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I recently helped a customer with a problem that we’ve heard a few times before, so I figured I might post the answer here as well. Here’s the question:

“Many of my e-mail addresses have come from a store website (that I will continue to use) that has a simple single opt-in e-mail signup process. As I convert to Campaign Monitor, I want to move to a complete double opt-in process.

I would also like to put my current list through a second round of opt-in. Is there a way with Campaign Monitor that I can import a list and then send an e-mail that gives the recipient a link to confirm their subscription to the list as well as unsubscribe if they no longer want to get messages from our store?”

First things first, make sure you have permission to contact the recipients in the first place - since this technique is often used on older lists that haven’t been sent to in a while. As we state in our anti-spam policy, permission doesn’t age well and you can’t use Campaign Monitor to email anyone you haven’t contacted in the last 2 years.

You’ve got permission, what’s next?

1. Create a new list. From this we can build a link that when clicked, will add the subscriber to this new list.
2. Grab the subscribe form URL, which you can find by going to the ‘Create a subscribe form’ option in your list and locating the URL in the supplied code. This URL will form the base of our link.  It should look something like http://clientname..com/.aspx/s/1234/.
3. Add the recipient’s name and email address to the URL. To do this we add them as parameters to the URL. For the email address, we use the email address field name in the subscribe form code, such as cm-1234-1234. So, the full URL will be: http://clientname..com/.aspx/s/1234/?cm-1234-1234=[email]&name=[fullname, fallback=”“]

That’s it, we’re done. By adding that link to your subscription confirmation email, the variables will automatically get replaced with the values in your list that your sending to. Give the recipients a couple of weeks to confirm their subscription, then moving forward you should only send to the new confirmed list.

And don’t forget you can test this by previewing your campaign in Step 4.1 when you’re creating a new campaign.

Update: A newer version of this process can be found under resources.

"I'm blown away by your service. Campaign Monitor is one of those rare and perfect web apps. I've used Constant Contact for clients, and it was so painful that I cringed every time I logged into it. I just ran my first campaign -- I had a last minute, time-sensitive campaign need and I managed to design, test, re-test, consolidate our opt-in lists, customize our subscription form, and mail it out in half a day."

"I'm addicted to your reporting and your fast, intuitive interface. I've learned so much about how people respond to email campaigns from this. I am confident my future campaigns will be even more meaningful and useful to my subscribers. Many thanks for making such a useful and user-friendly service."

Rebecca Taylor, Founder - Velo la Source Cycling Adventures

This great seasonal email newsletter from California based Fantesca Spring Estate and Winery was sent using Campaign Monitor recently.

The design follows the classic 2 column approach to an email newsletter dividing the main stories of interest from supplementary content like events and other promotions. The newsletter copy also has a great personal tone to it and is full of great content for their wine loving customers.

Designer:  Tom Carmony  |  See the complete design