How annoying is your marketing?
Yesterday newmarketpro (Joe) asked me a great question (one of his good habits) ...
We were talking about pop-up windows/messages used as lead generation solutions.
And his great question spurred me to create a new post ...
So ...
First of all, let's see the famous and highly debated pop-up question ...
No doubt, is an extremely popular - and I'll admit, even very effective - lead generation method that can help you a lot in your list building efforts.
Still, I hate them. Why? Because, I find them annoying, distracting and obtrusive. I think that is a cheap, desperate, pushy and agressive avenue. My motto: if you can't convince and engage your readers with your content, you've already lost the battle.
And there is more. Let's say that your pop-up convinced me to become your subscriber. Great! But the problem lies deeper. Why? Because tomorrow I'll see it again, regardless of my status. And the next day again. And so on ... And that's the point when becomes really annoying.
And this continuous "stimulation" is not only annoying. Is inefficient too. Something I like to call "pointless marketing". And the problem goes deeper ...
Displaying the very same pop-ups, call to actions, ads, etc to readers who already performed a given action, is not just annoying but is also "disrespect", and more importantly is a continuous waste of resources.
If I'm already your subscriber, I don't want to see the same subscription pop-up over and over again. More than that, if I am already your subscriber, I won't use that subscription form pinned into your sidebar, so I really don't understand why don't you use that space to offer a different feature or another piece of relevant information. And so on ...
The point: you should find a solution to display your CTAs, widgets, etc dynamically depending on the current status of your readers and visitors.
A few tips:
1. don't display call to actions for goals that have been already fulfilled
2. don't tranform your sidebar into a boring widget-repository where everybody will see the very same features and information on daily basis
3. if you have multiple categories or sub-topics, you have different target audiences, therefore you should "segment" pretty much everything (CTA's, widget areas, ads, etc) served to them
Long story short: I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, that these factors can - and will - increase dramatically your engagement & conversion rates.
Recent Comments
51
Yay I hate them too. I might learn how to do it just as a learning curve but I don't relish using them at all.
Thanks!
Mary Ann
Thanks for the share. It's true I hate them but like everybody else, I was sold on the idea that it was good marketing practice. Now that you pointed out - I have always enjoyed bloggers who have solid content which in turn made me look to connect with them as opposed to becoming a forced subscriber only later to unsubscribe.
These are great tips. I'm in the early stage and this will help me a lot! Thanks for sharing.
I still hate them with a vengeance, but they do work for some. Oh, what to do!
I have never used them and I hope I never will. For me there is no greater turn off.
Derek
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Sounds technical. What I can tell you from a blind person's perspective is that PopUps are most likely going to get me not to subscribe, especially if I'm in the middle of reading a really engaging piece of content. And adds that break up content drive me nuts too. I don't know what happens from a visual point of view with these but so many sites nowadays have an article broken up by adds and it is utterly irritating. Thank God for Reading view in safari and firefox :-)
Valuable thoughts Kerry!
Thanks for your time!