Help · Forms
How double opt-in works
Double opt-in means a person confirms their email address before their consent counts. With Formentic it runs entirely in your own Marketing Cloud: Formentic writes the code and the settings, and never sees the people, their answers or their confirmations.
What happens, step by step
1The form is sentThe answer is saved in your data extension as Waiting, with a one-time link.
2Your Marketing Cloud emailsA transactional email with a Confirm button, in the form’s language or the one you chose.
3The person confirmsThe button opens your confirmation page. The answer becomes Confirmed, with the time.
4You use itYour journeys and lists use Confirmed answers only.
Where everything lives
In your Marketing CloudThe answers, the Waiting and Confirmed status, the one-time links, the list of confirmed addresses, the consent wording each person saw, the email and its send, the confirmation page.
In FormenticYour settings and texts (the email’s words, the link lifetime, your rules). No addresses, no answers, no confirmations.
What Formentic creates in your Marketing Cloud
| What | Name | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Column on the form’s data extension | Confirmed, ConfirmedAt | Waiting or Confirmed, and when |
| Data extension | Form_DOI_Links | Each one-time link: a random code, the answer it belongs to, when it was made, whether it was used |
| Data extension | Form_Confirmed_Addresses | Each confirmed address, the consent and wording it confirmed, and when |
| Email and triggered send | Formentic double opt-in | The confirmation email, sent with your transactional sender settings |
People who unsubscribed before
- When the form is sent, the page reads the address’s status in your Marketing Cloud. Sending the form alone never changes it: someone else could have typed the address.
- The confirmation email still goes out, as a transactional email, because the person just asked for it.
- When they press Confirm, they are subscribed again: the status goes back to Active and they are added to the form’s list. The new consent, its wording and its date are kept next to the old unsubscribe, so you can always show when and how they agreed again.
- If your rule is “Leave their subscription as it is”, the answer is Confirmed but the person stays unsubscribed until your team changes it.
The rules, and how to change them
| Setting | Where | Choices |
|---|---|---|
| Double opt-in on or off | Each form, Details | On, off |
| The email’s language | Each form, Details | The language the form was sent in (default), or always one language: any Formentic language or your own |
| The email’s words | Each form, Details | Subject, text, button, per language (a missing language uses the form’s main language) |
| How long a link works | Each form, Details | 24 hours, 48 hours (default), 7 days |
| Answers never confirmed | Each form, Details | Removed after 7, 30 (default) or 90 days, or kept |
| Ask a repeat sender again | Settings › Privacy | For every new consent wording (default), once per consent, once per address |
| After an unsubscribe | Settings › Privacy | Ask again (default), or don’t |
| When an unsubscribed person confirms | Settings › Privacy | Subscribe them again (default), or leave their subscription as it is |
| How long a confirmation lasts | Settings › Privacy | Until unsubscribed (default), 12 or 24 months |
Good to know
- Bounced or held addresses can’t be emailed by Marketing Cloud; their answers stay Waiting.
- Several sends before a click: at most one email an hour per address; any of its links confirms all its waiting answers.
- A used, made-up or expired link is refused with a short message and a way back to the form.
- Proof of consent: for each answer you have the exact wording the person saw, the language, the form version, when they sent it and when they confirmed.
Formentic gives you the tools; whether and how you use double opt-in is your decision. Check your rules with your own legal adviser.