Get the most out of your pop ups

Pop ups can sometimes get a bit of a bad rep and they can be annoying if they have a bad user experience, particularly if they pop up as soon as you land on a website. But when pop ups are used in the right way, they can boost engagement, revenue and even email signups.

In this blog, we go through our top tips to produce high converting pop ups, and how you can get the most out of this marketing tool.

Trigger for the right time

This is perhaps the most important aspect to consider when setting up a pop up on your website. Pop ups can sometimes be annoying to some users and if you set it to show as soon as they enter your website, the likelihood is they’ll just exit it without converting; not ideal.

It’s critical that you find the right time to show your pop ups, and this will depend on what you’re offering or what action you want visitors to take. For example, if you’re using the pop up to drive more signups to your emails, you could use a scroll-triggered pop up, which will trigger depending on how far visitors scroll down a page. Or if you’re offering a sale or offer, you could trigger this after a particular amount of time or if they go to exit the website, this will help entice them to stick around a bit longer and continue browsing or even complete a purchase.

Choose your offers carefully

This is a great place to start when testing your pop up and seeing what offers resonate with your audience. If your offer doesn’t interest your visitors, then it’s not going to convert, so the idea is to choose offers that will appeal directly to your audience and any prospective new users.

If you have an eCommerce website, you could capture the user’s attention with a discount code or a specific shopping offer. If your visitors tend to need additional information, then you could offer a free download or link to further reading on popular topics. There’s plenty you could offer to your audience, but it’s all about finding the best fit.

Some platforms will allow you to create an A/B test – usually to test your content and assets – so you can collect data to back up any future promotions and any changes you make to your pop-up strategy.

Seamless styling and stand-out CTAs

With pop ups, the design is a very important aspect to consider. You’ll need to integrate the pop up well with the rest of your website, and make sure that the design matches your branding. With this in mind, try and make your pop up stand out – think about introducing a fresh colour to help it stand out from the rest of the site or include good quality imagery.

You’ll also need to make sure that the pop up is responsive with any device (desktop, tablet or smartphone). By optimising your pop up to all devices, you’ll create a seamless user-experience and it will help to create more conversions.

Make your call-to-action prominent; this is one of the primary factors that will determine whether your visitors convert or not. If you don’t include a clear CTA or have it visible and easy enough for users to click on, then you run the risk of losing them before they complete a conversion. Buttons with clear text and bright colours will attract your user’s attention and ensures that they know how to convert.

On mobile, make sure your buttons are big enough for fingers to easily identify and click. Linking text can make it tricky for people to select the CTA which can hinder your results.

Make it simple

If you have too much happening on your pop up, then it might confuse your user and will put them off. Have too much text and the user might get uninterested, or simply confused with what you’re actually offering. You don’t want to overwhelm your visitors!

Keep your content clear and simple, keeping the pop up short and avoid asking for too much information in forms. Only include key information, and minimal text – so you can make the design as visual as possible. If your pop up stands out and is simple and uncluttered, you’ll find that more users will engage and convert.

Easy to close

We’ve established that if not used correctly, then pop ups can be annoying to some. But if they’re hard to close, then this will make it ten times worse. If a visitor is struggling to close the pop up on their phone for example, they could just exit off your website completely.

You of course want as many visitors to convert, but it shouldn’t be at the risk of your reputation. Make sure that you include a clear ‘X’ button that’s as accessible as possible, so that it’s visible and easy to click on a mobile screen.

Pop ups can be a very handy tool to use to interact with your visitors, share important announcements and a useful way to increase several key areas, such as engagement and revenue. However, be careful not to fall into the risk of becoming annoying; follow these tips to create high converting pop ups and watch your conversions increase!

Want some help developing your pop ups? Looking for more ways to increase your engagement? Talk to our team today for a bespoke, data-led approach.