The Top 5 Best Exit-Intent Popup Practices for Ecommerce
Posted: October 28th, 2019 | Author: admin | Filed under: Design | Tags: ecommerce, popups, shopping cart | No Comments »
Popups.
Everyone hates them, right?
They’re annoying, intrusive, and one of the best forms of marketing your ecommerce site can employ.
Don’t believe me? These 30 ecommerce popups have helped their store owners retain customers, increase sales, and generate leads.
The fact is, popups (loathed as they are) bring business, period.
But not all popups are created equal. While regular popups are quickly dismissed and closed by the vast majority of visitors (close to 99%), exit-intent popups are opened nearly ten times as often.
Why?
Because they don’t get in the way. A regular popup jumps in your face like a gypsy with an outstretched hand, demanding money.
Instead, exit-intent popups wait by the door as you’re leaving like a dog holding its leash in its mouth, just hoping you’d like to take it for a walk. Or at least a pat on the head. How can you say No to that face?
(I wasn’t planning on those metaphors when I sat down to write this article, but here we are.)
Honestly though, exit-intent popups are clicked nearly 10x as often just because of that: Because they’re not rude to the visitor.
But that’s not the only reason they’re clicked.
Here are the 5 best practices when it comes to crafting a great exit-intent popup add.
1. Get Their Attention
You might think a popup that suddenly appears on-screen as soon as your visitor is about to leave the page has already gotten their attention.
And it has. As a big square with an exit button they must press.
To get them to actually read your popup, you have to call out to them. Words and phrases like “Wait” and “Don’t Miss Out” are great ways to cause your visitor to hesitate and see what’s so important you just had to get their attention.
But words aren’t the only way to intrigue them. You can also do so visually. You can use pictures (like models, animals, babies, motorcycles, you name it) that interest your target audience to get them hooked.
And that’s not the only way to aesthetically garner your audience’s attention. In fact, you pictures aren’t always necessary.
What matters is making the design attract the eye. Match the template, palette and “look” of your popup to the energy of your brand and of your offer.
If you have a fashion site, make it sleek. Selling vibrant accessories? Make it bold. Want them to sign up for your funny newsletter? Make it whacky and ugly! (Appealing to the eye doesn’t always mean attractive. Ugly has its place in marketing, as long as there’s a reason!)
Important Tip: Make your popup match the tone of your brand, but have it visually contrast what’s already on the page. You don’t want it blending in!
2. Give Your Audience Something Valuable
Don’t just ask them for their email address. That’s just another form of begging.
And don’t just TELL them what they’re getting, SHOW them! (And I don’t mean just with pictures, either. Paint a picture in their mind!)
Tell me, which sounds better to you?
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Vs.
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Don’t lie to me and say the first one, either.
Talking about the features of an offer is one thing (a discount, an informative newsletter, etc.). But talking about the benefits (the kind of life your visitor will have if they take advantage of your offer) is what sells.
3. Get In Your Visitor’s Head
Think about your visitor and how they got to the page they’re currently on. Did they click an ad to get here? Are they on the shopping cart page, getting cold feet about checking out? Are they reading an article about exit-intent popups?
The visitor’s state of mind and virtual environment are important things to consider when deciding what you’re going to offer.
For example, on a checkout page, when a potential customer might be re-thinking their purchase, having an exit-intent popup offering them a 15% discount might be the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart.
Think of it this way:
To get to where they are now, your visitor had to take some kind of virtual journey. Your ad should be like the wise man on the top of the mountain waiting for them and offering exactly what they need.
4. Give Them a Way Out
Backing your visitor into a corner and refusing to let them leave is bad for business.
While the X in the corner of the window can always be clicked, it bolsters good faith in your brand if you give them a “No Thanks” button so they can gracefully exit the popup while maintaining their dignity.
Make this option smaller or less colorful so that it’s less desirable, and you can increase click-throughs on your “Yes” button. Whatever you do, just make sure to include it.
Morpheus gave Neo the option to take the blue pill and wake up at home like nothing ever happened. Be like Morpheus.
5. A/B Test
Run two versions of your exit-intent popup and see which one performs better. Then make a new one and have those two compete against each other.
Repeat.
Make sure you do this with the forms on your ad, too. Often, ads with an extra section to fill out will perform better than an ad asking for less information.
It seems counterintuitive that it would be the case, but it’s true. Sometimes, people like filling out a little more.
Plus, it’s a great way to get extra information about your visitors’ demographic, which will help your sales in the long run, too.
A/B Testing is invaluable. You never know when a small tweak can bring in big results.
Always A/B Test your ads. Always, always, always.
—
At the end of the day, popups get a bad reputation from those who use them poorly. However, a well-timed, non-invasive popup can actually be great for converting last-minute sign ups.
By following these five practices, you can create popups that earn you more sign ups without feeling like a UX inconvenience to your customers.
