Over the past few years, lightboxes and pop-ups have become the digital marketer’s go-to tool for lead generation. Yet, most such acquisition campaigns convert at a pitifully low rate and can annoy your audience. Fortunately, there is hope for the humble lightbox after all – a combination of a better strategy and smart targeting rules can increase conversions while making your users happier.
Lightboxes and pop-ups are all about details – the smallest things can make a huge difference in your conversion rate. Boomtrain’s lightbox and pop-up feature gives you all the tools you need to grow your email list faster than ever.
You can access the Lightbox feature by clicking on the Menu option next to the notification symbol on the top right hand side of BME:
You will then be redirected to the Lightbox campaign setup page which will list down all of your existing Lightbox campaigns. You can edit them, turn them on or off and do a whole lot of other stuff like checking out their preview, renaming them, copying them etc.
Click on the +New button to create a new lightbox. You will get an option to select predefined templates based on your requirements. You can select the most relevant templates by switching between:
– Devices (desktop, tablet and mobile)
– Industries (advertising, B2B, eCommerce, etc)
– Categories (announcements, abandon, chat, etc)
– Type of lightbox (pop-up/lightbox, banner, inline and sidebar)
After you select the most appropriate template, you can customize it further by altering the text, images, forms, buttons, links in the CTA, etc:
There are numerous templates that you can try out based on your requirements. However, here are 4 major ones to get you started:
Site-Entry Lightbox
Lightboxes can be intrusive. But this is the very thing that makes them useful. The moment that a user first comes to your site, you can try asking for an email address while their interest is still piqued. We see the highest conversions when you target right when they enter your website and the offer is aligned with what they came to your site to read.
The beauty of our smart rules engine is you can target 1st time visitors, so returning visitors (or visitors who have previously subscribed) will not see the lightbox. You can also create multiple lightboxes so they are different based on what page they are currently visiting. For example, if they are on a page that talks about camera – offer a “Free Camera Guide”, if they are on a page that talks about televisions – offer a “Free TV Guide”. Obviously the risk with this type of lightbox is an increase in your bounce rate, so be sure to test this approach to make sure the effect is minimal, and that your conversion rate is significant.
Free Download Pop-over
Pop-overs that just ask for an email address typically convert at the very lowest rates, so pump up your value proposition by offering something in return. This could be something traditional like a “chance to win…” give-away, or they could be something a bit more branded, like taking some of your older (but still relevant) content and packaging it up into an e-book. The key here is to make the offer relevant to the content a user is currently engaging with – if you offer a politics related download to a lifestyle news browser, your conversion rates will suffer.
A few pro-tips for this type of pop-over:
- Pop up based on engagement – once the user scrolls past 30% down the page show your offer.
- Use the pop-over to trigger a confirmation email with a link back to where your give-away is hosted on your site. This can function as your double opt-in (since you’re likely to get a fair number of fake email addresses with this method), AND will drive traffic back to your site – a win win!
- Make sure you implement a process to filter out disengaged subscribers after a few months, since you will get a fair number of subscribers who really only wanted the offer.
Quiz Pop-over
Another way to offer a more engaging experience is to pop over a simple but relevant quiz, then ask for the email address only from users that engage with you. For the best possible customer experience, combine this strategy with an offer – use the quiz to get your users attention, then the offer to seal the deal. This type of pop-over has a few key similarities to the Free Download Pop-over, so again, be sure to keep your content relevant, pop up quickly, use a confirmation email, and be sure to filter out unengaged subscribers down the line.
Exit Intent Lightbox
This is the only other time it’s ok to be intrusive – your last chance to capture your new subscriber. Pop up an eye catching lightbox when you detect that your readers are about to leave, and if possible offer something compelling. If you don’t have a take-away to offer prospective subscribers, test different messaging to see what converts at the highest rate.
