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I'm struggling with this now and I could use some insight. I absolutely share OP's loathing of these pop-ups. On the other hand, I'm just starting to try to d

by rfrey 11y ago

I'm struggling with this now and I could use some insight. I absolutely share OP's loathing of these pop-ups. On the other hand, I'm just starting to try to drive traffic to my physical-product website (through PPC ads, facebook marketing, etc). I KNOW I need to try to collect some contact information. But I cannot find a way to do it that isn't appalling. - Collect on landing page? How do they know if they want to sign up, they just got here. - Put on Contact Us page? Nobody will see it. - Pop up a window after 30 seconds, or three pages viewed, or whatever? I end up on thosefuckingpopus.tumbler.com, and for good reason. - Don't do anything? Patrick McKenzie finds my house and draws rude things on my face while I sleep. Has anybody come up with an acceptable design solution for collecting emails from people who are interested in being on your list?

SimeVidas 11y ago
Have a “Sign up to our newsletter” section below the main content on every page. The two main mistakes that you must avoid at all cost are: 1. displaying an overlay on page load, forcing the user to make the decision before consuming any content, 2. showing the overlay while the user is reading the main content; nobody likes to be interrupted.
mc32 11y ago
I think that depends on your audience, target market. Some audiences loathe the intrusion, other audiences feel it's par for the course, so maybe try to determine who your core audience is and what methods they find acceptable?
mplscoder 11y ago
If they scroll all the way to the bottom then have a bottom bar that appears.
- emodendroket 11y ago
  Excellent; now 98% of users will never see it.
  - mplscoder 11y ago
    If they didn't read to the bottom, they probably aren't interested in the product enough to sign up for an email.
    - emodendroket 11y ago
      That's just not that true. People rather frequently do things like share articles they only bothered to read half of on Facebook; there's no reason to think they wouldn't want a newsletter or a product. c.f. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/06/how_people_read_online_why_you_won_t_finish_this_article.single.html http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/06/... > Schwartz’s data shows that readers can’t stay focused. The more I type, the more of you tune out. And it’s not just me. It’s not just Slate. It’s everywhere online. When people land on a story, they very rarely make it all the way down the page. A lot of people don’t even make it halfway. Even more dispiriting is the relationship between scrolling and sharing. Schwartz’s data suggest that lots of people are tweeting out links to articles they haven’t fully read. If you see someone recommending a story online, you shouldn’t assume that he has read the thing he’s sharing.
      - mplscoder 11y ago
        Well good counterpoint, but there's got to be something better than forcing me to close a popup.
alextgordon 11y ago
The answer to this question is the same as the answer to all business questions on HN: copy how patio11 does it. http://www.kalzumeus.com/blog/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/blog/
Alupis 11y ago
You find them annoying, but your customers probably wont. Remember you are not the best case when deciding what is effective at capturing your audience. You are more "internet savvy" or whatever... Popups, email marketing, retargeted ads, et al are very, very effective means of capturing an audience online.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  Don't fool yourself. Everybody finds them annoying. Like the frog in the frying pan who sits as the heat is turned up, folks have begun to believe its the price of visiting the internet.
  - notdanariely 11y ago
    Well, it kinda is the price of visiting the internet. Because most content is free but ad-supported... doesn't that mean viewing ads is the price you pay? (At least in a large sense -- I'm intentionally ignoring adblock technology because as of right now it's just not that significant)
    - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
      "Most of the Internet" is Netflix (by bandwidth). They charge for their services, and have zero popups or ads. The rest of the Internet is pay-to-play like Steam. At least for me.
      - Alupis 11y ago
        > At least for me. You are not the average internet user. Your biases do not apply to 99% of internet users. The things on websites that annoy you do not annoy 99% of internet users. The marketing antics that work for 99% of internet users do not work on you.
        JoeAltmaier 11y ago
        Wrong. Netflix is the larger part of the internet. That has nothing to do with me.
Leftium 11y ago
How about pop-ups that only come up when the user is about to close the browser tab? The user is free to continue to close the tab if the pop-up doesn't interest them. Some demos: - http://www.popupdomination.com/ http://www.popupdomination.com/ - http://optinmonster.com/features/exit-intent/ http://optinmonster.com/features/exit-intent/
- emodendroket 11y ago
  That's obnoxious and will not help with someone who's going ot use the back button or go to a different page.
userbinator 11y ago
Collect on landing page? How do they know if they want to sign up, they just got here. Put the form at the bottom of the content. Presumably those who have read through and like it will then sign up.
jbob2000 11y ago
Track their facebook cookies like the real players do.
patio11 11y ago
I sort of like the Drip widgets (http://getdrip.com http://getdrip.com) and there exist numerous Javascript things which can do roughly the same. I don't have much experience with physical products and am not sure this generalizes, but in SaaS, one of the best ways to get opt-ins with advertising is to: a) Send the ad not to a landing page but rather to content pitched in the ad b) Have a further incentive which takes the piece it's attached to and deepens it. Gate this one with an email submit. c) You generally want to get to a state where you have N content pieces, M creatives for the premium (downloadable whitepaper or whatever), and P premiums, where N >> M >> P. Then you can start testing to find which ads/content/house ad creatives/premiums get you the best results. It works perfectly adequately with N = M = P = 1 though. This works particularly well with retargeting. You get someone to visit your site once or a few times organically (your content was on HN or Twitter or what have you), you cookie them up, and some day when they're browsing Facebook your company (which they already trust to give them useful info) says "Hey, more stuff for you to read of interest to you." They come over, read for a bit, and hand over the email address semi-casually. Your marketing and sales processes now take over.

