Are You Using Pop-Ups and Email In a Way That Annoys Readers?

Every eCommerce store owner out there is looking for extra sales – it’s the driving factor for most retailers found online. There are lots of intelligent ways that you can tailor the experience a potential customer has when visiting your website, although you do need to be careful when using pop-ups and email marketing techniques that some might consider ‘pushy’.

In this blog, we take a look at a few tips on how to use these techniques in a way that doesn’t cause more harm than good. You may not be an expert by reading to the end, but you will have a basic idea of some of the dos and don’ts when creating your website and email marketing messages.

Don’t Bombard Your Customer With Requests

When you are using pop-ups and email together, you must be sure not to duplicate requests for information for fear of annoying and driving the customer away. For example, if they’ve clicked onto your website from an email, you don’t want to be showing them a lead generation pop-up, as you’ve already obtained their email address.

Often, you’ll get visitors that are clicking through on from a forwarded email, so it’s better to have a message at foot of your emails saying something like “This is a forwarded email you’ve clicked on – we just wanted ask if you’re enjoying what we offer – if so, sign up yourself here!

Wait a Minute or Two for Your Pop Ups to Appear

What’s the worst thing when you go onto any website? That’s right, immediate pop-ups that you’re not expecting and just want rid of.

You absolutely need to allow site visitors time to look around before presenting them with a pop-up. Using pop-ups and email marketing methods that pressure people just don’t work, as no-one wants to be hassled online for their business.

Time-delayed pop-ups are best if you want to maintain a professional image and the fact is people do want to know that you’re there and they can sign up to your email list – just not the immediate they set foot on your website.

Using Pop-Ups and Email Messages That Are Relevant

The pop-ups you use should follow the same principles of any online marketing campaign, which involves providing relevant messages at the right time. What you shouldn’t do is have the same pop-up appearing everywhere. Your approach needs to be tailored to where the visitor is on your site and how they’re behaving.

For example, if you sell sports clothing and the customer spends 10 minutes looking at several brands of football boot, it’s not going to make a lot of sense if you market baseball caps in your pop-up.

When the area of interest is known, an exclusive discount for the type of product they’re looking at is much more relevant – and helpful than a pop-up that has nothing to do with what they’re interested in – even if it’s in the same category of sports clothing.

Honesty With Visitors is The Best Policy

Another basic of using pop-ups and email marketing strategies is honesty.

When you tell people honestly why you want their email addresses in the first place, rather than employing subterfuge and being economical with the truth, you improve the chances that they’ll actually engage with you.

Using humor can also help, when you mention how annoying pop-ups can be in the message that comes up. Think along the lines of “we know this is annoying, but look at what providing your email address gives you…”. It’s a little basic, but it engenders trust more easily.

Using Pop-Ups And Email The Right Way

There’s little doubt that eCommerce campaigns benefit from the use of well thought-out pop-ups, as they are effective in growing the size of your subscriber list. But they must be exactly that – well thought-out – or you risk driving customers away rather than engaging with them.

Never sit on your laurels either, as your methods need to be continually adjusted to keep getting the results you crave. So, our advice is test, test and test again until you reach your objectives.

Then it’s a matter of refinement and monitoring to ensure that your website becomes even better at delivering the sales and revenue your business needs. Thanks for reading. We hope we’ve illustrated just how fine the line is between pop-ups that help and those that hinder.

Until next time.