Why should publishers use pop-ups as part of their marketing strategy?
For digital publishers, your work lives on your website! This is where readers will be deeply engaged with your journalism. It’s important to not miss the opportunity to optimize the website for your growth goals. When you add onsite ads like pop-ups and in-article boxes with a variety of calls to action (CTAs), this is an opportunity to ask readers to engage with the publication, and to inform them of the work you’re doing or products you’re offering.
Whether it’s for top-of-funnel audience growth to promote the newsletter, or adding a fundraising CTA as another touchpoint during a revenue campaign, don’t pass up the chance to capture readers who are connecting with the publication through the website. These readers may not be familiar with the newsletter yet or don’t use social media.
We get it — onsite ads get a bad rap. It can be done poorly and actually aggravate readers with its pushiness. But by having a good strategy, informed by data and designed with intention, these CTAs can deepen the publication’s connection to the community!
In what situations do pop-ups work the best?
Pop-ups and other kinds of onsite ads are best when it’s topical and timely. For example, you could add a toast pop-up to article posts that appear once a reader has reached a set scroll depth, such as 50 percent. Or, add a pop-up to the website for a short time period while running an audience survey. Even if the user doesn’t fill it in, the pop-up has let them know a survey is running, and only having this pop-up for a short time will keep the website uncluttered and relevant.
What are some best practices for pop-ups?
Don’t be afraid to test! Testing different types of pop-ups (e.g. info bar, slide-in) allows you to see what works best for your audience because success will vary between publications. Use Google Analytics to track events, interactions and conversions for the pop-ups. A format that works well for one publication may be more of a hindrance for another.
Give full-screen pop-ups a chance! This format can be a bit annoying for readers but it’s also effective. Our audience strategists recommend not keeping full-screen pop-ups up for longer than a week. They are most impactful the first few times they’re seen by users.
Experiment with different formats! There are ways to make pop-ups feel less intrusive. For example, running a slide-in pop-up on the side of the page so it doesn’t cover the article text or a box at the end of stories. Pop-ups also feel less intrusive when it adds to the content. For example, a pop-up with a survey asking for feedback on the article the reader just read or a donate CTA with a nod to a specific article or topic. Approach this tactic with a test and learn mentality — don’t write onsite ads off without trying them! Test something out and see the results in the data, and from your readers.
Check out this article from Drip for more pop-up best practices.
How can Indiegraf help with pop-ups?
Indie Tech websites come with templated House Ads for publishers to easily create banners, pop-ups and buttons. Indiegraf’s audience strategists will make suggestions on how to implement pop-ups to further a publication’s growth goals. They will also analyze the data from campaigns to inform a pop-up strategy and can help with the design.
