matthewwoodward.co.uk http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/3-killer-exit-popup-case-studies/

Instantly Increase Sales & Sign Ups With These 3 Killer CaseStudies

But what’s the best way to use an exit popup? Should you try to capture signups? Offer shipping discounts?Reduce cart abandonment? Direct users to high-converting pages?

As you’ll see in these case studies, it all comes down to finding something truly valuable to offer your users.

What You’ll Learn

What an exit popup is and how it works

Different scenarios in which exit popups can be valuable

Strategies for capturing email signups with an exit popup

Strategies for using an exit popup to secure last-second purchases

Strategies for capturing sales leads with an exit popup

By most estimates, over 95% of first time visitors abandon sites without buying or signing up.

Abandoning visitors leave your site for all different reasons:

Your value proposition didn’t sway them

Your copy didn’t answer their questions

Your design/navigation confused them

They were distracted during the session

And on and on. My point is this: abandoning users are not all the same, so when using an exit popup to captureleads, sales and signups from this group of visitors, it’s important to try different approaches.

In other words, the last thing you want to do is just throw up any offer and blast every abandoning user with thesame message, as per the approach below:

An exit popup is a versatile marketing tool with many different applications.

It can be used to capture email addresses, offer coupons, offer shipping discounts, increase call volume, reducecart abandonment, offer customer support, or direct traffic to high-converting pages—to name a few.

In this post, I will take you through several case studies of different ways to use exit popups. But first, I want totake a step back and explain how this stuff works.

If you’re already well versed in exit popups/exit-intent technology, go ahead and skip this section.

What are exit popups, and how do they work?

Exit popups (I call them exit overlays) are designed to convert abandoning web visitors into leads, sales &signups.

They’re modal lightboxes controlled by what’s known as exit-intent technology.

Exit-intent technology is designed specifically to identify users who are about to abandon your site without takingyour desired action (e.g. sale or signup).

When the technology detects an abandoning user, the exit popup is activated:

Neil Patel using an exit overlay on Quicksprout.com

An exit popup/overlay differs from ‘90s style popups because it doesn’t open in a new window, nor does itrestrict/impede the user from leaving the site. Further, only abandoning users see it, so it doesn’t interfere withactive browsing sessions.

What’s the setup like? Quite simple, pretty much just 1) a line of javascript in your site’s header, 2) the creative foran 800×500 display ad, and 3) an engine to make it all run.

For a full rundown on setup, I would recommend reading Matthew’s excellent post from October , in which hedetails his journey to a 469% boost email opt-in rate in less than 24 hours.

But for now, here are 3 case studies demonstrating different ways to increase leads, sales and signups using exitpopups.

Case Study #1: Gr8fires Tackles Customer Pain Point, Boosts Leads 300%

Tactic: Email capture

If you saw the Matthew vs. Stuart Walker post on increasing email subscriber rates, you already have a goodprimer for this case study.

Matthew’s journey from a 2.91% opt-in rate in January 2014 to a 9.24% rate in September 2014 involved twomajor components: adding an exit popup to his blog, and learning to provide something of value in exchange forthe email address.

This example from UK-based Gr8tFires—which has made kickass wood-burning stoves and fireplaces for over30 years—involves the exact same changes.

One of the biggest customer pain points with any home appliance is the cost of installation. With this in mind,Gr8Fires saw an opportunity to offer something uniquely valuable to customers on their exit popup.

The team decided to create an “installation calculator” that provided all the details behind installing a Gr8firesproduct.

Strategy

Offer the installation calculator free—in exchange for an email address

Use the email address to stay top-of-mind with prospects (wood stoves have a long sales cycle)

Install the exit popup on all product pages at Gr8fires.co.uk (not the homepage)

Target the exit overlay so it was shown only to first-time visitors

Set exit-intent sensitivity to medium

Creative

The team decided to keep the popup simple with a basic product snapshot, some persuasive copy, and adirectional arrow pointing towards the CTA.

Exit popup on Gr8Fires.co.uk, activated when users begin to abandon the page

Results

The results from this exit popup surprised even us:

A 300% increase in monthly sales leads.

