Do welcome popups work?

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I’ve had a welcome popup running on my blog since the end of November last year. For a long time, I debated the wisdom of installing it on my web site. After all, I personally don’t like them much on other sites I visit, but I had to remind myself of the cardinal rule of marketing: I am not my customer.

Reactions to it were and are mixed. Some people like it. A few people hate it. Most people ignore it.

The bigger question is, does it work?

The short answer is: yes.

The longer answer involves looking at some data, which I pulled from my Blue Sky Factory Publicaster account. Prior to installing the welcome popup on this site, I was averaging about 30 signups to my personal newsletter per month, give or take. Once I installed it, that average went up to 133, and is currently trending at 250 per month. That’s a 733% increase in subscribers. What’s more, you can see immediate changes in the data the day the popup was installed:

Now I know what you’re saying in your head: yes, that’s nice, but how do you account for an increase in the blog’s popularity? After all, number of signups should increase as more traffic comes to a blog, so this doesn’t prove anything, right?

If this data was all I had, you’d be correct. I cross-referenced my monthly absolute unique visitors to subscribers and created a ratio of subscriber signups to absolute unique visitors. If I were a commercial web site, this would be my lead conversion ratio.

It’s quite apparent that once the popup was installed, it started to convert a much greater percentage of traffic to my web site into subscribers for my newsletter.

Does this mean that you should immediately run out and install a popup on your web site or blog? Not necessarily. If it conflicts with your personal or professional brand, then by all means, pass on it so that you can remain consistent with your brand.

Is it worth testing? Absolutely, especially if one of your goals is to build up your database or drive some actual sales. Remember to avoid the same mistake I make from time to time: there’s a very good chance that you are not your customer. Not everyone’s audience will react the same. Test it and see how it performs. In my case, the numbers are incredibly compelling, despite my slight personal dislike for the marketing method; for this blog, the method works incredibly well.

Comments

25 responses to “Do welcome popups work?”

February 3, 2011

Michelle

I close them without looking at them. I never even noticed the one on here was something different than a popup ad until reading this. I hate popups but I figure I’m getting info for free so I can’t complain too much about the site owner trying to pay the bills. I won’t click on popup ads, though. Don’t want to encourage them. I’ll click on other ads on the site to help them out if I like the content.

I guess if it’s working for you, great. I’ll just keep clicking the little X as soon as it shows up. Mostly I read you by RSS, though, so only get the thing if I want to come over and see comments.

Michelle

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1. February 3, 2011
  
  Christopher S. Penn
  
  And that’s totally cool, Michelle. No one will fault you for doing stuff the way you want.
  
  Reply
February 3, 2011

Scott Ellis

I’ve been contemplating this for a while so I appreciate this post, the data tells a compelling story, most importantly why we should dispence with our assumptions and test things.

Reply
February 3, 2011

Anonymous

One thing to keep in mind is it is not just the conversion rate difference you need to monitor, but also retention and engagement. On my site I found the relationship with subscribers who had opted in after reading was stronger than those who opted in from the test popup I ran. That said I might return to the experiment trying different delays, exit pop, and so on.

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1. February 5, 2011
  
  Leonidt1985
  
  I agree with this. Sure you can get 700% increase in sign ups….but how many of them unsubscribe as quickly as they opt in….More numbers don’t guarantee “right” numbers…
  
  Reply
February 3, 2011

Anonymous

One thing to keep in mind is it is not just the conversion rate difference you need to monitor, but also retention and engagement. On my site I found the relationship with subscribers who had opted in after reading was stronger than those who opted in from the test popup I ran. That said I might return to the experiment trying different delays, exit pop, and so on.

Reply
February 3, 2011

Damian Thompson

Chris,

What popup do you use? Is it a plugin?

DT

Reply
1. February 3, 2011
  
  Christopher S. Penn
  
  I use Super Popup. It’s a WordPress plugin, find it here: http://cspenn.com/pop (affiliate link)
  
  Reply
2. February 3, 2011
  
  Christopher S. Penn
  
  I use Super Popup. It’s a WordPress plugin, find it here: http://cspenn.com/pop (affiliate link)
  
  Reply
February 3, 2011

Damian Thompson

Chris,

What popup do you use? Is it a plugin?

DT

Reply
February 3, 2011

Natalie Sisson

I’ve found a 300% increase since I installed one – like you though I held off for a long time so as not to appear pushy.

I realised that before it was not obvious to people what they should be signing up for and the free eBook I’d crammed a ton of value into that they would get – so I was actually doing them and myself an injustice by not having one.

