I’m sure you’re looking for ways to get the most out of your marketing and advertising efforts. This should be your #1 goal, anyway, because it helps you grow your business. 

In this digital era, we create tons of content to drive traffic to our webpages and offers in order to generate leads and turn them into customers. And although we do our best to serve our audience, a big percentage of them will leave our website or will abandon their cart for a multitude of reasons. 

But modern marketers are well-equipped having at their disposal an army of weapons to customize and tailor their users’ experience and can grab their attention with beautifully-designed and high-value advertisements and forms.

Now the question is, what kind of ads and forms work best? What are their conversion rates?

Throughout my marketing journey, I’ve never seen anything work better than pop-up ads. Popups outperform other kinds of ads and online forms by a long shot.

Why?

The answer is simple. The visitor has to interact with the popup message because it pops and stays on the screen. They may choose to close it, but they will be exposed to the message. This is the key.

Many people hate popup advertisements and it’s not their fault. When the internet was still in its infancy, popup ads were intrusive, invasive, interruptive, and provided a bad user experience.

Those early messages were annoying, out of context, and had little or nothing to do with the content of the webpage and the visitors’ interests. 

But things changed!

Today we use popup messages to interact, educate, nurture, and provide massive value to our visitors. 

Now, if you want to take your popup marketing to the next level, you should start using exit-intent popups.

These popups are focused on visitors that have the intention to leave a webpage. They track and monitor the way visitors are interacting with the content of a page and just before they decide to leave, they trigger a message to popup, delaying their decision.

The marketing message has to be targeted, relevant, and provide an irresistible offer to entice people and propel them to take action.

In this guide, we’ll examine how exit-intent popups work, the benefits and use cases, we’ll take a look at some interesting statistics, examples, and we’ll share some strategies you can use to increase your conversion rates.

Let’s dive deeper!

Boost Conversions With Exit Intent PopUps

Video Overview

How exit intent technology works

The exit-intent technology tracks website visitors and monitors their behavior on any given page. 

When a visitor attempts to leave the webpage either by exiting, using the back button, or navigating to other opened tabs on the browser, or by opening a new tab, a popup message is displayed to further delay their decision and forces them to interact with the message. 

The technology detects mouse pointer moves out of browser viewport by using JavaScript events. 

Benefits/Uses

You can use exit-intent technology for a variety of reasons and help reach your marketing goals and objectives.

Boost conversion rates

As I explained in the introduction, popup messages and forms outperform other marketing ads by a huge percentage. 

Now, exit-intent popups increase your conversion rates even more and are performing way better than time-based popups. 

With time-based popups you can control only time and trigger messages at predefined time overlaps.

With exit-intent popups you display messages the moment someone tries to leave your webpage. 

Better UX (user experience)

Due to the fact that exit-intent popup messages are displayed when people try to abandon a site, are less interruptive than other ads and popups in general.

The user would have left anyway, so a message at this given moment does not interfere with their experience on the webpage. They had consumed content and decided to leave.

It’s like when a visitor at your home or your store, office, or facilities is at the door and he’s ready to close and leave goodbye, and you say “Hey, I forgot to tell you…”

You just get their attention with one last message.

Reduce cart abandonment

It’s the most common use of exit-intent technology.

When someone has reached the checkout page is ready to make a purchase. This is the last step of the conversion process but yet many people will decide to delay their action for later or they will regret to proceed with the purchase for their own reasons.

This is the perfect moment to display a popup message and propel them to take action.

In the video overview, there’s an example of a cart abandonment popup.

I added a product to the shopping cart, I visited the checkout page, I entered some data, and then I decided to leave the page. A popup message prevented me from leaving the webpage with a beautiful offer, a 10% discount on the item I had in the shopping cart.

Not bad at all for a customer, right? Who does not like a discount on the spot?

You can use a plethora of marketing messages beyond offering discounts for cart abandonment intentions (see below for exit-intent examples).

Lead generation

The majority of online visitors leave a webpage after consuming the content.

But we, as marketers, want to maximize our content marketing efforts and we use exit-intent popups to entice people to join our email list.

We do that by offering something valuable in exchange for their email addresses. 

Downloadable guides, eBooks, reports, checklists, whitepapers, and so much more. 

And when someone gives away their email address, you have the right to follow-up with email campaigns.

