Pop-Up Windows: A Nuisance or a Gold Mine?
The article Pop-Up Windows: A Nuisance or a Gold Mine? by Karon Thackston was published in 2006 in the Article Library section of Marketingsource.com. The author conducted an online experiment on the effectiveness of pop-up windows as a marketing tool after discovering the surprising results of a similar experiment conducted by Marketingexperiments.com. The surprising result was that using pop-up windows, despite their bad reputation, actually seem to work. Still in disbelief the author started to experiment with pop-up windows on her own website and soon came to the same results. The number of page views, which count how often a web page has been viewed by one visitor, increased tremendously, as well as the sales for the offered product. While the general public views pop-ups as an annoying and distracting appearance on the World Wide Web, it turns out that pop-ups, if used properly, can be an effective tool to increase internet traffic to your website or to generate interest in your product. The author defines several different techniques in her article to effectively utilize pop-up windows as a promotion tool. Pop-up windows should offer something to create interest among the viewers, for example an opportunity to win a prize or the chance to participate in a sweepstake. A pop-up which seems to be of interest for the visitor increases the likelihood of getting clicked on. Another factor for creating a successful pop-up campaign is having the pop-up to flash up when the visitor is leaving the site and not as soon as he is entering the page. This helps to minimize the risk of the pop-up to be too annoying for the user and the chance of being avoided. The author recommends to keep the message “short and sweet”, to gain more acceptance among the visitors. Marketers should also avoid using multiple pop-up windows at the same time or pop-ups on every page. According to the results of both experiments, pop-up windows can play a successful role in the marketing mix of online advertising and might work well for some companies. The definite problem of pop-up windows is the annoyance factors. Marketers have to be careful of how often and when they use pop-up windows so they will not scare visitors away from the website.
posted by Marco at 8:28:00 PM
1 Comments:
Seriously who really likes pop-ups? I was actually surprised of the results from the experiment conducted on pop-up effectiveness. I do agree that if they are marketed properly they can be a good website booster. More companies are “attacking” Internet users with multiple pop-ups, each taking up memory and time on the site they are trying to view. Most individuals to protect themselves have already installed pop-up blockers. These pop-up blockers are potentially filtering the “good” pop-ups that individuals would want. As the article mentions they are unique strategies to market your products through pop-ups, but personally I think they are different ways to effectively convey the message. At this point Internet users find pop-ups annoying and distracting. Companies need to think of a new way to market pop-ups that would not disturb the daily workload. Maybe there could be an option that individuals who opt-in can receive pop-ups based on the website they are viewing. Also, as stated in the article, I think it would be a good idea to have pop-ups show up after a person is viewing the site which would not interfere when they first log on.
Most of us are already aware what pop ups are and how they can slow our computers down. In order for them to become a new promotional tool we need to be persuaded that they are a good idea and that they will help out companies and their profits.
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