A 48.54% lift in sales for users who signed up to get access to the calculator.

ALERT: Instantly Increase Your Conversion Rate With My Personal Case Studys!

Key Takeaway

Smart marketers know that tackling customer pain points before users have a chance to object is never a badidea. By offering prospects truly valuable information for free, Gr8fires generated a fantastic lift for its online store.

Case Study #2: Shoe Retailer Uses Coupon to Reengage 6.8% of AbandoningUsers

Tactic: Last-second coupon

ShoeMe.ca set out to offer Canadians the best online shoe-buying experience possible. Since launching in 2012,they’ve become one of Canada’s fastest growing etailers.

ShoeMe wanted to test whether a ‘15% off’ coupon could lower its shopping cart abandonment rate, but with onemajor caveat: they didn’t want to cannibalize average order value by offering the coupon to all visitors.

So the challenge was, how could ShoeMe use their coupon strategically without disrupting the normal purchasingflow of existing customers?

Strategy

Place the coupon on an exit popup

Target the exit popup on shopping cart abandonment pages

Target the exit popup so it segmented users who were about to purchase from those who were about toabandon the cart page

Exclude returning visitors to the site from seeing the exit popup

Set exit-intent sensitivity to medium

Creative

ShoeMe’s exit popup reinforced the key benefits of the offering: free shipping, duty-free, and free returns.

ShoeMe’s 15%-off coupon, displayed only to users who abandoned shopping cart pages

‘No Duty’ was specifically intended to reduce anxiety amongst Canadian shoppers (duties are a major pain pointfor Canadians buying from US merchants).

Results

6.87% of abandoning visitors who viewed the offer on product pages went on to purchase products.

Key Takeaway

ShoeMe’s success shows the value of targeting an exit popup to very specific user segments and web pages.

By targeting its exit popup strategically, ShoeMe was able to convert nearly 7% of otherwise abandoning usersinto valuable customers.

Case Study #3: Olathe Toyota Increases Call Traffic 54% with Simple Exit OverlayCampaign

Tactic: Sales call promotion

Spork Marketing is a leading agency focused on the auto and parts accessory markets. Seeking a new way toboost conversions for their client, Olathe Toyota, Spork decided to test an exit overlay.

Like most car dealerships, Olathe Toyota (Kansas) relies on its parts business to supplement vehicle sales.

The dealership runs a dedicated parts service—complete with its own landing page—to help customers quicklyfind and order parts.

The landing page generated strong results from customers who used the online search functions, but seemed togenerate limited call volume through the toll free line (option #3 on the landing page).

The Spork team decided to try an exit overlay campaign—something quite unconventional for phone campaigns—to see if bringing the toll-free number to the attention of abandoning users would increase call volume.

Strategy

The exit popup would be targeted to auto parts pages only

When users began to abandon the page, the exit overlay would activate—dim out the landing page behindit—and focus user attention on the option to phone in for a free parts search

The exit overlay would be served only to first-time visitors, eliminating the potential for repeat customers tobe irritated by the messaging

Exit-intent sensitivity was set to medium

Creative

Olathe designed a simple exit overlay for the campaign: a one-word headline, a promise to look up parts for free,and a dedicated toll-free number (for tracking purposes).

Exit popup on Olathe Toyota homepage, activated when users begin to abandon the page

Results

Olathe’s exit overlay campaign generated a 54% increase in call volume.

The average call length was nearly as long as the account average, which indicates call-quality was not anissue.

Most importantly, this campaign increased Olathe’s monthly website revenue by a full 15%.

Key Takeaway

Since an exit popup greys out the background noise, it’s an effective tool for reducing analysis paralysis andfocusing user attention on a single action/offer (in this case a phone call).

Wrapping it up

Exit popups are a versatile marketing tool that can be used to capture email addresses, offer coupons, offershipping discounts, increase call volume, reduce cart abandonment, offer customer support, or direct traffic tohigh-converting pages.

The keys to a successful exit popup campaign are:

1. Starting with a clear objective (e.g. email signups, last-second sales, or new sales leads)

2. Offering something the user truly values in exchange for the sale or signup

3. Targeting your exit popup strategically to the right pages and right users