what makes pop ups so annoying?!
Pop-ups. to use, or not to use. We’re all asking the same question: “ARE POP-UPS STILL USEFUL ON WEBSITES?”
Short answer is yes.
The long answer is on how to use them without annoying your visitor to the point that they just exit your website in frustration. it leaves a bad taste in the mouth for everyone.
You lose the chance of an enquiry. They’re frustrated because they havent got the info they want.
So the next question I’m guessing that you’re asking is, how can we use them to make our website work harder and not make people exit our website?!
Ever landed on a website that before you can do anything, you have to accept cookies (because it covers the whole page) and then you have to confirm that you’re OK with said cookies with ANOTHER window pop up??? ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
Then you just get three words into what you want to read and ANOTHER POP UP lands right in the middle of your viewing to offer you something irrelevant.
You just wanna read the blog, man! LET ME READ THE BLOG!!!
I have actually been on sites before that I’ve had to click off 5 or 6 pop ups before being able to research what I wanted in the first place.
Or (even worse in my eyes), there’s the pop ups that hide how to close the darn thing. So you end up exiting the page without being able to read anything at all…
As you may be able to tell, I could moan about pop ups all day. But they 100% have their place on the internet – AND THEY DO WORK!
When used responsibly. 😉
what makes pop ups work?!
Well firstly, let’s not go on a pop up overload. Thats one thing that makes them work.
but in my experience, using pop ups sparingly can make all the difference.
My biggest win with pop ups is to use them on a web users intent to take an action.
1.
Web user intent:
For example, the user is going to exit the website. The website picks up that the user intends to do this (by tracking the mouse to the page edge for example) and therefore shows a pop up. The user was exiting anyway, so by trying one last thing isn’t going to make any difference. Save your best offer for this one!
2.
Web user intent:
Wants to take an offer. If the user clicks a button for a download, sometimes we take them off to another page. But if we use a pop up instead, they don’t lose their spot on the website (win for them) and you look great! Another win for the pop up!
3.
A thank you!
So your visitor has just filled in a form or downloaded something or other on your website… sometimes we fill out a form on the internet and the form then just resets, and we don’t know if our information has gone through or not!
I often talk about this being a missed opportunity, but if this is a generic enquiry form, why not create a “thank you” pop up – WITH AN UPSELL?! If it makes sense to the customer, usually upsells are very successful. And this way, they know you have their form info, and you get to get one step closer to a sale, by taking them to the next step in the funnel.
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