Yes, I know pretty much everybody talks about subscription pop-ups at some stage, so here are my own thoughts, for what they are worth.
I visit a lot of sites, and the moment the page loads, there’s a pop-up somewhere – usually as a lightbox, front and centre – asking you to subcribe to their newsletter (or whatever).
Sometimes it’s on a timer, popping up after a few seconds, but in many cases, it’s instant.
And to me, as a first-time site visitor, there is no way I am going to give out my email address (even if it’s to receive a free ebook) before I’ve had a chance to look at the site and read the article I visited the site for in the first place.
A subscription should be earned, in my opinion, and until I’ve taken the time to assess the quality of the site and the content, you haven’t earned it yet.
So, do I use subscription pop-ups?
Well, yes on my main business site, I do.
But, I have changed the originally recommended settings so that the pop-up only appears (in the bottom right corner) after the person has scrolled (or, hopefully, read) at least 75% of the article.
My thinking is that they if they’ve read that far through the article (and since most of mine are anywhere from 1,000 – 3,000 words or more, that means they’ve consumed a lot of the content), then that’s a better time to ask them if they want to receive more articles on that subject.
Doing it this way, to me, respects their judgement and does not appear too pushy or desperate.
I may even increase that figure of 75% to something even closer to 100%, but I’ll need to do some testing before I make that decision.
So, is my strategy based on any hard evidence?
No, it’s not – it’s based on my preferences as somebody who visits a lot of other sites myself, and not on my needs (or desires) as a site owner.
And I get that many “gurus” may advise a different approach, and that’s fine – whatever works for them, but for me, I like to treat my visitors the same way I prefer to be treated, and that does not include being bugged about signing up for a newsletter too soon.
If you have information that either does or does not support what I do, then I’d love to hear from you.
Oh, and I use OptinMonster for my subscription forms, etc., partly because they have an easy-to-use designer tool, and partly because they have very flexible rules that determine when your opt-in form appears. (There are plenty of other benefits too, of course.)
