email signup popup forms

Good or Bad? Let’s Talk About Pop-Up Signup Forms

Are pop-up forms good or bad? Are they effective? Do they still annoy people as much as they used to? How can you come up with better versions of the pop-up signup form and create a nicer experience for your audience? We’ll do our best to answer these questions today.

For a long time, pop-up forms were considered a nuisance and were probably in the top 3 most annoying things on the Internet. You’d get on a website and couldn’t enjoy the content, because a huge, obnoxious window would cover up your screen. Some of them were almost impossible to close, so you just gave up and left. For good.

How pop-up forms have changed

In the meantime, marketers and third-party advertisers have realized they were driving their audience away with aggressive pop-up forms. As of this year, they are also being forced by Google to change the way they are placing interstitial advertising, whether it’s paid by a sponsor or it is a sign-up form intended to capture email addresses.

Following a long period of time when they were completely non grata on websites, pop-up forms have been seeing a serious comeback. Yes, some of them are still irritating, but only the bad ones! With all the efforts made in the last couple of years to change people’s perception of them, pop-ups have actually improved and became less intrusive, more user-friendly and, thus, more effective.

Pop-up forms are actually very effective. MailChimp found that adding one to your site can increase your list growth rate by an average of 60 percent. Once you’re seeing growth, though, it’s a good idea to have your list verified. How do you do that? Let an email validation system help. It will weed out the bad and empty accounts and leave you with a nice, clean email list.

How do you nail a good pop-up? Let us give you a few ideas!

Time it right

Don’t jump on your readers right away. Give them a little time to discover your website, allow them to read an article and see what you’re about, before you invite them to sign-up for your newsletters. Most marketing automation platforms give you the possibility to choose when you want the pop-up to actually pop up. It could be two or three minutes after a visitor has landed on your site, or – even better – right when they’re about to leave. Some email marketing services use softwares that can detect that moment, so you can deliver your invitation at the right time. People are more likely to subscribe after they’ve engaged with your content. If they liked it, they’ll want more.

Let them know what’s in your newsletter

This is one of the most common mistakes marketers make: they don’t tell people what they get if they subscribe. Let’s say you have a blog. Are your new articles automatically being sent to the people who sign up, without you stressing too much about it? Or are you spending a few hours every week to create a stellar newsletter? If so, let your readers know! Are you offering a freebie, like a valuable course or access to a webinar? Do tell them and use these tools to leverage your conversion rate. The more clear you are in what you communicate, the greater the chances are that people will find your pop-up really useful and not at all annoying.

Use great copy and a really nice design

We couldn’t stress this enough: great copy is going to take you far. The word is the most powerful marketing tool you’ll ever have. Use it wisely and maximize its value. In a pop-up form, you have one or two phrases to catch your readers’ attention and get them to subscribe, so make the most of them. Avoid being boring because if you don’t relate to your call to actions, why would your audience? Keep a polite, but natural tone of voice when you approach people, be friendly and emphasize the perks they receive once they become your subscribers. Same goes for the design of your pop-up form: you can create one that matches your style, looks beautiful and is mobile-friendly.

Are you using pop-ups? If you do, have you noticed an increase in your conversion rate?

Before you go, there is just one more useful piece of info we’d like to share with you: starting October 31st, MailChimp announced that their hosted, embedded, and pop-up forms will default to single opt-in. This means it’s easier for people to subscribe to your newsletter, but also, there’s a greater chance for you to get bad email addresses in your list. Don’t let them take up your space and money. Use a trustworthy email validation service that can clean your email list and ensure the deliverability of those great newsletters you’re sending to your subscribers.