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Last updated Mon Mar 18 2024

The Ultimate Guide to Email Popups

Do email popups really work?

A lot of businesses prove that they do:

But all newsletter popups are not created equal. The design, targeting or offer you choose will impact the number of emails that you’ll end up collecting.

Today I’d like to share what I’ve learned working with hundreds of top brands on their list-building strategy. No complex words, just simple techniques you can copy and apply right away.

In this post:

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special sales popup

What are email popups?

Email popups are popup windows that invites website visitors to provide their email. The main goal of email popups is to generate leads for nurturing.

Email popups can offer a discount:

flash website popup

Also, email popups are great for product giveaways:

product giveaway example in a popup

Or, you can just offer a newsletter signup like that:

website popup in a corner

In total, there are a few types of email popups you can convert your traffic with:

Why Create an Email Popup?

Let’s start at the beginning. Why popups?

Here are a few good reasons:

  • Email popups give your signup forms a huge increase in visibility. Heatmap analysis shows that most web users never scroll down to the bottom of a web page.

  • Popups come with a lot of targeting and segmentation options. These options allow you to push targeted messages and offers that vastly increase your chances of building your email list fast.

  • Popups offer a lot of flexibility in terms of branded popup design. And yes, more creativity often means more leads

cool popup

What Is a Good Conversion Rate for an Email Capture Popup?

Yes, popups do work. To know exactly how much they do, we analyzed the results of our 50 largest ecommerce clients.

The results? The average conversion rate of their email capture popups was 3.75%.

The main difference between the top performing and the lowest performing clients was the inclusion (or non-inclusion) of an offer (we’ll come back to this later in the article).

Convinced? Let’s now discuss how to craft the best email popup ever.

Related content:

➡️ 50+ website popup examples

How to create an email popup

To start creating an email popup—

You need a good popup software.

Try Wisepops—it's rated 5 stars on Shopify, integrates with all popular email marketing apps, and has great templates:

"Fantastic company, we've increased our signups by 10x, very easy to integrate with our website and email platform, too"

Wisepops review from Capterra ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

May 29, 2023

Or grab one of these popup templates to get started quickly.

For tips on design, timing, and copy, see below.

Create a design

Customize your campaign to fit the design of your website. It's easy in Wisepops—just click the part you want to change and the settings will open.

making email popupChoose the Right Timing

Go to Display Rules > Trigger and choose when to show your campaign:

popup display settingsHere’s one of the AB tests created by a high-end hi-fi retailer.

They tried displaying the same exact popup on landing and after 2 pages. The popup displayed on landing ended up collecting twice as many emails as the one displayed after 2 pages. But the conversion rate of the popup displayed after 2 pages was twice the one of the form displayed on landing.

All in all, these tests show that the shorter the delay, the more emails you’ll end up collecting. But, as the conversion rate of your popup will be lower, it means you risk annoying a larger portion of your visitors.

How Do You Find the Sweet Spot?

The best way to identify the exact popup timing that maximizes the conversions while reaching a reasonable conversion rate is to run an AB test. You can test displaying your popups on landing, after 10 seconds, 20 seconds, etc.

If you don’t want to choose, you can also trigger your campaign when your users are about to leave your website with exit-intent popups.

Define Segments

To maximize your conversions, it’s important to design popups that speak to your visitors.

To do so, the easiest method is to segment your audience and create a specific popup for each of your segments.

Here’s a quick presentation of the two most popular segmentation methods.

Content Segmentation

When using this method, marketers adapt their popups to the page (or page category) that the user is browsing. This way, the popup copy and design are directly correlated to what the users see.

Here’s a real-life example on SohoHome’s website. They identified a specific segment – users interested in vintage furniture – and crafted a dedicated popup displayed only in the vintage category.

Here’s another one on Leesa.com. The popup they display is tailored to the exact page users are browsing:

And here’s a last illustration on ChristyDawn, where they display a specific popup form on out-of-stock product pages:

Segment Your Users by History

The second most popular way to segment campaigns is by visit count. A lot of our customers choose to create specific popups for new and returning visitors.

Why?

Because they can display a large popup with an enticing discount for users who are less familiar with their brand…and display a more subtle popup for users who have already visited the website and seen the first popup.

