The first pop-up appeared on a Tripod website in 1997 and mesmerized the Internet users by it. As a result, people started to overuse them vastly, which made the turn of the millennium a golden age of ad blockers. But is the situation the same at the present day?
Various stats prove that popping ads are great when it comes to growing your customer base. Note that not all pop-ups are the same. Different types serve different purposes. But let’s define pop-up windows at first.
What is a pop-up?
Smart pop-ups are floating windows that appear on a website after a user’s action or automatically, based on a pre-programmed script. Despite some controversy, pop-ups bear some indisputable advantages in them. Modern smart widgets are highly customizable, dynamic and easy to implement.
What types of pop-ups are there?
Several classification approaches can occur. In this article, we’re going to examine the most common ones. Let’s begin with the templates variations.
Pop-up templates variations
- The modal. A pop-up is on the page center, which makes the content dark and non-clickable. A user needs to interact with a modal window to return to the content.
- A page overlay. A smart widget overlaps an entire page so that it’s impossible to interact with it until the window is closed.
- A video pop-up. A video from YouTube or Vimeo plays upon a click or automatically.
- A long pop-up. It’s a sticky bar, which is usually at the top or bottom of a page, that doesn’t prevent a user from interacting with the content.
Pop-up types by CTA
Depending on your goal, you can craft a pop-up that corresponds directly to your business needs.
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Entry pop-ups
If your main objective is to collect leads on your website, entry pop-ups can be a sound solution. The effectiveness of this type of pop-up largely depends on what you offer your customers in return. For example, a discount or free shipping are proven ways to entice your website visitors into giving their data and obtaining a cherished coupon.
BarkBox uses a sticky bar to offer a free dog bed for all pet-lovers, who newly discovered their website.
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Exit pop-ups
This type of pop-up aims to retain customers that are about to leave a website. It may also come in handy to prevent cart abandonment. In practice, you display a pop-up on your website if a visitor’s mouse hovers to an exit sign of a tab or generally out of a page. To persuade your audience to stay, you can provide a last-minute offer or a discount.
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Email subscription pop-ups
If your primary goal is to grow your mailing list, then email pop-ups are a perfect choice. Driving traffic to a web page is only half the battle. After that, you’ll need to nurture them and ensure that they will complete a purchase and stay loyal and open for possible next interactions.
And just like that, a fitness company, Crossrope, is willing to share unique deals in return for a user’s email address.
Having obtained your customers’ contact details, don’t start bombarding them with useless newsletters. Instead, think about sending valuable unique content or seasonal promotions.
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Feedback pop-ups
Among the most precious things for a digital marketer is customers’ feedback. It opens the door to the world of insights and analytics, that can ultimately result in your brand’s better performance. Pop-ups asking for feedback can rarely be annoying, as a person will perceive a company as the one caring for its clients. Moreover, you can display customer reviews somewhere on a homepage for other prospects.
Arizona State University also implements this tool on its website and asks visitors to estimate their satisfaction for further improvements.
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Cookie request
Upon a user’s first visit, you’ll probably need to have their consent to retrieve any information on a computer or whatsoever. But you also do it creatively and instantly grab a user’s attention by a joke, a pun, or just design that enhances your brand’s image.
So here is how a French lingerie brand Declamatus does it.
Bottom line
In the ocean of smart widgets, pop-ups feature prominently. Choose the right template first, depending on your goals. This can be an ordinary popping window, a whole page overlay, or a video pop-up to engage your customers even more. After that, consider what time of CTA to settle on. Whether an email collecting or an exit pop-up, make sure to animate it with your brand’s main idea and image.
