registration - What should a e-mail address confirmation e-mail say?

I'm sending out an e-mail containing a link to prove the user had registered with an e-mail address they have access to.

1. 
   

   What is the name of such an e-mail? Verification e-mail, confirmation e-mail, account activation or something else? In a similar sense what is the name of the link in the e-mail?

   
   


2. 
   

   What should the e-mail say? I want to make this accessible to non-technically inclined users.

   
   
   


3. 
   

   What should the subject of the e-mail be?

   
   

Answer

Sadly there is no standard for the name of such an email - all your suggestions are used. But consider the following:

• Verification Email - used when you can still access services, but need to verify your email in the meantime.


• Activation Email - used when services (account) are not accessible until email activation takes place. You can argue that there is some more urgency in 'activating' than in 'verifying'.



• Confirmation Email - I prefer to think of this as something sent as a confirmation of something (purchase confirmation, password change confirmation). You can say that the email is to confirm the user's email address.

Here are a few examples to get you started (starting with my favourite):

Please Verify your Noun Project account

The good:

• Very minimalistic design.

The bad:

• email subject and content terms don't match. Subject says 'Verify' while content says 'Activate'.


• No need for the 'Activate Account' heading. It is redundant to the button, which is the primary action point.


• Link contrast somewhat low.

Activate your MailChimp account.

The good:

• Monkey and "Just one more step..." make the system appear more fun and the sentence should motivate people to click on the button.

The bad:

• No need for the line asking people to click on the button. Most people should get it without these instructions (and even if they won't get it - people often try the most probable possible action when inconclusive).



• Few will care for the address of the company, or the copyright clause at this point and user eyes will most often skip this. The address of the company does promote trust, but such soft goal is likely to have already been satisfied prior registrations.


• No links in case the email was sent by mistake, or if people have problems when clicking the button.

Please confirm your email

The good:

• Nice design.

The bad:

• Again, no real need for the sentence next to the button.


• Two exclamation marks can be considered style that is not ideal. Exclamation marks should be used sparingly for a very specific desired effect.


• The long link is ugly, and in my view unnecessary. This is even more odd as the Privacy Policy is given as a normal link.