
21 Oct Website Pop-Up Secrets Revealed: What We Love & Hate About Pop-Ups
Website pop-ups are an essential tool in digital marketing. However, how you implement them can inspire love or hate in your website visitors. A good pop-up will increase conversions, encourage sales, and grow your newsletter list. A bad pop-up will drive away potential new customers and annoy your existing customers.
Keep reading for Stitchcraft Marketing’s do’s and don’ts for using website pop-ups effectively.
Best Practices for Website Pop-ups: Maximizing Engagement Without Annoying Users
1. Use Timed and Exit-Intent Pop-ups
A major mistake marketers make is utilizing early pop-ups that trigger right when a visitor lands on your site. You’ve built your homepage to encourage engagement and entice new visitors to explore your offerings. Early pop-ups interrupt their experience before they’ve had a chance to explore.
The timing for your pop-up should be anywhere from 5 seconds to 1 minute after a user has landed on your website. There are two ways to determine timing. The first uses the size of your pop-up: if your pop-up occupies most of the screen, aim for around 1 minute; if your pop-up is smaller, and/or floats or slides in, aim for between 5 and 30 seconds.
The second method to determine timing requires accessing your Google Analytics. Check your Google Analytics for the average engagement time per active user. Set the timing for your website pop-up at 50% to 60% of the average engagement time. According to Stitchcraft Marketing’s time indicated below, our pop-up should surface at approximately 33-40 seconds.
Timed pop-ups, which appear after a visitor has spent a set amount of time on your page, are much more user-friendly and effective. Another powerful option is the exit-intent pop-up, which appears as users are about to leave your site. These feel less intrusive and target visitors at a point when they might otherwise be lost.
Timed pop-ups are best for newsletter registrations, exclusive offers, free content, and other types of generosity marketing. Exit intent pop-ups are best reserved for conversion pages before the user navigates away from your website, like with an abandoned cart or gated content.
2. Provide Value
Always ensure your pop-ups offer something of value in return for engagement. This could be a discount code for new subscribers, exclusive content, or access to a free pattern or tutorial. Craft retailers should consider creating downloadable craft guides they can offer in exchange for newsletter registration. This creates a mutually beneficial experience, making users more likely to engage with the pop-up.
3. Clear and Simple Design
A pop-up should be eye-catching but not overbearing. Use colors that complement your site’s design and make the call-to-action (CTA) button prominent. Keep the text minimal and focused on a single offer or action.
Cluttered or confusing pop-ups can lead to frustration and higher bounce rates. For example, a clean pop-up offering a 10% discount or free pattern download for subscribing to your newsletter can draw attention without overwhelming the user. Aim for fewer input fields to accomplish a cleaner design. Limit the inputs to first name, last name, and email. The more inputs included, the higher the likelihood visitors will hit the dismissal button!
If your website pop-up is unrelated to newsletter subscription, include an opt-in option for marketing communications.
- Use Mobile-Friendly Pop-ups
With an increasing number of visitors browsing on mobile devices, it’s critical to ensure your pop-ups are optimized for mobile. Google even penalizes websites with intrusive pop-ups that hinder mobile user experience.
Design pop-ups that fit smaller screens without covering all of the on-page content, and always provide an easy way to close them. Nothing is more frustrating than being unable to close a pop-up because the “x” is too small, hidden, or has been cut off on a mobile screen!
5. Limit Frequency and Placement
Showing multiple pop-ups in a short amount of time is one of the quickest ways to aggravate visitors. Stick to one pop-up per session and ensure it doesn’t appear more than once per visitor.
Additionally, be mindful of the placement—placing pop-ups in the center of the screen is standard, but smaller notifications in the corner or at the bottom of the page can be equally effective without being too disruptive.
6. Automate Follow-Ups & Test Pop-ups
Nothing is more frustrating for a website visitor than handing over their email for a free pattern or discount that never arrives in their inbox.
Avoid this frustration by testing your pop-ups to ensure they work properly. Use a personal email to fill out and submit the pop-up form, and make sure the dismissal button works properly on both desktop and mobile.
Check your inbox to confirm that the promised content was delivered as expected. If your website pop-up is only related to newsletter registration, automate a welcome newsletter to confirm for the user that they are signed up to receive your content.
Worst Practices for Website Pop-ups: What to Avoid
1. Don’t Overload Visitors with Multiple Pop-ups
One of the most common mistakes is showing more than one pop-up at a time. This overwhelms users and causes frustration. It also creates a cluttered and ugly website. Scrolling through your website shouldn’t trigger multiple pop-ups that interrupt the user experience.
