Ep. 116 – In this episode, Chris is diving into the best strategy to deliver your leadmagnets for the highest deliverability rate. He breaks down the difference between single, double, and single-double opt-in strategies and covers how to ensure you’re building a list of high intent leads while increasing your open and click through rates. Tune into this episode to learn the importance of the single-double blueprint and how to properly start deploying it in your business immediately.
Strategic Insight: The Single-Double Blueprint
What You'll Learn
- [3:30] Chris breaks down what a single opt-in is
- [5:20] What a double opt-in is and how it is different from the single opt-in
- [11:14] Who the single-double opt-in is best for
- [11:30] Chris walks through what the single-double opt-in entails and how to set it up
- [19:21] Platforms that Chris has successfully used to build out the single-double opt-in
- [19:48] How the single-double opt-in ensures you’re building a list of high intent leads
- [20:28] Other considerations you will need to account for when delivering your leadmagnet
- [20:50] The biggest mistake Chris sees people make when it comes to this strategy
- [21:56] How to get more in-depth training on delivering lead magnets, protecting the hygiene of your lists, and increasing engagement, open rates and click rates
Today's Guest
Resources Mentioned
Transcript
Narrator 0:00
You’re listening to the off systems go podcast, the show that teaches you everything you need to know to put your business on autopilot. Learn how to deploy automated marketing and sell systems in your business the right way with your host, the professor of automation himself and founder of automation bridge, Chris Davis.
Chris Davis 0:32
Welcome to another episode of The off systems go podcast where we invite startup founders and digital marketers to discuss strategies and software used to build automated marketing and sales systems at scale. I’m your host, Chris Davis, the founder of automation bridge. And in this episode, I want to talk about how to deliver your lead magnets in a way that’s consistent and increases your deliverability want to in this is one of the foundational fundamental moves or strategies in digital marketing. And a lot of people don’t get this right. Simply put, this is this is what I call I created. And I call it my single double blueprint. And it’s a single double opt in strategy. But you many of you may have seen it in the in the wild on the website as a single double blueprint. And I’ll be honest, I should probably be a bit of shame that it took me over 100 episodes. For me to record this as this has been one of the strongest and most consistent strategies I’ve used across all industries at a high level of success. I created this before GDPR. And because of its strength in bulletproof Innes, it still stands the legal requirements of GDPR, and many other privacy policies, laws and requirements today, so I’m not exaggerating when I say I was a bit ahead of my time with this one. And I’ll be honest, at the time of creating it, I didn’t realize how important it would be. So this is why you need to understand how to properly set it up, and what it is and why it’s important. So I’m using this entire episode to walk you through it. For those of you who have been following me for a while you may have downloaded this as a free offer, you may have enrolled in the course, this is going to serve as a really good refresher, just to reiterate, it’s it’s really good to learn and keep learning the same thing to make sure that you’re embodying it, not just applying it but you’re embodying it, it becomes muscle memory is what athletes will say when they practice so much that they don’t have to think about it anymore. Their bodies, their muscles just respond, this is what I want this strategy to be for you. So first, let’s break down the difference between double and single opt in. Okay, double opt in and single opt in. And this is important because you’ll find that the single double is properly named as it takes on the best attributes of both strategies. I didn’t create it to be oxymoronic was like, Well, it can’t be a single and a double, it literally takes the best of both. Okay, it’s like it’s like a child that takes the best of both parents and leaves the rest leaves the rest of of the mess with them. So starting with single opt in. This is when someone provides information from a form on your website, and they can immediately start to receive emails to that address without any other form of verification required. This means that email doesn’t have to be a real one, it can be spelled wrong. There’s no way for you to prevent or, or verified that email addressed before sending emails. And back in the day. And when I say back in the day, this is when I got started around 2012 ish. No, it was before then 2007 ish, where it was primarily Aweber. You didn’t have a single opt in as a feature. Everything had to be double opt in MailChimp couldn’t do single opt in it had to be double opt in. Everybody was forcing double opt in. So single opt in wasn’t even a option. And I remember I found eye contact and it was one of the main platforms. And this is before I knew what I was doing that allow single opt in. So I was like finally, I don’t have to verify email addresses and I can just start sending and doing so in short, I ended up getting banned from the platform because the email addresses that I were putting I was putting in there. A lot of them were not real and I was sending them to them and in my defense I’m like well the system let me send them to him. So why are you blaming me? It was a mess and I do not recommend single opt in for any stretch Unless it’s filling out a contact form and sending out a basic autoresponder, like we ever received your information. Now it is just to privacy is too important to use single opt in where you don’t have any record of verification or permission from the lead. Okay, so this is where double opt in comes in. double opt in requires that the contact that after they submit their information, usually from a form that they receive an email this is called an autoresponder they receive an email immediately. And that email contains a link that they have to click in order to verify not just their email address, but give you permission to send them ongoing information or emails. So if they don’t click this link, that means you cannot email them. In systems, they may look like inactive and active, confirmed and unconfirmed. And until they click the link, they don’t move from unconfirmed to confirmed, every lead by default is unconfirmed or inactive. Once they click the link, they become active. And
