Want to be let in on a little secret? The average human attention span is no more than eight seconds. The average bounce rate of an e-commerce store? 45.68%.
Those are two insane numbers! People will get bored in less than eight seconds, and a little less than half of the visitors to your website will leave before traveling to even a single page. This means you have less than those eight seconds to adequately capture someone’s attention before they leave your store website.
That’s why website optimization and user experience (UX) friendly design has never been more critical, which applies to product pages and your on-site promotions. Between the SEO implications and your own bottom line, you need to capture attention quickly.
Below we’ll go over six design tips that will help you optimize your onsite experience and improve personalization (thereby holding their attention for longer) across all your website visitors.
The golden rule of pop-ups is don’t overdo it. An overly busy design can be a deterrent to otherwise interested website visitors. A busy background combined with loud colors and too many elements (text and images) will overwhelm shoppers, and they’ll likely miss your message. Create designs with clean lines and quickly draw consumers’ eyes to where you want: a bright CTA driving action, beautiful product photography, or the deal of a lifetime you’re offering subscribers. Whatever your promotions’ goal, ensure that it’s the focal point of your design, with all elements pointing the way to it.
Pro Tip: Make sure there’s enough white space for an uncrowded design that’s visually appealing, considering the size of any elements included (i.e., images or form fields).
A picture’s worth a 1000 words
Imagery is one of the most powerful ways to capture attention and show visitors what your site is about. You can choose from the following:
- Full-background photo vs. minor element
- Lifestyle vs. product imagery
- Photos vs. Gifs
- And much more
There are countless options for bringing your brand’s aesthetic to life in a pop-up. Here at Justuno, we recommend testing which visuals are the most effective converters in your promotions. A/B tests the list above to find which version produces the best results in converting your visitors. Some of our account managers successfully use lifestyle imagery over product photos, while others say that older audiences prefer traditional product photos.
The second part to remember is to ensure all photos you use are high-quality — no pixelated or blurred graphics are allowed! They look unprofessional and will detract from your promotion’s message and reduce shoppers’ confidence in your site.
The key here is knowing your audience’s preferences, what will pique their interest the most, and using high-quality visuals to deliver it.
Pro Tip: When creating Justuno promotions: PNGs are best for a transparent background, and JPEGs are best for photos.
Exit buttons are a critical component of promotions. Many visitors will get annoyed if you make it hard for them to close a rise, or even worse, don’t give them the option.
Now that’s not to say you can’t have a little fun with it; a common trend online is to use cheeky CTA copy for these, like I like to pay the total price, or discounts aren’t my thing. It’s an excellent opportunity to inject brand personality into your onsite experience and have fun with consumers. If you use this opt-out style, we often encourage you to include an X in the corner since sometimes consumers don’t understand that will close the pop-up, leading to a bounced session.
This is another time that A/B testing comes in handy if you want to compare the performance of witty opt-outs vs. traditional button placement, etc. All that matters is you give your visitors a way out
Pro Tip: For mobile pop-ups, we recommend using buttons, so there is more “clickable area” than just using an ‘X’ in the corner.
This isn’t something that will make sense for every brand, but changing up the shape of your pop-up from a square or rectangle to something like one of your products (ex., wine bottle) or a splat can boost conversions. This needs to work with your branding and be done well, but this can take an otherwise run-of-the-mill pop-up to the next level.
Incorporating products into your promotions can be a great way to customize the visual aspect of the promotion and pique visitors’ interest in your inventory.
From customizing a spin-to-win to look like a charging pad, watch, or engine valve to wine bottle email opt-ins and dog-house-shaped slot machines–there’s no limit besides creativity to the design possibilities with Justuno. Check out a few of our favorite designs over the years:
As always, not everything will work for every website; don’t force something that doesn’t fit your site’s aesthetic. Pop-up design isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy!
Make it easy: one-click shopping
Any onsite messaging on your website shouldn’t disrupt the user experience but give them something that helps or adds value. Utilize elements that make the customer journey quicker or more accessible in your pop-ups to boost conversions and reduce barriers to purchase.
This can be as simple as an add-to-cart button directly in the promotion. Use upselling and cross-selling strategies to boost AOV by showcasing relevant products; implement this in traditional pop-ups, in-page advertisements, or AI-powered product recommendations for quick wins.
The fewer steps you ask visitors to take between browsing and purchasing will help reduce cart abandonment and move consumers down the funnel faster.
When choosing colors for your promotions, the first step is to stick to your brand guide and match the general aesthetic of your website. But that doesn’t mean you have to always stick to four colors!
High contrast in your UI elements is essential, I don’t want things to appear totally out of place, but crucial aspects like CTAs, the discount offer, etc., should have an accent to stand out from the rest of the promotion.
Another part of your color strategy should be to consider accessibility and how color-blind consumers may perceive your promotion. Common types of color blindness cause the perception of red/green to be altered, which is something to keep in mind when creating a marketing color palette.
Use a color wheel to help you find complementary colors (colors across from each other) for bright combinations or monochromatic shades (several shades of one color) for a more subtle vibe.
Color is a fundamental part of the design, and strategically choosing colors for maximum impact is one of the many ways to boost performance.
Design is a vital part of your pop-up’s performance. From a fundamental level of colors to aesthetically pleasing spacing/lines and strategic CTAs–these choices can make or break your promotion.
By staying focused on the consumer and their needs, you’ll create pop-ups that augment your onsite experience and convert more visitors into customers.
Want to learn more? Check out our mobile-specific design suggestions, or take your onsite messaging to the next level with animation.
This article originally appeared in the Justuno blog and has been published here with permission.
