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Email / SMS modals

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❓FAQ

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❓Do pop-ups hurt SEO?

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You may be aware of Google’s warning about intrusive interstitials and their negative impact on mobile rankings. But many conclude this means Google penalizes sites that use pop-ups. No! To be clear, Google considers an intrusive interstitial as a page that appears between a mobile user’s search click and the loading of actual (indexed) page content. In other words, a hijacked experience. That’s not to say that your pop-up may be hurting your rankings. Google does factor time on site and page load speed in their algo-calculation. If you want to CYA (cover your assets), make sure to: 1) Avoid triggering your pop up too early - wait at least 5 seconds 2) A/B test with and without a pop-up and measure bounce/exit rates 3) Exclude mobile search visitors from seeing your pop up until the second page visit 4) Consider a “scroll condition” (display only after user scrolls X% down your page) 5) Use an exit intent pop-up instead of entry 6) Make sure your mobile pop-ups don’t take up too much screen real estate

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❓How can I make my pop-ups more accessible?

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Check out these 2 fab articles on steps to take to make your pop-ups more accessible to visually impaired users: Usablenet - Pop-up Accessibility and How to Make Pop-ups More Accessible The Admin Bar - How to Make Accessible Pop-ups

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❓Do spin-to-win offers convert?

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While they may seem gimmicky, Spin to Win pop-ups can outperform typical email pop-ups. Anecdotally, they do convert well. Our pal Steve Chou from My Wife Quit Her Job shares spin to win increased email capture by 131%, while pop-up vendors JustUno report their spins convert at 13% on average and Wisepops claim up to 30% conversion. Offering a gamified, interactive modal invites the customer to do something fun with no risk. It’s worth testing, so long as you don’t feel it works against your brand ethos.

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❓Do “No thanks, I prefer to pay full price” opt-outs work?

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You may be surprised that the snarky “No thanks, I prefer to pay full price” line has indeed outperformed more polite opt-out copy — at least for the experiment cited by the CXL Blog (data below). Of course, that’s just one case, it’s always worth testing with your own audience.

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❓What’s the best timing to trigger an email pop-up?

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CXL does a nice job collecting data on this question (complete with charts and test cases) - TL;DR: there’s no universal optimal trigger time. Test it on your own site. That said, a safe place to start is 5s for desktop users and 10s for mobile. I share my own thoughts on a first-time trigger timing A/B test and the settings you should apply to it in my email pop-up testing playbook

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❓What variables should I test in my pop-up creative?

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You should test many different entry pop-up creatives, offers and execution tactics — you’re never “done.” But certain variables have more impact on conversion - make sure you test the majors, not the minors until you have found an arguably unbeatable recipe. High impact: Offer Headline copy and size Body copy Trigger timing Hero images (including with and without images) Microcopy Use of color Medium impact: Email field styling Typography (font, color) Button color Opt-out CTA (placement, copy) Lower impact: Modal window shape

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❓What kind of photography converts best in pop-up creative?

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Photography evokes an emotional response from visitors that’s often unconscious. The imagery you choose can make or break your conversion - the video below includes:

👀 The eye tracking heatmaps that show what helps and hinders attention

💥 20 live examples from top brands broken down

☝️ Dos and don’ts for your own email capture campaigns

This is the video described above, sorry that Notion/Super.so don’t show a thumbnail!

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❓Should I require a mobile number to receive a discount?

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As with any web form, adding steps increases friction — especially when asking for personal data. There’s nothing more personal than a phone number! While capturing SMS leads is high value to the brand, it’s a huge ask from the customer. Making it required (in combination with an email) to get a welcome offer means less users will submit their info. To be safe, make any SMS field clearly optional if you include it in your sign up flow, and ensure the coupon is sent to the new subscriber’s email if they skip the SMS entry.