- Don’t Force Users to Engage
It should always be easy to close a pop-up. Don’t make it difficult to dismiss a pop-up, and don’t create pop-up roadblocks, where users must complete a form to continue browsing. Frustrated users are likely to leave your site altogether, harming your retention rate.
- Purposeless Pop-ups
Throwing up a pop-up just for the sake of it is counterproductive. Every pop-up should serve a clear purpose—whether it’s collecting email leads, offering a discount or download, showcasing a new product, or completing a cart check-out before leaving.
- Ignoring Relationship Status
There is a huge difference between someone who has visited your site for years and a new user visiting your website. Not all visitors are the same, and pop-ups should be tailored accordingly. Your loyal customers should not see pop-ups offering them an introductory discount, just as first-time customers should not see pop-ups rewarding their loyalty.
Offering a generic message to all visitors might not convert as well as segmenting your audience and providing more relevant offers. Try to create pop-ups targeting different types of customers: first-time visitors, returning newsletter subscribers, and loyal customers.
- Judgmental Pop-Ups
Have you ever seen a pop-up where the dismissal button felt a little… judgy? Maybe it’s a pop-up offering a 10% discount, and the dismissal button says “No thanks, I don’t like saving money!”
You might think it’s cute, but there are plenty of website visitors who will not agree. Negative pop-ups can feel belittling and leave a bad taste in visitors’ mouths—there’s enough negativity in the world already without judgmental pop-ups! Infuse your pop-ups with personable language that aligns with your brand voice, and try to focus on using a positive rather than a negative tone. Instead of the above, opt for something like “Maybe later, I want to click around some more!”
- Pop-Ups That Permanently Disappear
Sometimes, in their haste to click around your website to find what they want, visitors might accidentally dismiss a pop-up. If the pop-up never retriggers, they may grow frustrated at losing a discount, giveaway, or freebie.
Consider employing timed pop-ups to circumvent this frustration. Pop-ups that retrigger after a percentage of the page has been scrolled by the user offer another alternative. A third option is to use teaser pop-ups, which sit on top of your webpage and can be opened or closed with a click. This puts the visitor in control of whether or not they want to engage with your pop-up.
How Craft Retailers Can Benefit from Well-Designed Website Pop-ups
Craft retailers have a unique opportunity to build community through carefully planned pop-ups. Here are a few creative ways to use them effectively:
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- Promote Craft Workshops or Events: Use timed pop-ups to invite users to sign up for an upcoming workshop or craft event. For instance, you could offer early-bird pricing or exclusive access to a limited-seat quilting class.
- Intended audience: Everyone visiting your website.
- Share Exclusive Content: Use pop-ups to share free downloadable guides, patterns, and other helpful materials. This could be a guide to embroidery needles, a free knitting pattern, or a template for a popular quilt design.
- Intended audience: Everyone visiting your website.
- Loyalty Programs and Discounts: Offer long-time customers or high-spenders a loyalty discount or early access to new products through a targeted pop-up. Craft consumers, especially hobbyists, enjoy feeling a sense of community with the brands they love. Foster customer loyalty with exclusive offers.e good for loyal customers returning to your website.
- Intended audience: Loyal customers returning to your website.
- Newsletter/welcome offer: Encourage newsletter registrations with welcome offers like free downloads, coupons, or discounts on first-time orders
- Intended audience: Every new visitor to your website.
- Promote Craft Workshops or Events: Use timed pop-ups to invite users to sign up for an upcoming workshop or craft event. For instance, you could offer early-bird pricing or exclusive access to a limited-seat quilting class.
- Cart Abandon Reminders: These exit-intent pop-ups should remind visitors about items in their cart before they navigate away from your website.
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- Intended audience: Everyone shopping on your website without completing purchase.
Website pop-ups Done Right = More Conversions
Pop-ups, when used thoughtfully, are a powerful tool to boost engagement, gather leads, and increase conversions. For businesses, they offer a way to connect directly with your audience, provide value, and drive sales. However, poorly executed pop-ups—those that are disruptive, untargeted, or difficult to close—can hurt your brand’s reputation and drive customers away from your website.
Need help crafting pop-ups that will engage your customers? Stitchcraft Marketing is a marketing agency of crafting experts. We customize every program to showcase your brand, engage your customer base, and generate sales in a way that is nothing less than magical. Contact us today to get started!
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