Popup Best Practices for your Ecommerce Store

January 13, 2022

Popups have become something of a dirty word when it comes to online promotions in recent years. But, when used correctly, they can be your email marketing campaign’s biggest ally.

Example of a Cyber Monday promotional popup
Timing your popups right is key to ensuring their success. Image from Pixabay

In this blog we’ll take a look at how popup best practices rely on three key areas to inspire, rather than annoy, your audience.

We’ll also cover how getting it right can crush your conversion rates, and deliver more subscribers. Then, to top it off, we’ll demonstrate how Drop Zero Digital’s complete email marketing solution can help do it all for you.

But before we get into any of that, let’s take a quick look at why some people may be against using popups.


Barriers to Uptake

The familiar trope of popup nay-sayers is the annoyance factor. When improperly executed, they can be a jarring experience for the customer.

However, these three areas of interest can either sink or smash your sign-ups target: Timing, design, and user experience.

There are still some people who are shy about using popups
For all their good points, some still choose not to use Popups in their marketing strategy. Photo by Jan van der Wolf from Pexels

But forget about alienating the audience. Because we’re only interested in delighting your customers and encouraging conversions.

So, what does popup best practice look like when it comes to your ecommerce store?


Examining Three Popup Best Practices

Ultimately, getting your popup campaigns right boils down to these three key aspects:

  • Timing 
  • Design 
  • User experience

Let’s jump into those three areas now and unpack what makes them so important.


Timing

Resisting the urge to slap a popup for your latest shiny offer in front of your audience as soon as they land on your site is a great place to start. Nobody likes being hit with sales patter when they open the door. That’s what your selling or connecting emails should do.

Additionally, Google hates when people enter your site then bounce straight back out again without taking any action. This is known as your “Bounce Rate”, you want this to be as low as possible. Immediate popups will cause this to rise.

Timing is everything when it comes to popups. Image from Pixabay

You want customers to be able browse your site and find the best products, before hitting them with a sign-up banner. Setting rules to your popups is a great way to strike this balance while simultaneously managing your customer’s journey.

Set an exit intent rule. This will appear as an offer or discount when someone looks ready to leave your site.

Conversely, you might like a banner to appear when someone scrolls through a certain percentage of your page or when they hover over a product for a pre-determined amount of time without buying. 

Basically, you can tell these people are engaged with your brand, now you just need to get them on your mailing list.

This is where the design element of your popup best practice comes to the fore.


User Experience

User experience or UX is becoming increasingly important when it comes to the success of online campaigns. Which is why many turn to using high-performing tools like Klaviyo to get it right.

Basically, if your popup doesn’t look and behave correct across platforms, your customers ain’t gonna sign-up.

Man using a magnet to attract customers
Popups are a great way to increase your prospects. Image from Pixabay

While you definitely want your prospects to click that “Subscribe” button, you also want them to be able to click off your banner with ease. Create a large or easily visible “close” button.

Much the same as with poor timing, poor UX can also affect that bounce rate we spoke about earlier. Google has recently started to penalise sites whose popups cover or hide their page’s content. Think about using chat boxes or ribbon banners instead of larger splash designs, especially on mobile.

Now that you know all about that best practice triple threat, we’d better tell you how all that hard work will pay off.


Conversion Rates

Back in 2020 a Sumo study found that the average conversion rate for popups is 3.09%.

However, through 2021, research conducted by Optimonk found that sites following popup best practices saw an average conversion rate of 11.09%.

That means, if you follow the rules, sites with an average of 100 visitors a day could see a return of 77.63 sign-ups every week. Before you know it your email list will be booming!

Now all you need to do is delight your customers with your email content. Check out our guide to 5 elements of effective email marketing to find out just how to do that.

Parcel in front of red balloons with per cent symbols on
Popups could be a simple way to start crushing your conversion rates. Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

The All in One Solution

The great thing about all of this is you don’t have to toil over your site’s popup strategy, if you don’t want to.

Drop Zero Digital’s complete email marketing solution can take care of implementing a popup structure, for your brand, which smashes the three key areas listed above out of the park.

Delivering an engaging popup plan that encourages your customers to sign-up to an email journey which is so ‘you’ it’s untrue. We’ll get them in, it’s up to you how you wow them from there.

Get in contact now to start supercharging your popups with a campaign that works for you and your audience.

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