💡 Ideas and tips

Offers and tactics

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Try showing a dollar value vs % off

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Price psychology research suggests that customers will value a $ or % discount differently, depending on perceived value. An attempt at a “rule of thumb” has been proposed that shoppers prefer dollar discounts for items over $100 and % off under $100, but this overly-simplistic heuristic lacks data and doesn’t apply to email pop-ups, where the discount is not applied to a specific item but to a first order. There’s no doubt that perceived value is the conversion factor with promotional offers. Don’t be afraid to test $-off headlines against percentages. They can feel like cash-back or gift cards, and a hard number is easier to judge the value of off-the-bat.

🤑 An explicit dollar value is easier to understand than a % discount — the customer can quantify exactly how much “cash” you’re offering them. Consider testing this!

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Consider a “sale-on-sale” offer

👗 Cupshe invites visitors to “unlock your perks” for an extra discount off sale items

👗 Repeating the extra % off on the CTA button clarifies the offer

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Offer a free gift for sign up

👟 Vessi teases a free gift instead of a discount. Because the gift remains a mystery until you check your email, this may encourage quicker engagement (email open) than a standard coupon code.

🕯️ Mala teases a free surprise candle. Without giving details on whether an order is required, this may induce some FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about the terms of the offer.

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Offer a gift card giveaway

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Instead of offering a discount to everyone, running a contest can help build your list without sacrificing margin. Make sure you understand the legal implications of running such a “contest,” and provide the right information at time of sign up.

☕ Not Coffee offers a combined product-and-voucher deal, and uses “Enter Giveaway” on the CTA button for clarity

👗 Dynamite offers a chance to win a $500 gift card, and includes legal copy around consent and privacy. Make sure you check with legal counsel before running any kind of contest, and keep in mind cluttered copy can hurt conversion — BE CONCISE!

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Offer a product giveaway

🥾 Kuru’s giveaway mentions the frequency of draw (weekly!) and bullets additional benefits to sign up

👜 Quantifying the $ value of the giveaway in the headline can sweeten the persuasion

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Try a shipping offer instead of discount

✈️ Depending on your customer, a free shipping or express shipping offer may convert higher than a simple discount

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Tease a mystery offer

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Teasing a mystery gift may encourage subscribers to check their inbox faster than an explicitly quantified discount — however, that can likewise trigger site abandonment — especially disruptive on mobile. Tip: Keep the intrigue (and your visitor) by revealing the secret immediately after email submission (swap out the modal message), and auto-apply any relevant discounts in the same session, if you can.

⁉️ The Curator adds some intrigue with a “Tell No One” headline, with some creative copywriting

⁉️ Monday non-alcoholic spirits channels the speakeasy and suggests VIP access to a secret deal

⁉️ Ruggable sneaks additional benefits of signing up for emails beyond the first offer

👑 Of these examples, Princess Polly’s headline leaves no doubt — the mystery offer is indeed a discount

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Frame your discount as a gift

🎁 Stuart Weitzman’s headline “You’re about to get a gift” is certainly attention grabbing

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Test a countdown timer

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It’s a popular tactic to add a time limit to use the discount code offered. According to Optimonk, pop-ups with timers convert ~50% better than those without. But make sure to test this tactic, user research shows timers (in general) make customers anxious and even angry. Your mileage may vary!

⌚ Countdown timers can make users nervous and irritated — but many publicly shared tests suggest they work. Consider testing for yourself

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Test a Lucky Wheel offer

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As mentioned in the FAQs, Spin to Win modals can convert up to 30% of visitors. Gamification adds an interactive element to the otherwise boring and self-serving email pop up, so long as it fits with your brand personality and audience. The Claspo blog covers some of the popular apps that support this feature

🎡 L’ange is one of the thousands of sites that offer a chance to win the maximum discount — guess I got lucky…

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Keep the offer sticky

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Visitors often mindlessly close your pop-ups — especially if they trigger too early or while they’re trying to perform a task. Collapsing your offer into a sticky tab ensures they can retrieve the offer at any time — just make sure it’s not too large that it covers important content (especially on mobile). You can also experiment with just showing the sticky tab on entry against the full pop-up.

