Are Popups Really Effective for Converting More Customers in 2020

Featured article by Ani Harutyunyan , Independent Technology Author

First answer that comes to mind when hearing such a question, may be “of course, no!”. Most of the people find popups very annoying and it can be a reason for them to leave a site, in fact. This is a common impression by online society, as even popup services admit that popups can sometimes be really annoying.

The fact remains that popups, just like Facebook ads, newsletter emails and other kinds of marketing means, can be frustrating if not used correctly.

At the end of the day, hate them or love them, some types of popups remain one of the most powerful converting means for any website owner.

There are more variations of marketing popups these days, that continue to develop in 2020 as well. With more progressive popup technologies like mobile exit intent, push notifications, etc., popups are becoming stronger with their role of converting.

Let’s check some useful tips to avoid frustrating popups and benefit with really effective popups for converting more customers in 2020.

Accurate Timing

One of the main principles for having success with your popups is showing them on the right on your website. Picking the right time to show the popup can be fatal for your success. 

Avoid showing popups just the moment the visitor has landed on your website. This is not a good welcoming for any future customer as it has all the chances to push them back. No matter how good your website content is, how cool your online shop is, the visitors may be annoyed if the first thing they see on your site is a popup.

It’s a very good practice showing the popup with some delay, for example. Or displaying the popup if the customer has visited some pages on your website. Another good way of showing a popup is when they stay inactive on your site for a while. This is an alert for you to engage with them, as they might be interested in your content. 

Enticing Offers

What makes popups really effective is their content, for sure. The main purpose of using popups is showing various offers to convince users for some actions.

For eCommerce websites, we refer to more shopping, of course. The best content to push a customer for more shopping still remains a coupon or a free shipping offer.

A nice discount can do magic for increasing shopping on your eCommerce. Popups are the most effective and eye-catching way to deliver the offer to the customer. Just a simple popping up window with a coupon offer is able to convert any customer and promote more shopping. 

A great example of such practice is viewed on Backup Guard backup service’s official website. A perfectly compact popup greets the visitors with a discount coupon offer just after some seconds you land on the site. The point here is not only the content of the popup, but also its compact sizing and the correct timing with some delay. Such popups can only help increasing the conversion and sales of a website.

Real-time Conversion

Exit Intent popups are the synonyms for real-time conversion in digital marketing, as many marketers can state. There’s no other tool more powerful than exit intent when it comes to converting customers.

Especially, when we face cart abandonment on eCommerce shops, exit intent popups can be vital for the site owner. 

These popups are triggered just the moment a customer tries to leave the website. Most of the time, they leave having some items added to their shopping carts. The reasons for leaving this way can be thousands. But the solution is one – exit intent popups.

Sometimes customers forget about the items added to the cart, and exit intent can be a perfect reminder to bring them back to finalize the purchase.

In other cases, you may offer a discount coupon just the moment they try to leave, and the chances are really big they will finalize the purchase.

Mobile Conversion

It’s a known fact that people are spending most of the time on their mobile devices. We communicate on the phone, via voice & video calls, via social networks, messengers, etc. We shop online via our mobile devices, using apps or visiting shopping websites. We play games, we read, we even work via our mobile devices. In short, mobile devices are now a really inseparable parts of our lives.

This is why it’s important to target digital marketing on mobile audiences especially.

There are so many ways of succeeding in mobile marketing, starting from mobile-friendly websites, ending with mobile-optimized popups (why not). 

Mobile popups require more accuracy connected to their size and triggering means. You should be more careful using popups on mobile in order not to interfere with users while they’re browsing. 

The best way of showing mobile popups probably is the scroll event. The popup opens while the customer scrolls down the page. If they scroll the page, then they are interested in your content and may be looking for something. A popup with a help offer or a discount can be a great way to connect with customers and convert them.

Overall, we can state the fact that popups still remain one of the most powerful converting means in 2020. Any digital marketer can reach more conversions and boost online sales if correct popups are implemented on the website. The content and the timing of the popups is vital, so one should follow simple rules to succeed.