Create Fantastic Popups That Quickly Hook Your Visitors

Popups must instantly grab the attention of your website visitors and make them take the action you want, such as filling in your form or clicking / tapping a button.

Get this right and you'll sell far more, instantly increasing both your sales revenue and profits.

But, if visitors can't understand what your popups are offering them in just a few seconds, they'll close the popup or even abandon your website entirely.

How to make popups that quickly hook your visitors?

  1. Have a compelling offer that gets the visitor closer to what they want / need, more on this later.
  2. Choose a simple layout that's easy on the eye and leads the visitor to taking the action you want.
  3. Create a short attention-grabbing headline that tells the visitor what's in it for them.
  4. Keep text to a minimum, so a short paragraph after your headline may be all you need.
  5. When you have a form, have as few fields as possible.
  6. Consider a multi-step popup if you want to collect more than two pieces of information.
  7. Pick clear easy to read fonts that work equally well on different devices and screen sizes.
  8. Use high quality eye-catching images that are visually stimulating and relate to what your popup is offering.
  9. Have a clear call to action and pay particular attention to your button text.

Make your popup compelling, so people take action now

To get visitors to take the action you want (e.g. buy, sign-up to a newsletter), you must make them an offer that they simply can't refuse. Use one or more of the following ideas to hook your visitors:

  • Anything that is free is instantly attractive, so that's free samples or gifts; free brochures, free reports or guides; free trials.
  • People love discounts or money off, which means that voucher or coupon codes go down very well.
  • Show visitors that you have their best interests at heart by providing recommendations on your most suitable products / services based on their own responses.
  • Free demonstrations, consultations or webinars when pitched correctly allow you to showcase your business on the phone, face-to-face or via online video chat such as Zoom.
  • When you're providing a customised or personalised product or service, you could offer a free quotation.

These ideas can win you brand new customers or to get existing customers to buy products or services they haven't bought from you before.

Free offers really do explode sales revenue

Popups that promote a free samples or free trials give your potential customers the chance to try out your product / service before they buy it from you.

Whilst popups offering free reports or 'how to' guides provide advice, demonstrate your expertise and show how your business can meet their needs (if they buy from your business).

Physical brochures and catalogues or their electronic equivalent can be offered by a popup and sent free of charge.

When you're selling a physical product, if you don't always offer free delivery / shipping, then offering this to new customers can really encourage them to buy from you in the first place.

A complementary free gift offered via a popup can be used to obtain your visitors' contact details and may be combined with another strategy, such as a consultation, demonstration or quotation.

When you're giving something away free, always make sure you get the visitors' contact details, so you can follow-up; that's where you'll make your money.

Discounts or money off make people buy from you now

Everyone loves discounts or money off, so having popups that offer voucher or coupon codes are likely to be well received.

Typically, you'll offer these to new customers to encourage them to buy in the first place or to existing customers who haven't bought for a while to get them back.

Some businesses even sell their main product at a loss and make their money on future purchases. For example, printers are sold relatively cheaply, whilst the ink they need is awfully expensive.

It's vital that you obtain contact details, so that you can follow-up and ensure they do actually buy from you.

You should also make these either time-limited or one-time offers. Fear of missing out on a bargain is a proven marketing tactic that really does makes people buy now.

Recommendation popups help you easily sell more

Visitors to your website aren't always sure exactly which of your products / services will best meet their needs.

A popup offering recommendations based on their responses to predetermined questions can identify the 'best fit' or you can collect their contact details and send them your recommendations.

Recommendation popups are most effective on product / service pages, where visitors have already expressed an interest in buying something.

It then becomes part of the conversation, just like when you're in a shop and the assistant asks you what you're looking for and then makes recommendations.

Showcase what you actually offer customers

If you do free demonstrations, consultations or webinars then adding a popup promoting these on suitable webpages will be welcomed by visitors.

These popups will perform best on pages where you are selling your products / services and may have a negative effect on other pages.

Always ask for the potential customers' contact details. You may also want to ask a few qualify questions to eliminate unsuitable prospects who will waste your time and never buy.

Free quotes make it easier to sell personalised or customised products and services

If you provide a customised or personalised product or service, then a popup on these pages could offer your customers a free quotation.

In this instance a popup makes it easier for the customer, informing them what they have to do to find out the price. They just have to fill in your form.

They don't have to hunt around your website to find a price or locate your contact details and then have to phone or email you.

This all reduces friction and makes it more likely that a potential customer will ask for a quote and then buy from your business.

Depending on what you sell and how you sell it, you may want to ask a series of qualify questions. This can help you prepare the quote and also exclude unsuitable prospects.

Quotation popups should only be placed on suitable product / service pages.

Why you need new simpler mobile-friendly popups to increase sales

Unless your website doesn't get much traffic from mobile devices (such as smartphones), you may need separate popups to serve mobile devices, because:

  • Screens on mobile devices are so much smaller, so your layouts may need to be different.
  • Download speeds are typically much lower, meaning large images may take too long to load.
  • Google has specific guidelines for mobile devices.
  • Popups on mobiles can also often produce better results than tablets, laptops or desktop PCs.

So, it can be really worthwhile producing separate popups for mobile devices, key differences include:

  • The headline may need to be shorter to reflect the smaller screen size.
  • There may not be room for text after the headline, especially if you have a form.
  • Fonts and font sizes you pick must be easy to read on mobile devices.
  • Images may need to be left out altogether or you could use simpler less complex images, such as icons.

How else can you quickly hook visitors and make money?

Consider adding a P.S. underneath your button/s, but test whether this increases conversion.

The postscript could include an additional benefit. For example, if the popup was for your newsletter, tell them what they'll get and how often they'll receive it.

Adding a countdown timer to your popup can increase urgency and fear of missing out. Use timers for one-time limited offers, discounts, money off, free samples or trials or complementary gifts.

You might also consider interactive polls or quizzes, spin the wheel to win (discounts, free delivery or whatever you want), giveaways or contests.

Test your popups work correctly and get results now

It's vital that you test your popups are targeted, triggered and displayed correctly on desktops, laptops, tablets, mobiles / cell phones.

Popups that are displayed to the wrong audience at the wrong time will ruin your user experience and drive them away.

So, you need to invest some time in testing and getting your popups right to get the sales results you want.

Once you're happy, you might want to split test each popup, comparing different versions to see which performs best.

Your fantastic popups will make visitors buy more now

Just implementing one of these popups will clearly boost both your sales revenue and profits.

Remember to add forms to your popups to collect visitors' contact details, which enables you to market and sell to them long after they've left your website.

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