E-mail pop ups. Love ’em. Hate ’em. Regardless of which camp you’re in, they work. How can you make certain that readers visit your website and want to stay there and stay involved with you? Offer them great content. A free download. Something that will keep them engaged and coming back for more. That is the challenge of content marketing — to keep ’em coming back for more, right?
If you want them to keep you front of mind, you just might want to get into their inboxes, but how? Through an e-mail newsletter. How can you get them to sign up? Through the use of an e-mail opt-in pop up. How can you “ask” a visitor to your site to give up his or her email address and opt-in to what you’re offering? Here are some tips we have found effective:
- Don’t ask them to “submit.” Make opting into your e-mail offering fun. Make the pop up entertaining. Enhance their experience and make them want to know more about you.
- Make certain you’re clear on what they will get. Yes, you can use the “shock and awe” headlines. You know those that read, “The real secret to making a million dollars this month,” but if you can’t deliver on that promise, then tone the headline down and let them know what they will receive, “The real secret to making more money this month.” Can you deliver on that? If so, have that be your message — it’s intriguing, right?
- Your pop up should have your branding on it. Make certain it has the same look and feel as your website does.
- Location. Location. Location. Don’t interrupt your reader by having the pop up, well pop up, while he or she is reading one of your articles. Wait until they reach the end of the article and then offer the pop up.
- Timing is everything. Determine whether you want your pop up to greet a visitor or if it will be the “good bye” message when they lave your site. Only you know what’s best for the timing in this situation.
- Speaking of timing. You can set the pop up to recognize IP addresses so if you get a visitor to your site on a daily basis, you won’t want to continually bombard them with your pop up. Schedule it to pop up to the same IP address every three days or every week — again, you need to determine the timing.
As much as we may cringe when we see a pop up on a site, I’ll bet that if it’s written right and presented in an interesting way you will sign up. Am I right?