The Power of Pop Ups – Why and How to Use Them
No matter what we may think about pop ups, the facts do not lie – pop ups work! As you may have already experienced, there are different ways a pop up can be used effectively, so that they are not so much of an intrusion, but a welcoming hello. Please don’t discard the use of pop ups to build your list. Instead, we‘re going to talk about the best ways to use pop ups and how to incorporate this technique into your list building efforts.
When designing a pop up, simple is best. An effective pop up contains five pieces of information:
- A compelling headline
- A description of the offer
- An image of the offer
- Input fields for the person’s name and email address
- A subscribe button
Begin with compiling this information first. Next, it’s time to design the pop up. Most kinds of pop up software have design templates you can use. Select a template, customize with your information, and test it to be sure it works.
Now that you have a pop up form designed, it is time to figure out when to show it, or the display rules. You can have a pop up appear for new visitors, returning visitors, and visitors who leave your site without subscribing. Timing is the key. For example, when displaying a pop up form to a new visitor, do not set it to appear immediately. Allow your new visitor to linger on your website for at least 30 seconds before displaying a pop up form. When you allow your new visitor to get to know you and your content a little bit first, they will be more receptive to your offer, and more likely to subscribe.
You can also have a pop up appear to returning visitors. If a person returns to your site, they might like what they see! When you ask a returning visitor to subscribe, they may be more receptive as well.
You can also display a pop up form to a site visitor before they leave your site, also known as an exit pop up. At this point, your pop up is not intrusive, as the person is leaving the site anyway. You can use an exit pop up as a final opportunity to add the visitor to your list!
As you design your pop up form, and consider the different times to display it, you will then determine where to display it. You will have the option to choose the pages on which the pop up form appears, whether you want it to display on all of the pages on your website, only the blog post pages, and/or a combination of your choosing.
Once you define the pages to display your pop up form, go into your email autoresponder settings, follow the steps and activate your pop up form. Most email marketing systems will provide analytics so you can see how your pop up is working, how often it is displayed, and how many people sign up. You can periodically experiment with your pop up, to see if one of set of display rules works better than another, and to make sure it is working correctly.