WordPress popup plugins are among the most useful plugins for a marketer and a blogger because it is a known fact that popups are a very efficient marketing tool. However, when popups are used blatantly, the effect is far from what you expect. This is why you need to know how to make popups work for, not against you. Here are some do’s and don’ts to help you in the process.
Do Allow Opt-out
You might feel the urge to make your visitors see your popup all the time but since this is hardly what visitors dream of, you do need to resist the urge. Most WordPress popup plugins give a lot of scheduling flexibility, including the option to give users the choice not to see more popups, if they don’t want to. Your heart might be aching while enabling this option, but you’ve got to do it. If a user doesn’t want to see more popups and you force him or her, you won’t benefit from this, so just enable the No More Popups option (or whatever it is called) and move on.
Do Make Popups Visually Appealing
No matter how visually appealing your popups are, users will hardly be dying to see them, especially all the time. However, if your popups are ugly, you can be sure that the number of users who will stand them will drop even further. This is why you need to make your popups pleasant to the eye. Most WordPress popup plugins offer sufficient styling options, so take advantage of this.
Do Change The Message
When your message stays the same over and over again, this will bore users. If you stick with the same message, users become blind to it and don’t even read it anymore. Well, you can’t change the message every minute but changing it from time to time helps. You don’t have to come up with a completely new message every time you change it – even some minor modifications do make a difference.
Do Not Make The Popup Hard To Bypass
Using brute force isn’t the way to be heard. This applies to popups as well. It is rare to see but still there are webmasters, who think that if there is no Close button, or an obscure Close button this will make users complete the offer in the popup and then proceed to the site. Of course, this doesn’t work, at least not unless your users are idiots. You might want to blackmail your users to do what you want them to do in the popup, but instead you will only make them mad and leave your site.
Do Not Nag
When you are told the same thing over and over again and you said No the first time, do you think there is a chance to change your mind the 10th or 100th time you hear it? Of course not. The same applies to popups. When a user has once said No by closing the popup, it is unlikely to say Yes when the same popup is displayed over and over again. It is really irritating to get the same popup on each page refresh. Because of this, schedule your popups with more thought, so that they get displayed every now and then but without becoming a nag.
Do Not Make Popups Fat
A popup is not a full-blown Web page – or at least it is not supposed to be. Many WordPress popup plugins allow to include in a popup sounds, videos, and all sorts of other goodies and while you should take advantage of these options, don’t make the popup fat. If the popup loads slowly, or if it crashed the visitors computer, this isn’t to your advantage.
There are many other Do’s and Don’ts regarding the wise use of popups but these tips are the basic ones. It won’t hurt if you know more but even sticking to the basics only can take you very far. Use these rules with your popups and you will see it does make a difference.
WordPress popup plugins are the most efficient one tool for the online business marketing. WordPress users should try to make most from this tool. But they should use this for marketing in a right approach. If it is not use in the right way then, it will work in a negative way rather than positive way. Your suggestions are vital and will help them to be aware of the right approach for using this tool.
Popup feature of WordPress if used in a better way then one can make most for marketing. Agree with you that the messages on the popups should be regularly changed. If the same messages are repeated then the readers will not feel like looking it. Also the content must be attractive enough to attract the users. Even the scheduling of the popup is very important. The users should not get irritated with it. I have been using Popup feature for my WP login and I find it very effective.
Exactly, these were my points – know how to use popups so you have efficiency without irritating your users a lot. 🙂 It seems the secret recipe for success is plain simple, after all. 🙂
I’ve encountered pop ups that don’t seem to go away even when you try to close them or that pop on ALL pages of a site. They’re way too irritating and pushy. Anyway, those kinds of sites are decreasing in number now..
Nagging is so annoying..you are perfectly right, After all we understand from the first time, right because we are clever:)
I personally hate popups, but a well placed popup showing you a good deal when leaving the site can be very efficient.
It is very important to give your users and visitors an option for closing the pop up. Otherwise they will have no other option left other than to leave your site. This will only add to the loss. Agree with you that popup should be attractive and also have new messages on it. Even I think that they should not become distractions for the users on your site.
I never been tried to use WordPress popups plugins. Thinking that this might been an efficient tool to use into! Thanks for sharing it!
Making Popups visually appealing is important I think. If the popup is not attractive enough then, it will not yield results. I use this popup feature for my site and it has proved effective for getting the desired traffic for my site. I like using this feature as it is creative and innovative. Your suggestions one can surely make most from this feature. Even I have got some useful tips from your post. Thanks!
The most important thing to watch out with popups is not to make them annoying. If you fail to do this, even the catchiest message and the best bargains will go unnoticed.
Pop Ups could go either way. You need to get one that’s customizable, to fit into your niche, it needs to appear only once in 7 days, for instance. Then, you need to make sure that the coding doesn’t clash with your other onsite stuff, like flash videos, for instance.
Generally, pop-ups are okay, depending on what you do with it. You get some who get agitated. But that’s about it.
Making popups visually appealing is very important to make readers and visitors attracted to it. Only then the desired traffic will be directed to one’s site. I use popups and found they are effective too. I think one can make most by using them for their site. If used in a right way they can help one in getting the essential traffic for the sites. All the tips which you have sorted out are important and effective too!
Great presentation of an important topic. “Do not nag” is an especially important consideration of pop-ups in my opinion.
Ellie
@Ellie – ““Do not nag” is an especially important consideration” … and unfortunately, a way too frequently forgotten one. 🙁
Pretty good post. I just came across your site and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed
reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be coming back and I hope you post again soon.
Great, I agreed with Mitchell
Pretty instructive article. As for me, popups are as annoying as mosquitos. You kill one – dozens appear. In my opinion, there should be no more than one or two popups per site visit.
I NEVER fill out a pop up. That’s like me walking into a grocery store and a clerk meets me at the front entrance to ask me for my personal information before I go in. It’s a horrible approach to getting leads.
Most of the site i visit that have pop ups i have never visited before and don’t know anything about. Why would I give them my information???? Ridiculous!
I have a site that is simply there to generate leads but the only reason they gladly give their information is because I provide them something closely related to what they are looking for. They get that information free. A simple pdf download works wonders.
Information is valuable and I’m not givig up mine to just anyone who asks for it. I think if you track your opt out’s you’d find that most poeple are going to opt out unless the site has a huge reputation like Groupon.
If given an option, I would not include popups on my wordpress site. However, I cannot deny the power of popups for advertising, so I need to learn how to use it sparingly. Others might opt for a premium account which opts the user out of popups, but of course, other incentives has to be added to make a premium paid account value for money.
Hey Ada nice tips here. They come really handy for me because I just started a blog like a month ago and I need this kind of advices. Thanks 😉
I believe popups have their use, but they do need to be used sparingly. Nothing is more frustrating than being locked into pop-up hell. Making it easy to bypass them and not to keep showing them after they have been dismissed is very important.