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Creating Confirmed Opt-In Processes

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Forest Myers
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Maintaining a quality email list is vital to the success of your marketing campaigns. Confirming that a lead is opted in to receive your content is ideal, since a lead signs up on your page and then confirms their interest in your company by responding to an email.

This does not end once you import contacts. You will need to constantly maintain lists of contacts who have opted in and ensure that those who have not—or even those who have unsubscribed—are not part of your email sends. 

This article will detail how to create processes for maintaining confirmed opt-in statuses.


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Creating Custom Opt-In Content

To create a custom opt-in process, you will first need to create an opt-in email. Using opt-in processes validates the email address a lead has provided, in addition to verifying that they would in fact like to receive further communications. This process is useful in requesting that a lead join a mailing list.

To create custom opt-in content, do the following:

  1. Create a SharpSpring form or a native/third-party form.
  2. Place your form on either a SharpSpring landing page or website.
  3. Create an email to verify the lead's email address and/or interest in receiving communication.
  4. Insert a link or button into the email that asks the lead to confirm or verify they want to receive emails.
  5. Modify the link or button settings to redirect to the landing page or website.
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Creating Manual Lists

You should always be reviewing your lists of leads to ensure that you are remaining compliant with SharpSpring's email sending standards. Manually reviewing your leads lets you keep those who have not opted in or unsubscribed from receiving unwanted emails.

Manual lists are important to the overall opt-in process. They house those leads that do not satisfy the opt-in status and let you confirm lead statuses as a whole.

To create an opt-in manual list, do the following:

  1. Click Contacts > Lists in SharpSpring's top toolbar.
  2. Click  12cog.png  Options > New List.
  3. Enter a name for the list.
  4. Select the folder to add the list to from the Add this list to the folder drop-down menu.
  5. Click the Make this list available in the Contact Manager checkbox.
  6. Select the Manual list option.
  7. Click Create List.
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Note: For list management purposes, consider naming this list as something similar to Need to Confirm Opt-In Status.

Ideally, you should review this list on a regular basis. That way, you can account for the leads that are on the list. You cannot send emails to these leads without risking your sending reputation or otherwise being non-compliant with best sending practices. 


Creating Rules-Based Lists

Rules-based lists will dynamically remove a member when the lead no longer meets any lead action rules. These lists can be configured to remove those leads who have not opted in to receive your emails.

To create a rules-based list that focuses on leads who have opted in to receive your content, do the following:

  1. Click Contacts > Lists in SharpSpring's top toolbar.
  2. Click  12cog.png  Options > New List.
  3. Enter a name for the list.
  4. Select the folder to add the list to from the Add this list to the folder drop-down menu.
  5. Select the Rules-Based list option.
  6. Click Create List.
  7. Click Create Rule.
  8. Select is explicitly opted in to receive email, located under Lead.
  9. Check all of the opt-in reason checkboxes.
  10. Click Save. 
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Note: For list management purposes, consider naming this list as something similar to Confirmed Double Opt-In.

Once created, this list will contain any and all leads that are confirmed to be opted in. These are leads that have shown explicit consent in that they want to continue receiving your emails.

You should be confident that these leads want your content. These leads will be more likely to engage with your content. This means that whenever you send emails, you should send emails to those leads that are on this list.
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Creating Action Groups

Once you have created your lists, you can create the heart of your opt-in automation: a branching action group. When created and activated, this action group will send unsubscribed leads to your manual list, and those leads who have opted in to your rules-based list. 

To create the action group that contains opt-in rules, do the following:

  1. Click Automation > Action Groups in SharpSpring's top toolbar.
  2. Click New Action Group.
  3. Enter a name for the action group.
  4. Select the folder to add the action group to to from the Add this action group to the folder drop-down menu.
  5. Click the Make this action group available in the Contact Manager checkbox.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Ensure the Action Group is toggle is set to Active.  
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Note: For action group management purposes, consider naming this action group as something similar to Send Custom Opt-In Email.

 


Adding the First Branch: Email Action and Time Delay

Once you have created the action group, it will be empty. You will need to add the automation branches and filtering logic. As this action group will be doing two separate things at once, it will need two distinct automation branches. 

The initial part of the first automation branch will be based on leads responding within a set amount of time to your created opt-in email. 

To create the first branch of the action group, do the following:

  1. Click Automation > Action Groups in SharpSpring's top toolbar.
  2. Create an action group.
  3. Click + Add > Action. 
  4. Select send the email, located under Communication.
  5. Enter the name of your created opt-in email.
  6. Click OK.
  7. Click + Add > Time Delay under the created email action.
  8. Enter the desired number in the Numeric Value field.
  9. Select the desired measurement of time from the Unit of Time drop-down menu.
  10. Click OK.
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Note: Consider setting the time delay to be something close a week. This will give your leads an appropriate length of time to see your email and respond to it. If a lead does not respond to an email within a week, they are not likely to at all.