Chris Davis 6:08
historically, these emails the problem has been that the email that contains this link has not been able to be fully customized. So you get this static, hey, we’ve requested you’ve requested to join this list and click the email below MailChimp still does this. And it’s very, I find it very abrasive, you know, you should be able to really customize that email to be what it needs to be. And the first platform that allowed me to do that, in its totality was active campaign. A lot of people don’t even know that you can fully customize the double opt in email, inside of Active Campaign use the Merge Tag, custom link to create your own custom link and the destination of it. It’s a whole thing. But it’s essentially the closest I’ve come to a platform that allows you the free flexibility of updating or editing that double opt in required email. Okay, so again, double opt in you’ve, you’ve provided your information, you’re going to get an email until you click that link in the email, I can’t send you emails. And the problem has been that both lack the true control required to pull off delivering me lead magnets consistently in a way that doesn’t hurt your deliverability. Okay, and just a quick definition deliverability is the probability of your email making it into your contacts inbox. If you want to learn more about it, we recorded an entire episode me and Adrian savage together. That’s episode number 89. So go and listen to that. And there are drawbacks to the double opt in. I mentioned the email not being fully customizable. But there also is events. If somebody registers for an event, they don’t want to get an email that says hey, click this link so we can add you to our list or like wait a minute, what list are you talking about are registered for an event. So there are a lot of ways of registering when you enroll in courses, where double opt in just kind of feels a little abrasive and out of context in some at some capacity. There also, there also is no way to send custom reminders, or or tag contacts appropriately if they don’t click that link after a set amount of time. So both the single opt in and double opt in provides you with some abilities and a lot of inabilities so now
Chris Davis 8:50
what what I have always started off with double opt in and it was very nervous to use single opt in, but as the marketing needs mature, this is specifically when I was at lead page and I was like man, we just really need a way to have more control and and the people who are not opting in, we need to give them a second chance. And there was just no built in way to do this in Infusionsoft. My I’m saying Infusionsoft intentionally not Infusionsoft by KEAP. But back in the day Infusionsoft, we had to use action sets to send a legacy link in the so in the campaign builder, there was an actual set action. And then that action set had an email that you built out in it that sent the email with the custom link. And then there were some times where we could actually take that custom link and put it in an email that would the click would trigger an action set. that would that would set them as confirmed. Long story short, very difficult. Very difficult, but I learned how to pull it off in Infusionsoft and since then I’ve been using it in Active Campaign. Spot, things of that nature, just some quick history. So along with that historical background, email marketing platforms have really taking this upon themselves, all of the logic, hey, send an email, if they don’t click can send the email, if they click confirm them, they can send emails going forward. And this is where the single double comes in, it takes control of the logic, and puts you in the driver’s seat for increased deliverability and engagement. So let me just say this disclaimer, we’ve talked about the double opt in the single opt in, but even give you some historic history around how I’ve used single opt in double opt in the difficulties and complexities when I was using Infusionsoft back in the day to pull this off, as well as other platforms that didn’t allow it easily get response was another one that I had to work some magic on. So this strategy is best used for those who plan to keep a clean list you are in you, you are more concerned with quality than quantity. Okay? You know that both are important, but show lean and prioritize quality over quantity and decide to email you’re deciding not to email contacts that do not want or haven’t signed up to receive emails ongoing. Okay, just a quick disclaimer, if you purchase list or have a copy to capture emails, I do not suggest using this strategy at all, because my name is attached to it, but it will work. It will still work if you use it. It’s just one of those things. So let me walk you through the single opt in. I mean, the single the single double opt in blueprint, so that you can truly understand the strategy and start deploying it in your business immediately, by the way immediately. Um, the first step is to start with single opt in. This means that you need to disable double opt in inside of your email marketing platform. Since you’ll be taking on the task of verification yourself. Some platforms use a special link for their double opt in email and you’re able to merge that in manually to other links. Otherwise, don’t worry about it. The strategy will work without it and be sure that you disable I can’t say this enough to be sure that you disabled double opt in in Active Campaign, I believe it’s called confirmation opt in. But that language is pretty consistent across all platforms, but be sure you disable it. Because now you’re taking off. Listen, you’re taking off the guardrails, but we’re about to put our own guardrails in, okay, the built in guardrails to protect you from sending emails, bounced emails to, to email addresses that are misspelled don’t exist, things of that nature, we’re going to take this on