Wondering what is IndexNow and whether you need it for your site? IndexNow is a new way that helps you index your content instantly to rank fast in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

In this article, we’ll help you understand what exactly IndexNow is and everything else you’ll need to know about it.

Before that, let’s take a look at what indexing means.

What is Indexing?

Indexing is the process followed by search engines, that store and organize information in order to enable super-fast responses to user queries.

Without indexing, delivering a relevant result for a search query would be an inefficient and time-consuming process.

With indexing, since information is stored in an index, a database, search engines can rank the pages based on relevancy and offer better and faster results when someone performs a search.

What Is IndexNow for SEO and How It Works?

IndexNow is a technology that instantly alerts search engines about new or updated website content. This speeds up the process of getting your content discovered, compared to traditional methods that rely on search engines to find your content on their own.

It means that search engines can now prioritize crawling for these updated URLs while limiting organic crawling to discover new content.

Currently, the IndexNow feature is supported by Bing and Yandex search engines. And a Google spokesperson confirmed that they’re testing IndexNow to check its overall sustainability.

As a website owner, IndexNow allows you to index content faster so it appears in the relevant search results as soon as you publish it.

Now that you know what IndexNow is, you might be wondering, “How can I add IndexNow to my site?“.

How to Add IndexNow to Your Website

Adding IndexNow to your WordPress site can be intimidating if you’re not a developer.

In order to enable Index on your site, you’ll need to generate an API key and host the key manually by adding it to your public_html folder in the form of a text file.

However, adding IndexNow shouldn’t be that hard.

Thankfully, there’s a more straightforward method available, and that is to use a plugin.

For a detailed guide, check out how to enable IndexNow in WordPress.

Add IndexNow with AIOSEO Plugin

One of the easiest ways to add IndexNow to your website is to use the All in One SEO plugin. It’s one of the best SEO plugins trusted by over 3 million websites.

All in One SEO is built to make search engine optimization easy for every WordPress user. Some of the popular features of the AIOSEO plugin are:

• SEO Audit: AIOSEO comes with an SEO audit feature that performs technical analysis and shows you the areas for improving your website SEO.
• TruSEO: Optimize the posts, pages, and products using AIOSEO’s TruSEO feature and improve the on-page SEO of your content.
• Link Assistant: With the link assistant tool, you get a clear view of all your website’s internal and external links.
• Search Appearance: It helps you create a business knowledge graph and display your business details in the search results.
• Local SEO: You can rank your business higher in the local business search results.

And many more.

Let’s dive into the steps for implementing IndexNow using the All in One SEO plugin.

But before we start, note that AIOSEO introduced the IndexNow feature in version 4.1.7. So, you’ll need to update the plugin to the recent version.

Once you’ve updated the plugin, navigate to the Feature Manager menu.

Now, activate the IndexNow feature.

The next step is to verify the API key by going to the General Settings» Webmaster tools.

Select the IndexNow box and click on the Save Changes button.

That’s it!

You’ve successfully enabled IndexNow on your website using the All in One SEO plugin.

While using the AIOSEO plugin is the best way to add the IndexNow feature, there’s also another method available that you might want to check out.

Add IndexNow with Bing’s IndexNow Plugin

Since Microsoft initiated IndexNow for the Bing search engine, they’ve created a plugin for adding the IndexNow feature to WordPress websites.

You can find the IndexNow plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.

Install the plugin just like you install any other plugin.

Navigate to Settings » IndexNow from the dashboard and click on the Get Started button.

The plugin automatically generates the host API key and ping search engines when you update the content.

You can check the IndexNow stats for successful and failed URLs within the plugin dashboard.

However, the most important reason for using AIOSEO over the Bing IndexNow plugin is that AIOSEO is a dedicated SEO plugin and comes with many crucial SEO features.

We hope this guide helped you learn how what IndexNow is and why it’s needed.

If you liked this article, consider checking out some similar topics to improve your website’s overall SEO performance:

• All in One SEO (AIOSEO) Review
• How to Add IndexNow in WordPress for Fast Content Indexing
• 15 Best SEO Plugins You Need to Have to Get More Traffic

What are you waiting for? Get started with All in One SEO Today!

If you liked this article, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more free WordPress articles.

Google Analytics, currently in version GA4, is a powerful tool for making data-driven decisions that are going to help your eCommerce store or publishing site succeed. If you’ve ever been intimidated by Google Analytics in the past, don’t worry! We’re with you every step of the way.

In this article, I’ll show you how to add Google Analytics to your WordPress site.

Here’s an overview of what you’ll learn in this post:

• Why is Google Analytics Important?
• How to Sign Up for Google Analytics
• How to Add Google Analytics to WordPress
  • Method 1: MonsterInsights (recommended)
  • Method 2: WPCode
  • Method 3: WordPress Theme Settings

Let’s get started.

Why Is Google Analytics Important?

Google Analytics is a free, comprehensive analytics solution for your website.

Understanding your website analytics is key to growing your site’s traffic. That, in turn, leads to increased subscribers and then, to boosting revenue.

With Google Analytics on your website, you’ll be able to track all of the data that you need to get actionable insights to grow your business, eliminating the question of what you should be doing.

With Google Analytics, you can get site statistics like:

• Number of website visitors
• Where visitors are coming from (referral links)
• What content on your site is most popular
• And a ton more

So, why is Google Analytics important?

Here are some of the ways Google Analytics helps improve your business marketing strategy:

• Learn More About Your Visitors: Using Google Analytics for WordPress helps you track and collect information about your visitors. The more data you have, the more you can personalize your content marketing strategy.
• Understand How Visitors Interact With Your Content:  Track what your visitors are doing while they’re on your site. You’ll be able to see things like what pages they visit, how long they stay on your website, what pages they stay on the longest, and more.
• Discover How Visitors Find Your Website: Having Google Analytics on WordPress also gives you essential tracking info about how visitors find your site in the first place.
• Troubleshoot When Things Go Wrong: With Google Analytics data at your fingertips, if you notice any abnormalities in traffic or sales, you can fix those problems much faster and reduce unnecessary losses.

The bottom line is that when it comes to digital marketing, knowledge isn’t just power; it’s also profit.

Now let’s turn our attention to how you can sign up for Google Analytics in the first place.

How to Sign Up for Google Analytics

Google Analytics is available for free. All you need is a Google account to sign up. It only takes a few minutes to create a Google Analytics account for your website. Below, I’ll provide step-by-step instructions for getting started with GA4.

Step 1: Sign in to Google Analytics

Visit the Google Analytics website and click the blue Get started today button.

Next, you’ll be prompted to sign in to your Google account. If you don’t already have a Google account, click the Create account link. Otherwise, simply log in.

After you’ve signed into your Google account, click the Start measuring button on the next screen.

Step 2: Create Your Google Analytics Account

At the top of the screen, you’ll see a progress bar with the 5 sections you’ll need to complete. The first is Account creation.

You’ll be creating the account that you’ll use to access Google Analytics. You can monitor multiple websites within a single account.

Under Account details fill out the Account name. This should likely be your business name or perhaps even your own name if you’re an independent contractor. Remember, this is the name of your account, not the individual website or app that you want to monitor.

Next, scroll down to Account Data Sharing Settings. Here, you’ll choose how much data you want to share with Google.

Click the Next button at the bottom of the screen.

Step 3. Create a Property

Now, you’ll create your Google Analytics property. Your property is the website that you want to track with Google Analytics 4.

Enter an identifying name for your website in the Property name field. Then select the timezone you want to use for reporting and your currency.

When you’re finished, click Next.

Step 4: Describe Your Business

Now, you’ll give Google some details about your business. Use the dropdown menu to select an Industry category and select the appropriate Business size. Click Next.

Step 5: Choose Business Objectives

Your next step is to select your primary business objectives. These selections help Google Analytics create more personalized reports.

Click Create. Doing so will trigger a popup with the Google Analytics Terms of Service agreement.

To proceed through the TOS, you’ll need to:

1. Click the checkbox beside “I also accept the Data Processing Terms as required by GDPR.”
2. Scroll down and click the checkbox beside “I accept the Measurement Controller-Controller Data Protection Terms for the data that I share with Google.”
3. Click the I Accept button.

Step 6: Set Up Data Collection

The final step in creating your GA4 account is to set up a data stream.

You can set up multiple data streams within your property. For instance, you might have separate data streams for your website, Android app, and iOS app.

Under Start collecting data, you’ll be prompted to choose a platform. Since we’re focusing on WordPress websites today, choose Web.

Now, you’ll enter your Website URL and choose a Stream name.

When you click the Create & continue button, you’ll see the Google tag code that you’ll need to add to each page of your website.

In the next section of this tutorial, I’ll show you several methods for adding Google Analytics to WordPress. You won’t need this code if you use the first method, which involves installing MonsterInsights. For the other methods, you’ll need to copy this Google Analytics tag and keep it handy.

