The recent update to the Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL) has many of our friends to the north worried about making sure they are compliant with the new standards, including having proof of double opt-ins. With any sort of bulk emailing your company is doing, it's a great idea to have people opting in to receive your emails, so that you are complying with anti-spam laws and so that your emails have a higher deliverability rate. This blog will walk you through how to create the double opt-in process using the PowerMailChimp add-on, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

The first thing you'll want to do is build a web form that visitors to your website have to fill in, in order to subscribe to your bulk email communication. The PowerObjects PowerWebForm add-on will ensure that, when someone fills out a web form on your website, this information is automatically pushed right back into your CRM system. The person who has subscribed will now be a lead (in our example) in your CRM system, and there will be a web form activity associated with them that lets you easily see that they have opted into receiving your newsletter. That's the first opt-in.

After the subscriber has first signed up for your newsletter, the next thing you will want to do is create a simple workflow that automatically sends them an email with a link saying "Are you sure you want to opt in?". When they click on that link, PowerEmail (yes, another of the wonderful PowerPack add-ons), will track that click back in CRM, where another workflow will update their record, saying that they opted-in. How you'd like to mark this on the record is up to you. You can use the out-of-the-box bulk email radio button, or you can build your own check box/radio button on the lead form. This rounds out your double opt-in process. Not only are both of the opt-ins tracked n CRM, you now have a much happier subscriber base, that really wants to receive what you are sending them.

You will now want to create a dynamic marketing list that automatically pulls in all leads who have opted in to receive bulk emails, so that you're not sending to customers who haven't opted in to receive your emails.

If you are looking to have subscribers opt-in, in bulk, you can also choose to send them a PowerMailChimp blast with a link saying "opt-in", which will direct them to a landing page saying something like "Thank you for opting in!". That click will then be tracked back in CRM, as a PowerMailChimp activity, allowing you to create a simple workflow to update the record of the person who clicked on that link, to say that they opted in.

If you're interested in learning more about the PowerMailChimp, PowerEmail or PowerWebForm add-ons, please visit the respective web pages, where you will find instructions on how to download your free 30 day trial and many additional resources. And as always, make sure to stay updated with all things Dynamics CRM on our blog and education pages!

Happy CRM'ing!