Is it a good idea to add exit pop-ups to grow an email database?

pop ups for growing email database
Do pop-ups work when growing a database

Maybe.

Maybe it will work.

Maybe you will make a person not want to come back.

Lets first break it down into when you would have a chance to put a pop-up on your site.

1) Just as they are leaving?

The thing is, they are leaving because they have found (or not found) what they were looking for in the first place.

I have doubts most of the time that a last-ditch at this stage will get you the value you are looking for when you grow your database.

2) Before they have completed a task on your site?

As a person leaves your site, and before a task has completed. This is a precise moment. It could work, depending on what the mission is.

Think of them listening to a podcast, they are halfway through and decide to close the tab. Leaving your site could have been a mistake, or your visitor is heading off to a meeting. (We did this for CliffCentral)

The pop-up could say something like “Want us to send you a link so you can carry on where you left off?”

Other tasks that come to mind are:

  • Filling in a form
  • Uploading a file
  • Editing something
  • Checking out

3) As soon as a visitor arrives on your site.

Boom! Let’s get down to business now. No warming up. YEAH BABY.

You probably know already where my opinion is on this method.

I am not a fan of this. For [ENTER MANY REASONS HERE]

The main one is it sets the tone of the relationship immediately as a hard sell abrasive one coming from your company.

I would never recommend this, but to be honest I have never tried doing this for ethical and character reasons.

Drop me an email if this works for you, would be interesting to know.

 

4) At a “random’ish” time.

Could be a time that they are busy and engaged on the site, like reading an article or editing a file.

It may work, you run the risk of distraction here and harming the conversion funnel or just harming the reason your website does what it does. It’s purpose.

The main bit of advice with these pop-up is it should have a strong reason to exist. Offer excellent value and be unobtrusive.

If you would like to chat about how to figure any of these things out for your company, we are always happy to help.

Cheers
Greg

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