Here’s an example on Bonobos where the email subscription popup targets new visitors.

Targeting Takeaways:

  • AB test your popup timing. If you don’t have time for an AB test, create an exit popup.

  • Segment your campaigns by page or browsing history.

How to come up with an offer

How do you react when you see a popup yourself?

Do you rush to subscribe?

Chances are you don’t, and you usually weigh in the pros and cons of giving away your email address.

This is where your offer comes in. Let’s see what the best offers are.

Strategy #1: Coupons

Let’s save some time here.

According to our tests, coupons are THE most efficient way to convince your visitors to subscribe. Period.

Here’s an example of their impact on one of our customers’ campaigns:

By adding a $7 coupon, our client was able to capture four times more emails than without a discount.

But discounts are not the only option when it comes to coupons. Free shipping offers work great as well. According to a poll by Retention Science, 21.8% of US retailers judge them to be the most effective kind of offer.

Why not give it a try?

If you have a budget for coupons, go for them. If not, we have more options for you.

Strategy #2: Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes are the second highest-converting offers we’ve seen.

Their advantage? They’re usually cheaper and often work as well as discounts and other sales promotion examples.

One of our clients, a major shoe retailer, is running both “regular” popup campaigns with no offer alongside sweepstakes popup campaigns. Guess what? His sweepstakes campaigns generate three times more subscribers than his regular campaigns!

Here’s an example on Timberland’s website:

Strategy #3: Freebies (lead magnets)

Sometimes, offering exclusive content such as an ebook can be more valuable than a coupon or a gift. That’s especially true for B2B and SaaS companies.

More about lead magnets: What is a lead magnet? (+Examples).

Strategy #4: Mystery Offers

This strategy may seem weird, but it worked so well for some of our customers that I wanted to share it.

One of these clients is PixelMe. They tried this offer one month after launching their pixel retargeting solution.

They didn’t know what to offer. So they tried offering a “surprise”. Turns out that hook worked pretty well:

Their opening rate is very impressive as well: more than 60% opened the email sent once they subscribed.

Strategy #5: Great Content

Sometimes, subscribers are not that hard to convince, especially if you have a strong brand or a reputation for sending great content.

In that case, you can promise your subscribers that they’ll receive:

  • Early access to new products (ecommerce) or features (B2B)

  • Exclusive discounts and offers

  • Latest news and insider tips

  • A unique content/chance to level up your skills

Here’s an example from Neil Patel’s website.

See? No coupon, no freebie, no discount. Just the promise to receive valuable advice.

Here’s a second example coming from Volusion.

Offer Takeaways

  • When possible, give away discount codes (here are discount and coupon code ideas for you) or offer a chance to win something.

  • If you can’t, think hard about the kind of content that can help your newsletter stand out.

How to write the copy

Now that we’ve talked about your targeting and your offer, it’s time to focus on your popup wording.

The Text

Let’s start with the body of your popup. This text is key to attracting your users’ attention and triggering their motivation to subscribe.

Here are some examples of strategies we saw that generated good results for our clients:

Strategy #1: State the Benefits

Why not describe “plain and simple” what your subscribers will get when they sign up? This is what StyleRunner does on their popup:

Strategy #2: Use Humor

Humor works great to shake your visitors and convince them to join you. A fun popup announces fun content…Here’s an example on Lush.

Strategy #3: Leverage a Community

Everyone likes to be part of a club, to feel special. How about playing on that for your popup?

Strategy #4: Use FOMO

FOMO can help you convince your visitors to sign up immediately. No one ever wants to miss out on something they could have had!

Here’s an illustration of this tactic on WeekEndFlights:

If you’d like to learn more about these writing tips, check out: Ecommerce Copywriting Guide with Examples.

The Call-to-Action

The call-to-action is the other half of your popup copy.

We recommend you step into your visitor’s shoes and think about the main benefit that your users will get when they receive your emails. You’ll end up finding calls-to-action that go beyond the boring “Submit.”