How to Add Google Analytics to WordPress

There are many ways to add Google Analytics to WordPress. I’m going to show you the 3 easiest ways.

I’ll start with the simplest and most helpful method: using MonsterInsights.

Method 1: Connect to Google Analytics With MonsterInsights (Recommended)

MonsterInsights is the easiest and best way to add Google Analytics to WordPress websites. This premium WordPress plugin not only lets you connect your site to GA4 without any code, but it also lets you track your website data directly from your WordPress dashboard.

GA4 is a complicated beast, but MonsterInsights lets you view easy-to-understand reports without even leaving your WordPress account. You can monitor your site’s performance, user behavior, sales, and more.

You have 2 options to get started with MonsterInsights:

1. Choose a premium MonsterInsights plan to unlock the full power of the plugin’s WordPress analytics features. If you’ve never installed a premium plugin, check out these instructions from MonsterInsights.
2. Download the free MonsterInsights Lite plugin. However, the tracking options are very limited for the free version. If you’ve never installed a free plugin in WordPress, you can follow MonsterInsights’ instructions here.

Either way, MonsterInsights lets you easily add Google Analytics to your WordPress site, without needing to handle any code.

How to Add Google Analytics to WordPress With MonsterInsights

With MonsterInsights, you don’t have to touch any code to connect your website to GA4. Simply follow these steps.

Step 1: After installing and activating MonsterInsights, click Insights in the left menu in your WordPress dashboard. This will take you to your MonsterInsights settings. Click Launch Setup Wizard.

Step 2. Select your website category and click Save and Continue.

If you’ve purchased a paid plan, you’ll then be prompted to enter your License Key. If you’ve already entered your key or are using the free plugin, you won’t need to.

Step 3: Connect MonsterInsight to your Google account.

First, click Connect MonsterInsights.

You’ll see an Authorizing message for a few moments before you see a message prompting you to connect MonsterInsights to your Google Analytics account. Click Continue & Connect to Google.

Next, sign in to the Google account that you used to set up your Google Analytics account.

After signing in, you’ll be prompted to allow MonsterInsights to access your Google account.

Step 4: Connect Google Analytics to your website.

Because you’ve already set up your Google Analytics account and property, you’re just a couple of clicks away from connecting your WordPress site to GA4.

Use the dropdown menu to select the Property name for your website, and click Complete Connection.

And that’s it! The rest of the MonsterInsights setup wizard involves recommended settings and enabling various features. But once you’ve clicked Complete Connection, you’ve successfully connected Google Analytics with your WordPress site. You’ll be able to track your site’s analytics with MonsterInsights in your WordPress dashboard, and you’ll also be able to run full reports and explorations in GA4.

Method 2: Add the Google Analytics Tag Using the WPCode Plugin

Here’s how to add Google Analytics by adding the code to your site’s header using the WPCode plugin (formerly known as Insert Headers and Footers by WPBeginner).

Note that this method does not allow advanced tracking configurations. You also won’t be able to view Google Analytics data in your WordPress dashboard, as you can with MonsterInsights.

Step 1: Install and activate WPCode. Click Plugins > Add New Plugin, and search for “WPCode” in the search box. Click Install Now beside WPCode in the search results.

After a few seconds, the Install Now button will change to say Activate. Click Activate.

Step 2: Add your Google Analytics tag to your header.

After installing and activating the plugin, click Code Snippets > Header & Footer in the left menu. You can now paste the code that you copied when you set up your Google Analytics property. Click Save Changes.

Method 3: Add Your Google Analytics Tag in WordPress Theme Settings

Another way to add Google Analytics to WordPress is to paste your tag into the <head> code in your WordPress theme’s settings.

This may sound complicated, but most themes make it pretty easy.

For instance, Divi users can add their Google Analytics tag in just a few clicks.

All you need to do is click Divi > Theme Options in the left panel of your WordPress dashboard. Then select the Integration tab.

You’ll see an option to Add code to the <head> of your blog. Simply paste your Google Analytics tag into that code field.

Now, you’ll be able to track your website data in GA4.

Note: If you’re confident in your knowledge of PHP, you can add your Google Analytics tag code to your site’s header.php or functions.php file. However, this method can be risky, and you’ll lose your tag anytime you update your WordPress theme. I highly recommend using a plugin like MonsterInsights or WPCode, or I recommend editing the <head> code in your theme settings as a secondary option.

Grow Your WordPress Website With Google Analytics

Whichever method you choose, you’ll now be able to track the performance of your WordPress website in Google Analytics.

With MonsterInsights, you don’t have to worry about learning all of the complicated reporting in GA4. Instead, you’ll be able to view reports and data right in your WordPress dashboard!

Click here to get started with MonsterInsights, the best Google Analytics WordPress plugin on the market!

By tracking your website’s performance, you can work toward increasing your traffic. Want to convert those visitors into subscribers and customers? OptinMonster’s popups, floating bars, and other onsite campaigns help you grow your email list and make more sales!

Related Resources:

• Best WordPress Page Builders: Drag and Drop Your Way to a Stunning Website
• 18 Best WordPress Plugins & Tools for Your Website

A higher average time on page can help your site rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). It also gives you more time to encourage your website visitors to subscribe, purchase, or take another action on your website.

In this article, I’ll show you what average time on page is, why it matters, and 10 easy ways to increase it.

Here’s everything I’ll cover in today’s post:

• What Is Average Time on Page?
• Why Does Average Time on Page Matter?
• Average Time on Page in Google Analytics
• What Is a Good Average Time on Page?
• How To Increase Average Time on Page?

What Is Average Time on Page?

Average time on page is the average amount of time a site visitor spends on any one page on your website.

If most people who land on your eCommerce website spend about 2 minutes on your homepage, your homepage’s average time on page is likely close to 2 minutes.

To calculate the average time on page, you divide the total amount of time spent on the page by the number of non-exit pageviews.

For example, let’s say in a given month, 2,000 pageviews spent 500 minutes on a landing page. 500 of those pageviews were page exits or bounces, so we exclude those. The average time on page would therefore be:

500 minutes / (2,000 pageviews – 500 page exits or bounces) = 500/1500 = 0.33 minutes or 20 seconds

Here’s what the average time on page looks like in the Google Analytics dashboard:

I’ll show you how to access or measure your website’s average time on page in Google Analytics in the next section.

For now, remember that the average time on page does not take into account exits or bounces.

Page exits are when the user goes to a different website after viewing a landing page or other product pages on the same website. That last page is counted as an exit page in Google Analytics.

Bounces are single-page sessions where the user visits the page but then clicks back to the search results without going anywhere else on the website.

This definition will be important later when we think about how to increase the average time on page. But first, let’s discuss why average time on page is important.

Why Does Average Time on Page Matter?

Average time on page is a measure of your website’s usability and how well visitors engage with your content.

It’s not enough to just get tons of traffic on your website. You need visitors to actually read what’s on your website, click links, subscribe to your email list, purchase products, and engage in other ways.

Because it’s a measure of user engagement, average time on page may contribute to search ranking.

Search engines tend to prioritize high-quality websites, and one indicator of that is how long visitors spend on various pages. If most visitors are leaving a page almost immediately, that may be a sign of poor user experience and low content quality.

As you work to increase your average time on page, chances are your user experience will improve. And as your user experience gets better, your conversion rate may also rise.

Average Time On Page in Google Analytics

If you have been following the news, Google will soon shut down Universal Analytics. In its place, Google is encouraging users to start using Google Analytics 4 (GA4).

However, if you have been using Universal Analytics to measure your website performance, you might not be familiar with the new metrics that GA4 uses to track your website.

But don’t worry, I’ll explain them in detail for you to understand these metrics.

To find your average time on page in GA4, go to Google Analytics.

In GA4, the average time on page is called the average engagement time.

To find it, click on Reports» Engagement » Pages and Screens. Scroll to see a report of your page engagement metrics, including average engagement time.

In Google Analytics, you can search for a specific page’s engagement metrics from the Pages report.

In the past, Universal Analytics had a few metrics that were related to average time on page. Since Universal Analytics will no longer be in use, I’ll explain the differences between the metrics that the tool used to avoid any confusion.

Average Time on Page vs Average Session Duration

In the Audience Overview screen of Universal Analytics, you’ll see another metric called the Average Session Duration.

While this may sound very similar to the average time on page, it’s actually quite different.

The average session duration measures how long visitors spend on your website as a whole, including multiple pages. Average time on page measures time spent on a specific page.

Another important difference is that the average session duration does not ignore exits and bounces. So bounces and exits often contribute very low-duration sessions to the overall average.

Because of this, the average time on page is often greater than the average session duration.

Average Time on Page vs Bounce Rate

You’ll also see something called bounce rate on the Behavior report in Universal Analytics. GA4 does not have this metric.

