Let’s be honest: most pop-ups suck.
They’re annoying… intrusive…
Some are so bad that they literally make potential customers run away.
Allow me to demonstrate with this *very* scientific graphic:
I don’t care how amazing your product is… if I land on your website and you present me with one of those spin-to-win or scratch card pop-ups, I won’t be buying from you.
I’ll probably just wait a couple of weeks until you announce that you went bankrupt and have your clearance sale.
But enough about bad pop-ups.
Let’s talk about the good ones.
Does such a thing as a good pop-up even exist? Honestly, I have no idea haha.
But here are 3 types of pop-ups that consistently convert 10-15% of website visitors into email subscribers.
Those are some insane conversion rates!
Here are 3 examples of highly converting pop-ups:
- The “What’s Your Pain?” Pop-Up
This pop-up by Tula has a clear incentive (15% off), and asks customers what their biggest skin care pain is. This simple question allows them to personalize their welcome sequence and recommend relevant products.
- The “What Are You Shopping For?” Pop-Up
Just like the previous pop-up, this one by Heaven Mayhem also offers a percentage discount along with a question. This time, however, the question isn’t about the customer’s pain. If you don’t have a problem-solution product and sell across multiple categories, this is something you could try as well.
- The “Mystery Offer” Pop-Up
The ‘mystery discount’ feels a bit tacky and cheap, but I’ve seen many great brands use it, so I guess it works. Notice that here they don’t collect any zero-party data, so compared to the previous two, this is my least favorite.
What do these highly converting pop-ups have in common?
- They’re micro-commitment pop-ups
Each of these pop-ups I just showed includes a quiz. The visitor can only redeem the offer if they answer the question. That’s called a micro-commitment pop-up. It’s also where Cialdini’s consistency principle applies – people who have committed to something (like answering a question) are more likely to follow through and give their email address.
- They have a clear incentive.
Charlie Munger says, “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome.” This is crucial when creating your own pop-up.
There has to be a clear value proposition for signing up to your email list. You can test different offers: percentage discount, free shipping, free gift, etc. –– as long as you have a clear, easy-to-grasp offer.
- They use AI
These examples come from two pop-up software platforms: AliaLearn and Amped. I’m not sponsored by either (I wish), but what’s great about these is that they use smart triggering to learn when users are most likely to convert. The AI also automatically generates variants for A/B testing. How cool is that!
One thing to note … if you want to use Amped, they got acquired by Mailchimp (Klaviyo took an L), so you can only use it if your email list is on Mailchimp.