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Specify an expiration date to create urgency

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Many email sign up coupons go unused — add some fuel to the fire by putting a time limit on redemption

🏎️ Autozone includes an expiration date for its coupon to increase urgency, in this case, 2 calendar days

Headlines

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Use (much) larger type for the discount offer

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Users are NOT going to read your copy word-for-word. Make the offer stand out on its own — everything else is superfluous…

✅ You can understand the offer from across the room with this large font

✅ Ditto. Clear, concise, uncluttered.

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Highlight the offer with color

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Pops of color always grab attention and can emphasize your headline against sub-copy

👟 Skechers’ headline pops with its teal styling

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Use some humor

😎 PitViper parodies popular pop-up tactics in its email capture

😎 More whimsy from PitViper - this time the email field is a bit easier to spot!

🍀 Lucky Lad sells hangover remedies. This SMS-style copy baits you to reading, and entices you to subscribe — not for sales offers, but to satisfy your curiosity…

☠️ Death Wish Coffee uses colloquial copy to grab attention and show its brand personality

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Hint at additional benefits

👜 Let’s face it — most customers won’t read your microcopy. “And then some” suggests the initial discount is just the beginning, without relying on users to read the fine print

Segmentation

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By gender

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Asking for preferences at sign up helps clean the inbox clutter and improve conversion. It also helps you capture more valuable first party data. Just make sure to: ✔️ Indicate it’s optional ✔️ Provide an All or Gender Neutral option, and ✔️ Indicate if the selection is optional or required

☝🏾 If using radio buttons, make sure to include an All or Both option

☝🏾 Consider using checkboxes instead of radio buttons to enable multiple selections

☝🏾 Avoid pre-checking options, it makes the options harder to “notice,” and is harder for users to understand the action to take

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By purchaser type

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Don’t be afraid to get creative with sign up flows. Customers appreciate personalized emails and relevant experiences!

👶🏽 Pehr uses a conditional flow depending if you’re a parent, expecting or gifting

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By product type/category

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Think about purchase intent across your catalog, and consider what departments map to specific buyer groups

💍 Brilliant Earth knows there’s a big difference between engagement and wedding ring shopping and every day fine jewelry

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By experience level

🍕 Ooni Oven asks a question that not only puts you in the right segment of their email list from the jump, but also helps Ooni personalize your site experience

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B2C / B2B

💡 If you cater to both, get them on the right program!

CTA Button copy

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Don’t use “Subscribe”!

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“Subscribe” is to email sign ups what “Submit” is to lead forms. It’s a generic relic from the magazine and news industries that fails to persuade or communicate the value that sign-up provides (discount off first purchase, early access to sales, etc). Even “Sign Up” is better than Subscribe as button CTA copy. Alternatives to test: 🚀 Get my [offer] 🚀 Unlock discount 🚀 I’m in! 🚀 Let’s go 🚀 Hook me up

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Try the words “Get my”

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“Get” is a powerful word in persuasive copywriting. Why? ⚡ It’s an action verb — you want these in any Call to Action ⚡ It reinforces receiving something, appealing to self interest ⚡ Adding “my” makes it personal

🥊 Combine “Get my” with your % offer and you’ve got a 1-2 persuasive punch!

⚡Alternately, use “Coupon” in place of “Offer”

🤑 Get my Coupon may be even more persuasive than Offer. Test it!

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Repeat the % discount

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We know users don’t read word-for-word and often glaze over your headline. Including an eye-catching number and symbol on the CTA button helps reinforce the offer and maximize visibility and comprehension.

🤑 Instead of “Submit” or “Sign Up,” reinforce the offer and include the percentage off in button text

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Try an emoji button

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An emoji with a pop of color can draw more attention to your CTA button. Make sure to include your offer in the button for maximum comprehension!

😎 An emoji button could convert better than “basic black” — make sure your emoji is high contrast to whatever color you use (it’s safest to use a black button for this tactic)

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Test slang

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Depending on your brand personality and audience demographics, an unconventional button may resonate. It may also create curiosity and encourage more users to actually read your headline. “Um, heck yeah” to what, exactly? 🤔 💭 Exactly.

