Journity is a powerful tool that allows you to communicate with your website visitors in many ways, but the type of messaging that generates the most questions is the “Pop-up”. We’ve seen them on ecommerce sites and online news sites for years. They’ve been done (and overdone) so much that people ask, “Should I use pop-ups? I don’t want to annoy our users.” or “When should I use a pop-up instead of embedded content?”. Based on our experience, we recommend three times when you not only should – but actually need – to use pop-ups.
Pop-ups Work, Really Well
Before we dive into when to use pop-ups, it’s important to note that many of you might be wondering if pop-ups even work. The answer in short is yes, they work really well. The M+R Benchmarks study has noted that on average 1% of nonprofit website visitors will sign up for an email list, and only 1.1% make a donation. By comparison, we reviewed 204 different pop-ups that were viewed 2,539,167 times and found they averaged 3.20% conversion rates. So, if you want to gain new email subscribers or bring on new donors at 3 times the average rate, you’ll want to start looking at pop-ups.
When To Use Pop-ups for Your Nonprofit
There are three distinct times when you need to use pop-ups to communicate effectively and to multiply the impact of your organization. These are when it’s relevant, when it’s important, and when it’s timely.
When It’s Relevant
There is limited space on your website, so it is generally made up of static content (meaning everyone sees the same content). That means you have to prioritize the content and organize it the best you can, hoping your users can easily navigate to the content they want to see. This leads nonprofits to prioritize the donation ask, which is great for people who are already familiar with your organization, but can seem a bit forward for people who are visiting for the first time. Similarly, if I’ve been reading your content and am excited by your mission I would love to sign up for your emails so I can learn how to engage more deeply. But if I’m already a subscriber, please don’t ask me to subscribe again.
To ensure your message is relevant, look at your data and only show pop-ups to specific audience segments that will find the message valuable.
When It’s Important
One of the reasons pop-ups are so effective is because they are somewhat disruptive. It’s really easy to miss pieces of content, links in the navigation, or even large images, but it’s impossible to miss a large message that is front and center and covers the page. By using pop-ups to share messages that are important, people will pay attention.
Leverage engagement scoring to ensure you show the most important messaging to the most interested visitors to your website.
When It’s Timely
We live in a real-time world where people can get updates immediately, watch news as it’s happening, and more. People like to be in-the-know. Share messages that are relevant and based on timing. For example, is there an event happening soon? Is there an urgent need in your organization? Or is something new and exciting happening right now? All of these are great things to share with your audience in real-time.
Sharing targeted real-time messages and updates with your audience can help you drive deeper engagement and remind your website visitors that they are part of the team and in the know.
Nonprofits Are All About Relationships
At the end of the day your organization is about impacting people’s lives, both those you serve and those who support your team. When you look at analytics dashboards and spreadsheets all day it’s easy to forget those numbers represent real people. Make sure you communicate with them in ways that are relevant, important, and timely. You’ll develop deeper relationships and long term supporters.
If you’re interested in leveraging website personalization to communicate with your visitors on a 1-to-1 basis, give Journity a try with a free account today.