Here are a few examples of compelling calls-to-action:

No offer > Join / Keep Me Posted / Keep me in the loop / Join the club / Count me in

Discount > Get my coupon / Send me the offer / Activate the offer / I want that

Freebie > Get the book / Download the book / Start learning / Send me the book

Mystery offer > Get my surprise

Copy Takeaways:

  • Choose your editorial angle carefully; you won’t have a second chance.

  • For your calls-to-action, choose a word that compels visitors to act

  • Use power words like “Activate” instead of generic words

How to make the design

Designing your popup is the last step of the process.

Let’s see how you can design the most convincing popup.

Separate Mobile and Desktop Popups

What size should your popup be?

Let’s start with the simplest case: mobile popups.

Google has shared precise guidelines on the matter. Mobile design popup practices suggest that if you want to avoid an SEO penalty, your popup shouldn’t prevent your visitors from accessing the main content of the page. In other words, it shouldn’t be too large.

Here’s an example of a mobile-friendly popup on Dickies:

See? Their banner is set to full width and its height is less than 250 pixels. That’s the size we recommend.

If you want more freedom, you can also add a trigger before your popup; this allows you to respect Google guidelines yet design a larger popup.

Here’s what it could look like:

On desktop, the situation is different. You’re free to choose your popup size.

A few elements can help you make a decision:

  • How visible you want your popup to be: the bigger your popup, the more difficult it would be for your users to miss it

  • How far are you prepared to go: the larger a popup, the more intrusive it could be for your visitors

As a rule of thumb, we recommend designing full-screen popups only when your popup is triggered on exit. Otherwise, you risk increasing your bounce rate.

Add Visuals

Now that you have picked a size, we can discuss visuals.

Visuals have specific benefits for an email capture popup:

  • Draw your user’s attention to your popup

  • Reassure your potential subscribers that it’s safe to share their email

  • Remind your visitors of the benefits of a subscription

Let’s see how you can leverage these benefits.

Again, mobile is very specific. As bandwidth and space are limited, we recommend avoiding visuals or sticking to small visuals.

On desktop, you can try one of the following strategies:

Strategy #1: Using a Product Visual

Using a product visual is particularly popular among online businesses like Shopify stores. It reminds the visitor of your brand mission while contributing to make your popup more appealing.

Strategy #2: Getting Personal

Using a picture of yourself can reassure your potential subscribers. To put it another way, you’re telling them, “We’re starting a discussion.” It works especially well for B2B websites and bloggers.

Here’s another example from a veteran marketer Neil Patel:

Strategy #3: Using a Visual Reminder of the Offer

Depending on the offer you make for your subscribers (we’ll elaborate later in this article), it might be worth illustrating it directly into your popup.

See this popup from Practical Ecommerce below? It tells you right away what you’ll get when you subscribe.

Strategy #4: Adding Logos

Logos are great to provide social proof and to reassure. Here’s an example on Conversioner.com’s email lightbox.

Design a Call-to-Action That Stands Out

No click, no email. It’s that simple.

This is why you need to pay attention to your CTA design.

Pick the Right Color

Studies have shown that there’s no universal rule for CTA colors. They must be coordinated with your popup and website.

A few common sense recommendations can help, though:

  • Choose a color that is both eye-catching and helps your CTA stand out (different from the dominant color in your popup)

  • Choose a color that that matches your website

Here’s a good example on Weebly. The CTA is white and stands out from the rest of the popup.

Choose the Right Size

Anything which can help your call-to-action be noticed can help.

Bigger is not necessarily better. But make sure your CTA can’t be missed.

If you’re having doubts, don’t hesitate to run an AB test.

Here’s an example of large calls-to-action on Vincero Collective. The CTAs are as large as the email field itself.

Design Takeaways

  • Create a different popup for each device type.

  • Use visuals for desktop campaigns.

  • Make sure your calls-to-action are unmissable.

Wrap-up

That’s it for now!

Ready to design your email popup? Check this gallery of email popup examples for inspiration.

Pawel Lawrowski

Pawel is the Head of Growth at Wisepops and an expert in lead generation, popups, and onsite marketing.

With over a decade of experience in digital marketing, he has both build marketing teams from scratch and led strategic business growth projects.

Pawel has worked with countless online businesses on marketing strategies and is now sharing his knowledge on the Wisepops blog.

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