Pop ups can be a controversial topic in marketing. Some will tell you that they slow down or interrupt the site experience, while others will tell you that your crazy for not using them.
The truth is, there is a time and place for pop ups and using them at the right time has been proven to help ecommerce stores increase sales and decrease abandon cart rates.
According to Shopify, as of 2017, abandon cart rates were nearly 70% worldwide! Now imagine if you had just the right message to show, to avoid your potential customers leaving their items behind.
Pop ups need to appear at just the right time and deliver a message that resonates with the user in order to leverage your sales.
Here are a few ways you can optimize your pop ups to ensure that you’re making the most of them.
Get good at Copywriting
Marketing revolves around encouraging people to purchase your product and convincing them that your product is something that is of value to them. Now, when a potential customer views your site, they likely already know what you sell or are offering, so your pop up should offer something new and even more valuable – something they can’t just find by searching your site.
Can you offer them a discount for signing up to your mailing list? Or something exciting for a first-time purchase?
The text within your pop up is crucial and needs to speak to your audience.
Exit-intent popups
How are your bounce and abandon cart rates going? If you’re losing potential customers at a certain point of the process then an exit intent pop up can be great for keeping them on your site.
These pop ups show just as you are about to leave a certain page or click away from a website and are powerful at capturing the attention of your visitor and encouraging them to pursue with their purchase. Maybe you could offer them a discount to sweeten the deal?
Your exit-intent popups will need to be timed correctly though, as you don’t want to interrupt a consumer that is simply still shopping when they leave their card. Wait until they have tried to leave the site before showing them your popup.
Up sell popups
If a consumer is already purchasing a product from you, you can pretty much guarantee they are liking what they see, so why not encourage them to purchase something else in the same transaction? This is where an upsell popup can be effective.
These popups will show consumers other products or services that they may be interested in. For example, if your visitor is looking for dresses, is there another dress they may like that’s similar to the one in their cart, or is there a nice piece of jewellery that would go well with the dress?
You can even go one step further and offer a discount on the upsell, or bundle items together to sweeten the deal.
Newsletter popups
We all know how important it is to constantly be increasing our mailing list, and newsletter popups can help you do this.
If your visitor isn’t already subscribed, then they need to know that they are missing out on some great content and amazing deals.
Getting people to subscribe to your newsletter is the perfect way to reach them even when they are not actively looking to buy. It keeps your brand in the back of their head at all times and might even get to their inbox at the perfect time.
In saying this, newsletter popups can often be implemented at the incorrect time, causing you to lose the signup.
So, when should you have the pop up appear? The idea is to target the visitors that have an interest in your product or page, so target them when they are about to leave your site or when they scroll to a certain point of your website.
It’s also a good idea to offer an incentive to signing up to your newsletter. Something like a discount or giveaway.
Now that we’ve looked at the different types of pop ups that you can use on your site, we need to look at what strategies you should use to ensure that your pop up will convert.
Your pop up needs to be clear and simple, so don’t add too many elements that will distract or overwhelm the user. Things like using the correct colours and design that complement your brand tend to work better and high quality, appealing images are a bonus.
You will also need to ensure that there is a clear way to decline the offer and close the pop up. There is nothing more frustrating than spending too much time trying to figure out how to get out of the popup.
In conclusion, if you’ve been a bit hesitant or too scared to run a popup on your site, reconsider! If you put time and effort in to what’s included in your pop up, the timing and who will see it, then it can make a real difference in your sales.