If you ask people: “do you like pop-ups?”, most of them will say no. But in reality, the majority of the same respondents will click on a pop-up when they see a message they're interested in.
This is a controversial topic. Pop-ups are somewhat intrusive and in most cases, people will click on the X to close without giving it a second thought. And yet, the majority of online stores - including the most profitable ones, still use them. After a lot of testing and many years, pop-ups are still trending.
Why is this the case?
It’s because they work.
Yes, popups are annoying in most cases. But, this is because they often give a message that the user is not interested in. Also, how can you create a popup that every single user will want to click on? It’s not possible!
The idea is to create a pop-up that appeals to many of your targeted audience on your Shopify store. For a pop-up to work, it needs to be done right. On average, the conversion rate of a pop-up is 3.09%, which is definitely not high. But, well-designed pop-ups have conversion rates of almost 10%, which adds up to quite a lot for those brands.
In this post, we’ll tell you why you should still use pop-ups on your ecommerce store in 2023 - as well as share with you some great pop-up ideas through successful examples.
Why pop-ups are still a good idea
Businesses use pop-ups for many different purposes. On Shopify, brands can use a pop-up for everything from driving more sales to gathering more emails for the marketing campaign. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should pursue pop-ups for your store.
Simple to create and use
In the past, you had to invest a lot of time and effort into creating a pop-up. The design had to be done manually, you had to scour for inspiration and ideas, and it took forever to create something good. Today, this is very simple.
Not only are there tools that make pop-up design simple and customizable, but you can even use them to automate pop-ups to appear at the perfect moment. You can now use important email automation tools to create a memorable message or create a list-building aid in the form of a pop-up. Flodesk was built for this exact purpose - to allow you to customize forms to design better and faster.
Easy to use on your Shopify store
Once you have a ready pop-up, which shouldn’t take long to make, you can easily use it in your Shopify store. You’ll learn how to add a pop up on Shopify on the first try - that’s how easy they made this for sellers.
Drive more sales to your Shopify store
Ideally, a pop-up should grab the user’s attention and convince them not only to click and learn more - but to actually make a purchase. This is why stores time their ‘last-minute’ offers to pop up before you exit their page - to give you a final chance to make a purchase.
Encourage users to give their email address
Pop-ups can encourage visitors on a website to opt-in to a newsletter or share their email to get a discount, join a giveaway, etc. It’s a great way to boost that email list and fill it with people who are interested in what your brand has to offer.
Improve the customer experience
Pop-ups are intrusive, but they are also a great way to improve the user experience. How is this possible?
Well, you can start by using a pop-up that actually asks the visitor about their experience. This will give you the feedback you need to improve and will show them that you value their opinions.
They are impossible to miss
The reason why they are called pop-ups is because they’ll pop up in people’s faces, making them hard to ignore. Sure, people can simply close the page or click on the X button, but you can be sure of one thing - these things show to everyone!
Best practices for pop-ups - and interactive pop-up ideas
You opened your Shopify store. You went through the available Shopify plans and picked one that suits your brand and products. You took pictures, worked on your marketing, made a logo design, and much more. Now you’re ready to add pop-ups to the offer. And while we established that there’s no shortage of tools that will help you create them, you still need some great ideas - and tips to make them a reality.
So, here they are - the best practices in combination with interactive pop-up ideas.
1 Make a good offer
The most important rule of running effective pop-ups is to provide something of value. Whenever they see something intrusive that takes them away from what they were looking for - or intended to do, people will think the same:
“What’s in this for me?”
When you’re creating a pop-up, this is the first question to ask yourself. You can’t just ask them to make a purchase or give you their email. They need an incentive, too.
Think of what you know about the visitors to your Shopify store. What do they want? What do they know? What would they want to know?
Based on this, give them the information they need. If you feel like the price is making them reconsider a purchase, give them a discount. If you feel like they’d be interested in a contest, give them a chance to join. Use free shipping, discounts, offers, free trials, and much more.
Pourri used a discount to get its visitors' email addresses - and potentially make a sale.
Swisswatchexpo has taken this to a whole new level - and offers up to 60% off for email subscriptions!
2 Keep it simple
Pop-ups that are too long are distracting. No one will want to read through paragraphs and paragraphs of content in a pop-up. You are distracting people - so be fast about it.
It’s important to keep this very short - and to the point. Tell people why you’ve disrupted their time on your page. It has to be something of value - but it has to be short, too.
Let’s take a look at some interactive examples.
Charms to Treasure gives visitors two simple options - yes or no to the discount. The point of the pop-up is very clear, right?
Pipsnacks used a very colorful, vibrant pop-up to welcome visitors with a discount when they sign up. It gives them options - get the code or don’t. Clear as day!
3 Use microcopy for the extra text
While you should keep it short and to the point, there is often information that you simply need to include in your pop-up. If you don’t want it to stand out or be the first thing people see, you should use microcopy or, as we say, the fine print.
Let’s say that you want to give people the option to reject your newsletter emails or unsubscribe from what you are offering. Or, you want to be clear and transparent about the terms and conditions behind your bonus or special offer.
This is where font type and size come in very handy. Let’s consider some examples.
In the following example, you’ll see that OKA encourages visitors to spend 150 pounds to get free delivery in the UK. To be eligible for this, visitors also need to sign up for the newsletter. It’s quite the incentive and a very profitable one for the brand. But, the brand decided not to throw everything at the visitor right away and used a much smaller font to share the terms for this promotion i.e. sharing their email address.
Here is an example by Tommy Hilfiger:
Those who join the club get 20% off their first purchase, as well as many other perks. Just underneath the signup button, the brand says “By submitting my information I agree to the Terms & Conditions”. There’s a link to the T&C too, offering full transparency without taking the attention away from the big discount.
4 Display a powerful message with visuals
Do you want interactive pop-ups? Then you need the right visuals! We are talking about the right combination of colors, but also images, videos, GIFs, and other content formats that grab attention.
Drip found that pop-ups with images convert better than those without them by 83.57%.
So, how do you use visuals to make those messages more interactive?
Start by adding visual cues that guide the visitor to the message. You can use pixels on Shopify to track what people do and where they stay on your page. This will show you if your efforts have worked. Then, use the mapped area to create the most important message in the spot that people look at first.
Also, you can use elements that serve as visual cues, such as this example:
The brand used an image of a cookie for their cookie notice.
Similarly, this store uses graphics to show the rewards people get for ‘becoming an insider’:
Do your pop-ups work?
If you are using pop-ups but they aren’t bringing you any results, you need a change in strategy. If you aren’t using them, the time to start is now. They are intrusive, yes, but with some creativity and value to offer, these can be just what you need to get your Shopify store noticed. Good luck!
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