Email Popups: 6 Creative Offers You Can Use to Help You Grow Your Email List

Popups? Whenever you hear this word, you’re probably asking yourself: “Are they helpful?”, or, “Are they annoying? Should I use them for my marketing and sales or not?” 

Well, I used to ask the same questions until I started to get the nice looking and creative popups with a compelling offer and an amazing copy at the right time when I needed them.

For me, behavior-triggered popups that are shown at the right time are great. If the popup’s offer is creative, it can be a nice cherry on the top for your website visitors. 

So, the answer to your question is: “Yes, they are helpful and they can surely convert more people, but only if you’re using them right.”

In this article, we’re going to see::

-Things you should consider before creating a popup

-A bad example of  popup that can do everything except converting more people

-6 creative offers & examples to help you grow your email list

Things you should consider before creating a popup:

Before creating a popup you should always consider the following:

• Why are you showing a popup and what’s your goal related to it?  
• Who is your ideal buyer persona?
• Where should you trigger your popup? Is it only on blogs, homepage or any other pages?
• Understanding visitor’s intent – For example, blog readers might not be ready to buy. So don’t offer then 15% discount if they sign up. However, on your “high intent” pages such as book a demo, features, use cases, product/service pages or any other “high intent” pages, you could offer a killer offer.,
• Understanding visitor’s behavior – Make sure that you don’t immediately show a popup as soon as the visitor lands on your website. Use different kinds of intent related triggers such as timing, scroll, exit, and others. 
• Your copy and offer – It makes a huge difference if your offer is great based on the user context. Also, pay attention to how are you writing your copy. Is it compelling and intriguing to your visitors enough? Understand your visitor’s context. Is it on the top, middle or the bottom of your funnel? If it’s on the bottom, it surely isn’t ready to sign up to your product. Creating different popups for different visitor segments will definitely help you to provide the right assistance to the right visitors at the right time. 

 

What are the bad examples of popups?

There’s nothing better than learning on other’s mistakes. So I want to share with you some of the bad popup examples I found out, as well as the reasons why are they bad. On this way, you will be able to understand what not to do.

To make it more understandable, our criteria for bad examples will be based on:

1 – Offer

2 – Copywriting

3 – Graphics

4 – Context & timing 

5 – Intent & visitor-behavior

We’ll be giving points based on that so that it gets clearer. Each has 5 points and in total 25.  

 

Popup # 1 – Growth Hacks

The above popup was popping up in a growth-related SaaS company’s blog. What it still does right is that they’re at least targeting to growth people. And, this popup appeared in the exit intent.

What’s not good about it?

1 – Copy is weak and does not offer differentiation to give my email address. 

2 – Offer is also weak, I could just look at their blogs and check it out. Why should I give my email address? There’s nothing unique about this website’s offer. 

3 – The graphics are weak because the marketer used just an existing software popup and changed the copy. There was not a lot of efforts behind it. 

4 – Context and timing: It was purely based on exit intent. I would have loved it if the exit intent waited for me 15-30 seconds then show me the popup. Obviously, current exit intent directly shows you the popup which does not take “time” into. I would not want to give my email anyway.

5 – Intent & visitor behavior: The popup at least offered the content instead of asking for signup. So, good job on that.

Here are my points:

Copy: 2

Offer: 2

Graphics: 0

Context: 2

Intent: 4

Total points: 10

Now that we talked about bad popup. Let’s jump into creative popups. 

6 creative offers & examples to help you grow your email list

 

1 – Popup with the honesty, creative and human element 

This is by far one of my favorite popups. It has everything that you need to subscribe to it immediately. I love this popup because it has a human element behind it. Here’s a marketing manager, Kristen LeFrance, sharing that she runs this blog and wants to flip the idea of churn and has great content related to it. She’s also making me look forward to “puns and metaphors” so it has “motivation built in it”. 

Also, I love the picture with a nice smiley and great CTA. She’s not asking to “subscribe”. She is asking to join her crew on her journey. 

The context was amazing because this only pops up when I scroll 90% and it’s only shown on the blog page.

Since it’s only on the blog page and asked to improve your churn rate, I would definitely consider subscribing to her newsletter. I love the intent there. 

