Dear All,

In this blog, I would like to describe on how we can utilize the double opt-in functionality within Emarsys to seek explicit confirmation from customers.

1. Overview

Businesses working in DACH regions (i.e., Austria, Germany, and Switzerland) need to legally comply with the Double opt-in (DOI). DOI is when we are taking confirmation from the contacts over email that they are opting in for the marketing communications. Hence, enabling marketers working in DACH region with DOI functionality is important. DOI can also be implemented by other countries even though it may not be legally binding as it helps in reducing spam email addresses and thus protect your sender reputation. Since, this is an additional step for the user, it helps in gauging interest of customers in your brand. It also increases engagement, and it can be used as parameter to assess performance of your marketing efforts.

2. Business requirement

Business requirement is to send double opt-in confirmation email in real time to contacts when they register for any newsletter or promotions. Once customer confirms, opt-in should be populated as True in Emarsys. Also, along with this other subscription values should be changed to True. If customer fails to respond on email, then reminder email needs to be sent after 7 days (this can be defined by business) to the customer again for email confirmation.

3. Prerequisites for implementing DOI in Emarsys

Following are the prerequisites that needs to be done before configuring the DOI automation.

           A. Creation of External event: –

• External event needs to be created in Emarsys as it will be used to trigger the DOI automation.
• Whenever conditions are satisfied, SAP CPI will trigger API call with this external event ID to Emarsys.
• The same event will be used as entry node in automation to initiate the DOI automation in Emarsys.
• Following event is created in Emarsys under Management –>External event.

• Another External event is required to trigger the email. This external event will be used with in DOI node in Emarsys. On this event call, email will be sent to the contacts.

         B. Personalization token: –

• Personalization token needs to be created on DOI_URL field which will be used in the triggered DOI email on CTA button so that unique URL will be sent to each contact to track the response data.
• Following personalization token is created in Emarsys under Content–>Personalization.

       C. Triggered email for DOI

• Triggered email is used for sending the DOI confirmation email to customers. Once DOI node in the automation triggers the event (Send DOI-Mail) for sending an email, respective email stream will be called, and an email will be sent. Here, we can use different email template for different countries in DOI node as per the requirement.
• To ensure that unique URL should be sent to the contacts, a personalization token (i.e., DOI_URL token) is created with the help of DOI_URL field. This token is then added to the confirmation CTA button within campaign as a URL.

       D. Success/Error URL

• Success and Error URL need to be hosted somewhere before configuring DOI in Emarsys as it is prerequisite.
• Success URL will be used to redirect customers after successful confirmation on DOI email.
• Similarly, Error URL will be used to redirect customers if any issue occurs to customers while confirming DOI.

4. DOI Flow

For the seamless working of the DOI functionality, we need following fields to store the key parameters:-

The simple DOI flow is designed for demo purpose as per the following diagram:

• Here, we are getting contact data from multiple source systems through SAP CPI.
• In CPI, we are checking if contact is either from AT or DE or CH country and opt-in is true. If contact is from DACH countries, then it will proceed with the DOI flow else it will go to the normal opt-in.
• Once double opt-in mapping is done then trigger external event ID 457 where we are sending email ID of the contact in payload and further DOI automation will be initiated in Emarsys. Following is the screenshot from SAP CPI: –

With the API call, we are sending unique Key ID i.e., 3 (email) and email ID of the contacts in message body.

• Once Emarsys gets the external event trigger from CPI then DOI email needs to be sent to the contacts.
• To achieve the outcome as per requirement, we need to create automation as below: –

5. DOI Automations

• The automation journey is triggered when external event ID 457 is fired from CPI.
• The filtration is done based on the country. Multiple automations can be created for different DACH countries as per the requirement.
• Standard Emarsys DOI node is used in the automation. This node sets the DOI_sent and DOI_Url field and makes opt-in empty and sends the email as below.

• For triggering email, we are using event ID 482 (i.e., Send DOI-Mail) with in DOI node.

• On confirmation, contact will be diverted to either success URL page or error URL page.

• Once contact successfully confirms on email then Emarsys sets DOI_Date and DOI_IP fields and makes opt-in as true.

• We can also include custom subscriptions in DOI node to change them as per user confirmation.
• Wait node is added for 7 days as per requirement and then we are checking if confirmation is given by customers. If not, then DOI email will be sent again as a reminder and automation will be completed for a contact.
• This automation is for Demo purpose and can be modified as per the business requirements.

6. Conclusion

With this design, you will be able to setup double opt-in flow using external event in Emarsys. If you have any queries, please drop a comment. Kindly like and share this blog if you find it helpful.

Thanks & Regards,
Saurabh Deshpande.