ourselves. So disable it by disabling double opt in you, by default have enabled single opt in, alright, your automation is going to look something like this and have a start trigger that that that is a form submission, and then an email that goes out immediately with the link to the resource they requested within the email. Nope, you did not put the delivery of the free lead magnet, you didn’t put it on the thank you page, you put it in the email that they have to click the link that’s important. If you put it on the thank you page, you break the strategy, the blueprint won’t work. Okay. Next, you’re going to emulate double opt in by adding a wait state to your automation that waits until they click the link in order for them to proceed through the automation. So they’ll just be waiting there until they click the link. And then once they click the link, they’ll be able to start receiving your drip sequence of emails and or newsletters. And this is the most important step as that link click will serve as your verification that they agree to receive ongoing communication if you want to in that email. You can even put something right below it and say hey, by clicking this link, you’re giving us permission to continue to send you emails if it’s a four to five part email drip sequence, you can say by clicking this link, you’re giving us permission to send you four to five emails over the next two weeks. Right clicking this link will give you access to the download as well as give us permission to send you four to five emails over the next two weeks about XYZ. Okay, be very clear with it. There’s no no reason not to. And and you can also insert in platforms.
Chris Davis 14:26
The link click Remember we’re talking about the initial email that you sent out fully customized, it’s got a regular link to the to the lead magnet. When they click that link. It can also be coupled with actions that add a note to the contact record it can update a date field. The note can say on this date, you gave us permission to send you the following information and that note exists on the contact record. You can also timestamp put that day into a custom date field as verification of the date as well. This This is why this strategy is much greater than any built in double opt in, because you don’t get all of that. And you can do that alone. The customer journeys say, hey, on this date, they click a link they read or they submit a form to register, you can add another note to their account, hey, they registered for this event and agree to get email reminders. So now somebody says, Hey, why are you sending me emails, you can literally pull up their contact record. And all the notes show the actions that they took, take that screenshot, give it to your attorney, their attorney, whatever the case is, protect yourself. Okay. This is why the single double blueprint is the strongest I have, I have not seen anything stronger, because it encompasses every consideration that you need to be taken into every consideration that needs to be taken in order to market online, and an ongoing matter that prevents you from being blacklisted from email service providers and ensures that your emails get delivered. Okay. So they you’re emulating the double opt in by adding a wait state that says wait until they click that link in the email before they proceed. Once they click the link, not only will they proceed, but you’re able to add a note, you can tag them at anything else to show as verification on their contact record that they gave you permission. Okay? Essentially, the core of the single double is done, right, but we don’t stop there. If they don’t click the link. Now, you’ll see the other side of the single double blueprint, this strategy and its strength. If they don’t click the link, you know, a day later, you can set up a reminder email to go out or reminders. And this is where both the single the built in single and double opt in strategies fall short, and why the single double strategy provides everything you need. Because you can not only customize the initial email, customize the actions and start to populate the contact record to show verification that they gave you permission. But you can also send reminders. Okay, you can also pay did you still want this? Some of you may have gotten got that email from me. If you opted in for the five point automation checklist, then download it the next day you get an email that says hey, did you still want it? And guess what if you don’t click a link in the delivery or reminder email, I’m not going to send you emails. Because I’m a firm believer in data has proven that oftentimes how someone starts with you, is how they stay with you. So if they start out, not opening emails, not engaging, they’re not going to start engaging, they can always opt in again and change their ways. But once they opt in that customer journey is set by what they do in those first few days. So if you’re not if you’re not engaging now, I’m not going to keep sending you newsletters for the next three to four months, let you drive down my deliverability. And then people who really want my emails can’t get my emails, because I’m mailing all of these tire kickers. The term I coined for this is engagement gating. That’s what the single double blueprint does. A gates your ongoing email sending by engagement, if you don’t engage, you don’t get emails. And of course, there’s other automations that we add to it to monitor ongoing engagement, but out the gate delivering the lead magnet, this is the way. So now that you have reminders, you got the Delivery Email, if they click a link in any of those, because the reminder emails has the same link that the initial Delivery Email has. If they click a link in any of those emails, they proceed, they proceed and they can now start receiving the follow up sequence. There are other tags and actions that I add to these automations. I won’t go over it in detail in this podcast, as I have an entire course is called campaigns that converts that walks through this provides a downloadable blueprint for you to print off to look through, you know, and a video walkthrough of how to set this up and easy for you to follow as well as access to the private community for ongoing growth and assistance. And I must say this.