Bounce rate is the percentage of users who click directly back to the search results after viewing a page.

For the most part, all pages with a higher average time on page tend to have a lower bounce rate. But this is not always the case.

A user might spend 2 hours reading a page from start to finish, leaving comments, and actively engaging with the page. If they click back to the search results after all that, however, it’s still counted as a bounce.

That’s why you don’t need to panic if you see a high bounce rate or low average time on page in isolation. What matters is the big picture of all these page metrics put together.

What Is a Good Average Time on Page?

A good average time on page varies by industry. But generally 50-60 seconds is considered good.

Rather than comparing yourself to competitors or random brands you see on social media, focus on what’s normal for your business.

When you have a good understanding of typical visitor behavior on your website, you can make the changes necessary to increase the average time on page.

The average time on a page is influenced by a combination of factors related to both your website and your visitors. Here’s a breakdown of the key influences:

• Relevance: Content that directly addresses user intent and offers value keeps them engaged for longer.
• Comprehensiveness: Lengthy, in-depth articles naturally hold user attention longer compared to short snippets.
• Readability: Easy-to-read content with proper formatting and visuals encourages users to stay on the page.
• Page loading speed: Slow loading times lead to frustration and prompt users to bounce off the page.
• Navigation: Clear and intuitive navigation allows users to find the information they need quickly and keeps them engaged on the site.
• Visual appeal: A well-designed website with engaging visuals is more aesthetically pleasing and holds user attention.

I’ll cover some of these factors in more detail later. Next, let’s go over the actual strategies to improve the average time on page.

How To Increase the Average Time on Page?

Simply driving up the number of sessions or pageviews is not always enough to increase your average time on page. The traffic needs to be high quality and visitors need to engage with your pages.

Remember how the average time on page is calculated:

Total time spent on page / (Total pageviews – Page exits or bounces)

Based on this formula, there are 3 ways to increase the average time on a page benchmark:

1. Increase time spent on page
2. Reduce bounce rate
3. Reduce exit rate

Now let’s look at some specific strategies that will help you achieve these 3 and increase average page engagement time.

1. Create Good Content
2. Use Exit-Intent Popups
3. Optimize Page Navigation
4. Embed Videos
5. Run a Comment Contest
6. Add a Quiz
7. Use Gated Content
8. Add a Chatbot or Live Chat Popup
9. Improve Page Load Time
10. Optimize Your Site For Mobile

1. Create Good Content

Good, informative, and well-written content is engaging. It grabs the reader’s attention and keeps them interested. When users are engaged, they are more likely to spend more time reading and exploring the content.

All the tech and design-based tricks in the world can’t rescue your user engagement from bad content.

If your site content is hard to read or doesn’t deliver what you promised, no one will want to stay on your site. Fortunately, a few best practices can help.

• Tell readers exactly what they’re going to get in the first few sentences of your content. Get to the point quickly to catch their attention. You can go into more detail later.
• Create actionable, in-depth content, not just fluff. Make sure to include calls-to-action (CTAs) in your content as well.
• Break down your content into digestible chunks with clear headings, subheadings, and bullet points. Make it easier for users to skim and find the information they need, encouraging them to delve deeper.
• Go beyond static text and images. Embed quizzes, polls, or surveys directly related to your content. This keeps visitors engaged in actively participating in the topic.
• Weave first-person narratives or anecdotes into your content to illustrate your points. Stories are inherently engaging and can hold users’ attention for longer stretches.
• Aim for a Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score in the 60s to 70s range. This ensures your content is clear and understandable for a broad audience.
• Use relevant keywords throughout your content, but naturally. Don’t stuff keywords as this can hurt readability. Using the right keywords helps you attract the right people to your page, deliver valuable content, and increase the average time on page.

To audit your content quality from the search engine optimization (SEO) point of view, you can use All in One SEO (AIOSEO) to check your content readability right in WordPress:

2. Use Exit-Intent Popups

Exit-intent popups are another great way to keep visitors on your individual pages longer.

But wait, popups are annoying, right?

Only if they appear right when visitors get to a page before they have even had a chance to read anything.

Not really. Popups can actually improve your conversions if they appear for the right people at the right time and on the right page.

Take, for example, exit-intent popups. If you trigger them when visitors are about to leave, you get an important opportunity to improve the user experience (UX).

Exit intent popups with a relevant and enticing offer can recapture abandoning visitors and turn them into subscribers or customers.

You can use exit intent popups to offer content or product suggestions based on how quickly they leave the page.

For instance, people who try to leave immediately may not have found what they were looking for. So you can direct them to content that may be more helpful.

On the other hand, visitors who spend a few minutes reading a page may be eager for related content. For them, you can create a popup that they might prefer.

You can also offer discount codes, free shipping, or other incentives at checkout to win back eCommerce buyers who are about to leave without purchasing.

And the easiest way to create these exit-intent popups is with OptinMonster.

OptinMonster is the best popup builder for re-engaging visitors throughout your website.

Its signature Exit-IntentTM Technology uses precise targeting rules to show the right message to the right visitor at the right time.

OptinMonster also features a super intuitive drag-and-drop builder that anyone can use to create a popup campaign from scratch.

You can choose from its 100+ templates to create an exit intent popup or customize a template to match your brand style:

If you’re curious, you can see how Flywheel increased engagement and conversions with OptinMonster.

Get Started With OptinMonster Today!

BONUS: Done-For-You Campaign Setup ($297 value)Our conversion experts will design 1 free campaign for you to get maximum results – absolutely FREE! Click here to get started →

3. Optimize Page Navigation

One easy way to increase time on page and decrease bounces and exits is to make your pages easy to navigate.

Adding a table of contents (TOC) near the beginning of a page can provide structure and direction for readers.

You might have noticed this blog has a table of contents towards the beginning. If you check out other blogs in OptinMonster, you’ll see almost all blogs open with a table of contents.

That’s because we, at OptinMonster, understand the value of a TOC from the UX point of view and how it can impact the search engine rankings.

Many visitors see a huge wall of text and feel overwhelmed or discouraged trying to find what they need. Adding a table of contents can help them navigate instead of leaving the page.

You can also increase your page session duration by adding internal links to other pages on your site throughout your content.

To keep these links from decreasing your average time on page, just make sure you don’t have too many unnecessary links peppered throughout the post. Only add links where it matters or where they provide more depth and context.

For external backlinks, set these to open in a new tab or window. That way the user won’t leave your page by default if they click on a link to another website.

4. Embed Videos

Videos are a great way to build engagement and improve the average time on page because it takes time for people to finish watching videos.

Good videos are inherently captivating. They break up text-heavy content and cater to visual learners, keeping users engaged for longer stretches.

Videos also allow you to tell stories, showcase processes, or demonstrate concepts in a way that static text can’t. This makes your content deeper and more interesting.

Recent research done in the field of video marketing states that 82% of customers are convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video.

Ideally, you should add your own video content. But you can also embed videos made by others as long as the videos are relevant to your page.

With a plugin like Smash Balloon, it’s easy to add a YouTube feed or embed standalone videos anywhere on your WordPress site:

Here’s a short video that tells you how you can use Smash Balloon to create a beautiful YouTube feed using Smash Balloon’s YouTube feed:

5. Run a Comment Contest

Contests are fun and super engaging. With contests, you can gamify the user experience to make people spend more time on your page. Here’s how:

Let’s say you announce a comment contest where people have to leave a blog comment at the end of an article for a chance to win the contest.

But to leave a comment (and to enter the contest), readers will first need to read the post:

It’s a clever way to improve your average time on page while incentivizing your readers to read your content.

RafflePress makes it easy to track and confirm comment entries in WordPress. You can then pick the winner with a click of a button:

6. Add a Quiz

Just like online contests, quizzes are another interactive element you can use to boost engagement and even generate leads.

Thanks to the Zeigarnik effect, most people will want to finish a quiz once they start.

You can create lead generation quizzes with tools like Interact or Typeform, then embed your quiz in an OptinMonster campaign.

Here’s an example. GoPro uses an online quiz on its website to understand how its customers plan to use its product. Once the quiz is over, GoPro requires people to sign up with their email addresses to see the results:

If you can create quizzes that offer personalized feedback or results based on the users’ choices, it’ll motivate them to complete the quiz. Furthermore, you can also lead them to other content pieces on your site related to their outcome.

And the best part? Well-designed quizzes have a virality quotient in them. People who take them are likely to share it with their friends on social media networks, inviting more website traffic and more users interested in taking the quiz.

This, naturally, will help you attract more people to your site and improve your average time on page.

7. Use Gated Content

Gated content is a type of content piece that you can offer to your website visitors. The use of gated content requires people to share their email addresses in exchange for the content piece.

Gated content comes in various formats like ebooks, white papers, reports, webinars, or exclusive videos.

Here’s an example of a gated content piece that we use at OptinMonster:

It might seem counter-intuitive to use gated content to increase the average time on page because it restricts access to the full content.

