Do you know what is a popup ?

that message that captures your attention and almost automatically causes you to perform an action. Over the years they have become an essential tool for any blog but also for corporate sites.

Popups can be used mainly for:

  • subscribe the user to your newsletter
  • download a freebie (for example ebooks)
  • increase the fans of your Facebook page
  • highlight a promotion
  • direct your users to an important page
  • request the completion of a contact form

Want to know why popups work so well?

Simple: it’s a matter of attention. All your user’s attention is focused on a small rectangle where there is 1 message and 1 action to take. Stop.

For the action to be taken, I strongly invite you to think of an incredible offer, a special content for your visitor, or, even better, a material to be downloaded for free. You can find many other ideas on how to get results from your site, here on the Blog.

Various types of WordPress popups

Before I told you about various objectives that a popup can have, now I reveal the most important element of a popup, that is the trigger that activates it (the trigger that opens the popup).

In fact, many people believe that the popup is activated when a page is opened. Nothing could be more wrong.

Except in some cases, all my popups open to specific actions. Now I’ll show you the most performing that I’ve tried.

Exit popup

This is a formidable tool that perhaps you have already met many times: you enter a site, read the post quietly and nothing happens. But as soon as you try to get out of the site suddenly a popup comes out!

It’s called exit popup, it activates when there is an intention of exit by the visitor and it works very well, try it to believe!

This is a bright strategy because it allows you to improve your ROI (here intended as a return on the effort made to bring that visitor to the site), especially if that visitor arrived after a click on an ad! (like Adwords or Facebook ads).

Activating a popup after a few seconds of inactivity (mouse or keyboard)

Are your users blocked for 40 seconds on one point of the site? Maybe on a complicated point or maybe they are trying to understand a difficult sentence. Reactivate them with a help message that offers them a solution.
For example, you could link to a very in-depth guide on this topic, or a page for requesting advice.

Activation of popup after a total of % of the page

These two triggers I deliberately put together because they can serve the same purpose: if a visitor stands a few seconds on a page or displays a total of % of a content, it means that he is interested in the topic. Suggest something to him on the subject and you will see that the result will be immediate!

Popup to returning visitor

A visitor returns to your site ? How about showing them something specific ? The engagement will certainly be high !

 

How to create a WordPress popup?

Both with Optin Monster and Ninja Popup you can create eye-catching popups, which are activated not only when there is an intention to exit but also based on various settings such as after a few seconds of visit or after a visitor has returned to a particular section of the site.

I don’t go around it that much: if you want to create something extremely powerful and that leads to double results, you have to use a premium plugin or you have to invest a few dollars to get a better service.

The best plugins for creating WordPress popups

These are plugins that I use or have used, the best ones are paid -but they allow really powerful configurations from a marketing point of view.

Optin monster

I always use Optin Monster, which is really a formidable tool with regard to the effectiveness of popups.

The online tool allows you to install popups on all types of sites, so I also use it on ecommerce, obviously has a specific plugin for integration on WordPress and can connect with all newsletter systems.

With Optin monster you can create popups from convenient templates and then edit them with a really easy graphic editor.

You can put in the form the subscription to your newsletter, the box I like about Facebook, or ask a question ‘YES-No’ to the user, who will obviously be directed to ‘answer’ pages.

The exit intent works very well and the targeting of the visitor is as accurate as a Swiss clock, allowing you to open popups on specific pages and from selected traffic sources.

In addition, you can do A/B testing (the tool divides the traffic into two versions of popups and you understand which one converts best) and all popups have very reliable statistics that also integrate with Google analytics.

Ninja Popup

The visual builder allows you to create a popup by dragging elements onto a panel and you can always start from the many templates available.

Virtually all email marketing systems are supported and some of the most interesting features are the Social and Newsletter lockers that allow you to ‘block’ content to users who do not subscribe to the newsletter or do not share the page.

Obviously with the plugin you can activate popups with the exit-intent, after the user has viewed a total % of the page, after a period of inactivity and only in certain areas of the page.

The cost of the plugin is really low and keep in mind that it is constantly updated.

Popup Maker

Free plugin that allows you to create modal and responsive popups in various versions such as slide out, banners, notifications, entry screens, lightboxes.

The tool supports the most used email marketing systems and also the most popular WordPress form plugins.

To create the popup you use a very simple editor and you can tag the popups very well according to pages post, categories and also the specific conditions of Woocommerce.

Even triggers can be activated when the user clicks on the menu, on the sidebar, on images or buttons.

The only flaw: pro extensions or the most interesting (such as exit-intent) are paid.

Sumo

Sumo is one of those services that grouping under the popup category is reductive. Full-screen welcome messages, pop-ups, elements that capture the attention of the visitor and much more.

The service is freemium, i.e. some advanced features are subject to a fee, but it’s worth trying.