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13 Comments

Would you use a popup for capturing email address?

On multiple occasions, for capturing visitor's email address, I've tested using popup opt-in vs other opt-in types (sidebar opt-in, after- and middle- post opt-in, and floating bar opt-in).

And popups win every time.

Most people's concerns with popups are, "I'm afraid of annoying my visitors".

Think about it — if they're offended because of a popup, imagine what happens when you sell them something?

You're here to do business with a small segment of your audience and not to please everyone right?

What is your experience building an email list with popups?

  1. 2

    Always test the results. I resisted popups for a long time because of the expressed distaste many people have for them. And I get it—an interrupted experience is friction. So I went so far as to test the theories out there because I wanted to know:

    1. Do popups get more/less subscribers?
    2. What is the quality of subscribers that come through popup?

    My conclusions were:

    a. Popup (exit intent, and timed delay tested) opt-ins do capture subscribers
    b. Popups don't detract from other opt-in forms on the page
    c. The quality (based on open/click rates) of people who sign up through a popup is not significantly higher... it's roughly the same

    So do they work? Yes.

    But that's also subjective because at the end of the day it's not the delivery format of the opt-in, but the attractiveness of the opt-in offer that makes the biggest difference.

    1. 1

      Very well said, especially the part about the opt-in offer that makes the biggest difference. The popup is there to pattern interrupt. So if the same offer is also on the widget or end of post for example, the popup is most likely to get the most attention.

      1. 2

        Yea, the pattern interrupt is important. But I still find the best-converting opt-ins are content upgrades that enhance or add to the article/landing page content. Relevancy of the offer is king.

  2. 2

    I can't say that a pop up has ever made me want to sign up, especially those ones that pop up when your mouse goes off the screen. I often move my mouse when reading. Makes me quite annoyed to take my attention to close one to keep reading.

  3. 2

    When you say pop up, are you referring to a modal that takes over/blocks the screen? I personally find those annoying and instantly click away.

    I built a small tool for more of a widget that you can use/embed https://www.emailcapture.io/. I (personally) find that approach less intrusive, but I don't have any data on what works better. I imagine it's one of those "it depends" answers, based on your audience - if you have regular/returning visitors, you probably don't want to be too intrusive, but if it's 1x and you need to capture them right away, probably makes sense.

  4. 2

    popups/modals Feel free to get this I made for free with Tailwind CSS

    https://wickedpopups.com/

    Personally I wouldn't use a pop up though.

  5. 2

    I wanna use them but feel like they're so annoying and don't want my customers/prospects to have a bad experience. I'll most likely use an inline widget rather than a popup.

  6. 2

    Hi, @wellymulia,

    This is an interesting question as I see it in more different projects, however, none of them was my own.
    I'd like to ask you, how did you test it, and based on what results do you think this would be the best solution?

    1. 1

      I use a wordpress plugin to test, so I'd have multiple opt-in forms on a page - sidebar, end of post, popup, and the popup always wins in terms of opt-in conversion rate.

      1. 1

        Thank you. I'll have to read a bit about the reasons, I guess I don't really understand people. I'm honestly surprised because for me when I'm visiting new pages, this is the most annoying solution, that's why I'm so interested in this topic.

  7. 1

    Hi, @wellymulia!

    I'm more and more inclined to agree with you here. Most likely I'm going to implement such pop-ups instead of forms on price2spy and also use them on my latest project BotMeNot.

    Truth be told, I'm not satisfied with how many people are signing up through these forms for my newsletters, and I think this change may improve that metric!

    Cheers!

    1. 1

      Go try it out and see how it works for you!

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