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Pop-up Ploys

Have you ever been to a website with a window pop up when you enter the page or when you leave? If so, you are familiar with pop-up windows—but the power of this apparatus isn't in what it does, but in what you do with it. Here are a few ideas, along with some warnings...

1. With an entry pop-up, offer a "today only" discount to encourage people to buy now. You can set a browser cookie so they only see the offer once. If you don't know how to set cookies, just post it for 24 hours. Some shopping carts let you do similar things as well. An alternative to "today only" is to call it a "temporary sale" if the 24 hour thing doesn't work for you. You can find free pop-up code generators online.
2. Many hosts offer a "random text" script, or you could use my random links script. Use a random text message to create different "special of the moment" offers with an entry pop-up. Keep using the best offers and replace the weak offers with new ones until you have a number of tested, proven offers that pump up your sales.
3. With an exit pop-up, offer a lower cost version of your product. Since the prospect didn't buy, a discount might save the sale. Just be sure to offer a "lite" version of the product or remove a bonus product—in other words, do something that justifies the lower cost so those who paid full price don't feel cheated.
4. With an exit pop-up, offer a free report for taking a survey to find out why they didn't buy so you can improve your sales copy and/or improve your product. If the report is about the same topic many should be interested. The report should offer on-topic information and you can end the report by repeating the offer for your product. Even better, give them a discount for filling out your survey to get more sales.
   
   Instead of a report, if your product is an eBook, you could offer a free chapter from it instead, or selected highlights to show the quality of the content. Either of those options could convince them to buy, and if you toss in a discount it can be even more persuasive.
5. Offer a free product for joining your mailing list. Your mailing list can offer tips about the same topic of your product, which they were already interested in. This gives you more chances to make sales rather than just letting your prospects click away, never to return.

Warnings

1. If you offer a lower cost version of your product, be sure you remove something from the original offer to justify the lower price. Some marketers do not, thinking that's the best way to grab a sale, but it's also a good way to anger anyone who paid full price. It can also lead potential customers to think you're on the shady side.
2. With "make money online" products it's become so well-known that some sites give a discount if you try to click away that people who buy products in this niche always click away before buying just to see if a discount is offered!
3. Many users have developed a negative perception of pop-ups due to past experiences with irrelevant, annoying, or deceptive pop-up ads. This perception can lead to frustration and a negative impression of the website or brand.
4. Pop-ups can increase bounce rates, meaning users leave the website immediately after encountering the pop-up. This can have a negative impact on engagement, conversions, and overall website performance.
5. The popularity of ad blockers has risen significantly, and many ad blockers can effectively block or limit pop-ups. This reduces the visibility and reach of pop-up marketing efforts, especially among users who actively employ ad blockers.
6. Pop-ups can be particularly challenging on mobile devices, where screen real estate is limited. Poorly implemented pop-ups can lead to usability issues, make it difficult to close the pop-up on smaller screens, or negatively impact page load times.
7. Certain types of pop-ups, such as intrusive interstitials that cover the main content, can be penalized with lower ranking in search results.

Here's the idea about secrets I teased you with at the beginning of the article…

You can create your own little secret society, or discount club, or members-only newsletter or website and have your visitors sign up to gain instant, free access to this area.

Use an exit pop-up to promote it to those who are leaving without buying. Getting people into your "inner circle" gives you a good chance to let them get to know you and the quality of your products better. This will help you convert some into paying customers down the road.

You can also promote it to those who do buy on your download or thank you page so everyone gets an invite in the end.

Just make sure you have something worthwhile for those who join. If there isn't anything worthwhile to your inner circle, then unfortunately you've only wasted your time and theirs.

While some people find pop-ups annoying, when it comes to being part of an "inner circle" of some kind and getting a useful freebie, many will make an exception. Those who find them so annoying they want no part of your business probably weren't going to be your customer anyway.

Think about this for a second. If someone is giving up their "secrets" about a topic you're already interested in and you have a chance to be in on it—at no cost—wouldn't you want to be included?

Here are two truism about marketing:

1. Secrets sell.
2. Most "secrets" aren't really secrets at all—they can usually be found somewhere if you look hard enough, but most people either don't know that or won't bother looking hard enough to find them.