Email marketing is still one of the most powerful ways for businesses of all sizes to grow.

With email campaigns, you nurture leads into your brand’s vision, showcase your expertise, and help move people further into the buying cycle and become customers and loyal fans of your brand.

Awareness, credibility, trust, authority

Even if someone decides to close the popup message and leave anyway, still, you have a chance to showcase your expertise and have them interact with the message. 

Depending on the situation, the webpage a visitor landed on, and your business goals, you may be able to build awareness for your products and services. 

You may use awards and certifications, signs of social proof, show other brands that you had been featured on, and the list goes on. 

You may provide an irresistible offer, a digital download for example that solves someone’s problem, thus adding credibility to your status.

Whatever the case may be, these last moments with someone are crucial and they would probably remember your brand the next time they come across your site or other sites mentioning it.

Statistics

According to OptinMonster:

• More than 70% of the visitors who leave your website will never return.
• By using exit-intent technology, you can convert an additional 2 – 4% of your visitors into email subscribers and soon thereafter into paying customers.
• On average, their publishers are seeing a 200 – 600% increase in email signups when they use exit-intent along with their content marketing efforts.

According to ConversionFanatics and Conversion Sciences:

• 10 to 15 percent of lost visitors can be ‘saved’ by using exit-intent popups.

According to a study by Sumo of 1,754,957,675 pop-ups: 

• The top 10% highest-performing pop-ups averaged a 9.28% conversion rate. And, by conversion rate, we mean someone who saw a pop-up and took action.
• The average conversion rate for all pop-ups is 3.09%.
• Some pop-ups see conversion rates as high as 50.2%! But the average conversion rate of the very best pop-ups was 9.28%.

Examples, Ideas, Srategies

As we analyzed, exit-intent and popups, in general, can be used to maximize marketing efforts and help businesses grow.

They increase conversion rates, generate leads, provide a better user experience, reduce cart abandonment, build brand awareness, add credibility, trust, and authority, and so much more.

Now let’s examine some ideas that you can use right away to boost conversions and increase email signups:

Offer a discount

This is huge. When someone wants to abandon your site at the very moment they were ready to buy, they are still in buying mode.

Maybe they had an urgent phone call and they had to leave immediately, maybe they decided to visit a competing website to compare prices and features, or maybe they were not sure if your product was the best fit for their needs.

By offering a discount coupon, you entice them to take action and get your product at a lower price. Also, you collect their email address so you can follow-up with email campaigns, exclusive discounts, news, and announcements that they might find interesting.

Additionally, you may offer exclusive discounts site-wide or for certain products for a limited time. By doing so, you compel them to revisit your website soon after, even if they decide to leave at this given moment.

I visited the Hats.com website to purchase a hat. I added a product to the shopping cart, entered my name and some other data, and then I tried to press the back button. At this exact moment, an exit-intent popup offer appeared on my screen preventing me from leaving. 

A 10% discount on the hat I was going to purchase.

Urgency/Complimentary Bonuses/Thorough Descriptions/Displaying Benefits

Urgency is an emotional motivator. When people realize that they are about to miss out on a huge opportunity, they are more likely to buy.

Limited time offers, countdown timers, and other marketing strategies can be deployed to change people’s minds.

Here, we deal with another irresistible offer that provides a sense of urgency, only 30 minutes left, while at the same time is offering a bonus that people will have a hard time rejecting.

Who does not want to have a website developed and get as a bonus 3 marketing campaigns for free that will help them reach customers?

Also, the description demonstrates professionalism and explains how the brand is working and what they take into account when developing websites.

First, they perform market research to identify the ideal clients of their prospect. Then, they create a long-term marketing plan, and then they develop the website.

Not only, they clearly display the benefits of developing a professional website: visitors will have an enjoyable experience, they will engage with the offers, and will become leads and customers. 

They take it one step further and offer samples of their work and a button that redirects visitors to an online form to give their input so they can offer a personalized quote tailored to their needs. 

Exclusive Deals

I visited the marketplace BestBuy to buy toys for my kids and I added items to the basket. When I tried to exit the website, a popup message showed up.

Don’t miss out on the latest deals and more. Add us to your inbox to get all the hot deals. Signup to get texts about top deals, special events, news, and more.