However, there are ways gated content can achieve this if you use them strategically:

• Highlight Value: Provide compelling previews or summaries of the gated content. This builds curiosity and entices users to invest their information for the full value.
• Focus on Benefits: Clearly communicate the benefits users will gain by accessing the gated content. This could be exclusive insights, in-depth analysis, or valuable resources.
• Deliver on Promises: The gated content itself should deliver on the promised value proposition. High-quality, engaging content justifies the user’s information and keeps them engaged for longer durations.
• Focus on Problem-Solving: Frame the preview to highlight a common pain point your target audience faces. Then, position the gated content as the solution with specific benefits it offers (e.g., “How To Increase Blog Traffic: 25 Proven Strategies“).
• Complementary Content: Consider offering ungated content alongside the gated piece, such as a short blog, outline, or testimonial video. This gives users a taste of your expertise and entices them to access the full-length gated content.

Plus it’s a great way to build your email list with interested leads. Learn more with our ultimate guide to gated content marketing.

8. Add a Chatbot or Live Chat Popup

Chatbots and live chat are the perfect ways to keep visitors on your page because you are helping them make a decision that will benefit them.

You can use chatbots or live chat services to answer presale and support questions, recommend products or services, and resolve any problems quickly.

OptinMonster comes with a chatbot block built in, and you can also create a floating live chat popup with OptinMonster:

Here are some ways to use a chatbot to increase the average time on a page:

• Proactive Support and Assistance: Train the chatbot to offer proactive support or assistance to users throughout their browsing journey. For instance, it can suggest relevant content, offer help with finding specific information, or provide a friendly presence.
• Go Beyond Simple FAQs: Instead of just answering the most frequently asked questions (FAQs), train your chatbot to have engaging conversations. It can ask follow-up questions, provide interesting facts related to the topic, or even offer lighthearted banter. This keeps users interacting with the chatbot for longer.
• Personalized Recommendations: Based on user queries or browsing history, the chatbot can recommend relevant content, products, or other blogs on your site. This personal touch encourages users to explore further and discover new content pieces.
• Interactive Tutorials and Guides: You can use the chatbots to deliver interactive tutorials or guides on specific topics. This can break down complex information into smaller, more manageable steps, keeping users engaged as they learn.
• Gamification Elements: Integrate gamification elements like quizzes, polls, or challenges within the chatbot interaction. This adds a fun layer to the user experience and motivates them to spend more time engaging with the chatbot.

9. Improve Page Load Time

If you want to boost engagement, figuring out your page load times is a crucial first step. Freelancers and business owners, and everyone in between, should know just how big of an impact speed can have on the average user experience and their overall marketing strategy.

Poor loading times can affect how people find and interact with your website. When a site takes too long to load, there’s a very good chance visitors will leave without taking action.

Alternatively, fast-loading pages means more opportunities to connect with your audience and boost conversions.

So it makes sense that decreasing load time will reduce your bounce rate and increase your average time on page.

Most leading eCommerce websites have some of the best and fastest page loading times. Take, for example, Gymshark:

Want to check your site’s loading speed? Here are some free websites you can use to test your website’s page loading time:

• Pingdom Website Speed Test
• GTmetrix
• PageSpeed Insights by Google

If you’re using WordPress, check out this ultimate guide to improving load time.

10. Optimize Your Site For Mobile

Statistics show that 60% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. That means a significant majority of visitors will likely bounce off your site if it’s not optimized for these devices.

That’s why it’s important to make sure that your site is mobile-friendly.

Optimizing for mobile means your website is easy to navigate, read, and interact with on smaller screens. This creates a smooth and enjoyable browsing experience for users who will want to stay on your site longer.

A positive user experience on mobile usually leads to better engagement metrics, such as lower bounce rates and longer average session duration.

Search engines like Google consider these metrics when ranking websites, which gives your site an SEO edge.

We’ve got a complete guide to mobile SEO that you can use to get started.

If you want to check your website’s mobile-friendliness, here are 2 free websites that you can use:

• Google Lighthouse: This is an open-source tool from Google itself. Simply download its Chrome extension and analyze any website you want to test to generate audit reports.
• Mobile Friendly Tester by BrowserStack: This tool allows you to see how your website looks on different mobile devices and browsers. It also offers a free plan with limited testing options.
• Small SEO Tools: This free online tool lets you check your website’s mobile responsiveness for free. It provides a basic report on mobile-friendliness and highlights potential issues.
• Responsive Design Checker: This tool allows you to resize your browser window to see how your website adapts to different screen sizes. It’ll give you a general idea of its mobile-friendliness.

Here’s a look at how well OptinMonster’s website fares when I entered its URL address into the Small SEO Tools’ mobile-friendly test:

Ready To Apply These Tips To Your Site?

Those were some of the best and easiest strategies that you can use to boost your website’s average time on page.

By implementing these ideas and continually refining your approach, you can create a website that not only captures user attention but also offers a delightful user experience.

And if you liked this article, you might also be interested in the following resources:

• 45 Best Digital Marketing Tools To Boost Your Business
• Ultimate eCommerce Optimization Guide: 13 Tips to Boost Sales
• SEO Beginner’s Guide: Learn the Basics + Top Tips for 2024
• SEO Ranking Factors: Unveiling 10 Powerful Factors for 2024
• 12 Tips to Reduce Bounce Rate and Boost Your Conversions

Ready to keep users on your site longer? Get started with OptinMonster today!

When you require sign-up or sign-in to see some of your best content, you create a fantastic incentive for your website visitors. A gated content marketing strategy helps you boost your lead generation efforts and grow your email list.

In fact, our client Photowebo increased their conversions 3806% by using gated content!

Do you want to learn how to get results like this?

In this detailed guide, I’ll walk you through the ins and outs of content gating, so you can effectively engage your audience and generate high-quality leads.

Quick links:

1. What Is Gated Content?
2. Gated vs. Ungated Content
3. When Should You Gate Content?
4. Gated Content Examples
5. Gated Content Best Practices
6. How To Create Gated Content
7. Which Content Gating Tool Should You Use?

What Is Gated Content?

Gated content is online material, such as articles, videos, infographics, or downloadable resources, that you can only access after taking a specific action.

Usually, this action involves the user sharing information, like their email address or name. It’s basically an exchange: users provide some details and get access to premium content in return.

As we’ll discuss later, gating content has pros and cons. But when done right, it can

• make your content more appealing
• help you to engage with your target audience
• result in better leads

OptinMonster is the most robust lead-generation software on the market, and our content-locking feature lets you implement a gated content strategy in minutes. Our clients have seen excellent results from content gating, including one website that got 11,000 new subscribers monthly with a simple content upgrade.

Case Study See how one digital agency used gated content to boost conversion rates by 62% and 2x their email list.

For more details, keep reading!

Gated vs. Ungated Content

Now that you know the basic meaning of gated content, let’s talk about the difference between gated and ungated content. Picture two paths in a garden:

1. Gated Content: This path is like a VIP entrance. When you go down the gated path, you agree to provide some personal information, like your email or zip code. In return, you can access more in-depth, valuable, or exclusive content. Think of it as a way for websites to get to know you better and offer you something special in return.
2. Ungated Content: Conversely, the ungated path is like a stroll in the park. You can enjoy the content without sharing any personal information. It’s a lot like watching a movie trailer. You get a taste of what’s inside but don’t have to give anything in return.

In essence, gated content is a secret club where you exchange a small piece of information to access premium content. In contrast, ungated content is freely available for anyone to enjoy without any strings attached.

When Should You Gate Content?

Let’s explore when you should consider gating your content.

1) When It’s Extra Special

Like you save your favorite treats for special occasions, consider gating your most exceptional, high-content. Do you have a post or guide packed with insights, solutions, or secrets? One that has information your audience can’t easily find elsewhere? It might be a good candidate for gating.

2) For In-Depth Guides and Resources

Long-form pieces are also excellent candidates for gated content. Gating content like comprehensive guides, ebooks, or webinars that dive deep into a topic can be a great idea. People are more willing to share their info for valuable, in-depth resources. Often, these are offered as downloadable lead magnets.

3) For Exclusive Events and Experiences

You can also think of content gating as a lot like handing out VIP passes to an exclusive party. Locking content can create excitement and exclusivity if you’re offering something unique, like a live webinar with an industry expert or early access to a product launch.

4) For Valuable Tools and Templates

Imagine you’re giving someone a toolbox filled with handy gadgets. One smart gated content strategy is to offer practical tools, templates, or checklists. These should be resources that your target audience can use to solve real problems. People are often willing to trade information for tools that make their lives easier.

5) When Building Your Email List Matters

Any great email marketing strategy starts with a strong list of highly-interested leads. Just like you’d collect keys to open different doors, gating content can help you build a list of interested people. If growing your email list or capturing leads is a priority, gating certain content pieces can be an effective way to achieve that.