🦷 Breaking conventional copy rules and injecting some personality into your CTA button could work with your audience. Why? It’s a pattern interrupt. Test at your discretion!

Images

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Have your model look the CTA

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Eye tracking studies show where a model looks influences where we look…

🐶 Hush Puppies nails it. How can you not follow their puppy dog eyes?

👀 Journeys uses the tactic, but her eyes are arguably gazing slightly above the headline

👉🏾 Pointing works too…

Contrast the above examples with these dead-stop images that hijack your gaze away from the offer. NEVER have models looking at or positioned towards each other!

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Place image above, not beside your offer block

👀 Placing images above the offer block allows users’ eyes to focus on your offer (rather than bounce left-and-right

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Show your product range

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New visitors who are unfamiliar with the breadth of your catalog if they can preview a range of products available. The email pop-up image is a great opportunity to show off!

👞 M. Gemi shows a variety of products. New users won’t click away just because they don’t wear heels!

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Try an animation

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An animation draws more attention than a static image. And like the tip above, rotating images can help show your catalog range (although you can show whatever animation you want)

👀 Critical Slide shows a close up of the free gift with purchase, and injects some humor with the “styling.” Bonus points for including text with the image, where eyes are gonna fixate…

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Try a “whoo hoo” image

🎉 Images that convey celebration may have a subliminal effect. Test some “woo hoo!” ?!

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Consider a faded background image

🐊 Reduce the distraction factor by using a reduced opacity image behind your offer. Make sure there’s sufficient contrast between text and background

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Keep the focus on the offer - ditch the images!

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Images DISTRACT your visitors from your offer. The better the image, the more effective the distraction! Make sure you always test your pop-up image(s) against a non-image variant. Keep It Simple, Smarty!

😎 This juicy CTA button stands out even more by NOT competing with hero images

Execution

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Allow flexible “exits”

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Make sure visitors can click outside of the window to interact with background (in other words, make it not a modal — by definition, a modal disables interatctivity with content behind it. Not everyone will escape using your “No thanks” or “X” links.

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Provide the discount code immediately after submission

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Don’t make customers ABANDON your site, open a new app, grab a complicated code, copy to clipboard, and keep it handy until checkout. Provide an instant click-to-apply code that sticks with their session(s).

🥾 Betabrand provides an instant code, supports a “Click code to copy” function, and automatically applies the code to cart, to boot! (Post-submission)

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Exclude visitors arriving from your email program

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Makes sense, no? :)

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Consider excluding pop-ups for mobile visitors coming from organic search

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If you’re concerned about your pop up’s impact on SEO, consider suppressing them from organic search visitors (paid search and social visits are ok), or significantly delaying their timing. Google has indicated that some interstitials may be deemed “intrusive” by the algorithm for the mobile index.

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Suppress pop-ups after engagement

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If technically feasible with your platform and pop-up app, consider suppressing entry pop-ups to users that have opted out or in. This won’t be perfect given the cookie-pocalypse and customers’ tendency to switch devices, but it will ensure you’re not irritating those who don’t want or need to see it. One caveat is some users will instantly regret off-handedly dismissing the offer. They may re-visit your site in a new window to get it back. Consider keeping a sticky element that can be re-engaged, and/or using a footer CTA with the offer that can be accessed at any time.

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Try an exit intent popup

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Turn abandoners into subscribers with an enticing offer? It’s worth testing! Check out some examples:

👋🏽 Consider using a “Before you go” headline that communicates the pop-up is triggered because they’re heading for the door… Clarity in copy matters!

👋🏿 Consider a bold headline with a discount offer. You may want to trigger this only under specific circumstances — e.g. suppress logged in visitors, or show only to visitors with items in cart. Make sure to A/B test this against no offer to ensure you’re not cannibalizing revenue

👋 Combine your discount offer with an email sign up. You’re not just giving margin away for free!

👋🏾 Consider testing the value of your discount - e.g. 10% vs 15% vs 20%. Don’t be afraid to specify a minimum order value

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Consider testing inline feedback to opt-outs

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This tactic gets an honorable “toss up” mention for creativity, but it equally can annoy users as it disregards their opt out action and is unlikely to change their mind. But hey, test it if you think it will work with your customer base.

