Popups are the little windows that often appear on your screens when you are browsing a particular website. Everyone has their take on the effectiveness of such popups for generating leads and getting conversions. They are an essential feature you must have on your website for building an audience, reducing cart abandonment rates, and increasing sales as a result.
Popups are considered a debatable digital marketing strategy because you need to be meticulous and creative while planning them out. There is a stark difference between the conversion rates of an exceptional popup and an average one. So, to transition between these designs, you should execute brainstorming sessions so that your team can narrow down the popup designs that get the desired results.
The right kind of popup for your website
Let’s understand a few types of popups for a better comprehension of the examples.
- Entry: These come up as soon as the visitor opens your website. Such popups are great when you want to highlight a particular product, or offer, or urge them to stay connected with a newsletter subscription.
- Exit: As opposed to entry popups, these act as a final interaction between your brand and the user. They are useful at persuading the user to complete the transaction and aid in reducing the cart abandonment rate.
- Timed: These appear on the website after the visitor has stayed on the site for a specific amount of time, for example, 30 seconds. This catches the user’s interest and grabs the opportunity to build a long-term relationship with prompts for a subscription. They are great for building your email lists.
- Scroll: Similar to the timed popups, these appear when the user has scrolled to a certain extension on your website. As the visitor has shown their interest by scrolling down the page, they are probably interested in what you are offering and a popup is a great way to convert their engagement.
You can make sure that your users find your popups interesting and avoid interrupting their interaction with a few tactful tips.
- Find the purpose of the popup, i.e. why your audience should be interested in engaging with the tiny window
- Select the type and design of the popup that is best suited to fulfil the purpose
- Keep the number of popups on your landing pages between five to six so that you don’t overload the users with too many steps or surplus information
Comprehending these factors need not be as complicated as it seems. You may require a bit of planning, effort, and determination to switch up the marketing tactics to observe any real change in the outcomes. However, you can create effective strategies, set clear goals, and monitor the results with appropriate project-level change management.
Keeping this in mind, let’s dive into some valuable examples that could as well be an inspiration for your next popup design.
1. Impactful copy
Popups, like every other website component, perform better with a strong copy. You can capture your audience’s attention through simple and actionable content that complements your popup design. This design of the popup is such that it complements the website layout with the Call to Action (CTA) of the same colour as the logo and the white background apart from the pictures.
In this example, Colgate makes use of phrases like “freshen up” and “smile-worthy” for appropriate impact, and their hero text “Smiles, delivered.” seals the deal when appealing to the consumer’s sentiment with appropriate context. They make the perfect use of a simple and pleasant copy that integrates the brand message with the pictures.
2. Informative and direct design
The next example, a popup on Subway’s website, proves to be quite an inspiration for up-and-coming businesses. It is one of the most direct and apposite popups that you will come across in recent times. You find zero fluff, to-the-point information, a mouth-watering picture of what you will receive and the link to attain that, all in one place.
Such layouts are great for driving sales as shoppers are usually hesitant to pay the full price for any product when buying from a new business. Offering a discount via such popups on your website can be the gentle push required for first-time buyers as well as repeat customers.
3. Hassle-free forms for higher engagement
While the previous design was focused on providing information to the consumer, Nike’s popup design focused on getting all the relevant information at once. Such popup designs are the perfect inspiration for you if you’re looking for ways to grow your email list.
The date of birth and shopping preference columns are an addition here that you don’t usually observe elsewhere. You can personalise the experience for the consumers as well as gather data for analytics. The design is elegant and does not come across as obnoxious or annoying. It gives you more information than a single-field opt-in form while keeping it short enough so as to not irk the consumer.
4. Coherence with the website design
Colours are an essential part of the popup design, and can dramatically impact the effectiveness of the campaign. The example here, of the New York Times store, has a solid background colour that does not contrast heavily with the website design. It is a prominent trend while designing popups and users are attracted to coherent colours.
The call-to-action button has a completely contrasting colour and stands out amidst other information. You can experiment with colours by trying gradients and palettes to find the one that watches your brand’s aesthetic. But your call-to-action button should be easy to spot and access as a standard practice for popups.
5. Statement photographs for visual influence
Another inspiring design you can recreate on your website is this one from Versace. They have championed a photograph that represents their brand. Adding a high-resolution image of your product can create interest among the visitors. The popups with vibrant images have an average conversion rate of 3.80% whereas those that lack any images show a mere average of 2.07%.
The image helps the consumer visualise the product or service. You can make the popup more appealing to the eye as the models give a professional touch to the design. You can notice that they have left the rest of the space alone. A subtle prompt to sign up for the newsletter conveys the necessary message while keeping the focus on the photograph.
6. Appealing exit interaction
Fundera uses their popups in a unique way, wherein they just wish to interact with the user before they leave. The lack of offers or prompts to subscribe makes it a bit more genuine. Here the goal of the popup is to help the user better identify their needs. They can then go and look into the options provided by the company to fulfil those goals.
The entire purpose behind the exit popup becomes user-centric which leads to multiple benefits for the brands. It evokes a sentiment that the company cares about the user’s needs rather than just promoting their product through the popup. This is useful to build a long-term relationship with the visitor.
7. Popups with countdown timers
Speaking of effective exit popups, countdown timers make for a resourceful add-on to your exit popups. Fio Athletics made the countdown with a noteworthy offer, driving consumers to go through with their transactions.
Such timers can be used for coupons, timed offers, and announcements for upcoming products or sales. They are the perfect resource to build excitement for your product launches or tease your new sales campaigns.
Wrapping up
Popups are usually considered the last resort for digital marketers, but they are actually quite effective. They are one of the most popular ways to convert more sales online. However, some popups can create an annoying experience for the audiences when designed incorrectly. You can expect substantial growth of your business only through popups that are not extremely intrusive.
You can curate an engaging experience through your popup campaigns by adding a little creativity and planning. A little thought goes a long way when you want to inspire your audience to perform some action. The new age popups are adept at creating a buzz around your new products., offers, or the brand in general.
Author Bio
Tim Ferguson is a writer and editor of Marketing Digest. He enjoys writing about SEO, content marketing, online reputation management, social media, AI, and Big Data. When he is not writing and editing for Marketing Digest, he spends time learning more about content marketing and getting better at it.
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Article by Tim Ferguson: DCP Web Design London
