Order Marketing Opt-in (grow your list from WooCommerce orders)
After someone buys from your WooCommerce store they exist in Super Speedy Emails as a subscriber – but they are not on your marketing/newsletter list. They’ll receive transactional and product-support emails, but nothing promotional until they explicitly say yes. Order marketing opt-in is the low-friction way to ask for that yes: it adds a one-click “subscribe me” link to the order thank-you page and the customer’s order emails. It’s the modern replacement for a checkout “join our newsletter” checkbox. This article is for store owners; a short developer note is at the end.
What it does
When enabled, Super Speedy Emails shows a short invitation with a “Yes, subscribe me” button in two places, both seen only by the customer:
- the order-received (thank-you) page after checkout, and
- the customer order emails (below the order details).
Clicking it starts a double opt-in: the customer is added to your newsletter list as pending and sent a confirmation email. They only start receiving marketing once they click the confirmation link. So you get explicit, provable consent – no pre-ticked boxes, nothing sent to anyone who didn’t confirm.
A checkout newsletter checkbox is single opt-in and, if pre-ticked, not valid consent under GDPR at all. Asking after the sale with a one-click confirmed opt-in gives you a cleaner list and a provable record of consent, without cluttering your checkout.
Requirements
- WooCommerce active.
- A designated newsletter list in Super Speedy Emails (the list marked as your
newsletter). The invitation won’t appear if you don’t have one – see the Newsletter KB article to set that up.
Turn it on
- Go to Super Speedy Emails → Settings → WooCommerce.
- Find Order marketing opt-in and tick *”Show a ‘subscribe to marketing’ link on the
order thank-you page and customer order emails.”*
- (Optional) Enter your own invitation wording in the text box. Leave it blank to use
the default: “Want product news, tips and offers by email? Join our list – one click, unsubscribe any time.”
- Save.
It’s off by default, so nothing changes on your store until you enable it.
Keep the invitation wording short and benefit-led, and turn it on only once your newsletter is genuinely worth joining. The thank-you page is a high-intent moment, so a single clear line (“product news, tips and offers, one click, unsubscribe any time”) converts better than a paragraph.
How the flow works (step by step)
- A customer completes an order.
- On the thank-you page and in their order email they see the invitation + **”Yes,
subscribe me”** button.
- Clicking it takes them to a confirmation page: “Almost there – please confirm.” At this
point they are added to the newsletter list as pending and a confirmation email is sent. They are not subscribed yet.
- They click the confirmation link in that email → their membership flips **pending →
subscribed**, and they begin receiving your newsletter.
This reuses the same confirmation (double opt-in) machinery as your signup forms, so it behaves consistently. See Double Opt-in for how confirmations and pending members work.
When the link appears – and when it doesn’t
The invitation is deliberately only shown when it’s appropriate. It will not appear if:
- the customer is already a confirmed member of your newsletter list,
- their address is globally suppressed (e.g. previously hard-bounced or marked your mail
as spam) – the feature never tries to re-subscribe a suppressed address,
- you have no newsletter list configured, or
- the order has no billing email.
This keeps the ask relevant and protects your sender reputation.
Compliance
Because it’s double opt-in (confirmed) and requires an explicit click – never a pre-checked box – this is a clean, consent-based way to build a marketing list under GDPR and similar rules. The confirmation step is the customer’s provable consent, and every marketing email still carries an unsubscribe link.
Customising the wording
- In the admin: the text box under Order marketing opt-in (Settings → WooCommerce).
- In code: the
sse_order_optin_textfilter overrides the invitation text globally.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Likely cause / fix |
|---|---|
| No link on the thank-you page or order emails | The feature is off (enable it under Settings → WooCommerce), or there’s no newsletter list configured, or this customer is already subscribed/suppressed. |
| Customer clicked “subscribe” but isn’t getting the newsletter | That’s expected until they confirm – check they clicked the link in the confirmation email. Until then they’re pending, not subscribed. |
| A repeat customer never sees the invitation | They’re already a confirmed member – nothing to opt into. |
| Confirmation email not arriving | It’s a normal SSE send – check your sending provider / test mode, exactly as for signup confirmations (see Double Opt-in and your provider setup). |
Further reading
—
Developer note
- Implementation:
includes/class-sse-order-optin.php(SSE_Order_Optin). Hooks
woocommerce_thankyou and woocommerce_email_after_order_table for rendering, and handles the click at template_redirect.
- The link:
home_url( '/sse/o/?t=<unsubscribe_token>&a=marketing_optin' )– the
per-subscriber unsubscribe_token is the credential (same model as the unsubscribe handler). The /sse/o/ route is rate-limited.
- On click: it does not subscribe. It adds the subscriber to the newsletter list as
pending and calls SSE_Confirmations::issue(); confirming promotes the membership to subscribed. Guards: skips globally-suppressed addresses, already-subscribed members, and the case where no newsletter list exists.
- Options:
sse_order_optin_enabled(default0),sse_order_optin_text. - Filter:
sse_order_optin_text– override the invitation copy.
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