6) For Advanced Learning

Imagine you’re sharing advanced secrets with those who are ready to learn. You can deliver true value to your users by gating content that caters to a more experienced or specialized audience. The leads you gain with this strategy are likely to become some of your most engaged users and customers.

7) When You’re Testing Waters

Think of gating content as trying a new recipe. You want to see if people like what you’re making before making a big batch. If you’re experimenting with new ideas, products, or offerings, gating the content can help gauge interest and gather feedback.

8) Balancing Gated and Free Content

Imagine you have a buffet with some special dishes behind the counter. If customers have to ask for every dish that they’re interested in, they’ll likely just go somewhere else.

That’s why it’s essential to strike a balance between gated and free content. Gating everything might turn people away, but offering a mix of both can help you provide value to different types of audiences.

You must make sure that you have a wide variety of high-quality content that website visitors can read for free. Once they trust your expertise, they’ll be more likely to sign up when they come across locked content.

Ultimately, the decision to gate content boils down to the value you’re providing, as well as your goals. Just like protecting precious items, gating content adds a layer of exclusivity, making your audience feel like they’re part of something special.

Understanding when and why to use gated content can create a strategy that enhances engagement, builds relationships, and opens doors to exciting opportunities.

Gated Content Examples

Here are some real-life examples of gated content that companies and organizations have used to engage their audiences and generate leads:

1) HubSpot’s Marketing Resources

HubSpot, a leading inbound marketing platform, offers a variety of gated content resources such as ebooks, templates, and guides. Users can access these valuable materials by providing their contact information, which helps HubSpot build their email list and nurture leads.

2) Neil Patel’s Advanced Marketing Guides

A prominent digital marketing expert, Neil Patel, provides in-depth guides and courses on topics like SEO, content marketing, and social media. Access to these advanced guides often requires users to opt in with their email addresses and other information.

Due to the advanced nature of his content, Patel asks for a lot more information than you’d usually want to require. Neil Patel also has established authority in his field, which makes it more likely for users to be willing to fill out so many fields. With the information he gains from this form, he’ll have the data he needs to segment his leads and personalize his marketing strategy.

However, for most websites, your initial optin forms should just ask for an email address and first name.

3) Moz’s Whitepapers and Webinars

Moz, a well-known SEO software company, offers whitepapers and webinars on topics related to search engine optimization. Users can access these resources by filling out a form, allowing Moz to capture leads and provide valuable insights to their audience.

4) Salesforce’s Reports and Surveys

Salesforce, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) platform, publishes industry reports and surveys that provide valuable insights into trends and best practices. These reports are often gated, requiring users to provide their information before accessing the data.

5) DigitalMarketer’s Training Videos

DigitalMarketer, a platform focused on digital marketing education, offers training videos on various marketing strategies. Users may need to sign up and provide their email addresses to watch these videos.

6) The New York Times (News Publishing)

The New York Times offers non-subscribers a limited number of free articles each month while gating the rest of their premium content behind a paywall for subscribers.

7) Medium (Content Publishing Platform)

Medium offers a membership program where subscribers can access premium articles, curated content, and exclusive features created by a community of writers. As a major publication, they’re able to offer account creation through Google, Facebook, or manually with an email address.

The examples above illustrate how companies leverage gated content to offer valuable resources, insights, and education in exchange for user information.

Gated Content Best Practices

Now that we’ve thoroughly examined content gating, let’s look at some best practices.

1) Know Your Audience Inside Out

Before you create gated content, gaining a deep understanding of your target audience is crucial. It would be best if you answered the following questions:

• Who are they?
• What challenges do they face?
• What information are they hungry for?

Tailor your gated content to address their needs, pain points, and aspirations, ensuring it offers real value and resonates with their interest along the buyer’s journey.

2) Choose the Right Format

Gated content comes in various shapes and sizes. From ebooks and webinars to templates and case studies. Select the format that aligns best with your audience’s preferences and the nature of the information you’re sharing.

A well-chosen format enhances engagement and encourages users to provide their information willingly.

Bonus content: What is a Lead Magnet? Proven Lead Magnet Ideas and Examples

3) Craft Irresistible Headlines and CTA

A compelling headline and call to action button are your golden ticket to capturing interest in the digital age of short attention spans. Craft headlines that promise a clear benefit or solution, sparking curiosity as we move along the customer’s journey.

A well-crafted headline is the first step toward convincing users that your gated content is worth their time and information.

Bonus content: 130+ Proven Opt-in Headline Ideas to Get More Email Subscribers (Cheat Sheet)

4) Deliver Value Beyond Expectations

Gated content should surpass your audience’s expectations. Offer insights, knowledge, or solutions they can’t easily find elsewhere. Strive to provide actionable takeaways that empower your audience to apply what they’ve learned in their own endeavors.

5) Design User-Friendly Landing Pages

A seamless user experience is essential. Design landing pages that are clean and intuitive, guiding users through accessing your gated content. Keep forms concise, asking for only the necessary information, and assure users of the value they’ll receive in return.

Bonus content: Expert Tips for Writing Landing Page Copy That Converts  & Anatomy of the Perfect Optin Landing Page (Tips & Best Practices)

6) Promote Strategically

Gated content is a treasure waiting to be discovered. Promote it across your marketing channels – from social media and email campaigns to your website and partnerships. Leverage teasers, snippets, and compelling visuals to create anticipation and drive interest.

7) Leverage Social Proof

Incorporate social proof, such as testimonials and user reviews, to boost credibility and increase conversions. When seeing others benefit from your gated content, people are more likely to provide information.

8) Decide How Visitors Will Access the Content

Knowing how you’ll give new subscribers access to the content you’ve gated is important. Some of the options include:

• Unlock on-page content immediately. This is easy to do with the instructions we’re about to share for content-locking campaigns.
• Sending the content by email, which I always recommend for downloadable content.
• Providing an immediate download link.
• Opening the content in a new window or redirecting subscribers to a page where they can access the content.

You can use any of these options in any OptinMonster campaign by customizing the success view.

The next section will show you how to gate content with OptinMonster.

How To Create Gated Content

Now, I’ll show you how to gate content by creating an inline form campaign for a particular page with OptinMonster. This type of campaign locks access to a particular blog post or page. Users must then sign up for your email list to access your content.

This tutorial assumes that you’ve already installed OptinMonster on your WordPress site or any other type of site. You’ll also need to integrate your email marketing software.

Step 1: Create Your Content Gating Campaign

First, click Create New Campaign from your OptinMonster dashboard.

You’ll asked whether you want to use one of OptinMonster’s Playbooks or Templates, or if you want to design your own campaign from scratch using our Canvas designer.

For our purposes, we suggest choosing Template:

Next, you’ll need to choose a campaign type.

OptinMonster offers different campaign types, including:

• Lightbox Popup
• Floating bar
• Fullscreen
• Slide-in
• Inline

We’ll need to select an Inline Campaign to create a content lock campaign and choose a template.

OptinMonster offers 65+ templates, and all work beautifully across all devices.

In the search bar, type in “gated content” to easily find the Unlock Gated Content template.

Once you click Use Template, you’ll be prompted to name your campaign and choose the website you want to display it on.

Step 2: Activate the Content Lock

First, we’ll activate the content lock feature.

Choose the Display Rules tab at the top of your campaign design screen.

Next, select the Actions tab at the bottom of the screen and click the Enable Content Locking toggle so it turns blue. In the dropdown menu, you’ll be able to choose whether you want to blur your locked content or remove it completely.

Now, we’re ready to customize our content lock campaign.

Step 3: Design Your Content Lock Campaign

Changing anything about your content lock campaign form is easy in the OptinMonster drag-and-drop builder and editor. Go back to the Design tab to return to the editor.

All you need to do is click on any part of the campaign to change it.

To edit the text, click on it or highlight the text. This will bring up the editing tools, and you’ll be able to change the text, as well as the font, color, and alignment.

You can also change the images and button colors, or add or remove blocks.

Be sure to use the tabs at the bottom of the page to also edit the Success View. That’s the message users will see after signing up for your email list, informing them that the post will now be unlocked.

Step 4. Choose Your Display Rules and Publish Your Campaign

Next, go to Display Rules. Here, you’ll be able to precisely control who sees your gated content campaign and when.

Here we’ve set the optin to display when the content URL path exactly matches the URL of the page where we want the campaign to display. This allows you to choose which blog post you want to turn into gated content

More display rule options include:

• How long a user has been on a page
• How many pages the user has viewed on your website
• The geographic location of the user
• and much more

For more on OptinMonster’s Display Rules, check out our documentation:
How to Use Display Rules to Customize When a Campaign Will Appear

When you have everything set the way you want it save your campaign and choose the Publish tab at the top of the page. Change the Publish Status to Publish and follow any instructions based on your website platform.