The CTA is enticing to join.

Here are my points:

Copy: 5

Offer: 5

Graphics: 5

Context: 5

Intent: 5

Total points: 25

Protip. Add a little human element to get noticed and sound authentic. 

 

2 – The Pricing Page Popup

This popup is shown by the team Notifia on its pricing page. The pricing page is high intent and needs to be handled with care. This page offers you to choose a plan and also get a discount if you buy an “annual contract” which is an amazing hook.

When it comes to creating popups on the pricing page, you should completely focus on the visitor’s needs. Don’t pay to much attention on the graphics – they can only mess up your great offer. 

The copy & offer are good, it shows the benefit while still asking to upgrade.

Since I am on the pricing page it is on the right time and attached. It definitely gets more points for context and intent. 

Here are my points:

Copy: 3

Offer: 4

Graphics: 3

Context: 4

Intent: 4

Total points: 18

3 – The Instant Offer Popup

I was browsing through Frank + Oak e-commerce website and found this popup. Usually, e-commerce wants to drive more sales and this was great to drive traffic.

It’s attached on the page for every new user. They give you 15% off just signup to their newsletter.

Although, The pop-up graphics are quite weak, but the image behind is amazing.

The context is amazing since I am the new user, so they just want my email to send me new product collections.

Here are my points:

Copy: 3

Offer: 4

Graphics: 2

Context: 4

Intent: 4

Total points: 17

4 – The Exit Intent Free Course Popup

I’d be honest, I love copy hackers blog. It offers free resources if you want to take your copywriting skills on the next level.

Why I love this popup? It’s based on exit intent. Although, it didn’t wait for me but, the copy is amazing.

The offer is stunning. Free course with a clear outcome that I’m going to learn. What could I want more?

Graphics are breathtaking – as I said human images always work. It shows authenticity and genuineness. 

The CTA is speaking my language. Again, great copy. 

 

Here are my points:

Copy: 5

Offer: 5

Graphics: 4.5

Context: 3

Intent: 4

Total points: 21.5

What could get better? If the exit intent could wait for the first 10-15 seconds. If the user is bouncing after 2 seconds, you probably won’t save them anyway. 

5 – The Interactive Gamified Popups 

The digital marketing guru Neil Patel uses this kind of popup on his website. It’s breathtaking. Interactive and playful for the visitors at the same time. (although the popup is annoying if I keep visiting from different IPs – don’t copy his all strategies as a marketer).

If they win, then perhaps even better. 

Other than the interactive part, I think the copy could get better. 

It does really work. I also gave my email address at the end.

Graphics are astonishing as well. 

The offers are amazing if someone wins, might get his full SEO audit or team call for free. 

What I didn’t love was that it immediately popups and I think you should not immediately show the popups, rather wait for the user to experience the site first. In short, it does disrupt the experience of a user and get low points in context & intent. 

Here are my points:

Copy: 3

Offer: 5

Graphics: 4.5

Context:2 

Intent: 1

Total points: 15.5

6 – The Interactive Quiz Popup

The interactive quiz popups usually give you some content that’s helpful, adds value and in return, you collect the emails.

I love this quiz popup because it’s integrated inside the blog about free trial vs freemium pricing model. So, the context is rightly set. 

It’s not graphically pleasing but the copy actually forces you to find out what’s a good solution for you.

The graphics are enhanced due to the testimonial and which again increases the trust.

Here are my points:

Copy: 4

Offer: 5

Graphics: 4

Context: 4

Intent: 5

Total points: 22

Protip: Use this on your website’s homepage to the footer to increase engagement.

Hope the above creative popups help you to grow your own email list. 

Key takeaways

 

Here are the key takeaways from this article. They are your go-to’s if you’re looking to grow your email list and convert more people.

• Popups should be behavior and context-triggered, as well as shown at the right time.
• Use human images to enhance trust.
• Use interactive content to increase website visitor engagement.
• Focus on the copywriting and offer. Make your offer truly valuable so that visitor can get the value in exchange of his/her email address.
• Try to make popups visually pleasing. 

So, which one will you implement to grow your email list?

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Tags: creative popup, email popups, free course popup, Instant offer popup, notifia, quiz popup