Skip to main content

Customizing the Confirmation Message Template

Updated

Confirmed or double opt in lists are an import element in the permission email model. Making your lists conform in this manner shows your customers and prospects that you care about their privacy and work hard to ensure that only those people that desire to join your lists do so. We encourage all our customers to enable these features.

If you're not familiar with this model, it's quite simple. Here's a basic overview:
  • User visits your site and signs up for one of your lists
  • They're taken to a landing page after they press "submit" that tells them that a confirmation message will appear shortly in their inbox
  • User receives confirmation message via email and clicks on the link to confirm their intentions to join your list

Users can't join your list unless they participate in the confirmation process. Additionally, they'll only see your confirmation messages if their address are valid. These are both good things.

Personalizing the experience

To make the experience more personal, we've enabled the list editing system so that you can create and brand the messages your audience receives when they sign-up for your lists. Here's how to use it:

  1. Create a new template with a name you'll recognize as being related to confirmation messages; example: confirmation messages
  2. Create a plain-text and HTML version of the message you'd like recipients to read (see custom message content below for more details)
  3. Visit any existing list or create a new one
  4. Select the options tab
  5. Check the box labeled Require list sign-ups to be confirmed
  6. If you'd like to specify a From address, do so in the edit box labeled From
  7. Select the template you created in the first step using the drop-down list
  8. Select the format you'd like the message to be sent in
Now, whenever someone attempts to join that list, they'll receive a customized message with instructions for confirming participation in your list. Please note, however, that a little more information is required before this feature can be used.

Custom message content

You can place anything you like into the plain-text and HTML areas of your confirmation message template. But, to make it work for the purposes of helping people confirm their list subscriptions, you'll need to include a special link they can click on. Here's a plain-text example of a message (special tags are highlighted in blue):

Your email address '%%$email%%' has been submitted
to be subscribed to the '%%$list_name%%' mailing list.
The list creator has asked that all new sign-up requests be confirmed.

To confirm that you want to join this list, simply click on this
link to confirm your request:
%%$confirmation_request_link%%

The system will automatically replace tags like %%$email%% with actual data. If you would like to create your own confirmation link, you can create a URL similar to:

http://whatcounts.com/bin/confirm?code=%%$confirmation_code%%

This way, if you've already established (with WhatCounts, Inc.) a DNS host or alias record that points to whatcounts.com, you can use it to construct a link that appears to come from your organization.

Custom message content

Here's a complete list of custom tags supported through the confirmation process:

Custom Tag Description
%%$confirmation_code%% A confirmation code that can be added to a URL to complete a link users can click on to confirm their intentions
%%$confirmation_request_link%% A fully-formed URL/link
%%$confirmation_reply_address%% Reply address (not currently available for customization)
%%$list_name%% The name of your list
%%$email%% The recipient's email address

 

Related articles