Which Content Gating Tool Should You Use?

OptinMonster is the best content gating tool. It’s built-in content locking feature is proven to get results. Remember those stats I mentioned earlier?

• Marketing agency Whole Whale increased their email signups 100% with content gating
• Photography education site Photowebo saw a jaw-dropping 3806% lift in conversions by implementing gated content with OptinMonster
• Trading Strategy Guides added 11,000 subscribers using gated content in a little over a month

You can deliver your gated content immediately with OptinMonster’s success themes.

OptinMonster also integrates with all the major email marketing platforms and content management systems, so you can use it for gating content on any site.

Want to learn more about gated content before you get started? Here are a few helpful resources:

• Content Upgrades: How to Use Popular Posts for More Conversions
• How to Lock Content in WordPress for Premium Subscribers
• 7 Best Content Locker WordPress Plugins to Boost Your Conversions
• Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing

Once you’re ready to start skyrocketing your leads with gated content, sign up for OptinMonster! Choose the Plus plan or higher to access our Content Locking features.

With a well-designed popup, you can offer an incentive for website visitors to sign up for promotional texts from you. Then, you’ll have a strong SMS list to promote your sales, new products, and other offers.

By the end of this article, you’ll learn exactly how to use popups to get mobile phone numbers for your SMS marketing campaigns.

• Why Should You Collect Phone Numbers on Your Website?
• How to Collect Phone Numbers With Popups

Why Should You Collect Phone Numbers on Your Website?

The #1 reason you should collect phone numbers on your website is to engage in SMS marketing. SMS marketing is a strategy that allows businesses to send messages to customers via text. Businesses can send text messages to prospects and customers to increase brand awareness, boost engagement, and generate sales.

If you’re new to SMS marketing or want to improve your strategy, check out our guide below!

If you want a successful SMS marketing strategy, you need to build an SMS list full of engaged leads.

OptinMonster is the best lead generation tool for your website. Whether you want to collect phone numbers or build an email list, OptinMonster makes it easy to do so.

You can use our popups, floating bars, and other onsite campaigns to offer enticing incentives in exchange for visitors’ phone numbers or email addresses.

OptinMonster includes tons of different targeting options, so you can personalize your offer based on the user’s intent, the source traffic, geographical location, and so on.

Using OptinMonster, Biddyco tripled their conversions in just 30 days!

And it’s just so easy to use. You can create stunning popups in minutes, without any coding or design experience.

Now, we’ll build a popup in OptinMonster that collects phone numbers on your website.

How to Collect Phone Numbers With Popups

Before I dive into my step-by-step instructions, here’s a video overview of the process:

Today, we’re going to create this campaign to show you how to collect phone numbers with a popup:

We’ll build our popup based on these popup best practices:

• Offer a valuable incentive
• Create a clear call to action (CTA)
• Use eye-catching design

Let’s get started.

Step 1: Create a Campaign to Collect Phone Numbers

After you’ve signed up for OptinMonster, log into your OptinMonster dashboard and choose Create New Campaign.

With OptinMonster’s 700+ pre-built templates, there’s no need to design a popup from scratch. So in the Create New Campaign box, I’m going to click Templates.

I’ll make sure the templates are filtered by the Popup campaign type, which should be the default. You’ll see a search box where you can search for particular types of templates.

There are lots of ways to filter and search through our templates based on type, season/holiday, goal, and more. I know the exact template I want to use for my phone number popup, so I’ll search for Tech Discount and then click Use Template on the search result of the same name.

After selecting the template, I’ll give my new campaign a name and click Start Building

Step 2: Design a Popup to Collect Phone Numbers

Now, you’ll be in the campaign builder, where you can customize your popup. The Tech Discount template has space for an image, an attention-grabbing headline, and our offer. As you’ll see in a moment, we’ll be able to add a phone number field in seconds.

In our drag-and-drop builder, you have absolute freedom to customize the design. These options give you the power to create popups that reflect your brand and speak to your customers.

That said, we won’t go into too much detail about customizing every aspect of your campaign. There are too many options to cover in just one post.

If you’re just getting started with OptinMonster, check out this guide on how to create and design your first OptinMonster campaign.

For today’s tutorial, you only need to know the basic principles of customizing your template.

By default, many of our templates are 2-step optins that start with a Yes/No view. There are many benefits to 2-step optins. However, I want the popup I’m creating today to immediately show the text fields for entering an email address and phone number.

To do that, click the arrow by the Yes/No tab at the bottom of the page and click Disable Yes/No View.

Then click the Optin tab at the bottom to start editing.

OptinMonster campaigns are built with design elements called blocks. To change an element, all you need to do is click on the block in your editor. Then, you’ll see the editing tools appear on the left side of the editor.

If you want to change the image, click on the image in the campaign, and you’ll see the image settings in the editing panel on the left:

Click on the image in the left panel to upload any image you’d like to replace it. You can also search our Unsplash integration to find stock images to use.

Once you’ve selected the image you want, it will now show up in your campaign.

Editing text is even easier. When you click into a text box, you can change the text within the box itself. Highlight some text, and a formatting toolbar will also display.

After changing the image and text, I’m going to add a phone number field.

Click on the email field in the campaign to open the field settings in the left panel.

Scroll down and click Add New Field.

In the Add New Field window, select Phone to add a phone number field to your popup campaign.

Now, I’ll change the text in the button. With the email and phone number field box still selected, scroll down in the left panel until you see Submit Button. Click the pencil icon to expand your options. Change the text in the Button Text field.

Note: I’m leaving the button color as-is, but you can change it under the Advanced tab.

Let’s change the background color of our popup so it looks better with the photo we’ve chosen. Click the background of your popup campaign, and you’ll see View Styling settings in the left panel.

Change the style from Gradient to Solid. Then, click the color square beside Background Color to change the color.

Now, the Optin view of your popup is ready to go! We’ll just need to take a moment to edit the Success View. That’s what your visitors will see after they submit their email address and phone number.

Click the Success tab at the bottom of the screen to view the Success View.

Then, just follow the same steps as before to edit the image and text.

Step 3: Set Your Display Rules

Next, you’ll need to decide where and when you want to display your campaign.

OptinMonster offers several ways to display your campaigns. Our targeting rules are designed to show the right offer to the right person at the right time.

Our targeting rules let you display campaigns based on:

• Exit-Intent Technology®: show your popup just as a visitor is leaving your site
• Referrer detection: show messages based on where the visitor is coming from, like a referral website
• Page-level targeting: campaigns based on the specific page
• Geolocation targeting: based on the visitor’s location
• Scroll triggers: appear after the visitor has scrolled down a certain section of the page
• InactivitySensor : shown when visitors have been inactive

We’re going to keep it simple for our phone number popup and focus on Exit-Intent®. Our popup will show up anytime a visitor starts to exit our website.

Click the Display Rules tab at the top of the screen.

By default, you’ll see 2 display rules:

1. Time on page is at least 5 seconds
2. Current URL path is any page

We’ll leave #2 as is, but we’re going to edit the first rule.

Click the dropdown arrow beside time on page. Then select Exit Intent®.

You’ll be able to select the level of sensitivity for the exit intention, and I’m going to leave mine at Medium.

With your campaign designed and your display rules now set, click Save.

Step 4: Integrating With an SMS Marketing Tool

Before you publish your campaign, you’ll need to integrate OptinMonster with the platform you use for email and SMS marketing.

Select the Integrations tab at the top of the screen and then click Add a New Integration.

Then, search for your software, select it, and follow the integration instructions.

You’ll need the API key from your email and SMS platform in order to complete your integration.

Save your campaign.

Step 5. Publish Your Phone Number Popup Campaign

All that you need to do now is Publish your campaign.

Click the Publish tab at the top of the page. Under Publish Status, select Publish.

That’s it! You’re on your way to collecting phone numbers using a popup on your website.

For more practical strategies to build your subscriber list, we recommend checking out the following articles:

• 63 Lead Magnets to Increase Subscribers 
• 11+ Website Popup Examples to Help You Boost Conversions
• Opt-in Page Perfection: Examples & Tools to Boost Conversions

Ready to create popups to get more subscribers for your SMS and email marketing? Get your OptinMonster account today.

Email newsletters are a vital part of your business’s growth. They give you direct access to your target audience and allow you to keep in touch with all of your leads.

At OptinMonster, we have poured a lot of hard work into building an email list of over 235,000 people who subscribe to our email newsletter:

Thanks to the newsletter, we have been able to build strong customer relationships, cut down our marketing costs, and drive measurable results.

If you are considering starting an email newsletter, you don’t really have to spend hours every week setting them up. Most email service providers (ESP) allow you to automate these campaigns.

That means you can grow your contact list and send personalized emails that generate more revenue while you’re sleeping.

That’s why, in today’s tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create an email newsletter in just 7 easy steps.

