How To Create The Perfect Pop-Up For Your Web Site

by Bonnie Boots

Pop-ups. They’re a part of life on the internet. Some people swear by them. Some people swear at them. But the fact is, pop-ups are just a tool. How well they work for you depends on how you wield them.

You know what a pop-up is, of course. It’s the little box that pops up and offers you an opportunity such as joining a mailing list. Pop-ups may be triggered when you enter a web page, as you read or when you make a move to leave a web site

Last week I received a newsletter from a woman who wrote, “You will never see a pop-up on any of my sites. They’re annoying, intrusive and people hate them.”

An hour later, I was on a web site looking for a recipe. When I left, an elegant little pop-up made me an offer. It was neither intrusive nor offensive. And because it offered me something directly related to the reason I visited that web site, I was glad to see it.

The woman who said she’d never use pop-ups works exclusively in the world of “IM,” the level of internet marketing that’s mostly populated by people who sell tools and information related to IM. It can be a very self-contained world. People in the IM world frequently have no prior business experience and get all their information from other people working in IM.

The world of internet marketing, however, also embraces all the many businesses and corporations who are marketing via the internet. In that level of internet marketing, you find many professional marketers, people who are educated, credentialed and working at a high level in their profession. They usually belong to professional associations and have a good deal of contact with people outside their own core group.

Between these two levels of internet marketing, I have seen pop-ups being used in ways both crude and elegant.

The worst pop-ups I have seen have been in the IM arena. Pop-ups there often have level after level, effectively holding the visitor hostage until they feel forced into answering, “Yes” to something just to escape.

You’ve undoubtedly seen them. You attempt to click away from a web site and a pop-up says, “Wait! This offer is incredibly important so be sure you read EVERY WORD!”

If you try to click away from that self-important message, a new pop-up says, “Wait! You won’t get another chance at this offer. Are you sure you want to leave?”

Try to click away from that pop-up and a new one appears, demanding, “STOP! This is your very last chance. Are you absolutely sue you want to leave?”

The very worst example I’ve seen of this was comprised of nine pop-ups, the last of which forced my browser to go to another web site where there were more pop-ups.

This is exactly the type of crude and offensive pop-up the woman in IM was referring to when she said she would never have a pop-up on any of her sites. It’s this use of pop-ups that has given them a bad name.

But look around at internet marketing as conducted by big business and you soon see that pop-ups can be both elegant and effective.

The perfect pop-up doesn’t have to bludgeon visitors into buying a product or joining a mailing list. The perfect pop-up performs its task by speaking to the stated interest or intent of the visitor. In other words, it offers them something specifically related to their visit. It does so in a polite and respectful manner. And it offers them an obvious and easy way to leave if their answer is no.

One of the best examples I can show you of a perfect pop-up is the one used by Cooks Illustrated Magazine. I found it when I Googled for a specific recipe. Among the Google returns was a link to the website for Cooks Illustrated, a magazine I know to have excellent recipes.

When I clicked the link, I briefly saw the recipe, then a pop-up immediately informed me that the recipe I sought was only available to subscribers, BUT I could see the entire recipe collection for free for 14-days. Here’s a screenshot of that pop-up:

This pop-up has several elements that make it perfect. It is, first of all, a well-designed graphic. It’s pleasant to look at and laid out in a manner that makes it easy to read and understand. 

Next, it gives  pertinent information related to the purpose of my visit—to find a specific recipe—and makes a convincing argument as to why it’s worth paying for recipes rather than searching for free ones.

Then it makes the “compelling offer,”—it offers to let me try the service free for a full two weeks.

And if I did not want to accept the offer, it let me go on my way without a struggle.

Some people in IM have built massive lists and made lots of money by bludgeoning people with pop-ups. They would argue that the annoying pop-up works great. But the “annoying” aspect is purely a decision made by the web site owner. It is not an intrinsic part of the pop-up.

Pop-ups are a tool just as a knife is a tool.  A knife may perform one way in the hands of a surgeon and another way in the hands of a drunken teenager. It is not the nature of the knife, but the nature of the person that wields it that determines how that tool is used.

Pop-ups are a very effective way of making offers to your visitors.  Pop-ups can help you build your mailing list and make additional sales. Don’t turn your back on pop-ups just because some people use them crudely. Instead, follow these simple rules to create the perfect pop-up for your web site:

1. Tell your visitor, in a short, easy-to-understand sentence, what the purpose of the pop-up is.
2. Refer to the original reason the visitor entered your web site. Notice the Cooks Illustrated pop-up, which begins with this sentence: “The page you requested is only available to CooksIllustrated.com members. Try it FREE for 14 days!”
3. Appearance is everything! Use professional graphics.
4. Make it very easy to take that next action such as joining your mailing list or seeing another offer.
5. Make it easy for the visitor to say no and leave.

Follow these rules and you'll find that the pop-up is an effective way to speak to your visitors in a manner that is just as polite and professional as you are.

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Pop-ups are created by scripts that run on web pages. The tools for creating these scripts can be pricey. Just this week I was offered a single pop-up script for $69. I laughed, because my own package, "Finding The Best Price For Your Digital Product," contains a whole bundle of scripts including several pop-ups, along with the full book on pricing and four important reports--for less than that single script.  If you're making and selling any kind of digital product on the internet, you need "Finding The Best Price For Your Digital Product." Learn all about it by clicking here.

 
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