When you think of pop-ups, one word that would probably come into your mind is this: annoying. As much as you hate to admit it, odds are you get a bit irritated every time you land on a website you like and are about to browse through its amazing content. But who wouldn’t be? After all, you can never be too sure if they’ll bring you malware, phish information from you, or scam you. True enough, there are pop-ups that work like that, but there are also those that can be greatly advantageous to you especially when you are running a business.
Why do pop-ups exist in the first place?
Pop-ups serve as extra income-generating avenues for websites and they help businesses generate leads through its active call-to-action design. For example, on news websites, pop-ups serve as a convenient way for people to be reminded about going back for the latest updates while the website captures lead information for future promotions and prospective sales. In other words, pop-ups exist because they are used for sales and marketing strategies of businesses.
As mentioned earlier in this article, not all pop-ups are created equal. There are some that exist purely to advertise whatever a company is selling regardless of their relevance to the website. Meanwhile, there are those that are in place to offer a site visitor something of value, like a free e-book in exchange for giving their information, such as their email address.
Being a business, you are probably wondering how these notorious website pop-ups can deliver the best benefits to you in terms of lead generation.
Keep reading to know the six ways pop-ups can help you get more leads!
1. Timing is key.
This can also be applied to website pop-ups. Depending on the nature of your business or simply your well-thought out preference, position pop-ups to appear in moments when they will most likely elicit a positive reaction from a site visitor. We all know what a huge turn off it is when pop-ups appear instantly when you visit a website and it would not let you proceed unless you sign up. Unless you offer freemium resources, like essays or research papers, doing this leads to a high probably that prospects will leave your site and look for other similar websites.
Timing your pop-up properly, on the other hand, can most likely trigger a positive response from your audience. When people visit a website, sometimes, they can get too focused on content that all other elements of the site tend to be ignored. A rightly timed pop-up breaks your site visitors out of their daze and encourages them to sign up for your offering which may be in the form of newsletter, promotion, or freebie.
It’s usually best to set pop-ups for when a visitor has first landed on your page, spent some time on it, or is about to exit your website. This increases chances of them sharing their information with you especially when they feel that you can give them value they are looking for.
2. Persistence is okay but put a clear exit in place.
Pop-ups can conjure strong emotions from readers, which can either result to a good or bad thing. For your avid readers, encountering a pop-up while they are engrossed in reading your content may be an annoying thing because it is an obvious distraction. There are times when this annoyance turns to appreciation if your site visitors feel happy about having to input their information on your site’s pop-up so they can read superior content relevant to your industry. However, if they are not keen on signing up for anything just yet and do not want to get distracted from reading, they would obviously want to be able to exit from the pop-up immediately.
Not having a clear exit button from a pop-up could be a turn off for your potential leads. Meanwhile, making it easy to find allows your prospects to continue browsing through your site and encourage them to input their information on your pop-up especially when they appreciate your content.
3. Use click pop-ups strategically.
One of the most effective pop-ups for businesses is the click pop-up. This is the kind of pop-up that only comes out once a website visitor has clicked on a certain campaign or link on your webpage. The chances of conversion are higher with click pop-ups because it’s the prospect that does the action first by clicking on your campaign. This tells you that there is already interest shown in what you are offering and the pop-up is helpful in motivating prospects to proceed with the offering or keep getting similar updates in their email.
Consequently, do not put click pop-ups at random places on your website. Otherwise, site visitors may think that you are a phishing site. This may cause them to click the close button faster than you expect.
4. Encourage visitors to stay tuned to your brand regardless of promotions.
Promotions and offerings are not the only things that pop-ups can advertise to your potential customers. As businesses, it is perfectly normal to not have them all the time. This is why while you do not have any promotion or offering in place yet (or you are not that type of business), you can still generate leads through pop-ups by pushing visitors to subscribe to your regular newsletters or ask them to answer quick surveys.
Website pop-ups can also help you get more leads if you are being helpful to them. You can use pop-ups to serve as navigation to your site visitors. Through these, you can categorize topics on your site so it makes it easier for them to find those that they are interested in. Doing this is like hitting two birds with one stone – you enhance user experience and get the leads that you need at the same time.
5. Pop-ups should follow consistency.
Because of their simplicity, pop-ups can easily be situated all over the place following different kinds of messaging for website visitors. As much as possible, make them as consistent as they can be especially when you want to put your value proposition forward. This is important because this is how you can also best let your visitors understand what your brand is all about and the message that you want to tell.
When pop-ups are consistent, it is more hassle-free to get more leads since you know that you are capturing those that are within your niche. This ensures you that those site visitors who are sticking around are interested in your brand and that they really are your potential clients. There will absolutely be no problem for them to sign up for your email list.
6. A sticky top bar pop-up can do the trick.
Top bars pop-up may be small and simple but they can be really effective. First of all, they hardly disturb your site visitor especially when they are focused on reading and checking out your content. It is one of those little harmless things visitors can see above their screens without getting in the way of what they are looking at. Aside from this, they are also positioned strategically because they are definitely easy to find. Once your website visitors have finished browsing through the page they are on, they can just quickly input their details on your top bar to receive updates on deals or newsletters.
A top bar pop-up can have multiple functions. You can place promotions, discounts for newsletter sign ups, or even privileges for app downloads. Whatever functionality you are looking for, top bar pop-ups can get the job done in terms of lead generation by appearing conveniently without distracting the view of your audience.
There will be others who will think that pop-ups are just plain annoyance and they are not effective. However, this is not necessarily true. They actually work!
“Banner blindness” has been common these days that people just automatically ignore objects surrounding a website as if brains are built to do that. Pop-ups are a nice way to ensurethat people who like your website will not forget about you and can quickly become your paying clients.
Despite their advantages for your website and business, be wise when using pop-ups. Mistakes can easily be made and you may lose money faster if you do not plan accordingly when using them. With the six ways illustrated above on how website pop-ups can help you get more leads, hopefully, you will be able to get into the rhythm of putting pop-ups in the right place and timing them right. Once you do so, sit back, relax, and enjoy watching your growing leads base!
Jeroen van Gils is a content writer at Social Intents, a platform with a full suite of tools to grow sales and improve customer service. Social Intents’ most popular apps are the popup builder app and the email list builder app.