Here’s everything I’ll cover in this blog:

• Why You Need an Email Newsletter
• How to Create an Email Newsletter
  • Step 1: Choose the Right Email Service Provider
  • Step 2: Choose an Email Newsletter Template
  • Step 3: Create an Email List
  • Step 4: Be Aware of the Legal Compliances
  • Step 5: Write Your Email Newsletter Content
  • Step 6: Send Your First Email Newsletter
  • Step 7: Build an Email List

Before we get into the weeds of how to start a newsletter, let’s first discuss why you need one.

Why Do You Need an Email Newsletter?

An email newsletter is a type of email that shares content such as product news, announcements, blog posts, tips, and other resources that are valuable for the subscribers.

The newsletter subscribers are usually existing customers or leads who have opted in for the email. They have expressed interest in receiving marketing communications from a company or individual.

But more than anything else, you need to know why email newsletters are so important for growing your business.

Email newsletters have many advantages. They allow you to:

• Build long-term relationships: Newsletters help you stay connected with your core audience and build stronger relationships. You can share valuable content, industry insights, and exclusive offers to keep your subscribers engaged.
• Run cost-effective campaigns: Compared to other marketing channels like paid ads, email newsletters are extremely cost-effective. For example, you can use the same newsletter template to send thousands of emails.
• Communicate directly with your audience: Newsletters go straight to your subscribers’ inboxes, putting your message right in front of an audience group that is interested in buying from you.
• Sharpen your targeted reach: You can segment your email list and send targeted and personalized content to different groups of subscribers based on their interests or demographics. This increases the relevance of your message and improves engagement.
• Increase brand awareness: Every time a subscriber shares the content of your newsletter in their network, it triggers word-of-mouth marketing for your brand. This helps you boost your brand awareness and establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
• Drive website traffic: Newsletters are a great way to drive traffic to your website. You can include links to your latest blog posts, product pages, or landing pages in your newsletter.
• Boost sales: Newsletters can be used to promote your products or services, offer discounts, and drive sales, especially during the holiday sales season such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
• Drive measurable results: With email marketing tools, you can track the open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics of your newsletter campaigns. This data helps you understand what’s working and what’s not, so you can improve your future newsletters.

At the end of the day, email newsletters will help you get what you’re really after: higher conversions.

Woodside Community, a South Carolina-based private living community, used OptinMonster to grow its newsletter subscription. Within 2 months of starting the campaign, they generated over $294,435 in revenue!

Read more about it in our case study: How Woodside Communities Made $294,435 in 2 months with OptinMonster.

That’s the power of a well-crafted email newsletter strategy. Woodside did it all with this basic popup campaign:

Now that you understand what a newsletter is and why it’s so important, let’s learn how to make an email newsletter.

How to Create an Email Newsletter

In this section, I’ll take you through the step-by-step tutorial on how to create an email newsletter.

You can jump to whichever section interests you most:

• Step 1: Choose the Right Email Service Provider
• Step 2: Choose an Email Newsletter Template
• Step 3: Create an Email List
• Step 4: Be Aware of the Legal Compliances
• Step 5: Write Your Email Newsletter Content
• Step 6: Send Your First Email Newsletter
• Step 7: Build an Email List

We’ll start by selecting the right ESP. That way, you can get started on the right foot and build an automated process that lasts you for years to come.

Step 1: Choose the Right Email Service Provider

The first thing you need to do is determine which ESP you’ll work with.

Look for a tool that allows you to scale so you don’t need to change platforms as your requirements grow.

Here are some must-have features that you should prioritize when you are shortlisting an ESP:

• List Management: Make sure the ESP lets you easily manage your contact list, segment lists, rearrange groups, and send and track customized messages. Good list management is the foundation for successful email automation. It helps you reach the right audience, with the right content, and at the right time.
• Easy-to-Use Editor: Choose an ESP that’s user-friendly and readily integrates with your lead generation tools. You don’t want to spend hours wrestling with complex software that requires you to manually connect with other tools in your tech stack.
• Email Automation: A good ESP will allow you to set up automated email sequences to welcome new subscribers, recover abandoned carts, or other marketing campaigns.
• In-Depth Reporting: Choose a tool that lets you use a data-driven approach to email marketing. Having access to your campaign performance can help you refine your campaign strategy for better impact.
• Compliance: Most commercial email marketing software will already be compliant with email laws like CAN-SPAM and GDPR. But it’s best to check the laws specific to your country.

If you already are using an ESP that checks all the boxes, that’s great!

You can click here to skip directly to Step #2.

At OptinMonster, we have used a wide variety of ESPs along different stages of our company’s growth. If you want advice on the best ESPs, here are some of our favorites that you can consider:

1. Constant Contact

Constant Contact offers an easy-to-use, lightweight interface and is great for both big and small businesses. As one of the largest email marketing services in the world, Constant Contact offers great deliverability rates and highly-rated support with every plan.

You can use their drag-and-drop editor and ready-to-use email newsletter templates to create and send professional emails.

These newsletter template emails are designed to work with a wide range of email clients and apps such as Outlook, Gmail, or Apple Mail. You can even send automated emails to new subscribers.

Plus, the emails are responsive, so they look great on mobile devices and desktops.

Constant Contact is one of our favorites because it’s the most beginner-friendly and the easiest to use, but it doesn’t skimp on the features.

With Constant Contact, you get an email marketing platform that’s easy to use and includes powerful marketing tools like a free image library, Facebook ads integration, eCommerce integration for Shopify stores, built-in social media sharing tools, and list segmentation.

Get started with Constant Contact today!

2. HubSpot

HubSpot Email Marketing offers some of the most powerful analytics along with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for non-tech users.

Start by creating beautiful, on-brand emails with the drag-and-drop editor. You can customize your emails by adding call-to-action (CTA) buttons, colors, images, social icons, and text while ensuring they are responsive on all devices.

You can also segment your email lists to target specific viewers, like returning customers or new customers. Or, you can schedule emails to optimize your open and click-through rate.

With OptinMonster, you get access to detailed analytics on how your campaigns perform and the option to carry out A/B testing to optimize your newsletters further.

Get started with HubSpot today!

3. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is a powerful email marketing tool with minimal startup costs that gives free users an unlimited number of contacts.

It comes with great features like automation workflows, autoresponder campaigns, segmentation tools, and A/B testing.

Brevo also includes in-depth reporting and real-time stats, so you know how your campaigns are doing.

You can create email newsletters that are stunning and optimized to look great on every device.

Get started with Brevo today!

4. Drip

Drip is another excellent email service provider that you can choose from.

You can keep your contact list stored with Drip and create email campaigns. When new users sign up, you can tag, segment, or add the new user groups to an automated email series.

Over time, you can refine your email marketing strategy and put everything on autopilot. As new leads come in, they’ll get new emails that nurture the relationship until they become customers.

DripGet started with Drip today!

Alternatives: Mailchimp, MailerLite, ConvertKit

Once you have selected your email service provider, you are ready to create your first newsletter. To do that, let’s set up your email list.

For this tutorial, we’ll be using Constant Contact.

Step 2: Choose the Right Email Newsletter Template

All of the ESPs that I have recommended earlier come with plenty of email newsletter templates for you to build your email campaigns. You should choose a template based on your audience’s preferences, your brand style, and your newsletter’s theme.

Consider the following tips when you are choosing an email newsletter template:

Consider Your Audience and Goals

Be clear about what your audience prefers. For instance, a template for a tech company might not resonate with a yoga studio’s audience. No matter which template you choose, tailor its design to align it with your audience’s interests.

Also, think about what you expect out of your audience. What is it that you want them to do? Will you be offering tips to grow your customers’ businesses, sharing industry news, or offering occasional discounts?

The template should guide them toward that action.

Focus on Functionality and Design

Research shows that over 60% of email opens are from mobile devices.

That means your email newsletter templates should be mobile-friendly and compatible with Android, iOS, and other mobile operating systems.

Also, make sure that the template is eye-catching and scannable. Most people skim through emails. Use clear sections, fonts, headings, and bullet points to break up text.

Think About Content and CTAs

Any template you choose should allow you to add or delete text, images, videos, and CTA buttons as per your requirements.

Yes, you should prioritize keeping your newsletter design as simple as possible. But the email newsletter templates you choose should also be flexible to adapt to your changing needs.

Finally, test and iterate. You can send test emails to yourself or your colleagues to see how the template renders on different devices. And then you can make tweaks based on what works best.

Step 3: Create an Email List

In this step, I’ll show you how you can send your first email newsletter using Constant Contact. If you don’t already have an account, you’ll need to sign up.

An email list is just what it sounds like: a directory of all the subscribers who sign up to receive your email newsletter.

When people enter their email addresses into an email subscription form, their names are added to your email list. So let’s make sure those names have somewhere to go!

First, log into Constant Contact.

