Return of the popup subscription box?

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Now that forward-to-a-friend and the newsletter approach are making comebacks, can we say the same of the pop-up subscription box?

"Hopefully not," I hear you say. But things have changed...

There was a time when surfing the web was like living in a Jackson Pollock painting. Your desktop became an abstract maze of colors, forms and calls-to-action. Every second site you visited triggered a new browser window containing an ad or email subscription opportunity.

Pop-ups were intrusive.

They interrupted the visitor experience before it even started.

They cluttered up screens.

And they scraped the bottom of the ethics barrel: remember the fake "close this window" icons that tricked you into clicking on the ads?

Dark days indeed.

Fortunately, blocking features in all the major browsers have largely eliminated pop-up windows from browsing life. To everyone's great relief.

So why bring them back into the discussion?

The problem wasn't the concept, but the execution on websites: interrupting the visitor experience with irrelevant ads and/or overzealous calls to subscribe to the email list.

There are parallels to spam here: email isn't the problem, just the way it is used by spammers.

Nobody has an issue with a small box appearing over the content you're viewing when that box contains something useful. Think the small information screens that pop-up when you mouseover or click on "what's this?" and "help" links.

So how about popping up a subscription form only when the visitor has spent some time engaging with your content? At a point when the subscription offer becomes an added-value service, not an unwanted intrusion?

Perhaps after viewing a certain number of pages? Or after a certain length of visit? Or after viewing pages which closely complement the topic of your emails?

If you were a B2B service, you might popup a subscription form after someone viewed a few articles in your "resources" section: "Get more articles like this direct to your inbox."

The concept reflects the idea behind trigger emails. Send email (or overlay a subscription form) in response to a suitable action. This ensures the message is more relevant.

Even with this kind of careful application you may say "I hate popups, it can never work."

But the evidence suggests otherwise.

For example:

Lisa Harmon describes how major retail brand J.Crew has been using pop-up subscription boxes for some time
Darren Rowse explains how judicious use of a popup subscription form produced a ninefold jump in sign-ups with no apparent negative side-effects. His experience is not unique.

If the idea appears worthy of further exploration, here are some things you need to consider:

Implementation

We're not actually talking about traditional popup windows here, but rather overlays appearing on top of the displayed content. These are unaffected by popup window blockers.

Your ESP or software may offer an off-the-shelf "popover" subscription form or you may need to get into coding (not my field, but easy for those with some knowledge).

Defining triggers

When do you show the popover? How long should the visitor hang around before it's displayed? What pages should trigger a popover subscription form?

Should you put a frequency cap on how many times a visitor sees it: once a session? Once a day? Once a week? Once a month? One-time only?

The skill here is to avoid the approach that gave the original popup concept a bad name. You only want to interrupt the visitor when it is seemly to do so and when it is most likely to be of benefit to them.

Much like the store salesperson who only offers her help when the customer clearly could benefit.

Monitor performance

Any implementation of popovers needs careful monitoring. In two contexts...

First, how does it impact subscriptions? And how do these subscribers perform relative to the average in terms of response, spam reports, length of time on list etc.

Second, how does it impact website browsing habits? If people are put off by the popover, do not expect them to write in and tell you. They will vote with their mouse.

Check how the popover influences the number of repeat vists, visit durations, number of pageviews per visit etc.

This dual monitoring approach gives you the information you need for an informed decision about the net value of the idea.

Compatibility with other third-party services

One legacy of the poor implementation of popups in the past is that you may not be allowed to use them on pages connected with third-party services.

Check the terms and conditions or documentation associated with any PPC search engines, ad networks and similar that you use: ensure you're not breaking any rules or quality guidelines.

Common sense

You know your website audience better than anybody. They are your life and blood. How will they likely react to a new popover?

Implement slowly, taking the most user-friendly approach you can and build from there. And test, test, test before scaling-up.

For the record, I have no immediate plans to use popover subscription forms at any of my sites. But neither will I reject the concept given the success others are having with it, and given the more sensitive, user-friendly approach outlined above.

What do you think? Would you use them? Are there any other issues to take into account?

(P.S. We all hate popups - we're not talking about "those" kinds of popups in this post.)

[This post brought to you by Campaigner Email Marketing]
Permalink | October 23, 2008 | 5 comment(s)
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5 Comments:

Interesting post Mark. I saw the stats from the Pop-up by Darren, which surprised me. I think the key here is the audience. The more savvy the user, the less disdain for the method would be my take. I think a good test my a larger brand would be interesting.
By Alex, on 24 October, 2008

The stats surprised me, too. I was undecided about bringing up the subject. Then I saw Darren's numbers and that tipped the balance.

I wonder if there is an unfair reluctance to use this tactic based on the emotional baggage we carry around from the bad old days of popup hell.

That said, I fear that if it did find widespread use, it wouldn't be long before it went "bad" again. Inevitably, people would use it irresponsibly: seeing only the new subscriber numbers and not realizing the damage they do to their website figures and brand.

Much like with excessive emailing: extra sales do come in, but the hidden costs are huge.
By Mark Brownlow, on 24 October, 2008

Hi Mark,

Thanks for tackling this controversial subject.

Agree that a lot of people worry about contributing to "popup hell," and that there are parallels to draw between email sending practices and subscriber collection ones.

I think that frequency and timing (as Darren notes in his post) play a significant role in whether popovers are effective. Context, too.

For the record, I wouldn't use them with a PPC campaign, regardless of whether they're OK with a third party or not. If you're doing PPC "right," I don't see how you could possibly need a popover - your landing page should be sufficiently offer-focused to not require the extra attention-grabbing that popovers offer. Or am I missing something?
By Justin Premick, on 24 October, 2008

I have recently started to use a pop-up again, and my sign-up rate has doubled over the last 3 weeks. Very happy with that result.

I stumbled your post and I included a link to it in my weekly Marketing Review.
By Cindy King, on 25 October, 2008

Thanks Justin, Cindy.

Another vote for considering popups/popovers given Cindy's results (thanks for the link, too!)

Justin: I wonder if we're entering a more sophisticated time, where the popover is activated by more complex rules.

So if I arrive at a PPC landing page, the popover may still appear, but gives people more time to sign-up organicaly before displaying. For the reasons you outline.
By Mark Brownlow, on 27 October, 2008

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