Pop ups work when used strategically

Despite what many people say, I’ve seen first-hand that pop ups can work as a lead generation tactic. In fact, I get more leads from pop ups on my own site than any other capture tool. But it only works if you have a sound strategy.

As a professional copywriter, I’ve learned through trial and error and client test results what works and what doesn’t.

The most important part of the strategy is when to use pop ups and when not to.

Pop ups are interruptive. That’s the most common criticism people have with them, but that is also their strength. There are times when you want to interrupt what the user is doing.

One of the most obvious examples is when the user starts to leave. Why wouldn’t you want to interrupt that with an exit intent pop up? It’s a great way to capture leads you would otherwise miss out on.

You also may want to interrupt users when you have time-sensitive offers or messages that have some urgency. I’ve had success with pop-ups promoting limited-time offers and upcoming events like webinars. The closer you get to the expiration time, the more appropriate the interruption.

A good pop up strategy also considers the trigger and specific page content. For example, on blog pages, scroll depth could be a good trigger. The further down the page they get, the more engaged they likely are.

For pricing pages, time spent on page may be a better trigger because it could indicate they are considering the value of your product and weighing their options.

And of course the messaging is important as well. If you’re going to interrupt the user experience, there should be a good reason. On blog pages, that could be to call attention to something not directly related to the article (but still relevant to the reader). On sales pages it could be a discount or trial offer.

Those are just a few examples. There are many more possibilities that will vary depending on your specific objective, business and audience. The best way to determine what works for you is to split test.