Popup Apps: Build a Subscriber List As Big As You Need

Why are popups important?

For ecommerce stores, popup apps are one of the most valuable tools for growing revenue.

Why?

Because whether you’re just starting up or a seasoned vet, every store owner needs to be able to reach out to customers, improve their shopping experience, provide offers that no other store provides and build a loyal tribe of followers.

Relationships can start with a popup to subscribe to your list. It’s arguably the most important popup that you will ever create.

From that point on, you are in control of communications and no longer reliant upon that visitor to return to your store to interact with them again.

Without an email address or phone number, you need the customer to return to you and initiate a conversation or transaction – which may never happen.

So, an email address or phone number has a monetary value for your store, allowing you to begin promotional email campaigns and offers, send sales catalogs and newsletters, and so on.

Email marketing is well-established as one of the most cost-effective and quickest channels to build and scale your store, averaging $42 for every $1 spent.

Don’t ignore the power of SMS or test marketing either. With a phone number, you can tap into this potentially lucrative marketing channel that can drive a 25X+ ROI.

When to use popups?

Of course, popups are useful at almost every stage of the buying cycle – not just to capture contact information and grow your list but to encourage sales and achieve other calls to action.

The most important popup may be the one for new visitors that urges them to subscribe. However, you can use popups for new and existing subscribers/customers to increase revenue.

 Here are just a few ways to use popups throughout the customer journey:

• Confirm location for the correct version of your store (English/Spanish/Chinese, etc.)
• Inform of offers and discounts
• Upsell with recommended complementary products
• Follow up with abandoned shopping carts
• Confirm products purchased on the checkout page
• Gather feedback from your customers
• Provide a final chance to convert a customer with an exit-intent popup

You can experiment with different strategies in different parts of your store, testing the popups and changing them up to see what gets you the best results.

How to get sign-ups with popups

“Build it and they will come” is not enough anymore with your ecommerce store.

People have choices. There are likely a hundred competitors doing similar things to you. You need to take steps to stand out and build a loyal following.

Subscriber lists sit at the heart of all that is good about a successful ecommerce store. All the biggest and best brands use them.

Think of your “sign up” popup as the equivalent of getting a business card from a potential customer at a show or an event. This opportunity to capture contact information allows you to turn visitors into customers.

To get more sign-ups and grow your list, here are a few tips for this key popup:

• Place the popup prominently on your homepage (and other key pages in your store)
• Include a value proposition in the popup – what will a visitor gain by signing up with you?
• Consider providing a discount on the first order, a free gift or access to free updates or content
• Consider creating urgency or making your visitor feel like they are missing out on something
• Make the message and instructions clear and simple
• Make it fun – turn it into a game or quiz (see the above example from Petite Studio)
• Make it branded – this is the first contact a visitor may have with your store and it needs to appear seamless
• Don’t ask for too much info – just an email address/phone number will suffice for starters
• Track and measure what is working – and change the popup if it is not producing results
• A/B test until you get it right

Discounts and free gifts are effective strategies for increasing signups. Present your popup so that your visitor feels they are getting something exclusive by signing up to your list. The perception of value is important.

However, bear in mind that your popups are only going to benefit your store if:

1. They don’t annoy visitors, and
2. You have a system in place to market to your growing subscriber list

So, along with mastering the design of your subscriber popup, ask yourself the following basic questions:

• Are we overusing popups in our store?
• Have we selected a reliable email service provider to support our marketing efforts?
• Do we have an effective and automated email marketing system in place?
• Have we designed campaigns with good conversion rates and proven ROIs?

A quick word about traffic

Popups convert, on average, 3.75% of visitors into subscribers. So, unless you’re getting enough traffic, no popup app can magically create endless subscribers.

If you get 1,000 visitors per day, you can expect 37.5 subscribers, on average.

If your present traffic is minimal, work on boosting that before you try to pull out all of the shots with getting subscribers.

The top free popup app for Shopify

Merchants on Shopify increasingly differentiate their stores from the competition with the apps that they choose.

Popup apps are no exception. There are plenty to choose from – including an array of paid and free apps.

No-one has the time to test 20 or 30 apps until they get it right. So, most merchants go with recommendations.

One app that you will see included in most of the top popup app lists for Shopify and other ecommerce platforms is Privy.

This well-established and popular app can help you accomplish all of the things that you have read about above in the guide.

Here is an essential lowdown on the main features and benefits of Privy…

Price: Free plan available. Paid starter plans from $30/month

Free Trial? Yes – 15 days

Average Shopify rating? 4.6 (from over 24, 000 ratings)

Main features:

• Proven popup + display templates to help you convert visitors into buyers
• Control how popups are triggered
• Advanced targeting so that you don’t annoy visitors
• Designed specifically to help you build your list
• Offer discounts, gifts and more
• Helps you get creative with your popups – including gamifying your popups with “spin to win” wheels
• Automates email marketing
• Can arrange cross-sell and upsell campaigns to boost revenues
• Follow up with abandoned carts
• Includes free shipping bars
• Inbuilt coupon generator (customizable)
• Simple to use WYSIWYG designer
• A/B testing capability on the premium plan
• Reporting features
• Fully mobile responsive
• Lots of integrations – with multiple ecommerce store builders, over 50 email software providers, etc.
• Reviewed by over 24,000 Shopify merchants – with an average 4.6 rating

What extra features are provided in the paid versions?

For startup stores, the free plan (Privy Convert) will work a treat.

The Privy paid plans may come into play as you scale your business and your needs increase. The paid versions are as follows:

So, the email version starts at $13/month (for 1000 contacts), the SMS version at $10/month (for 100 contacts) and the starter plan (which includes Privy Convert and Email) at $30/month.

The monthly fee increases with the number of page views you get per month. For instance, up to 5,000 pageviews is free, 5,000 – 10,0000 pageviews is $20/month, 15,000 – 50,000 pageviews is $70/month, and so on.

The paid versions remove the Privy branding and many offer free coaching on improving conversions with your popups.

Any cons?

• You’ll have to put up with the Privy branding on the free version
• A/B testing only available with the premium plan

Start growing your list and more…

As you have seen, the best Shopify popup apps will help you grow your list – and do much more besides.

With the free version of Privy, there is nothing to lose. Give it a go, watch your list grow and then, as you increase your customer numbers and sales, scale up to a paid plan.