Website Pop-ups — The Air Traffic Control for Your Website

Love ‘em or hate ‘em — as marketers or consumers — website pop-ups aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Believe it or not, that’s a good thing!

Let me explain…

Pop-ups work like air traffic controllers. They communicate info and direct users to the most important information on your website. This could be an opportunity to join your email list, download a useful guide, learn and buy tickets for an event, watch a demo and so on. They’re powerful because you can create unique popups that display on specific pages of your site with relevant information or offers to the page or blog post.

As you know, there are many types of pop-ups that can grace your website, but they all are asking the same things: Are you really sure you want to miss out and/or leave before grabbing your discount code, joining their newsletter, or enjoying some other kind of benefit?

Over the years, many pop-ups have built in timers which allows you to control how often any user sees a pop-up. This keeps it cool and not annoying.

One pop-up that has gained popularity — and has proven to increase conversions by 300% — is the exit-intent pop-up where all you have to do is move your cursor towards the search bar or tab like you’re closing it, and voilá, the pop-up appears explaining that if you leave, you’re leaving behind something you need and/or want.

There are also many other effective options:

The entry pop-up that may or may not cover the whole screen (also known as a welcome mat pop-up) that basically greets you with an offer that’s too good to pass up.

A timed-delay pop-up that only makes its appearance after you spend a predetermined amount of time on the site.

The scroll pop-up that is meant to show after you engage with the page by scrolling.

The good news is that pop-ups do not have to be annoying to your visitors if they are done the right way with the best of intentions they can greatly improve the user experience. In fact, with all of these options, you help to decide what kind of experience you want your visitors to have while also increasing awareness and revenue, and gaining new subscribers.

Create Immediate Awareness

What do you want your visitors to know immediately about your site? Do you have an incredible offer you’re promoting? If you’re running an ad and they’re led to a specific page, you can create a pop-up to ensure they have all the information they need for the offer — without them having to dig around for it. If they have to search around for a code, a particular product, or specific information, you can most likely be assured they’re not going to take you up on your offer.

Drive Visitors to Take Action

When someone finds your site for the first time, they may not really know who you are or what you do or sell. Pop-ups can help tremendously with this.

If you have a special event you’re promoting, a sitewide sale you feel everyone needs to be aware of, or you simply want to explain what kinds of services you offer, a website pop-up can easily drive them to where you want them to go — with a special offer to entice them. Remember: The more obvious you make it for them to perform an action, the more successful your efforts will be with your pop-ups.

Build Your Email List

One of the most popular uses of a pop-up is to get visitors to quickly and effortlessly sign-up for your list. The old adage “the money is in the list” doesn’t hold water if you don’t actually do anything with that list and nurture it properly. But if you can connect with your audience via newsletter, email blasts, event announcements, or promotions regularly, the more your audience will trust you and want to do business with you.

Initiate Nurture Sequence

As mentioned in the previous section, your list can be powerful but only if you treat it authentically. When you use your pop-up to add email addresses to your list with the purpose of creating a more engaged and active audience, you don’t necessarily want to set out with the intention of selling something during their first experience with you.

It is more powerful and successful to create a series of emails that will guide them through why they should want to do business with you. These are emails in which you’re not trying to convince them to buy from you or hire you, but rather identifying potential issues they may be facing in their business lives and providing the solutions for them. This method is very successful in service-based businesses.

Pop-ups are powerful marketing tools that are often overlooked as viable instruments in lead generation. With the advances in the look, feel, and implementation of website pop-ups, businesses will find they can benefit from the use of one — if not more — of them.

When a nurture sequence is implemented correctly, you can see a significant increase in engagement and sales. If you’re looking for ideas on how to get more conversions, check out my Convert Your Digital Customers into Paying Visitors Guide right here.

Interested in seeing how pop-ups can help your business? OnMerit can assist you by designing, installing, and connecting the perfect pop-up for your website.