Plus if the pop up is valuable, visually pleasing, not spammy and doesn’t keep popping up like some do -then I think it’s fine. You can read within a few seconds whether you want to opt-in or not.

I use Pop-Up Domination and it recognises when people have visited before and does not display it for another week or so.

Great to see you’ve been getting results.

Natalie

Reply
February 3, 2011

Natalie Sisson

I’ve found a 300% increase since I installed one – like you though I held off for a long time so as not to appear pushy.

I realised that before it was not obvious to people what they should be signing up for and the free eBook I’d crammed a ton of value into that they would get – so I was actually doing them and myself an injustice by not having one.

Plus if the pop up is valuable, visually pleasing, not spammy and doesn’t keep popping up like some do -then I think it’s fine. You can read within a few seconds whether you want to opt-in or not.

I use Pop-Up Domination and it recognises when people have visited before and does not display it for another week or so.

Great to see you’ve been getting results.

Natalie

Reply
February 3, 2011

Jim Niswonger

My thought used to be “Why risk pissing people off with a pop-up?” But now I’m beginning to think a little differently. I notice my own behavior with pop-ups – I just close them if I’m not interested in signing up. Maybe the ‘risk’ is worth the opportunity to interact with those who do sign up.

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February 3, 2011

Sarah_bean

Well your welcome pop-up got me signed up!

Reply
February 3, 2011

Scott Ellis

I’ve been contemplating this for a while so I appreciate this post, the data tells a compelling story, most importantly why we should dispence with our assumptions and test things.

Reply
February 3, 2011

Meg Fowler

The “if it works, do it” theory of marketing strategies has limits for me. There are a million ways to sell something without pissing anyone off, and showing my visitors and customers respect — and staying true to what I think is reasonable. Will what bugs me bug everyone? Nope. Will things that don’t bug me bug someone else? Quite likely. But that little nod to my sense of how things should work keeps me sane. 🙂

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1. February 4, 2011
  
  Christopher S. Penn
  
  I’d say – test. If it doesn’t WOW you with the numbers AND it bugs you, don’t do it. Something has to be pretty darned compelling to get over the personal dislike factor. In this case – 733% increase is pretty WOW to me.
  
  Reply
February 4, 2011

Kris Colvin

Oh golly. I saw this post from Brogan’s tweet. I’m not sure why he is bugged by it, but I am annoyed with the reality. I cannot imagine putting something like this on my site – can’t IMAGINE it, as I click shut immediately any unwanted box that comes up so I can see the content beneath. I barely look at the popup box and am never concerned I’m going to miss out by shutting it.

Yet…… I am in the web design, social media blah blah marketing blah industry. I’m clearly NOT my audience, which is not necessarily someone like me who lives online, skims things without reading and moves around the web like a tasmanian devil.

I need to think about this. Good gravy.

Reply
1. February 4, 2011
  
  Christopher S. Penn
  
  That’s the rub of it – we are not our audiences, so the only way we’ll ever know is to test.
  
  Reply
February 8, 2011

Don’t Market Lazy

[…] warming up again. I’m not a giant user, but if Ed says it, I’ll try it. My friend, Chris Penn asked if welcome popups work (those popups that obscure your view of someone’s site). The […]

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February 10, 2011

Austin L. Church

Definitely worth considering. Thanks for sharing your numbers, which are quite convincing. Question: did you poll your loyal readers and ask what they thought? How do you keep from chasing away your biggest fans to capture casual readers? Do you see any risk in that?

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June 10, 2011

Links: Happy 22nd Anniversary 2011 Edition

[…] Do welcome popups work? Personally, I close the popups without a glance. I’ll either leave the site immediately or read the article I came to read and leave. But you can’t argue data. Never hurts to test. […]

Reply
September 12, 2011

Olin Hyde

Chris: I bought Popupdomination upon your recommendation. BAD IDEA. Horrible customer service, no documentation and all they wanted to do is upsell me more and more stuff… never answering my questions.

All I want to do is have a popup in my WordPress website that automatically populates my SugarCRM. It seems that this would be a really easy, simple thing to do.

Any suggestions?

Reply
1. September 13, 2011
  
  Christopher S. Penn
  
  Hey Olin,
  
  The one I use is WP Super Popup, not Popop Domination. There is, if I remember correctly, a free version in the WP Codex.
  
  For PD, I’d ask for a refund and refute it with your credit card company if they play hard to get.
  
  Reply
April 2, 2012

EricRitter

Can you recommend a non-Wordpress pop-up?

Reply