Affiliate marketing has become a cornerstone of digital advertising strategies, allowing businesses to leverage the reach and influence of affiliate partners to promote their products or services. You might encounter two common terms in the affiliate marketing realm: SOI and DOI affiliate marketing. But what exactly do these acronyms stand for, and more importantly, “what distinguishes DOI from SOI?”. In this article, affrealboost will help you clearly understand the DOI and SOI affiliate marketing models, and their differences, and evaluate the best option for your affiliate marketing.

1. What is the DOI affiliate in marketing?

DOI affiliate marketing stands for Double Opt-In, which is an email verification method in affiliate marketing. With DOI, users must take two steps to confirm their subscription to receive emails from advertisers:

• Enter email: The user enters their email into the signup form on the advertiser or affiliate marketer’s website.
• Email confirmation: The user receives a confirmation email from the advertiser. This email will contain a link that the user must click to confirm their registration.

2. How DOI Affiliate Marketing Works?

A double opt-in link is a common method used in email marketing to confirm a user’s subscription or registration. The process typically involves sending the user an email with a confirmation link. After clicking the link, the user is directed to a page that confirms their subscription or registration. Details of how it works are as follows:

• Affiliate partners, similar to regular affiliate marketing, promote products or services from merchants. This can be done through a variety of channels such as blogging, social media content, video reviews, or email marketing.
• When potential customers click on the affiliate link embedded in the promotion, they will be taken to the merchant’s landing page.
• On the landing page, users typically fill out a form with their email address and may provide additional information to better understand the product or service, or receive a discount. This initial registration is considered a SOI one-time registration.
• After the user submits the information, an automatic email will be sent to the email address provided. This email contains a confirmation link.
• Here lies the key difference in DOI Affiliate Marketing. Users need to click on the confirmation link in the email to verify their subscription. This confirms their genuine interest and eliminates the possibility of someone else entering their email address intentionally or unintentionally.
• Once a user confirms their email, they are considered a lead or verified lead. If they proceed with the purchase, the partner will receive a commission from the seller.

3. Advantages and Disadvantages of DOI Campaigns

DOI affiliate marketing is an effective method for building a high-quality and legally compliant email list. However, it can result in lower registration rates and is more time-consuming than SOI. Specifically, its advantages and disadvantages are as follows:

Advantages

• DOI ensures that only truly interested users sign up, resulting in higher-quality email lists with higher email open and click-through rates.
• DOIs help reduce spam emails and bot registrations, protecting your brand reputation and avoiding being marked as spam.
• Because only those who are truly interested will sign up, conversion rates from subscribers to leads and customers will be higher.
• DOI helps you comply with email marketing laws like GDPR, ensuring that you only send emails to people who have agreed to receive them.

Disadvantages

• DOI can result in lower sign-up rates than the SOI (Single Opt-In) method because users have to take an extra confirmation step.
• Setting up and managing a DOI campaign can take more time and effort than SOI.

4. SOI vs DOI marketing: What is better?

Below is a comparison table between SOI (Single Opt-In) and DOI (Double Opt-In) marketing to help you see the difference between these two methods:

Criteria	SOI (Single Opt-In) Marketing	DOI (Double Opt-In) Marketing
Define	SOI (Single Opt-In) is a simple and quick method in which users only need to provide their contact information once to sign up to receive content, services, or products. Once a user signs up, they are immediately added to your mailing list or affiliate program without any further confirmation steps.	In contrast, DOI (Double Opt-In) requires a confirmation step after the user signs up. After providing their contact information, users will receive a confirmation email with a link or confirmation code. They must confirm their registration by clicking on the link or entering this confirmation code before being added to your mailing list or affiliate program.
Registration process	Register once and users are added to the list instantly	Sign up once and request email confirmation before being added to the list
Data Accuracy	There is a risk of collecting incorrect or fake email addresses	Higher accuracy is guaranteed due to the registration confirmation step
Conversion rate	Higher CR (Conversion rate) compared with DOI	Lower CR (Conversion rate)
Budget	Low testing budget (always remember to set it according to your payout!)	Payouts are higher than in SOI offers

What is better? Choosing between SOI and DOI depends on your specific goals, target audience, and the nature of your marketing campaign.

• SOI is suitable for campaigns where quick and easy registration is a priority, and the risk of inaccurate data collection or spam complaints is acceptable.
• DOIs are often favored in marketing campaigns where data accuracy, increased engagement from subscribers, and long-term relationship building are priorities.

5. Platforms that offer DOI Affiliate programs

Affiliate marketing is an increasingly popular digital marketing field, and DOI (Double Opt-In) is a potential registration method to ensure data quality and increase user engagement. Here are some popular platforms that offer Affiliate Marketing programs with the best DOI support:

• Affrealboost is one of the oldest and most trusted affiliate marketing platforms on the market. They offer a wide range of digital products and services from many different sectors. With the DOI affiliate marketing program, Affrealboost guarantees that you will receive a commission every time a user performs a certain action, such as registering or making a purchase.

• ShareASale is a reputable affiliate marketing platform that connects businesses with publishers and marketers. They also offer a DOI affiliate program, which allows you to earn money from sending leads to participating businesses.
• CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction) is one of the largest and most diverse affiliate marketing platforms in the world. They offer a wide range of DOI affiliate marketing programs from top brands, making it easy for you to find and join the right program.

In conclusion, DOI (Double Opt-In) is an effective method to ensure data quality and increase user engagement in Affiliate Marketing programs. However, applying DOI also has its disadvantages, such as reducing initial registration rates and increasing marketing costs. When choosing an Affiliate Marketing platform, you should carefully consider the pros and cons of DOI on each platform to make a decision that fits your overall strategy and goals.