> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.maestra.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Double Opt-In: How Two-Step Subscription Works
Double opt-in (DOI) is a two-step subscription confirmation flow for your email marketing program. With DOI turned on, new subscribers don't receive your campaigns until they click a confirmation link in a dedicated opt-in email. This guide explains how DOI works in Maestra, how to switch it on, how subscription statuses change once DOI is active, how to build a welcome flow around it, and how to turn DOI off again.
Double opt-in is widely considered a best practice for email deliverability and US anti-spam compliance (CAN-SPAM, CCPA-aligned consent records). It proves the subscriber actually owns the address they gave you and protects your sending reputation from typos, bots, and spam traps.
## What double opt-in is
Double opt-in means a customer does not start receiving your campaigns until they explicitly confirm their subscription by clicking the link in the opt-in email you send them.
Until they click that link, their subscription stays in the **Requires confirmation** status. Once they click, the status flips to **Subscribed** and regular campaigns start flowing.
Two concepts are related but distinct in Maestra:
* **Subscription confirmation (DOI)** — the customer's consent to receive campaigns in a given channel. It's tied to the channel (and optionally topic).
* **Contact confirmation** — proof that a specific email address or phone number belongs to a specific customer. It's tied to the contact itself, not to a channel.
You can confirm both in a single click by attaching an email-confirmation ticket to your opt-in link (see step 4 below).
## Turn on double opt-in
Go to **Settings → Campaigns → Email settings**.
Check the **Subscription confirmation** box and save.
Create the campaign that the workflow will send.
In the campaign settings, the **Subscription confirmation** profile must be selected. Then, in the template, mark the relevant link as the confirmation link for the channel or topic.
There's a second approach if you also want to confirm the contact (email address) at the same time. In the template, add an email-confirmation ticket to the link:
```
?direct-crm-ticket=${Ticket.EmailConfirmationLinkTicket}
```
The ticket only subscribes customers whose subscription status is **Requires confirmation**. If the customer was already **Unsubscribed**, clicking the ticketed link does not change their subscription.
Create a flow with the trigger **Subscription status changed to "Requires confirmation"** in the email channel.
Specify a topic only if you want confirmation for a specific topic. For channel-level confirmation, leave the topic empty.
In the **Steps** block, choose **Send email** and pick the opt-in campaign you built in the previous step.
On your site, add a dedicated page with the main tracker code installed. This is the page customers land on after clicking the confirmation link — typically a short "Your email is confirmed" message and a button back to the store.
Switching the project to double opt-in does **not** change the subscription status of customers who are already in your database. DOI applies to subscriptions created or changed after the switch.
## How email subscriptions change once DOI is on
With DOI active, a customer's email subscription can be in one of four statuses: **Subscribed**, **Unsubscribed**, **Requires confirmation**, or **No data**. How an incoming change is interpreted depends on which channel of data delivery it came through.
### API operations
**Register** — creates a new customer. You can't pass an unsubscribe here, only brand, channel, and topic.
* Any status → **Requires confirmation**
**Create and subscribe to campaigns** — always creates a new customer. If the customer already exists, a merge happens and the subscription follows the merge rules.
* Any status → **Requires confirmation**
**Import** — depends on what you pass in `/customer/subscriptions/subscription/isSubscribed`:
* `true` → **Subscribed**
* `false` → **Unsubscribed**
* No subscription block → **No data**
**Customer — Authorized — Edit** — only works on customers that already exist:
* `true` → **Subscribed**
* `false` → **Unsubscribed**
**Customer — Authorized — Append** and **Customer — Unauthorized — Register or Append** — you can't pass an unsubscribe here:
* Any status → **Requires confirmation**
### File import
**Customer import** — if the customer is new, you can add a subscription in any status, or skip subscription entirely (status will be **No data**). If the customer already exists, you can move them from any status to **Subscribed** (`true`), **Unsubscribed** (`false`), or **Requires confirmation** (`WaitingForConfirmation`). You can't move a customer back to **No data**.
**Data edit import** — you can move any customer from any status to **Subscribed**, **Unsubscribed**, or **Requires confirmation**. You can't move back to **No data**. For bulk subscribe/unsubscribe, follow the mass subscription guide.
### Flows
When a flow edits a customer, the system automatically logs an action *"Customer edit in flow block 'Flow name' — 'Step description'"*.
