Yes to Website Pop-Ups – 5 Important Tips

Do you use website pop-ups?

I was eating my toast this morning and it made me think about pop-ups (like a toaster, get it?) and how people feel about using website pop-ups on their site. I know this is a marketing tool that brings out the haters, so bear with me.

Here's the deal about website pop-ups. They work. And they don't have to be super-annoying (don't even create a super-annoying one because it WON'T work). We use and love Pop-Up Domination (that's my affiliate link) because you can create beautiful pop-ups that ENHANCE your web pages rather than annoy people.

The Psychology of Website Pop-ups

• Someone thinks “I need to lose weight” while she is drinking a beer or eating chocolate cake.
• Someone thinks “I can't afford a new car” while she is actually shopping for a new car.
• Someone thinks “website pop-ups are annoying and I will never click on one” and within a week she has made a purchase through a pop-up. 

Marketers know this. Social psychologists know this, too. Books have been written about this very thing (check out Martin Lindstrom's book Buyology: Truth and Lies About What We Buy (that's my Amazon affiliate link).

According to Sumo.com the average conversion rate for pop-ups is 3.09%. What's a conversion rate? Conversion means someone took an action, so that person clicked or downloaded whatever your call to action is on your pop-up. You might not think that's a lot, but average website conversion rates are less than 2.5%. 

Tips for Designing Website Pop-ups

Here are my best tips about using pop-ups.

• Don't use a general pop-up on every single web page. Pick the main pages where you want to make an offer in return for the person's contact information and create a graphically pleasing, pretty pop-up for those particular pages.
• Create content that is a complement to what someone purchases from you and use a pop-up on the product delivery page to offer that complementary product or giveaway.
• Don't use screaming red hot dripping fonts. Pop-Up Domination has templates that make creating a pop-up super fast and easy.
• (This is VIP!) Use your pop-up AFTER you have provided content, upon page exit. Your goal with a pop-up is to increase your email captures without decreasing your page views. Got that?? This is important!!! 
• Use visuals on pop-ups – good graphics, pretty pictures. And give them some personality, too. Say things on your pop-up like “Want to stay in the loop?” or “Don't get left out!.”

If you want to build your email list you should consider using a well-planned, non-annoying pop-up. Because. They work. Click To Tweet That's #ceothink. 

Related: Here's my review of some other tools I use in the back end of my online business.

Have you used pop-ups on your website? I'd love to hear how that's gone for you, if you have. Just leave a quick comment below.