Chris Davis 19:21
I have for the record. I’ve built this strategy in drip ConvertKit Infusionsoft by keep Infusionsoft Ontraport, Active Campaign HubSpot and go high level most of the platforms that you’re looking at for marketing automation, I have successfully built this out in and prove that it works. So So going back to the strategy, remember the key is this. We are talking about engagement gating. once and only once an email link is clicked do they proceed to the follow up sequence? You have to be willing to say that because some of you be like well They didn’t click, but I still want them to get these promos know, what are you doing? Do not, I repeat do not. Or let me say proceed at your own risk. Okay, because doing so making sure they click that link, it ensures only the highest intent leads get the communication from you that they requested, and you’re open and click through rates are going to be the highest due to it.
Chris 20:27
Okay. There’s other considerations that you need to take, in terms of copy on your website, how you explain what they will receive, we talked about the email itself, the key is to be extremely clear. And to reiterate as much as possible, the type of messaging you’re going to be sending in an on going fashion. I’ll say this, the biggest mistake I see people make is not deploying the actual strategy wrong. It’s not being clear on the type of messaging, and the cadence of their messaging in an ongoing fashion. A lot of people just don’t know. They’re like, I don’t know what to put on my website, because they don’t know what they’re sending. They just know they want to get email addresses for this free offer that they created in Canva. And they just everybody told them build a list. Now you’ve you really got to plan this stuff out. Okay, have your initial email sequence, but after that, what kind of communication are they going to receive? All right, we’ll put that on your website, so that you can get permission to do exactly that. So again, this strategy works across the globe. Across the globe, I’ve talked to attorneys about this. There’s a podcast on active campaigns website somewhere, when GDPR came out, I sat down and talked to their attorneys at the time. And they told me, This strategy is legally binding, it will work, you are protected. Okay. So I mentioned that this is covered in one of my courses called campaigns that convert and this is just one one course of many that you get for free when you enroll in the amplify my automation package. And yes, that package also includes the automation service provider program. So I wanted to give you all just a sneak peek at one the comprehensive value of the amplify my automation package. But also make sure that you understand how to deliver lead magnets today and ongoing in a way that protects the hygiene of your lists, increases engagement and boosts your opens and clicks. This is the way the single double blueprint is the only way that I recommend it. So now that you know how that you know how to do it. Make sure you do it responsibly and deliver your lead magnets. Wisely my friends. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The all systems co podcast. If you enjoyed it, make sure that you’re subscribed at the time of recording the all systems go podcast is free to subscribe to and it can be found in Apple podcast, Google podcast, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts new episodes are released every Thursday. So make sure you’re subscribed so that you don’t miss out and while you’re at it, please leave us a five star rating and review to show some love but also to help future listeners more easily find
Chris Davis 23:29
the podcast so they can experience the value of goodness as well. We’ve compiled all resources mentioned on the podcast, as well as other resources that are extremely valuable and effective at helping you grow your marketing automation skills quickly and you can access them all at allsystemsgopodcast.com. Thanks again for listening and until next time, I see you online. Automate responsibly my friends
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Discover how to deploy automated marketing, sales, and onboarding systems to scale your business without working long hours to do so.