What happens when you see a pop up on your computer or smartphone screen? Does it make you scream or does it spark some interest? Well, you will be interested to know that the design and the intent as well as the types of pop-up can elicit a certain kind of response. Let us talk in examples so that you can easily understand the world of web pop ups.

For the first example, imagine you have landed on an E Commerce website and you are looking at a product. When you first land on the website, there would be a pop up that notifies you of some great scheme for that day. When you click on the cross and continue to look for your product, you find it and there, when you hover over the picture of the product, you get a pop up screen that allows you to look at it up close. Then, when you hover over the buy now option, it shows you a pop up that shows you the payment options. These pop ups appear and disappear at your will and these are called click activated pop ups. There would be a pop up related to an offer on the same product or a related product that would appear in the bar of the website so that it is visible, but it does not disrupt anything.

Now, let us look at another example. You have landed on a similar website. You are instantly bombarded by pop ups that come through one after the other even as you are trying to click each one shut. This will cause some annoyance before you abandon your search. Now imagine, you actually go through with your search and decide to look for an item. Again, you are shown pop ups that completely blank out the screen until you give you details or you exit the website altogether, ready to go to another website for your search. If you continue to stay, new bars with pop ups might appear and stop you mid scroll even as you look for a way out!

Between the two examples, the first one would definitely seem like a more ideal scenario where you have to deal with limited pop ups and that too, when you can control them easily and continue with the work that you were supposed to do on the website. It would come as a no brainer that the web pop ups on the second website in the next example would absolutely disrupt your tasks and make you cringe even as you try to navigate through all the rubble to reach the page where your actual search would happen. This is not only disruptive for the customer, but it would also ensure that the customer never comes back again.

If we are to consider some of the top websites in the world, we will find that they have minimal web pop ups that are on the neat and classy side, and these too, can mostly be controlled by the user or the visitor. What are the pop up tips that you can garner from these kinds of websites and how can you use them to your advantage? How can you also design your pop ups so that you look like a more sophisticated brand that knows the mind of the customer and does not unnecessarily push the customer towards many different offers and products, and thus push the customer away? There are many tips and tricks to achieve the same. Let us look at the top 5:

1. Timing is Everything: Timed pop ups that appear only when the customer has not taken action on a page for a while or when the customer hovers over something that can warrant some extra information would be one of the best pop up tips that we can offer. You would do well to try these kinds of pop ups to further your relationship with the customer and time the pop up so that a chatbot or an offer pop up shows up when the customer has been inactive for a while on your website.

2. Make it Fit: When a pop up has a completely different color and font or branding on it, this can throw the customer off and be quite jarring. For example, if the colors on the website are white with simple fonts in blue and bars in yellow, but the pop up is a garish green with purple font, then the customer can get put off instantly and this can have a negative effect on the way the customer reacts to the web pop ups. Instead, make it fit - make sure that there is a match between the pop up and the website. For example, a yellow pop up with a white font would be ideal and not too deviant from the website either.

3. Simple Call for Action: A web pop up should have a simple and straight call for action that instantly directs the customer towards the page where he or she can avail the offer or the related product, or whatever else you may be trying to pitch. This pop up tip can actually save you a lot of trouble since clutter would make the customer run far away from your brand and the website!

4. Single Field: A single field on the form that asks for the email address should be the only thing on the pop up aside from the caption that talks about the offer. You should ensure that the customer does not have to go through a long process and give too much information since this can also mean that the customer loses interest mid way.

5. Acknowledge: Always ensure that the pop up leads to a Thank You screen with details of the action taken so that the customer knows what has happened and what to expect next, instead of no information.