While signing up for some insurance newsletter the other day, I noticed a clean opt-in form from New York Life.
Here, we see several good things going:
1. The subscription form is in a nicely contained box.
2. They ask for your name and email, and then give a preference option for HTML or text
3. They offer 3 reasons for why you should subscribe! This is a nice touch many companies don’t bother with. It’s good to focus on what’s in it for the user.
Three items to make it better:
1. The title ‘What’s New Email’ is somewhat difficult to read. I would make this really stand out. I would also have more direct copy here, such as: “Sign up of for our Newsletter” or “Exclusive Email News” — something to that effect.
2. It’s nice to have the bullets for ‘why subscribe’ — but I would also have a link for ‘view a past newsletter’ — so the individual subscribing can get a hint of exactly what they will be signing up for.
3. The thank you page after clicking ’subscribe’ was ok, but it would could have been better with additional options (after I already opted-in) for my newsletters. In a previous post we discussed email preference centers, and how they are great for the subscriber AND the marketer. I’m sure New York Life has some form of this, but it wasn’t easily available during the sign-up process.

