The Double Opt-In node is available for both Interactions and Automation Center programs. This node helps you easily automate your Confirmed Opt-in (COI) or Double Opt-in (DOI) process. The Double Opt-In node is fully GDPR-compliant and takes care of the following:
- it sends an email with a personalized confirmation link to each contact,
- it captures the contact's click (confirmation) of the link when it happens,
- it sets the confirmed opt-in status and
- it saves all legally required Double Opt-in confirmation data, including timestamps, IP addresses related to these in your contact database.
Please note that the DOI email is a triggered email which ignores the opt-in status of the contacts. We do not recommend using it for sending non-DOI emails to contacts to avoid harming your sender reputation.
The DOI link generated by the Double Opt-In node will work as long as the contact receiving the email is in your database.
Prerequisites
Regardless of your actual Double Opt-in journey, you need to take care of the following assets:
- Clear definitions for opt-in strategies, including identification of optional opt-in fields and the use cases they cover.
- Understanding of your contact import process.
- Success and Error pages hosted on your website.
Please be aware that the Double Opt-In node could negatively affect the performance of your operations if used extensively. Therefore, be thoughtful of your consent management strategies, and cover them with one or two automation journeys.
General Double Opt-in journey structure
This is the high-level overview of the journey:
1. Create a DOI journey that responds to new contact registrations to start the journey. Depending on your existing contact import method, this can be an Interactions or an Automation Center program.
2. Configure the Double Opt-In node. When you configure the node, it also creates:
- DOI fields in the contact database
- the Send DOI-Mail event
3. Create a contact personalization token for the DOI_Url to be used in the message.
4. Create a new Triggered Email for the DOI mail sending. This email will be triggered by the Send DOI-Mail event triggered by the node, and the content will use the DOI_Url token to display the personalized DOI link.
Depending on your use cases and data setup, you may want to use the Double opt-in program and trigger for other scenarios, such as triggering a Welcome journey. You may also want to add multi-language management or use another channel than email. In these cases, we recommend discussing the possibilities with your Client Success Manager.
Creating a DOI journey
First, you need to decide if you would like to use Interactions or Automation Center to create your journey. The transactional processing method used by Interactions guarantees that messages are sent out within 10 seconds (for more information on the Interactions fair usage policy, click here). In the case of Automation Center, a longer delay can be expected.
The choice depends on the contact import solution your account is set up with:
- SAP Commerce Cloud, Shopify and Adobe Commerce integrations and implementations using the Emarsys API can use External events with Interactions to create a real-time transactional journey.
- API events coming from another system (external API events) should also trigger Interactions to ensure fast execution and solid customer experience.
- Accounts set up using the form, HTTPS feed or file auto-import features to manage the contact database can use Automation Center to create a DOI journey.
Using an Interactions program
We recommend using Interactions, as it guarantees that your DOI messages are sent within 10 seconds. For more information on the Interactions fair usage policy, click here.
1. On the Management > External Events page, create and set up an External event for new contact registrations (e.g. New contact registration). This External event will be used to trigger the DOI automation.
Implementations using the SAP Commerce Cloud, Shopify or Adobe Commerce integration map some webshop events to External events by default. If you are using one of these, you can skip Step 1 and Step 2.
You can find the the External event ID on the External Events page.
2. Set up the External Event trigger API call using your External event ID (e.g. POST /v2/event/100002621/trigger).
3. Navigate to Automation > Automation Programs, click Create Program and select Behavior-focused journeys (Interactions).
4. Select the External event source.
5. Name your Interactions program.
6. Double-click the entry node and configure it as follows:
a. Select your External event (e.g. New contact registration).
b. Under Trigger event timeout, select Disable timeout to ensure that these messages will not time out and are delivered even in case of a delay caused by system outage.
7. Under Actions, click the Double Opt-In node to add it to your program and follow the instructions in Configuring the Double Opt-In node.
Using an Automation Center program
1. Navigate to Automation > Automation Programs, click Create Program and select Audience-focused journeys (Automation Center).
2. Add an entry node that matches your contact data import strategy:
a. Form - Use this entry node if contact registration is processed through an Emarsys form.
b. New contact - Use this entry node if contact registration is processed through an HTTPS feed or manual file import.
c. On auto-import - Use this entry node if contact registration is processed through file auto-imports.
3. Double-click the entry node and select your contact import source.
4. Under Actions, click the Double Opt-In node to add it to your program and follow the instructions in Configuring the Double Opt-In node.
Configuring the Double Opt-In node
The Double Opt-In node's configuration options are the same in Interactions and Automation Center programs.
The node creates the required resources automatically when you configure the Double Opt-In node. This includes the DOI_* fields in your contact database and the Send DOI-Mail event.
It's important to click Done when you have configured the Double Opt-In node, otherwise the fields and External events will not be created.
Here you can find detailed information on the configuration options:
Actions when passing through the node
Here is what happens when a contact passes through the Double Opt-In node:
1. A contact-specific DOI link is generated. For example: node-doi.ems-ci.com/acnode/confirm.html?rid=27&cid=212411983&uid=FXb2JKI3Mc&pid=616837db13bc5b480a993fd2&
Please note that the URL does not contain the protocol prefix. If you display the full link in your email, remember to add the https:// prefix to it.