by rfrey 11y ago

SimeVidas 11y ago

Have a “Sign up to our newsletter” section below the main content on every page. The two main mistakes that you must avoid at all cost are: 1. displaying an overlay on page load, forcing the user to make the decision before consuming any content, 2. showing the overlay while the user is reading the main content; nobody likes to be interrupted.

mc32 11y ago

I think that depends on your audience, target market. Some audiences loathe the intrusion, other audiences feel it's par for the course, so maybe try to determine who your core audience is and what methods they find acceptable?

mplscoder 11y ago

If they scroll all the way to the bottom then have a bottom bar that appears.

emodendroket 11y ago
Excellent; now 98% of users will never see it.
- mplscoder 11y ago
  If they didn't read to the bottom, they probably aren't interested in the product enough to sign up for an email.
  - emodendroket 11y ago
    That's just not that true. People rather frequently do things like share articles they only bothered to read half of on Facebook; there's no reason to think they wouldn't want a newsletter or a product. c.f. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/06/how_people_read_online_why_you_won_t_finish_this_article.single.html http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/06/... > Schwartz’s data shows that readers can’t stay focused. The more I type, the more of you tune out. And it’s not just me. It’s not just Slate. It’s everywhere online. When people land on a story, they very rarely make it all the way down the page. A lot of people don’t even make it halfway. Even more dispiriting is the relationship between scrolling and sharing. Schwartz’s data suggest that lots of people are tweeting out links to articles they haven’t fully read. If you see someone recommending a story online, you shouldn’t assume that he has read the thing he’s sharing.
    - mplscoder 11y ago
      Well good counterpoint, but there's got to be something better than forcing me to close a popup.

alextgordon 11y ago

The answer to this question is the same as the answer to all business questions on HN: copy how patio11 does it. http://www.kalzumeus.com/blog/ http://www.kalzumeus.com/blog/

Alupis 11y ago

You find them annoying, but your customers probably wont. Remember you are not the best case when deciding what is effective at capturing your audience. You are more "internet savvy" or whatever... Popups, email marketing, retargeted ads, et al are very, very effective means of capturing an audience online.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Don't fool yourself. Everybody finds them annoying. Like the frog in the frying pan who sits as the heat is turned up, folks have begun to believe its the price of visiting the internet.
- notdanariely 11y ago
  Well, it kinda is the price of visiting the internet. Because most content is free but ad-supported... doesn't that mean viewing ads is the price you pay? (At least in a large sense -- I'm intentionally ignoring adblock technology because as of right now it's just not that significant)
  - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
    "Most of the Internet" is Netflix (by bandwidth). They charge for their services, and have zero popups or ads. The rest of the Internet is pay-to-play like Steam. At least for me.
    - Alupis 11y ago
      > At least for me. You are not the average internet user. Your biases do not apply to 99% of internet users. The things on websites that annoy you do not annoy 99% of internet users. The marketing antics that work for 99% of internet users do not work on you.
      - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
        Wrong. Netflix is the larger part of the internet. That has nothing to do with me.

Leftium 11y ago

How about pop-ups that only come up when the user is about to close the browser tab? The user is free to continue to close the tab if the pop-up doesn't interest them. Some demos: - http://www.popupdomination.com/ http://www.popupdomination.com/ - http://optinmonster.com/features/exit-intent/ http://optinmonster.com/features/exit-intent/

emodendroket 11y ago
That's obnoxious and will not help with someone who's going ot use the back button or go to a different page.

userbinator 11y ago

Collect on landing page? How do they know if they want to sign up, they just got here. Put the form at the bottom of the content. Presumably those who have read through and like it will then sign up.

jbob2000 11y ago

Track their facebook cookies like the real players do.

patio11 11y ago

I sort of like the Drip widgets (http://getdrip.com http://getdrip.com) and there exist numerous Javascript things which can do roughly the same. I don't have much experience with physical products and am not sure this generalizes, but in SaaS, one of the best ways to get opt-ins with advertising is to: a) Send the ad not to a landing page but rather to content pitched in the ad b) Have a further incentive which takes the piece it's attached to and deepens it. Gate this one with an email submit. c) You generally want to get to a state where you have N content pieces, M creatives for the premium (downloadable whitepaper or whatever), and P premiums, where N >> M >> P. Then you can start testing to find which ads/content/house ad creatives/premiums get you the best results. It works perfectly adequately with N = M = P = 1 though. This works particularly well with retargeting. You get someone to visit your site once or a few times organically (your content was on HN or Twitter or what have you), you cookie them up, and some day when they're browsing Facebook your company (which they already trust to give them useful info) says "Hey, more stuff for you to read of interest to you." They come over, read for a bit, and hand over the email address semi-casually. Your marketing and sales processes now take over.