The Welcome Message and Double Opt-In

Today’s Email Insider Column, by Whitney Hutchinson, discusses having a "Contact Plan" as the building blocks for success. I agree with the column overall with the exception of the welcome message.

While I do agree that welcome messages are an extremely important part of the overall messaging strategy and should most definitely be used, there needs to be some thought put into timing if you are employing double opt-in best practices as a part of your email marketing campaign.

From a consumer point of view, it's overwhelming to receive the message asking for confirmation of my subscription and as soon as I click the link to confirm I receive a welcome message. It leaves me with an "Enough already" feeling when that happens.

A better option may be to time your welcome message to come within the next 24 hours

Instead of using Welcome Message Functionality, if it is available, use you recurring message feature combined with a query to send your Welcome Message to anyone who has opted-in one day in the past.

Your Welcome Message will be much more welcome if you are not overwhelming your newest subscribers.