 


Completing the First Branch: Unsubscription Status and Manual Lists

At this point, the first branch will be open-ended with a time delay. That time delay, as the name implies, delays an action by a specific amount of time.

This branch will utilize this time delay to add to your manual list those contacts who have not read your email or otherwise not opted in to receive your content within a set period of time. 

To complete this branch, do the following:

  1. Click Automation > Action Groups in SharpSpring's top toolbar.
  2. Create an action group.
  3. Add an email action with a time delay.
  4. Click + Add > Action under the created time delay.
  5. Select change contact field, located under Contact Edit Actions.
  6. Type Is Unsubscribed in the Field Name field.
  7. Select True from the To This Value drop-down menu.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Click + Add > Action under the created unsubscribe field action.
  10. Select add to list, which is located under List Actions.
  11. Enter the name of your created manual list.
  12. Click OK.  
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Adding the Second Branch: Gated Email Trigger 

To complete this action group, you will need to add a second branch. This branch will send all leads that have opted in to your rules-based list.

This branch is separated from the first branch by a gated trigger. Gated triggers only activate if the trigger's condition is satisfied by the contact already being part of the parent workflow. 

To add this branch, do the following:

  1. Click Automation > Action Groups in SharpSpring's top toolbar.
  2. Create an action group.
  3. Add an email action with a time delay.
  4. Add contact and unsubscription actions.
  5. Click + Add > Trigger under the created email action.
  6. Select visits from the email, located under Email.
  7. Select 1 time from the How Often drop-down menu.
  8. Select or more from the Comparison drop-down menu.
  9. Click the Remove from parent action group checkbox.
  10. Select the Gated Trigger option.
  11. Click OK.
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Important: If you select exactly in the Comparison drop-down menu, the action group will not function as intended. This is because if a lead has satisfied the action group's logic once before, this counts as exactly once. This means the lead will not go through the trigger and will be automatically unsubscribed.

 


Completing the Second Branch: Opt-In Status and Lists

The gated trigger will need an action. This action will keep those contacts who have opted in to receive your content from your manual list, and add them to your rules-based list.

To complete the branch and add the action, do the following:

  1. Click Automation > Action Groups in SharpSpring's top toolbar.
  2. Create an action group.
  3. Add an email action with a time delay.
  4. Add contact and unsubscription actions.
  5. Add a gated trigger.
  6. Click + Add > Action under the created gated trigger.
  7. Select change contact field, located under Contact Edit Actions.
  8. Type Is Opted In in the Field Name field.
  9. Select True from the To This Value drop-down menu.
  10. Click OK.
  11. Click + Add > Action under the created opt-in field action.
  12. Select remove from list, located under List Actions.
  13. Enter the name of your created manual list.
  14. Click OK.
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Creating Workflows

Once you have created your action group, you can add it to workflows. The workflows will operate based on the trigger that starts the automation.

The action group will then automatically activate, requesting that the lead that triggered the automation confirm that they are opting in to receive your future communications.

To create a workflow for confirming opt-in statuses, do the following:

  1. Click Marketing > Automation > Visual Workflows in SharpSpring's top toolbar.
  2. Click Create > Visual Workflow.
  3. Enter a name for the workflow.
  4. Click OK.
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Note: For workflow management purposes, consider naming this workflow as something similar to Opt-In Action Group Workflow.

 


Adding Triggers and Action Groups

Once you have created the workflow, you can begin customizing it to request that leads opt in to receiving your content. This is done by:

  • Adding an initial trigger that starts the automation when a lead does a specific thing
  • Inserting your created action group that sends opt-in emails and manages your opt-in list

To add a trigger and action group to the created workflow, do the following:

  1. Click Marketing > Automation > Visual Workflows in SharpSpring's top toolbar.
  2. Create a visual workflow.
  3. Click + Add > Trigger.
  4. Select fills out the form, located under Form.
  5. Enter the name of your created opt-in form.
  6. Select at any time from the When drop-down menu.
  7. Click OK. 
  8. Click + Add > Action Group under the created trigger. 
  9. Enter the name of your created opt-in action group.
  10. Select the Start this action group option.
  11. Click OK.
  12. Set the workflow's activity toggle to Active.
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Note: If your action group is inactive, it will not be able to be selected.


 

Regarding Multiple Initial Triggers and Different Workflows

The fills out the form trigger represents the most common way people can request your content. This is because users have to interact with this form and purposefully fill it out in order to request your content. This does not mean that you cannot use other triggers to create opt-in workflows or otherwise filter leads into specific lists. 

You can use any relevant trigger to start this workflow, such as when users visit a specific landing page or when they view a certain email. You could, in turn, use any combination of those triggers in the same workflow to start the action group. SharpSpring recommends using the action group in different workflows, however. This is because you can see which leads were filtered by the individual workflows. 

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