As a polite, ethical marketer… the question becomes “Should you use pop ups?” to grow your email list.
I have to admit, I’m pretty biased when it comes to popup forms because my husband and I are the creators of PopupAlly, a WordPress plugin that helps you build popups and other opt-in forms on your website.
First, let’s take a look at the annoyance factor of popups, shall we?
Should You Use Pop Ups? They Can Be Pretty Annoying, Right?
The worst experience is when you land on a website, start reading or watching the content, and bam!
You’re totally interrupted by a popup form.
I get annoyed by these, too. Especially if I arrived at that particular website by clicking on a link from a newsletter.
I think you probably agree that there’s a polite and impolite way to get someone’s attention. So hold that thought, and we’ll talk about how to be polite to your subscribers in a minute.
First, let’s see if even this type of annoying popup will deter visitors from spending time on your website or not.
The Evidence:
Dan Zarrella, a well-known social media scientist did the test for us. He found that with a timed popup, there was no increase in people leaving his site.
The only difference was that, with a popup, his opt-in rate doubled.
How Effective Are Popups?
So that brings us to whether popup opt-in forms work or not, and how effective they are to help you build your email list faster.
Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner, one of the top social media blogs, attributes 70% of their email subscriptions to their popup form.
And they have over 270,000 subscribers.
Without a popup on their website, they’d have missed out on approximately 189,000 subscribers.
Yikes.
So the evidence is there: popup forms DO work, and they CAN add a ton of new fans to your email list. But in order for them to charm your new subscribers (and you!) we have to overcome that annoyance factor.
Overcoming the Annoyance Factor
One of the major issues with most popups is that it’s hard to stop a popup from showing up again…even if you’re already subscribed.
This means that your subscribers are continually being bombarded with your opt-in when they come to your site.
It might not seem like a huge deal, except that it does carry that impersonal feeling like when your best friend keeps re-inviting you to an event. (“Wasn’t it important enough to remember that I said ‘Yes’ the first time?”)
Why ask someone twice if they say “yes” the first time?
To date, the way other popup software have handled that dilemma is by setting a timer to not show a popup again.
But that’s not quite good enough, because at some point the popup will show again. That’s why the design of PopupAlly Pro, our software plugin for WordPress, does an even better job.
Here’s the scenario:
What if someone is reading an email from you and clicks on a link to go back to your website, to read a blog post or watch a video?
Well you know they came from your newsletter, so we’ve set it up so it’s easy for you to disable future popups when they’re already on your list. Even if they’re clicking the link on their phone or another computer.
Yes, we’re polite like that. Especially when it comes to your existing fans!
More Than a Popup
Getting people to opt into your website is about more than just having a friendly popup invite them in. There are a lot of other places to put opt-ins: horizontal bars, in the sidebar, below the blog posts, etc.
So, of course, PopupAlly covers all your popup and embedded opt-in needs, letting you design your embedded opt-ins exactly how you want them, and easily add them to specific pages or places within your website.
This lets you maximize your real estate, without having to sacrifice style and design to get it done!
Free Vs Paid?
Yes, there are two versions of PopupAlly: the free version, and the paid (“Pro”) version. Both will give you the ability to create popups and opt-ins.
However, the Pro version is a lot more robust, giving you unlimited popups and a lot more styles to choose from. Check out the full comparison between the free and paid version here: PopupAlly: Free VS Pro.
To learn more about how the full PopupAlly Pro WordPress plugin can make your website opt-ins a little more polite, check it out at AmbitionAlly.com.
What’s your take?
Now I want to hear from you – leave a comment below and let me know what websites have gotten you to opt-in through a popup?
