In the early days of the Internet, pop-ups and banner-style ads earned a bit of a bad reputation because they frequently directed visitors to questionable sites. They were also often hard to close, making the original website difficult to navigate.

These days, numerous tools exist that make it easy to create user-friendly pop-ups. Since they have the power to dramatically grow your email list, and, increase the total donations that you receive, you might wish to consider adding them to your marketing and fundraising strategies.

The following design tips will help you to create pop-ups that get the results you want, without annoying your supporters.

Optimise for Mobile

Just like any other part of your website, your pop-ups need to be optimised for mobile use. Pop-ups that that are hard to close, or that hang and freeze in place because they aren’t fully compatible with mobile platforms and browsers, will irritate your supporters and increase the chance that they will navigate away from your website.

Focus on Your Brand

When creating your pop-up, take care to use design elements and messaging that’s consistent with your brand image, and values. Use colours and fonts that are similar to those already used on your site so that the pop-up looks as though it is simply another extension of your main site. Create an easy to see button that will allow supporters to close the pop-up quickly and easily.

Use Pop-ups on Pages with High Volume

When designing your pop-up, be clear about your objective, and, attach it to an appropriate page that receives high traffic. For example, if you are trying to increase subscribers to your emails and newsletters, your pop-up should be located above the fold, and on your main page.

Use wording that offers your supporters something of value in exchange for signing up, such as a free guide or case study that they would find informative and useful. If you’re creating a pop-up to encourage your supporters to donate, it’s a good idea to locate it on your donations page, as long as it has a high volume of daily visitors.

Pop-ups Make it Easy to Use Increased Visibility to Your NFP’s Best Advantage

Pop-ups make it easier to reap the full benefits of increased press coverage and other events that boost your NFP’s visibility. For example, if your nonprofit’s work has been in the news recently, or if you’ve just launched a new, high-profile fundraising campaign, such as an end-of-year drive, your traffic has probably picked up significantly, so add pop-ups to use this new traffic to your best advantage!

Use A/B Testing to Ensure You’re Hitting Just the Right Note

Avoid running more than one pop-up campaign at a time, and, use a/b testing with the messaging and designs of your pop-ups to make sure you’re hitting the mark. If you see a dip in conversion rates when you place a new pop-up, it’s a good sign that you may need to relocate it to a different part of your site, reword it to be more appealing or change how frequently it’s displayed to visitors.

Don’t Overdo It

When creating a pop-up for your NFP, you should take care that it’s not shown too frequently to your supporters to reduce the chances that you will annoy, or, alienate them. Usually, it’s best to only display a pop-up to return visitors about 1 to 3 times per month at the most.