Subscribing to the email channel is not available inside flows. You can only unsubscribe a customer or move them to **Requires confirmation**.
| Flow type | Before → After |
| --------------------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| Flow requiring confirmation | Any status → **Requires confirmation** |
| Flow with unsubscribe | Any status → **Unsubscribed** |
### Polls
**Poll with subscription:**
| Before | After |
| --------------------- | --------------------- |
| Subscribed | Subscribed |
| Unsubscribed | Requires confirmation |
| Requires confirmation | Requires confirmation |
| No data | Requires confirmation |
**Poll with unsubscribe:**
* Any status → **Unsubscribed**
### Branded unsubscribe page
When the customer ticks a topic checkbox and saves:
* Any status → **Subscribed**
When the customer unchecks a topic or unsubscribes from everything:
* Any status → **Unsubscribed**
### Manual change in the customer card
You can move a customer from any status to **Subscribed**, **Unsubscribed**, or **Requires confirmation**. You can't move back to **No data**.
## Welcome flow with subscription confirmation
A typical DOI welcome program has two trigger events — a new customer landing in your database, and a customer confirming their subscription. Build a separate flow for each.
Before you start, prepare your campaigns:
* An automated opt-in campaign for the confirmation request and the reminder (both must use the **opt-in** profile).
* An automated welcome campaign that goes out after confirmation (standard profile).
* Configure the confirmation link setting on the relevant links so a click confirms the subscription.
### Flow 1 — request subscription confirmation
Trigger on a subscription change — specifically, when the customer enters the **Requires confirmation** status in the email channel.
**What counts as entering this status:**
* Status became "Requires confirmation," including implicitly.
* Status went straight to "Requires confirmation."
* Customer appeared already in this status.
* Status returned to "Requires confirmation."
**What does not count:**
* An implicit "Requires confirmation" became explicit.
* After a merge, the primary customer ended up in this status.
Depending on your business case, other valid triggers include action issued with templates from specific operations, customer registered, or new customer.
In the start block, limit the flow to one trigger per customer.
Verify that the contact exists and is valid. You don't need to check the subscription status here — the trigger event already guarantees it. If you use a different trigger, add a filter for **Subscription — Requires confirmation in the Email channel**.
Send the opt-in campaign you prepared.
Add a one-day wait step.
If the subscription is still in **Requires confirmation**, send the reminder campaign.
### Flow 2 — welcome email after confirmation
When the customer clicks the confirmation link, the system automatically issues an action *"Customer subscription to channel"* (or *"Customer subscription to topic"* if the link is topic-scoped). Trigger this flow on that action.
Trigger on the subscription action and limit to one run per customer.
Verify there was a click in the campaign and that the customer is subscribed with a valid contact.
If you only have one confirmation flow, you can skip the extra checks. But if you run multiple confirmation campaigns — for example, separate flows for different topics — these checks matter, because the same action template is issued in every case.
A few ideas for the welcome email:
* Recommend popular products, or browsed products if you have them.
* Offer a promo code or loyalty points as a thank-you for subscribing.
Useful campaign parameters:
* Recommendations — `Recipient.Recommendations.{algorithm name}`.
* Promo code — `Recipient.LastReceivedPromoCode.WithType{pool name}.Value`.
* Point expiration date — use `AddDays` to add the relevant number of days to `Message.SendingDateTime`.
Use A/B testing to compare variants and pick the best performer.
## Turn off double opt-in
If you need to disable subscription confirmation, do this in order:
DOI can't be turned off while opt-in campaigns are still active. Find and remove or reconfigure them.
Use the event log filter to find campaigns with the opt-in profile. Switch the profile to anything that does not include **Send only to customers awaiting subscription confirmation** — for example, the **Standard** profile. If a campaign can't be edited, delete it.
For multi-brand projects: only remove opt-in campaigns in the brand where you're turning DOI off.
Go to **Settings → Campaigns → Email settings** and uncheck **Subscription confirmation**.
Customers who used to land in your database with **Requires confirmation** status will now arrive as **Subscribed** and start receiving campaigns immediately.
Turning DOI off does **not** automatically subscribe customers who are already sitting in **Requires confirmation**. To move them to **Subscribed**, edit them using a data edit import.