Pop-ups are pretty much everywhere nowadays. For years, retailers have asked you to enter your email to receive a discount. I'm so guilty of having 17 fake email accounts to save my 15% on my "first" purchase.

But in more recent years, marketers in other industries have capitalized on this idea. And now, it seems like you can't read a blog post or visit a website without being prompted to download or buy or subscribe or do something else. And while some companies see success with this, I find it disruptive and annoying.

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But, as an inbound marketer, I still wanted to implement it.

So, I sought to find the happy medium of implementing a page pop-up strategy, without potentially annoying my website visitors — which is why, just about a month ago, I decided to implement a Finalsite PagePop on all of our "Thank You" pages for:

• Webinar registration
• Resource downloads
• Workshop and training event registration

I decided that putting a PagePop on a "Thank You" page was perfect because this PagePop targeted individuals who had previously converted (downloaded something, registered, etc.) on our website — meaning they were an engaged audience, and not just a low-commitment website visitor.

In addition to being on a "Thank You" page, this strategy worked well for two main reasons:

• First, the form is short, sweet and embedded in the PagePop — meaning they don't have to click to convert again. They can do so right there.
• Second, rather than saying "Subscribe to our Blog," the PagePop suggests that they're going to get something of value — best practices for improving their school's marketing — in exchange for their information.

As a rule of thumb, any time you're asking a website visitor for their information, you have to prove that what you're giving them in return is worth it. You should never have a long form that yields little value in return.

Ok, so, how can you implement one of these using Composer?

If you want to take the same non-disruptive approach as we did, first build a couple of "Thank You" pages for your most frequently completed forms using the strategies outlined in this blog post.

Then, using Forms Manager, you can create a redirect to this page. This is one of my favorite Finalsite Platform marketing tricks!

Once you have your "Thank You" page and form redirect ready to go, consider what type of offer is similar to the form and page. For example, if your "Thank You page" is for an Open House registration, prompt them to subscribe to your newsletter. Only ask for first name and email to keep conversions high.

Then, create your PagePop in the PagePop builder in Composer. When you embed a form into your PagePop, you won't want to include a lot of additional copy. Try to only add text for your title, and embed the form in the body. Otherwise, your PagePop will be pretty long.

Using the PagePop tool, you can make it to appear only on select pages.

Where else besides "Thank You" pages?

PagePops are great to share an important school-wide notification — such as a snow day — or drive open house conversions like Woodward Academy did last year. There are a few best practices to keep in mind to ensure you're engaging your website visitors, and not distracting them.

• Embed the form into the PagePop. This way, you'll prompt a conversion immediately, rather than asking them to go somewhere else, first.
• Make sure the PagePop is relevant to the page. In other words, don't put an Open House registration form on every single page on your website.
• Track its success. For example, when within one day we had 50 new blog subscribers, I knew this was a good strategy.

As with anything in the world of school marketing, trial and error will help you achieve the best results that work well for your school.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As Finalsite's Content Marketing Manager, Mia plans and executes a variety of inbound marketing and digital content strategies. As a former TV and news reporter, freelance cinematographer and certified inbound marketer, Mia specializes in helping schools find new ways to share their stories online through web design, social media, copywriting, photography and videography. She is the author of numerous blogs, and Finalsite's popular eBook, The Website Redesign Playbook.