Grant ThomasA portion of my day is devoted to perusing the web in search for great promotional campaigns. I view hundreds of promotions every week and have seen the full spectrum of offers, the good and the bad. Throughout this process, I’ve pinpointed the 5 characteristics that make a promotion successful along with the simple tweaks you can make to get your promotional campaigns back on track!
While this article is referring to pop up promotions, these 5 traits can be applied to any type of promotion.
An Eye-Grabbing Design
The main objective of promotions, and specifically pop up promotions, is to grab the attention of website visitors. I often see promotions with little to no customization or branding which looks out of place on your website, does not make a visual impact, and does not properly represent your brand. If I’m a visitor viewing a generic promotion, I much more likely to disregard the offer and close the pop up.
Pro Tip
It doesn’t have to be extravagant but spend a little bit of time crafting your promotion design to match your website. If you have no idea where to start, check out these 10 simple pop up designs for some inspiration. I don’t have access Photoshop or Illustrator but have found a simple design solution in Canva that I would highly recommend others to use to design their promotions.
Justuno Update
We will be releasing a new version of platform, Justuno v.3 on May 26th which will make it incredibly simple to design your promotions. Users will have access to our drag and drop design canvas along with an extensive library of themes. Your designs will be poppin’ with Justuno!
Clear, Concise Copy
Your design will suck people in, but you still have to sell them on your offer and drive them to complete the desired action. When writing promotional copy, boil it down to the bare essentials, throw some personality in there if you can, and include a call to action. You should clearly state what the visitor would receive, what he/she must do in order to receive the reward, and when and where he/she will receive the reward.
Here’s a great example from Refactor Tactical:
This promotion is an exit offer from the cart page to prevent shoppers from abandoning their carts by providing an incentive to make a purchase. Refactor Tactical has seen great success with this offer and it has a lot to do with the branded design and clear copy. The offer states that a visitor must enter an email to instantly receive a 5% off coupon that can be used at checkout.
The Right Place at the Right Time
Poor timing and placement can kill the conversion rates of your promotions because your offer is irrelevant. If you present your promotion to visitors in the right instance, then your conversions should skyrocket. Of course, this is easier said than done. Every site different and the optimal pages and times to present the offer can be hard to identify.
Pro Tip
Present your offer after a visitor has spent 7-10 seconds on your site. This gives them time to intially see your site without interruption while not allowing enough time for the visitor to leave before seeing your tantalizing offer. You may also think about targeting interested visitors by having your pop up open after a visitor has viewed a few of your pages. Lastly, popping open your offer on cart and checkout pages results in the highest rate of conversions while also driving sales conversions. You can accomplish this kind of segmentation and targeting with Justuno’s promotion controls.
Engaging Not Annoying
One of the benefits of using pop up promotions is that you can proactively engage your website visitors for increased visibility and an uptick in conversions. However, this engagement can quickly turn into an annoyance if you’re not careful.
Pro Tip
It’s this reason why I suggest presenting each offer only once during an individual’s visit. If you have multiple offers, then present them on different pages throughout your site. An additional option is to include a promotional tab in which visitors can always access your offer by simply clicking the tab on the side of your website regardless if the promotion has been presented to them or not.
The Offer is Valuable to Visitors
This one is obvious yet I still frequently see offers that just don’t perk much interest. The best advice I can give is to look to your customers for the answers. Look at what promotions have worked in the past, try out an offer that you think you’re customers will see value in, or just ask them what would add value to their shopping experience.
Pro Tip
Free Shipping is always a powerful incentive that is valued highly by consumers. Percentage discounts are also great for driving purchases but do require some calculating and testing to see what works for your business and your customers. Lastly, sweepstakes are fantastic for acquiring emails from shoppers. For a full list of potential promotions to run, take a look at these 7 types of on-site promotions.
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