The 10 Best Examples of Email Pop-Up Designs and Why They Work

Email pop-ups are now a conversion marketing necessity. This tactic is incredibly effective for email capture, website traffic conversion, and visitor engagement. 

So the question is no longer “Should I use an email pop-up?” But “How do I get the best results out of my email pop-up?”

One simple way to convert more traffic through email pop-ups is through design. This is essentially a quick sales pitch for your brand and newsletter which needs to look good if you want to convert visitors. Here’s a short checklist of design aspects to consider when creating an email pop-up.

• Marketing Copy: Show personality, spur action, and create need/urgency
• Imagery: Visually grab attention, showcase products, or services
• Branding: Match the pop-up to website design and company branding
• CTA (Call to Action): Engaging button copy and button color
• Value Proposition: Why should someone enter their email? This could be an incentive, promotion, or simply why your newsletter is valuable to them.

Below, I’ve provided 10 email pop-up designs along with a few specific characteristics that have led to superior email capture results. Don’t forget to grab the Free Guide to Email Pop-up Design after reading the post!

Marketing Copy/Incentive: In most cases, straight forward copy tends to work the best. The headline boldly grabs a visitor’s attention and tells exactly what action must be taken to receive the value, in this case, a discount. This is a great example of marketing copy to start with. You know it’s going to work. If you feel like getting a bit more creative, you can adjust the copy and A/B test it against the original.

Clear Branding: On the pop-up Mountain Standard uses the same color scheme as their website and also includes their logo. This gives the pop-up a clean and consistent look that represents the brand effectively.

Beautiful Photography: A black and white landscape of a hazy mountain range, now isn’t that pleasant? Not only is this a spectacular background image but also appeals to Mountain Standard’s ideal customer, the outdoor enthusiast.

Giveaway Incentive: Want to grab a new visitor’s email? Then run a contest! This is an extremely engaging promotion and visitors are highly likely to submit an email to receive significant value. Karmaloop runs a weekly gift card giveaway to drive email list growth.

Photography aligned with the brand: Lifestyle and product photos that represent your brand are a great way to customize your email pop-ups. Streetwear brand, Karmaloop, uses a hip photo of a man sporting some of their latest styles.

Pop-Up Color: Sometimes it’s a good idea to match a pop-up’s color to your site’s design. However, using a completely different color scheme can make your pop-up stand out and attract eyeballs too. Go for colors that make sense and mesh, not colors that may burn retinas. Karmaloop has a great example of how to use a different color scheme without interfering with their current website design.

Clever Headline: Clever copy when done right can effectively engage a visitor, draw some laughs, and spur action. The headline “emails suck, ours don’t” resonates with online shoppers and with this simple association, shoppers are more likely to subscribe.

Relevant and Fun Imagery: Does anyone still eat spam? Rhetorical question. All jokes aside, this image is awesome. It aligns with the pop-up copy, shows off some Shinesty Apparel, and shows a dislike for spam emails. Again, siding with the shopper. This isn’t the first time we’ve highlighted Shinesty Apparel’s design sense, check out this post where we highlight their Shopify Plus store design.

Incentive and CTA: Shinesty uses a simple $10 off of orders over $30 which is a mutually beneficial offer. Shoppers get a discount and Shinesty has a consistent dollar amount discount so they know exactly what they are giving away (as opposed to a percentage off).

The CTA “Get $10” is incredibly engaging and makes the shopper want to submit their email.

Adorable Photo: This pop-up shows off a cute lifestyle photo of a little girl running in her Wee Squeak shoes. This image also acts as a visual cue with the girl running towards the copy. This causes your eyes to subconsciously move directly to where the girl is facing.

Actionable Headline: A clear headline will relay your message most effectively. Wee Squeak takes it a bit further by adding some urgency. The simple addition of “Hurry” can cause a shopper to take action. Another option to induce urgency is to use a count down timer on the promotion.