👟 If you click “No Thanks” on this modal, you get an appeal with some social proof

🫣 Cautions

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Make sure your email pop-up is excluded from key pages (including Cart/Checkout)

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Make sure you configure your pop-up settings to exclude pages — ESPECIALLY Cart and Checkout.

If it can happen to Kim…

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Avoid “Sign Up for Email” as a headline

😱 Why? It sounds painful. There’s no hook. No benefit. No persuasion. And it’s combined with a “Submit” button 😱

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Avoid headline filler

🫣 Every word in your headline should add value. “Push Your Possible” is ambiguous and competes with the clear benefit of 10% off

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Don’t convolute the offer with competing CTAs

🧸 Be careful not to confuse customers by mismatching creative elements. The 20% discount headline and catalog image mis-match, the sub-copy asks the user to download a catalog, and the CTA button says “Sign Up”

😵 Similarly, this pop-up asks for 2 actions - text to sign up and click the button… ?

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Don’t use ghost fields 👻

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Users are trained by web conventions, which aid them in processing a form without having to “think.” Breaking conventions and reversing patterns causes users to slow down and can hurt conversion. While it’s tempting to get creative with design — going too modern can confuse customers and reduce your form submits significantly.

👻 This merchant reverses the CTA button and input field styles

👻 A single line may look sleek, but it doesn’t trigger immediate recognition as an input field. Paired with a dropdown menu that does look like a conventional field adds to the friction

👻 Without sufficient contrast, your email field can too easily fade into the background

👻 How many visitors would recognize this horizontal line as an input field?

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Don’t turn your email opt-in into a registration form

💣 Resist temptation to ask for too much information! … Follow the rhyme, avoid the crime

Ditto for First Name / Last Name fields - don’t do it! 💣 “Personalizing” emails with a first name adds no value to your campaign performance, it only adds unnecessary friction to sign up

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Avoid “stop” images

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Most images in email pop-ups add no value and distract from your offer. Some are downright awful because they draw the eye so far away from the CTA it’s not even funny.

🛑 This image draws your eyes away from the CTA and gets you stuck. Her pose resembles an arrow that drags you towards her blank stare, and it communicates nothing about the offer or even the product (shoes).

🛑 Showing TWO! attractive people, with one’s gaze fixated on the other “stops” the eyes from moving towards your CTA

🛑 Similarly, a direct gaze can stop users in their tracks. Remember the eye tracking studies!

The eye tracking studies ^^

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Use a celebrity model cautiously

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Don’t confuse email pop-ups with print ads! You want your pop-up to ignite immediate action. Using a famous model hijacks your users’ brains — they can’t help but look at HER, not your offer. Keep the influencer shots for branding — print ads and social media.

💄 It’s THE Emily Ratajkowski! This image sells the brand and maybe the products — not the email sign up

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Be careful splitting your copy across image and white space

🫣 Users’ eyes are naturally drawn to white space. Placing your best offer over an image reduces the chance it will be read or comprehended

🫣 White text over a busy image is also harder to read. Combine it with a funky font and you’ve got double trouble!

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Don’t style your logo/brand name larger than your headline

🍭 Dylan’s Candy Bar dwarfs its 20% discount offer with its colorful logo. Points for using a color treatment, but it assumes users will read the fine print. They don’t! They scan headlines

🌸 Bloom’s headline emphasizes its offer well, but its logo competes for visibility. Reducing the logo size and increasing headline font size could help.

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Don’t put fine print between email field and button CTA

🫣 Customers lose context between the email entry field and Activate Offer with so many lines of text in between. Place this copy below your CTA button if you must include it

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Avoid white text over a background image

Designers love to do this but it makes it so much harder to read text over any busy background

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Avoid too much copy

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Remember… web users don’t want to readThe more text you jam into your headlines and body copy, the less clear your offer, and the less persuasive your pop-up.

At least the headline is in color here 👍🏽

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