You’ve probably never heard of a guy called Ethan Zuckerman, but he is really sorry.
Sorry for unleashing one of the internet’s most hated features of all time….
The pop-up.
That usually unwanted intrusion which abruptly interrupts our viewing experience in order to request that most valuable electronic commodity, a personal email address.
Pop-ups are ubiquitous. They are not just the preserve of ecommerce sites willing to sacrifice profit margin in order to capture your details for future marketing campaigns, they are everywhere.
The ease of setting up and adding pop-ups to a website has resulted in every type of business and service provider clamoring to harvest your data in order to create lists, segments and groups which they can target later down the line.
And I mean everyone.
From churches and funeral directors to landscapers, lawyer firms and libraries, there is not a single industry which hasn’t used pop-ups on their website.
If you’re like me, you’re unlikely to be heaping praise onto the once humble pop-up. And for good reason.
From a logical, marketing driven perspective, the pop-up makes complete commercial sense, and what a fantastic way of getting a list of people who really want to hear from you. But as with most things in life, the moment you add humans into the mix, emotions and behaviour have to be considered, and that is where the pop-up begins to fall down.
Let me explain why.
When I discuss a website project with a client, I often use the analogy of a website being your brand’s shop window. If it looks bleak, tired or unloved, you’re unlikely to see much custom.
So, most brands strive to make their online shop window (their website) beautiful, functional and enticing as part of a glorious marketing strategy designed to attract new customers, and it works.
But then things start to go wrong.
You start pestering potential customers the moment they walk across the threshold.
You actively prevent them from looking around your business unless they answer questions, provide their credentials or find the close button (which is invariably in the smallest font size possible).
For most websites, aggravation comes in two forms:
- The cookie banner.
- The newsletter pop-up.
And occasionally a third offender… the chat bot asking if we want any help.
And all of this as soon as you arrive on a website, with no way of your customers ignoring it.
If you’re not convinced this is a really bad way to welcome customers, imagine if you entered a physical store on the high street and you were immediately stopped by the data collection manager who wants your consent to track your behavior as you shop. After dealing with that, a sales assistant jumps out and asks for your email address, purely for good intentions, of course.
At this point, quite a few customers would turn around and walk out. Add in a chatbot with a waving hand (you know the type), and that number increases exponentially.
The danger is that all your efforts spent on marketing and enticing people to your site goes to waste.
But collecting data is essential for our marketing strategy.
Absolutely, and rightly so. However, as with everything worth collecting, it needs to be considered against the potential value of losing customers.
Arguably you could say that the estimated lifetime value of a customer’s data is so important that it warrants driving a train through your welcome experience – normal rules just don’t apply, and if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
And that is very valid. All I ask is that you rethink the way you ask for, and collect that data.
So why do we still use pop-ups on websites?
For most businesses, it’s a quick and easy way of gathering data, regardless of whether you ever use it. As most consumers now expect there to be a few barriers before you can actually view a website, it seems to be the OK thing to do.
But just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it is right for all businesses.
In fact, if the process is too intrusive, clunky or frustrating, you’ll lose visitors.
And if you’re a business which collects data but never actually uses it, then you should ask yourself whether it is worth the disruption that it brings to customers.
Aside from the cookie banner, which is often a mandatory step most online visitors know they have to deal with, everything else is within your power to change.
How to deliver a better pop-up experience
Instead of blasting visitors with a pop-up requesting an email address when someone first arrives on your site, consider these alternative approaches:
- Add a button in the corner of your site which is your trigger to open the pop-up. If customers want to join your mailing list or get a discount, they will click it.
- If you are going to use a pop-up, look at adding a time delay to prevent it being the first action that someone needs to take (which is usually to get rid of it). Try experimenting with a delay somewhere between 30-60 seconds. If someone is still on your site after 30 seconds has elapsed, they have likely seen something they are interested in and therefore potentially more willing to hand over their data in return for a reward.
- Use exit pop-ups (the ones which appear when you are about to close the tab or go to a different website). My own, potentially controversial opinion is that exit pop-ups can appear a little desperate – like ‘please don’t leave our website just yet’. Therefore, it may be worth investigating why visitors are not converting or getting in touch with your business.
- Exclude pop-ups from certain pages/urls where you have a strong message to get across without distraction.
- Make your pop-up offer seriously irresistible, not a lowly discount code or subpar ‘how to’ guide. Instead, think of the lifetime value opportunity that exists once you have that data and craft an offer which reflects that. Not only will you get more signups, you may generate unexpected advocacy.
When to really think about whether a pop-up is appropriate.
If you are running paid online campaigns and targeting specific groups of people, for the love of creating a good first experience, don’t do anything that stops potential customers looking at what you want to sell.
These wonderful prospects have taken a deliberate decision to click on your ad because they are interested in what you have to offer. Chances are that they don’t want to see a marketing pop-up as soon as they land on your website.
First impressions matter, so make it wonderful.
If you’re ever unsure as to whether what you’re doing is right, imagine replicating that experience in a physical environment. If it would suck on the shop floor, it will almost certainly suck online.