First Purchase Incentive: Getting shoppers to purchase from you for the first time is no easy task. To make this easier, Wee Squeak offers first-time shoppers an incentive of 10% off their order. This is a no brainer promotion to run for first-time visitors.

Product/Lifestyle Photography: Anytime you can showcase your products in beautiful photography to shoppers, it’s always a good idea. This photo from Tower Paddle Boards grabs attention and is perfect for their promotion.

Big Ticket Item Incentive: Tower not only chose a big ticket item for their contest but also an item that is attractive to their ideal customer. This way, they know they are capturing emails from people who are interested in their products. Big ticket items drive tons of email sign-ups!

Layered Imagery: I haven’t seen many pop-up designs with layered background imagery but it really adds an attractive element to this pop-up. This design choice looks great on their site and fits nicely with their branding.

Bold Offer: There’s no missing what this pop-up is offering. While, 5% may seem like a small discount, every little bit matters. Also, as a business, you need to use promotions that make sense with your margins. Discounts are always a great incentive to drive email sign-ups and can also prevent shoppers from coupon and price hunting off of your site.

Nice Branding: This email pop-up fits the website design perfectly and looks like it took some significant time to develop (but it didn’t).

Badges: Credibility and trust are critical for any successful e-commerce business. UProtein showcases their guarantee, shipping cost, 20 years in business, and secure shopping. These badges are a great thing to put right in front of shoppers with an email pop-up.

Unique Font: Beloved Shirts always likes to have some fun with their pop-ups. This is no exception. The “Mega Sale” is tough to miss and fun. I’m drawn in, that’s for sure.

Simple Copy: While the headline is fun, the copy is informative on what action needs to be taken and what value will be received. Free shipping is also an incredible sales driver!

Coupon Code Within Pop-Up: Letting your shoppers know that the coupon code will appear inside of the pop-up makes it easier on the shopper. They can immediately receive the benefit without having to wait for an email and as a retailer, anytime you can keep a shopper on your site, that’s a positive.

Personalized Exit Headline: Since this is an exit offer, this only shows to visitors who are about to leave your site. By using a unique headline to cater to leaving visitors, you’re more likely to grab their attention and get them to take action.

Perfect Exit Visual: U.S. Patriot Tactical picked the perfect image for an exit offer. As a leaving visitor, it’s pretty hard not to interact with this pop-up.

Capturing More Info: While using a single field opt-in form is the easiest for visitors to submit, there are benefits to using multiple field forms. This is a perfect example of additional fields that are relevant. It’s only one additional field and asks for “Area of Service.” This additional field will result in more targeted emails for subscribers.

Asking a Question: Momentum Mag engages traffic with a popular question that many are interested in the answer to. They immediately provide an incentive with a free downloadable guide. This is a perfect example of how to use gated content to drive email sign-ups.

Associated Imagery: Bike owners most likely own one or two types of bike locks displayed. This imagery pulls them in by association and drives engagement.

Strong CTA: Copy on a CTA always needs to be tested… but this copy is damn near perfect. It spurs action and uses two words that are known for driving conversions: “Get” and “Free”.

Welcome Message: It’s important to recognize that you are actively engaging visitors on your site. Packed Party keeps it simple with a bold welcome message.

Pastel Grabs Attention: I spoke to using unique color schemes earlier in the article. While this doesn’t match their website color scheme, it still aligns with their brand and also grabs attention which is key for email pop-ups.

Playful Copy: It’s always nice to show some personality and set some expectations for your email newsletter at the same time. I love this copy that Packed Party went with. The only thing I’d change would be to make the 10% off a bit larger. It may grab some more attention.

Pop-up design isn’t rocket science but there are definitely a few aspects to be aware of. These 10 email pop-ups above are great examples and I encourage you to draw inspiration from them when creating your own. Get started with the Justuno design canvas today!

Want to work with an agency instead? Check out these 10 inspirational Shopify Plus store designs from design agencies to see where your site can go.