Popups – Yah Or Nay?
Before we dive in to today’s post, if you’re new to world of online marketing you may be wondering what the heck a popup is.
It’s a box that shows up on a website (almost like an ad). Most often, popups are used to promote a free opt-in gift.
Here’s an example of one of the popups we use on our site:
When I mention “popup,” it may conjure up negative feelings about salesy and aggressive websites that show you a popup the second you land on their site.
You may think that you would never want to use a popup. I completely understand this, and when we’re building websites for clients, they often wonder if they should have a popup.
Questions come up, such as…
Will I just annoy people?
Is it for me? I don’t want to look like a slick online marketer.
Do popups really help with list building?
Popups have been known to triple the number of people who opt-in to your site – so, yes indeed, they do work!
If you’re sensitive (like I am), you want your website to be respectful of the people who land on it. You want to be likeable and build trust with your visitors.
But at the same time, you want to build your list as quickly as possible.
Is there a way to use popups respectfully?
There are some very friendly ways to use pop ups that are extremely effective for building your list.
Rather than having a popup show up immediately after someone lands on your site, you can set-up popups in the following ways…
- Exit popup
This is a popup that will show up when it looks like the visitor is about to leave your site. - Time delay popup
This is a popup that displays after your visitors have been on your website for 15-45 seconds (or more). This allows the visitor to become engaged in your site before showing them the popup. - Scroll activation popup
This popup will appear when visitors reach the bottom of a page or blog post.
By setting up a “polite” pop-up on your site, you’ll be able to get more of the people who visit your website to opt-in to your list. And, you’ll be marketing in a way that feels good to you.
My favorite popup tools
PopUpAlly is the popup service we use (for our site and our clients) and the tool I recommend if you have a WordPress site. PopupAlly is a simple to implement popup that will build your list without annoying visitors. (Note that this tool only works on WordPress sites.) This popup is only a one-time fee of $97.
Have an IIN website or non-WordPress site?
While I love PopUpAlly, if you don’t have a WordPress site you’ll need another popup service. LeadPages’ pop-up functionality (called LeadBoxes) integrates with all website platforms, including IIN sites. This means you can now easily promote your free gift on your site. LeadPages also has lots of options to make it polite for your visitors. This is a pricier option than PopUpAlly, but will also give you the ability to easily set-up squeeze pages.
Now I’d love to hear from you.
Do you currently use a popup on your site? If so, I’d love to see it – post it below. If you don’t have a popup on your website, which type of popup would you like to use (exit, time delay, or scroll activation)?
