Surprise! Website pop-ups shouldn’t be scary, they should be a treat. In line with other pop-up treats like pop-up books and pop-up shops. Pop-up shops are all the rage with everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow and Kylie Jenner to TopShop and even Pantone hosts them. Did you know that pop-up books were originally intended for adults and not children? Hop on board the pop-up party train and see how pop-ups can help with website conversion.
It’s Your Traffic
Okay, a lot of people find website pop-ups to be annoying and frustrating, which is opposite of a treat. But the fact is, website pop-ups do work. And that at least makes them a treat for your business website. When done well, pop-ups could increase your email subscriber rate by over 1,000 percent. Some website pop-ups can be used to encourage website visitors to engage with your business through your social media platforms. Pop-ups can also be used to answer a frequent customer question, promote an eBook, or conduct a survey.
Visitors to your website come from many different places and all with a different intent. But website pop-ups can help you take advantage of all of your website traffic and still let you segment to show different pop-ups to different visitors. Segment your pop-ups by URLs, referral sources, and more. Offer each of those segments something valuable in exchange for a conversion.
Types of Website Pop-Ups
Website pop-ups aren’t one-size-fits-all. There are several different types of pop-ups you can implement including page-specific pop-ups, timed pop-ups, click pop-ups, entry pop-ups, scroll pop-ups, and exit pop-ups.
Page Specific Pop-ups
Do you have a post on your website that is massively popular? Create a pop-up that is related to that content. Maybe you’ve got a post about choosing the right eyeglasses for your face. Create a pop-up that offers a printable infographic that they can take shopping with them. Or create a pop-up with a promo code for them to order their glasses from your website.
Click Pop-ups
Have you ever seen how many random places your visitors click? Slightly different than most of the other pop-up options, click pop-ups are an option to turn your page’s links or images into a custom pop-up. Rather than opening a new tab, clicking on one of these links or images will open a pop-up. You could even replace your forms altogether with the ability to test it at a quicker pace. Click pop-ups let your visitor learn something, close the pop-up, and stay on the original page.
Timed Pop-ups
It’s all about timing, even for pop-ups. And the timing of your pop-ups can have a huge effect on conversion rates. Are visitors more likely to convert after being on your site for a while? How long is long enough? Most case studies have found that the optimal time of your pop-up is less than 60 seconds after a visitor has entered your page. Many pop-up users have found more success with a 10-15 second pop-up. Test out different times that trigger the pop-up for the highest possible conversion rate.
Scroll Pop-ups
Scroll pop-ups work by appearing, popping-up when a visitor has scrolled a certain amount down your page. The deeper a visitor scrolls, the deeper their engagement can be. It’s usually recommended you don’t show your scroll pop-up before the halfway point of your page.
Exit Pop-ups
Is your visitor about to abandon? Exit pop-ups generally appear when the cursor of your landing page visitor reaches the top pixel of your page. They can also be triggered by track their mouse velocity. Exit pop-ups allow you to interrupt your visitor before they have a chance to hit the back or forward buttons, create a new tab, head to their bookmarks, or type in another URL. By far the most common kind of website pop-ups these help you capture people as a last moment of interest.
Entry Pop-ups
Far less common than exit pop-ups are entry pop-ups. Want to convert your visitors before anything else? Entry pop-ups appear after someone has clicked on a link they’re interested in. These pop-ups stop visitors in their track so they have to make a decision to convert or not.
Even if you find pop-ups more infuriating than delightful, the simple fact is that they work. Start by implementing one of these six types of website pop-ups and see how pop-ups can help with website conversion. Once you start using pop-ups keep testing and trying out different options to see which works best for your website.
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