Usually once someone signs up for a double opt in list, they’ll get one email requesting confirmation and that’s it. That may not be enough.

I subscribe to newsletters here and there and it doesn’t take too much to distract me between the time I hit the subscribe button to when I receive the confirmation email with the link I need to click to confirm the subscription.

It’s also not unusual for those confirmation emails to steadily drift down to the bottom of my inbox; only to fall victim to the delete button some time down the track or after a long day.

Yesterday I subscribed to a newsletter and the usual scenario occurred – I was busy on other tasks when the confirmation email came in. It then started to get buried among other communications. However, 2 hours later, I received a follow up email gently reminding me I had not yet confirmed. I ignored that one too. Then another came in this morning – that one I opened, clicked and confirmed.

I think subscription reminders can be a good idea. I was looking through a list I manage at all the as-yet-unconfirmed folks and while I can send a follow up reminder email to them, an automated system is a great way to go. It’s a function that needs to become standard in all email marketing software packages.

Until it does become a standard feature of these applications, perhaps you might want to take a look at the software you’re using, check to see how many unconfirmed subscribers you have and follow up with a reminder – some of those people may be the ones you really need to be receiving your communications.