Online companies and retail businesses with important online stores often fixate on improving their conversion rates.
Conversion rate, put simply, is the proportion of site visitors who convert into paying customers or subscribers.
The higher your conversion rate, the better your company does, and the more sales you’ll see in the long run.
There are many strategies to improve conversion rates among your site visitors and target audience, including special ads, streamlining your landing page, etc.
But you can also use exit-intent popups to improve conversion rates and, in some cases, even land extra sales your company would have missed otherwise.
Not sure where to begin or how exit-intent popups even work?
This detailed guide will break down exit-intent popups, what they do, and how to leverage them for maximum success.
What Are Exit-Intent Pop Ups?
Exit intent popups are specialized popup advertisements, messages, or input forms that only appear when a lead or site visitor is assumed to be leaving a page.
For example, if a customer visits your e-commerce shop and then moves to click away from your store, an exit-intent popup could appear right before they hit “X.”
Exit-intent popups work through tracking technology. Specifically, cookies, bots, and other techs track site visitor behavior to predict when they might leave a page. This exit intent technology for pop ups primarily looks at the movement of user mouse cursors on web pages.
Then, when a user’s mouse cursor leaves the “active” area of a browser (i.e., the middle of the screen), an exit-intent popup is triggered as a result. The “active” area contrasts with the “static” area, which comprises the toolbar, address bar, and so on.
When a visitor uses a mobile device to visit a webpage, other tracking technology may be used to predict imminent departure. However, many mobile sites rely on other forms of user retention or conversion strategies, like automatic popups that appear after a visitor stays on a page for a set number of seconds.
Types of Exit-Intent Popups
There are many different types of exit-intent popups you can leverage for success.
Some of the most common variations of these pop ups include:
- Cart abandonment popups. As their name suggests, these kick in when tracking technology predicts a shopper is about to abandon their online cart. Most cart abandonment pop ups try to retain users or get visitors to finalize a purchase by offering coupon codes, discounts, etc.
- Lead generation forms. These exit-intent popups are used to capture additional email or newsletter subscribers. They display a quick lead generation form with the option to input an email address just as a person leaves your site.
- Holiday or special sale popups. These are only used in the days leading up to a massive sale or holiday shopping spree, like the week before Black Friday. They can be used to offer special deals or discounts, improve brand awareness, and spread the word about an upcoming sale or special offer beyond traditional marketing methods.
Exit-intent popups can be massively beneficial for your company. They can offer advantages like:
- Improved conversion rate
- More email addresses for newsletters or company clubs
- More sales through offering coupons or discounts
- Better brand awareness
Better relationships with core consumers (often through the bonus offers or coupons mentioned above), etc.
6 Ways To Boost Conversion From Exit-Intent Popups
But while exit-intent popups can be very helpful, you have to leverage them correctly to maximize their effectiveness.
Simply slapping a few exit-intent popups on your online store won’t do much for your brand.
In fact, if you use exit-intent popups incorrectly, you could turn people away from your company, irritate your customers, and make them less likely to return.
With that in mind, let’s break down six ways you can boost conversion from exit-intent popups and special tactics.
Delay the “X” Button
For starters, every exit-intent popup you display should have an “X” button so customers can click away from it. However, you can turn the odds in your favor by delaying its appearance.
Many people online are used to popups, and they are equally used to clicking out of them immediately.
In the worst cases, someone might see your popup and click out of it before seeing the offer or input form you’ve prepared.
To prevent that, delay the appearance of the exit button by one to two seconds.
When using Poptin as your pop up builder, its option to delay the X button is right at the bottom left corner of the drag and drop editor.
This delay is often enough to get a site visitor to register your message and consider your coupon or special deal more fully.
In the best-case scenarios, this basic fix can improve your conversion rate by between 20% and 30%. It’s especially important if you want to use exit-intent popups to reduce cart abandonment; a few extra seconds of the popup being on a user’s screen is usually enough to get them to reconsider.
Offer an Opt-Out
Next, you should include the option for a user or visitor to opt out of the popup or offer whenever you use a popup ad. Why? Because giving your customers a chance to say “no” to a special offer or subscription plan makes them more likely to choose “yes.”
Your conversions might actually improve by between 30% and 40% by adding an opt-out option. If you don’t give customers a choice, they might simply click away from your site, rendering your exit-intent popup efforts meaningless.
Some consumers can also feel bullied or forced into opting into special offers or coupons if you don’t design your pop ups correctly.
Therefore, always make it easy and clear for customers to opt out of offers, input forms, and special deals whenever you leverage exit-intent popups.
Create Fast-Loading Pop ups
People have much slower attention spans now than before, so your exit-intent popups need to load quickly and easily.
Remember, these pop ups only have a few short moments to capture the attention of their viewers. So they need to load ASAP if you hope for them to have an effect!
It’s a good idea to optimize your fast-loading exit-intent popups for mobile users, as well, especially since half of all website traffic comes from users on mobile devices these days.
Use Targeted Advertising/Messaging
You can and should leverage targeted advertising and messaging in your popups.
Don’t send the same popups to every site visitor or customer. Instead, use your CRM software and any other collected data to send:
- Certain pop ups to new visitors versus returning visitors
- Special offers to longtime customers
- Offers to consumers with the deal or product picked out or tailored to their needs and buying habits
- Email sign-up popups to people who aren’t on your email list, etc.
Personalized, targeted messaging is the future of all small business digital marketing, so lean into it for better results across the board.
Utilize A/B Testing
A/B testing is mostly leveraged for testing web pages, but it can also be used for online ads and exit-intent popups.
With A/B testing, you send two very similar types of exit-intent popups out to your target audience simultaneously but to different people. Then, you examine the results after a few weeks and start using the exit-intent popup that performed the best.
When practiced regularly, A/B testing can help you streamline your exit-intent popups and only provide the absolute best ads, marketing messages, or input forms to your target audience.
In other words, it’ll help your exit-intent popups produce a better conversion rate.
Here’s how simple you can A/B test your pop ups:
Leverage Responsive Exit Popups
Lastly, you should only ever send out responsive exit-intent popups.
Responsive popups are those that use so-called responsive pop up design principles.
They render well on all types of screens and devices, react with graphics or simple behaviors when people click or tap on them, and don’t feel clunky to the user.
Responsive exit popups, and other words, should follow the same design principles that you’d use when designing a high-quality website or online shop.
If your exit-intent popups are responsive and look great, you might increase your conversion rate by between 10% and 15% if you’re lucky, according to Conversion Sciences.
Conclusion
As you can see, exit-intent popups are phenomenal tools for boosting conversion rate, improving sales, and getting more email addresses for subscriber newsletters.
Use exit-intent pop ups correctly, and your online site will be more successful than ever. Good luck!
Create your exit intent pop ups for free. Sign up to Poptin today!
She is the Marketing Manager of Poptin. Her expertise as a content writer and marketer revolves around devising effective conversion strategies to grow businesses.
When not working, she indulges herself with nature; creating once-in-a-lifetime adventures and connecting with people of all sorts.