4. The node will set the value of the system Opt-in field to [empty] to ensure that all previous opt-in selection is purged until the consent is granted.
5. Optionally, you can set other fields. You can select a single or multiple fields that are updated when the Double Opt-In node is triggered. For example, you can use this for resetting the opt-in field or updating any custom field that you may want to use in this journey (it comes in handy if you have multiple newsletter categories contacts can subscribe to weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, or specific themes like gadgets, clothes or kitchen appliances). For more information, see Creating custom fields. You can choose from the following field types:
- single-choice
- short text
- long text
- large text
- numeric
Notes:
- You can only select the
opt-infield or custom fields. Other system fields are not accessible from here. - If you select the short text, long text, large text or numeric field type, then you can only write a limited set of predefined values:
0,1,2orempty.
6. The Send DOI-Mail External event is triggered for the contact (you can select a custom External event, in this case, you need to create it on the Management > External Events page). This action triggers the sending of the email created in Step 4 in section General Double Opt-in journey structure. This email contains the DOI_Url generated by the node. When the contact clicks the link, the node will control the process as described in DOI links settings.
Please note that the selected event will not be triggered if it would trigger the same program where the specific Double Opt-In node can be found.
DOI link settings
Here you can see how to enter your success and error page URLs. The node redirects contacts to these pages when they click the DOI link sent to them.
7. Forwarding success URL: Contacts are redirected to this page (e.g. https://www.lifestlylelabels.com/success.html) if the node is able to perform all actions configured in Actions on successful DOI. Emarsys does not offer success page templates but this page should essentially communicate: "Thank you, your registration or subscription was confirmed."
8. Forwarding error URL: Contacts are redirected to this page if the node cannot perform all the actions configured in Actions on successful DOI. This may happen when:
a. Emarsys experiences a system outage. In this case, the links will work again when the outage is over.
b. When the node cannot write the DOI data to the contact database because the destination fields have been deleted or changed. In this case, the issue has to be resolved first. If you need further assistance, please contact Emarsys Support.
Emarsys does not offer error page templates but this page should essentially communicate: "Something went wrong, please try again in a few minutes. If you're experiencing this error repeatedly, please contact our Customer Support."
You can only use a limited set of placeholders or personalization variables in these URLs. The placeholders are replaced with user values (URL encoded) before the URL is called. For more information, see Adding placeholders or personalization variables to the Forwarding success URL.
Actions on successful DOI
Here is what happens after a successful DOI:
9. The current date is saved into the DOI_Date field and the contact's IP address into the DOI_IP field (you can customize both fields in the node settings). The opt-in status is updated in your contact database (you can customize the target opt-in field in the node settings).
10. A custom, optional action such as writing or updating an alternative opt-in field is executed or an External event is triggered (e.g. to continue the registration journey with a Welcome tactic).
Please do not select the entry event (e.g. the New contact registration External event) in the Execute Event (on success, optional) dropdown because the Double Opt-In node will not work in this case.
Creating a personalization token for the DOI_Url value
1. Navigate to Content > Personalization, click Create Token and select Contact Data.
2. Name the token.
3. Select or create a category for the token.
4. Select the DOI_Url field as a reference (this field was created when you configured the Double Opt-In node).
5. Check the Field content is a requirement for sending checkbox. It ensures that the email is only sent if the content of the DOI_Url field is present.
Creating a Triggered email for DOI sending
1. Navigate to Channels > Triggered Email, select the Mail Streams tab and click Create Mail Stream.
2. Choose the email type you need (i.e. Custom HTML Email or Block-Based Email), select a template and click Create Campaign.
3. On the Email Settings page, select External Event under Trigger settings and choose the Send DOI-Mail event that was created automatically when you configure the Double Opt-In node.
4. Edit the email according to your needs.
5. Add a CTA button to the campaign (e.g. Confirm registration), select the button and click the Link editor icon. Add the DOI_Url personalization token created earlier to the URL and optionally to the Title fields.
6. When you are ready, click Save.
Testing the Double Opt-In node configuration
To check that your Double Opt-In node is configured correctly, copy the link from the contact field that you configured as the DOI_Url field, add the string &debug to the end of the link, then open it in your browser.
Checking the DOI success reporting
You check how your program performs on the email reporting screens and on the Trend reporting page.
Adding contact data to the Forwarding success URL
The DOI node allows you to use a limited number of contact data substitutions. This placeholder substitution is different from the personalisation feature available in the Emarsys platform, so you can only use a limited set of variables and in a different syntax. The placeholders are replaced with user values (URL encoded) before the URL is called. This is how a sample link looks like: http://www.test.com/doiconfirm.php?uid=$uid$.
| Placeholder | Output description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| $uid$ | Alphanumeric user ID | ePTfQQ3lyv |
| $userid$ | Alphanumeric user ID | ePTfQQ3lyv |
| $user_id$ | Alphanumeric user ID | ePTfQQ3lyv |
| $pers_3$ | The user’s email address | John.smith%40example.com |
| $email$ | The user’s email address | John.smith%40example.com |
To append other placeholders, like campaign name, or additional parameters you have to insert them directly in the URL field of the campaign after the $DOI_Url$. All additional parameters have to be appended to the forwarding URLs. For example: http://t.de/param=1#hash.
The following parameters cannot be added to the forwarding URLs because they are used internally: a, sub, rid, cid, uid, pid, debug.