“Don’t miss out on the free training course!”
“Sign up to get some amazing insights right to your inbox!”
“Are you looking for some practical advice on finances?”
Where have we seen all this? Well, the pop-ups, of course.
If you are a regular online user, then you must be annoyed by the uncalled pop-ups that keep popping up all the time!
Let’s get one thing clear – no one is a fan of pop-ups. After all, who would like to be interrupted in the middle of a search with something that they didn’t want?
But, love it or hate it, the pop-ups are here to stay. Everyone hates pop-ups, but still, there are some occasional times, these pop-ups have proved effective for marketing and conversions. And, there are those times when the pop-ups have driven away the customers far-off from the website too.
With so many sides to it, let’s see the good, the bad and the ugly faces of pop-ups.
Pop-Ups,The Ugly – The Ones That Scare Visitors Off
Almost all websites have pop-ups nowadays, no matter if they are working or not. It seems like a rule for websites to have some pop-up to scare the visitors away or annoy them to the point of giving up.
Then there are those websites that have multiple pop-ups. A user has to click ‘No, I’m not interested’ first, then click on ‘I don’t want to subscribe’, subsequently on ‘No thanks. I don’t like deals’ and later on some more others to reach the content. No wonder, many visitors start leaving the website by the time they reach the third pop-up.
And then, some websites just have some contrasting in-your-face colour themes that give a jolt. The worst of all is the pop-ups are the ones that you cannot get rid of. Such pop-ups were the main reasons for the users’ distrust in giving information in the pop-ups. What would you think if you see such a pop-up?
Such pop-ups have already created an image of fraudulent websites and one look at this and the visitor has high chances of closing that tab immediately lest it leaves some kind of virus on their device!
If your website uses such pop-ups even now, then it’s time to get rid of it immediately.
The Bad – The Ones That Are Sinful
You see some interesting headline on Google search results and click on to read more content about it. You wait patiently for the page to load and you wouldn’t have even gone past the first line when an annoying pop-up blocks the whole view!
How would that make you feel? So irritated that sometimes, we may even leave the website. Also, Google is penalizing the websites that put on a pop-up as soon as a visitor lands on the website. So, this is not only going to create a bad feeling for your visitors but can also have an impact on the search engine results.
Well, that’s one of the bad sides of pop-ups. How about seeing this call-to-action on a pop-up?
“Don’t miss out!”
Though it puts the readers in a feeling of missing out, such words on a call to action aren’t something that users want to click on. There are also a few other pop-ups with such bad content or design that the users feel as a wastage of time. Just have a look at this pop-up. What’s the first thing you see?
You can see the heading, yes, and the content below it. But where is the call to action? Oh, yes, that tiny text at the bottom!
If the visitors have to search for the clickable call to action after typing in their email ID, then you know your pop-up is not going to work.
The Good – The Ones Who Finally Made It Work
Most websites use pop-ups when they want to convert the user. It may be to convince the user to take subscribe to the newsletter, download some guides or training materials, buy a product or take action on a social media profile.
In a recent study published on Sumo in April 2019 of over 1.75 billion pop-ups, they found that that the top 10% of highest-performing pop-ups had an average of 9.28% conversion rate. Just 3 out of 100 pop-ups had a conversion rate of 11% or more.
The average conversion rate of pop-ups is 3.09%. This figure may seem very small for all the efforts marketers go through. However, if you look at it from a broader perspective, you can see the amount of difference it makes.
For example, let’s consider that you get 200 visitors every day and these 200 visitors will be shown your pop-up. Let’s assume that you have put your heart and soul into creating a great pop-up and its conversion rate is somewhere near 6%. So, every single day, you get 12 conversions, which is 12 people who are taking action on your pop-up. In a month, you will have an average of 360 new subscribers to your email list or 360 more downloads and this is just with a conversion rate of 6%.
If you can increase your conversion to 9% and your visitor count to 1000, then 2700 people will convert! And this is not a bad number for all your efforts. So what makes this difference?
There are a few things that you need to do right to let the pop-ups work for you.
Traits of High-Performing Pop-Ups
According to the study by Sumo, they researched and found some common characteristics on the high performing pop-ups. Following these tips will convert your pop-up from cringe-worthy to conversion-ready.
- Include more content in your pop-ups that gives better information on what the users will get if they take that action.
- Don’t let the pop-up be the first thing the user sees once they land on the website. Give some breathing space for the user to look through the content, maybe for a minute or so, before displaying the pop-up.
- Show the user the value that you can add.
- Make sure that your call to action on the pop-up is legible and the content matching clearly with the what you are offering.
- Let the headlines of the pop-ups be to-the-point and attractive; no roundabout ways that take a long time for the user to sink in.
- Don’t have a rude closing statement in case the user chooses not to opt for it. Be polite and end the pop-up in a friendly way. Don’t keep popping up the same content again even after the users had clearly mentioned that they aren’t interested.
Have these pointers in your mind the next time you are using pop-ups. Understand the pre-defined mentality of the internet towards pop-ups and create trustworthy, attractive ones that actually add value.
