Many new online marketers are, quite frankly, afraid of popups. They think they’re intrusive, obnoxious and kind of a PITA.
But as a business owner and online marketing manager, I have to tell you that popups offer enormously good conversion rates.
In fact, in some cases it has been proven that popups work more than 1000% better than other types of opt-in forms. I know …. who would have thought, right?
The truth is you need to know how to use opt-ins effectively in order to get a good return.
Through the years I’ve learned it’s imperative you understand who your audience is. At the same time, you might be surprised to know there are certain audiences who don’t respond well to popups. The best thing you can do is test the waters.
Here are the most popular ways to use popups:
1. Timed – This type of popup only shows to the audience once they’ve spent a certain amount of time on your website or landing page. You can set it to show after sixty seconds or even two minutes, it’s up to you.
2. Contextual – This type of popup only comes out when your audience is reading certain parts of your website and some will only pop out if the consumer’s mouse touches the right text.
3. Scrolling – This is a great way to give someone more information as they scroll down your website reading your information. This popup only comes out when your reader has consumed a certain amount of information and scrolled to a certain spot on the page.
4. Exit – This type of popup shows only when the technology believes your visitor is about to leave the website. They might click the back button, or the close button, and this is a final effort to get someone to sign up for more or to read more.
5. Slide – This type of popup doesn’t look like it’s popping up at all, instead it kind of slides out of the side bar and stays out of the way of the main content that your visitor is consuming. This can work well for people who hate popups.
There are ways to ensure that a popup works best for you aside from researching your audience to ensure they won’t leave. Hint: Super techy people often dislike popups… go figure.
Your Message is Most Important
When you choose to use a popup, ensure the message you present is the right message to the visitor. The popup should:
• catch the reader’s eye
• have relevant copy and trigger words
• present benefits over features
• have a very strong CTA
Remember: You are only going to get a few seconds to get the reader to look at the popup, use them wisely.
Consider Your Audience
Your audience will determine how effective popups are. For some reason super techy people don’t like popups that much and will often get mad and leave the site when they see one. The only way you can know for sure is to conduct tests and study your audience.
To start, here’s what I want you to do:
Ask yourself:
• Who is my audience?
• Do I have more than one audience?
• What does my audience need?
• What do they want?
• What do they value?
• What is most important to them?
• What are they least likely to care about?
Give it a try!