Pre-Checked Boxes? What’s the Question?
It’s a well-known best practice to leave the opt-in box unchecked when adding a sign up for your email marketing campaign to something unrelated where you are capturing email addresses, such as a sweepstakes sign up.
I received a message from the folks at Benjamin Moore Paints yesterday promoting a $10,000 room makeover sweepstakes with Pottery Barn. After clicking through to the sweeps page I filled in the usual information, Full Name, Address, and Email Address. Below, there were two checkboxes unchecked.
I assumed these were typical Opt-In Checkboxes that would require attention from me so I could receive information from Pottery Barn and Benjamin Moore.
This was not the case.
If I checked the boxes, I was declining future communication.
Changing the standard question from what people have come to expect - check the box to opt-out vs. check the box to opt-in - has the potential to grow the database. However, just because the box is unchecked, doesn’t make it a best practice.
Posted by MindComet on Mar. 28, 2007