Here, BestBuy offers me two options, to signup with my email address or my phone number, making it easier for me.

They know I was interested in buying a product but for some reason, I did not complete the purchase. And the most common objection people have about products is the price. That’s why they offer me access to exclusive and top deals so I can shop at a later time by taking advantage of their discounts.

Demonstrate Competency/Personalization/Specificity

I visited Neil Patel’s blog, I read an article, then I visited the pricing landing page and when I tried to exit, a popup message showed up.

Want more SEO traffic? Answer 9 quick questions and I will give you a personalized step-by-step 7-week action plan showing you exactly what you need to do to get more traffic. What is the URL of your website? We analyze your website to identify SEO errors, keyword opportunities, and competition.

Neil Patel offers keyword and market research software, called Ubersuggest, and he wanted to demonstrate the power of his tool and his SEO skills.

He makes an irresistible offer that is promising to deliver a personalized step-by-step plan tailored to my needs. How? By having me answer 9 quick questions so he can analyze my input and show me exactly what I need to do in the next 7 weeks to get more traffic.

He helps me visualize the outcome and when to expect results by being so specific.

Additionally, the popup message covers the whole screen and he uses a face picture to add a personal touch.

Free Trials/Displaying Features/Screenshots

I visited SproutSocial’s blog and I read an article about social media tips. When I tried to use the back button, a popup message appeared.

Ready to get started?

You’re just steps away from pulling reports, accessing social analytics and scheduling messages across all your social profiles and platforms.

Start your free trial.

They try to prevent me from leaving offering me a free trial of their software.

But they also describe thoroughly the features of their platform plus they provide a screenshot of their dashboard so that visitors can visualize the service immediately.

Now, I knew they are a software company, but someone else might did not know.

It’s a no-brainer for SaaS companies to offer free trials of their software.

Free trials work well for other products as well, memberships, training programs, and services.

These are just a few examples of how we use exit-intent popup messages. I will elaborate on the subject in a separate article. 

How to create exit-intent popups

I recommend OptinMonster, a robust tool that helped over 1,000,000 brands already.

It’s a brand by Retyp, LLC run by Syed Balkhi. 

It’s reasonably priced unlike other solutions and the numbers do tell an incredible story.

4.5B+ visitor sessions optimized, 21.4B+ optins served, 1M+ sites using it, 217M+ conversions. 

Features at a glance:

• Drag & drop builder: Yes/No forms, mobile-friendly popups, custom success message, canvas, MonsterEffects (animation and sound effects collection)
• Campaign types: lightbox popup, fullscreen welcome mat, slide-in scroll box, floating bar, countdown timer, sidebar forms, inline forms, content locker, coupon wheel optins
• Campaign triggers: exit-intent, scroll trigger, 2-step optins, InactivitySensor, timed display control, campaign scheduling, HTML elements, JavaScript variables
• Targeted campaigns: referrer detection, page-level targeting, OnSite follow-up campaigns, OnSite retargeting, geo-location retargeting, cookie retargeting, device-based targeting, AdBlock detection
• Seamless integrations: list segmentation, lead sharing, success tracking scripts, smart tags
• Actionable insights: real-time behavior automation, A/B testing, smart success, conversion analytics, TruLead (Verify leads captured through OptinMonster forms for improved ROI, email deliverability)

I recommend that you read the full review of OptinMonster to get a feel of its tremendous value.

Also, we offer a pack of exclusive bonuses to complement your decision. 

Wrapping It Up

As you can see, exit-intent popups work really well and can help you increase conversions, showcase your expertise, build brand awareness, and increase email signups. 

They helped millions of brands, why not yours?

But the thing is that just having these exit-intent popups won’t do any good to your brand if they are not packed with strong marketing knowledge. 

It’s not the popup message that does the heavy work. It’s the marketing language, the copywriting, the use of certain images, the transfer of feelings and emotions, and the overall experience the visitor has that eventually drives conversions. 

Do you need guidance in deploying your popup messages?

We can help.

Schedule a free video-call interview to help us understand where you are at your business right now, your needs and goals, and we will give you a detailed analysis of how we work. Then, we’ll create the first exit-intent popup campaign for you for free to prove we can get you results.

That’s it, another article has finished, here on Web Market Support. I am waiting for your comments and thoughts. Till next time.