Effective or Irritating: The Use of Pop Windows in Internet Marketing

[BibiLiew]

Effective or Irritating: The Use of Pop Windows in
Internet Marketing
By Bibi Liew

A few years ago, pop-up windows were all the rage in
Internet marketing. It seemed that every time one
opened a web page they would be bombarded with offers
for this or that. It had gotten to the point where
surfing the Internet was almost like playing a video
game; when the ads would pop-up one would try and
close them out before another one came. This is
precisely why we have seen the decline in the use of
pop-up windows on the Internet today; surfers simply
do not even look at the pop-ups anymore. They close
the windows out before even reading the ad. Very
often, a surfer will even leave your site if there are
too many pop-up ads. They simply do not want the
hassle of closing those windows while trying to obtain
the information that your site has to offer. This
information, while valuable, is not as valuable as the
surfers time. Studies have shown however, that even
with these set backs, pop-up windows are still an
effective method of Internet marketing.

Is there some way that pop-up windows can be less
irritating and still be effective? Yes! What if the
pop ad were seen upon exiting your site instead of
entering? This would allow the surfer to obtain the
information that they need from your site, feeling
that they were able to come and go quickly without
being hassled by other ads and offers all the while
making the surfer happy. You have left the surfer
with a positive attitude and therefore are more likely
to respond to the pop advertisement. This is being
accomplished more and more by using what is being
called pop-under windows. When the surfer comes to
your site, the ad is opened discretely behind the your
web page. Then, upon leaving your site, after
obtaining all the information that they need , will
see the ad and therefore be more likely to respond.
Since the surfer has the information, he has achieved
his objective and is now open to do other things;
ideally respond to the pop under advertisement.

Not all pop-windows are created equally. There are
some things that you can do to make your pop-windows,
whether pop-up or pop-under more effective. The
pop-window should be easy to “escape� from. If the
surfer does not want to see the add, but has a hard
time closing it out, they will likely become
frustrated and could leave your site all together.
You should either use a button to that will allow the
surfer to close the window or be sure that the “x� is
easily visible. Another good idea is to use a script
that utilizes cookies. Cookie will prevent
pop-windows from overloading the surfer since you can
decide the frequency of the pop-windows, rather than
each time a page is opened. Also be sure that there
is no more than one pop-window per page.

When creating a pop-window, you will be asked to fill
out a short information form, select the length of
cookies, and choose the layout of the pop-window.
When choosing the design of the pop-window, you can
increase the effectiveness by creating a large
headline that includes benefits that will be most
appealing to the customer. You should also consider
using incentives and lastly do not ask the customer to
read a long and drawn out advertisement. Keep the
message simple yet powerful and your pop-ads will be
sure to generate profits for your site.

About the author:
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Bibi Liew can help YOU
start your own profitable business on the Internet
within the next 24 hours... To learn more, visit:
http://www.EBusiness-Insights.com/pips.html
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[talkfreelance]

Nice read, thanks for sharing.

[Xon]

More and more people are using pop-up blocking software, surely this suggests that pop-ups are generally disliked.

[MarketJunction]

Pop's were great in the 90's. As with any technology, they were misused. Pop's are disliked by all, but so are advertisements. Does that mean we should stop advertising? No.

If you must use pop's, make them exit. Generally other pops are used by website owners who can not write effective copy and have poor layouts. Exit's are semi-risky. Just because someone is leaving your website does not mean they were not pleased. A simple exit pop-under that can be closed easily may not kill future visits.

You will want to make sure your pop is a great marketing piece since it has seconds to live. While the number of people blocking pop-ups grows by the second, there are still a lot of people around the world who are trailing behind.

Pop's don't always have to be used for advertisements either. They can be used to alert your user of some action they took.