. They never clicked the link in the confirmation email to confirm their subscription.
Do I just let these people die? Should I send them an email?
Any tips are appreciated!
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It's possible that the confirmation email ended up in their spam box or got redirected to a different folder based on a filtering criteria.
I don't think it would be a bad idea to do a follow-up email. Something that includes a phrasing like, "I noticed that you haven't confirmed your subscription. If you'd like to do so, please click here. If you changed your mind, please let me know in one sentence why?"
ALl the best!
Thanks. I'll give this a try.
Improve the copy on your website so when people enter their email they're informed that they need to confirm
Yes, agreed. When I started my blog newsletter I had a lot of unconfirmeds. Then I changed the confirmation email headline to start with 'Please read this...', and confirmations improved dramatically. On my list now I have c11% unconfirmeds (may include a few spambots) versus those who have confirmed at some point. Not sure if 11% is any good, but unconfirmeds are simply a part of newsletter life I am afraid.
On the softfail, what does you SPF DNS record look like? Should it end with -all rather than ~all? I use mail-tester.com for email testing and often the IP I use (via AWS SES) is blacklisted by someone. Never seems to do real harm.
I have no idea. 😅
Getting unconfirmed subscribers is a reality that everyone must face ultimately. But IMO, sending follow up emails kinda defeats the point of double-opt-in, and could have some negative impacts (being reported as spam, or having un-engaged subscribers).
I would try other approaches instead of sending followup emails:
— Improve the copy on your website so when people enter their email they're informed that they need to confirm before they'll receive any of your content. Tap into your value proposition here and give people a reason to drop everything and check their email.
— Also include a line to tell people to check their Spam folder too
— Use a tool like GlockApps (https://glockapps.com/) to find out how your emails are landing in people's inboxes or if you have any deliverability issues that is causing your confirmation emails to end up in Spam.
I did a test through glockapps.com as you suggested - thanks.
Two things happened:
Thanks, Kym. I'm pretty sure I do have a deliverability issue. Any suggestions on who might able to help me get that fixed for a reasonable fee?
What ESP are you using to send your email newsletter?
ConvertKit
I'd recommend contacting their support team. They have a help article about verified domains for sending too: https://help.convertkit.com/en/articles/2502558-using-a-verified-domain-for-email-sending