Pop ups.
A battle between the UX and marketing departments no doubt breaks out whenever these two innocuous words are mumbled, no matter how innocently. And rightly so.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of a slightly more irritating website experience, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, reduce your data capture rate is a question with no simple answer.
This is what we call in the industry a ‘hot potato’.
The thing is, while pop ups are admittedly slightly annoying, the results speak for themselves. With a 3.09% average conversion rate, a mild distraction for your visitors seems like a reasonable price to pay.
That being said, it is entirely possible to have your cake and eat it too. With the right tools, you can boost your data capture, and improve your website’s user experience. Pop ups don’t have to be a blanket annoyance. They don’t even have to be an annoyance at all. In fact, you can ensure that only the most relevant pop ups are showing to the most qualified visitors – and actually improve their journey with your brand.
Let’s take a look at a few ways how.
Reduce the impact with corner flyouts
Pop ups, by design, are made to be distracting. The aim is to rip your attention away from the task at hand, and pull your eyes towards something actionable: signing up for a newsletter; making a purchase; downloading an ebook, etc.
Your marketing department will remind you that this works. That pop-ups have an incredible conversion rate. Your user experience team will remind you that this is annoying. That getting in the way of your visitors browsing experience is far from best practice.
Luckily for all of us, there’s a middle ground. Some pop-up creation platforms, such as Klaviyo, allow you to reduce the impact of your pop ups with ‘corner flyouts’. Sliding politely in from the bottom corner, these pop ups are still eye-catching, without getting in the way of everything else on the screen.
You want to minimize any disruption to the user experience as much as you can. The more disruptive your pop up is, the angrier you’ll make your user. If they’re angry – chances are they’ll click away from your pop up without even reading it.
Provide a valuable incentive
No-one’s ever been angry with a surprise gift. Your data capture strategy should include some kind of incentive.
In e-commerce, a discount code is usually the best bet. Giving away a 10% off coupon for a visitor’s first order is a great way to encourage first time purchases while also gathering new subscribers. And as we all know, subscribers can be nurtured into repeat customers, and eventually, brand advocates.
Some brands – especially in the early stages – often don’t want to hand out revenue willy-nilly. Every buck counts. If that’s the case, there are certainly other ways you can reward customers for finging up.
E-books make for a great trade for a contact details, while also helping educate new visitors on your product offerings. For example, a Spring trends guide for a fashion store, or a unique recipe pack for a kitchen gadgets brand. Try your hand at copywriting, or find a talented freelancer to whip up a few data capture resources for you!
Make pop ups URL specific
Relevance is key.
Platforms like JustUno (or the ever-giving Klaviyo) give you the ability to create URL-specific pop ups. That means, your incentives can be far more engaging and relevant.
For example, imagine a product-specific, discount coupon code that only appears on that product’s page. What’s more, imagine if it only appeared after 30 seconds – meaning, you’ll only be offering a product specific discount to visitors who are plainly showing interest, but may be hesitant to purchase. It’s that little nudge over the line that they need to convert.
Ensure your pop ups are relevant to a potential customer’s apparent interests. The more aligned with what they’re doing on your website, the less annoying they’ll be.
Customise your ‘Welcome Email’ to suit
If you’re making your pop-ups highly relevant, your Welcome emails need to match.
A proper welcome series is one of the most important parts of any good lifecycle marketing strategy. First impressions matter. So to make sure that your brand is looking schmick from the get go, ensure your the first thing that drops into their inbox from your brand clearly matches the pop up they just signed up through.
This is a lot easier done than you might image – even for businesses with plenty of targeted pop ups. With marketing automation software, it’s easy to create a few separate automations that send personalised first emails, before dropping your subscribers into a general automation. (If you’d like to learn more, get in touch! We’d be happy to help).
Don’t show them again on a user’s next session
The last – and arguably most important – thing to remember is that, should your pop up fail to convert, you need to admit defeat. At least for a while.
If a user closes your pop up, it’s clear they’re not interested. The last thing you’ll want to do is to hit them with it again. And again. And again every time they visit your website. You’ll only annoy your visitors.
Mercifully, a pop up no longer has to be a static addition to your site. Through the magic of web cookies, it’s now entirely possible to remember returning users, and tailor their experiences to suit. You can turn off pop ups for good for an individual once they’ve closed them.
That being said, what if they return and are suddenly interested in your 10% off coupon?
Perhaps they were just researching your offerings the first time, and closed your pop up instinctively. Now they’re back a few weeks later, teetering on the brink of purchase. If only there was something a little extra to convince them to take the plunge.
You can put your pop ups on hold for as long or as little as you like.
It’s tricks like this that turn a pop up from a thorn in the foot to a sixpence in the pudding. With the right planning, technology and implementation, you can achieve the impossible. Pop ups can be pleasant.
If this all sounds too good to be true, get in touch. We’d love to show you ourselves.