Click on Contacts in the top menu and make sure you’re on the Lists tab. Click the Create List button on the far right:

Next, enter a name for your list in the popup that appears.

Subscribers won’t see this name, but make sure it’s something you can easily recognize, such as, ‘Holiday Promotions List’ or ‘Lead Magnet Subscribers.’

Click Save once you are done.

You’ll need to add at least one contact to start using this email list. You can add your own email address to test that your newsletters are sending properly.

To add email addresses, click on the Add Contacts button on the top-right of the screen:

Choose how you want to add your contacts. I’ll go with the Create a new contact option:

Enter your email address and click Continue:

On the next screen, add any other contact details you need. I recommend putting at least a first and last name. Make sure to double-check the email list you just created:

And that’s it! You just created your 1st email list in Constant Contact.

Next, let’s go over how to craft the perfect email content to pull your subscribers in and get them to convert.

Step 4: Be Aware of the Legal Compliances

If you breach data privacy laws in regions where your business operates, it might lead to hefty fines, damaged reputation, and even lawsuits.

Eyewear retailer Luxottica owns global brands like Oakley and Sunglass Hut. In April 2024, the company had to pay a $1,512,500 fine for sending more than 200,000 marketing messages in violation of Australian spam laws.

There are a few key legal compliances to consider before hitting send on your email newsletter. These will primarily focus on subscriber consent, transparency, and giving users control over their information.

Here’s a quick breakdown of such compliances:

1. Ask for consent: Make sure you have explicit optin consent from recipients to receive your emails. Avoid pre-checked boxes or bundling signups with other services.
2. Maintain full transparency: Accurately identify your business. This is to ensure that the sender’s information is explicitly clear. Also, clearly label the email newsletter as a marketing communication for full disclosure. Finally, Include your valid physical postal address in the email content to comply with industry rules.
3. Offer easy unsubscribe Options: Make it easy for people to unsubscribe or change their email preferences. Yes, it’s not easy to see your subscribers go. But it’s better to make that process easy than to have annoyed subscribers reporting you for spam.

These are general guidelines, but specific regulations may vary depending on your location. Here are some prominent ones to consider:

• CAN-SPAM (US): The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act sets compliance standards for commercial emails in the United States.
• CASL (Canada): Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation outlines similar rules for email marketing with a focus on transparency and opt-out options.
• GDPR (EU): The General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union sets stricter data protection standards, including obtaining explicit consent for data use.

If you want more information on how to make your newsletter legally compliant, I strongly recommend you consult with a legal professional. They are familiar with email marketing regulations in your region.

Step 5: Write Your Email Newsletter Content

Content is the most important part of an email newsletter. Even if you have a beautiful email newsletter template, your subscribers will unsubscribe if you send them boring, irrelevant, or overly promotional content.

Here are some pointers on how to craft the perfect content for your email newsletter:

• Identify the main purpose of your newsletter as well as your overall email marketing strategy. Are you trying to get new clients? Share affiliate links? Sell new products? What you write will depend on what your purpose is.
• Get to the point clearly and quickly. From the email subject line to the headers in the email content, every sentence should have a purpose. Each of them should deliver value to your audience, tell them what to expect, or call them to take action.
• Help the readers meet their goals. Readers don’t subscribe because they want to help you meet your goals. They want your help meeting their goals. In an ideal world, you can meet your own goals by helping them meet theirs. Create informational content that helps people solve their problems while encouraging them to take the action you want.
• Pick 1 main CTA. What do you want readers to do after they read your newsletter? Maybe you want them to click a link to a sales page or your social media accounts. Or maybe you want them to write a response back to you. Don’t be shy about asking them to take this step!

Here are some of the best email newsletter examples you can look at for inspiration. Once you have your newsletter content written, you can send your newsletter.

Step 6: Send Your First Email Newsletter

To send your newsletter, you’ll once again need to go back to Constant Contact since that’s where you have stored your campaign details and email addresses.

Log into Constant Contact. Then click on the Marketing tab and select Create an email from the dropdown:

With this, you’ll now have the option to choose from several ready-to-use newsletter template emails:

You can search for the right kind of templates and hover over the one you like and click Select:

Once you’re in the email builder, editing your newsletter is simple.

You can change the text directly in the campaign. Or you can add new features to your email using the Block elements on the left-hand side menu:

Then you can simply drag and drop them into place.

The best part? There’s zero coding, zero tech skills, and zero headaches involved.

Once you’re done designing the template to your liking, click on the Continue button on the top-right:

From there, you’ll just need to configure other details about your campaign, such as:

• Subject line
• Audience
• Sender info

Check it over for typos and that your email design looks the way you want it. Now your email newsletter will be ready to send!

If you need help writing more persuasive email copy, don’t worry.

I have got you covered.

Check out our 17 tips on how to write email copy that converts.

Once your newsletter is sent, you can see updated metrics such as open rates, click rates, and unsubscribes. Use this data to improve your newsletter strategy.

Did you get a great conversion rate on a specific piece of content? Send another newsletter next time with a similar topic or format.

You can also experiment with sending email subscribers to different landing pages and see how your conversion rates change as a result.

Finally, let’s go over how you can get more subscribers for your newsletter.

Related Content: 5 Best WordPress Newsletter Plugins for More Engagement

Step 7: Build an Email List Using OptinMonster

Most successful email marketing campaigns start with a list full of qualified leads interested in what you have to offer.

After all, even the best email copy on the planet won’t convert if it doesn’t get seen.

So what you, as an online marketer, are supposed to do exactly to taste success with your email campaigns repeatedly?

That’s where OptinMonster comes into play:

OptinMonster is the world’s #1 lead generation software. That means we’re the best at growing your email list through highly-targeted optin campaigns, like:

• Lightbox Popups
• Floating Bars
• Inline Campaigns
• Fullscreen Welcome Mats

And many more.

These campaigns help you grow your email list fast. Here’s an example of what a simple lightbox popup might look like:

OptinMonster also comes with over 100 pre-made templates that help save you time and energy in the campaign creation process:

You can modify these campaign templates with an easy drag-and-drop visual builder.

This allows you to modify any text in your optin campaign or add new elements, such as:

• Videos
• Images
• Dividers
• Icons
• HTML
• And much more

And, again, everything can be done with just a few clicks:

But creating the campaign is only half the battle.

From there, you’ll need to target your special offers to the right people, in the right places, and at just the right times in their customer journey.

Some of OptinMonster’s most powerful targeting rules include:

• Exit-Intent® Technology: Recover abandoning visitors when they are about to leave your website.
• OnSite Retargeting®: Keep users engaged by displaying fresh campaigns to returning visitors.
• Geolocation Targeting: Personalize UX by targeting visitors by their physical locations.
• MonsterLinks: Boost conversions by turning any link into a clickable email newsletter signup form.

These rules have gotten massive results for our clients. Just look at these case studies from OptinMonster customers:

• Human Food Bar Added 1800+ Leads Each Month
• SnackNation Adds 1200 Segmented Leads Every Week
• Shotkit Gets 40+ NEW Leads Every Single Day

But here’s the best part: OptinMonster seamlessly integrates with any email service provider on the market:

That means you can quickly sync your ESP and have new leads sent directly to the right contact list.

Then you can have your newsletters automatically sent to your new leads to convert them into happy (and paying) customers.

Ready to get started? Click below to sign up for your risk-free OptinMonster account today:

Grow Your Email List Today

BONUS: Done-For-You Campaign Setup ($297 value)Our conversion experts will design 1 free campaign for you to get maximum results – absolutely FREE! Click here to get started →

Ready to Send Your First Newsletter?

An email newsletter is a powerful tool to nurture relationships with your audience. It keeps you on their mind, drives traffic to your website, and can even boost sales. And don’t forget, it’s one of the most cost-effective marketing channels to engage with your customers.

If you found this guide on how to make an email newsletter helpful, you might also like the following posts:

• How to Write Email Copy That Converts
• 13 Simple eCommerce Marketing Tips to Skyrocket Your Sales
• Email Marketing for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide
• 8 Product Recommendation Email Examples to Drive Sales
• Webinars for Lead Generation: Tips and Strategies for Success
• What Is SEO? Find Out How Search Engine Optimization Really Works
• 45 Best Digital Marketing Tools to Boost Your Business

Ready to grow your newsletter subscription?

Get started with OptinMonster today!

A lot of WooCommerce website owners trigger a popup on their payment gateways to reduce cart abandonment and increase revenue.

But these popups only work if they are customized and targeted at the right customers at just the right time.

And that’s exactly what I’ll cover in this blog. By the end of this article, you’ll know how to customize a WooCommerce popup to offer a better user experience (UX), optimize their checkout page, and improve your website conversions.

Here’s everything you’ll learn in this post:

• Why To Customize WooCommerce Checkout Page
• How To Create and Customize a WooCommerce Checkout Page Popup

Why To Customize WooCommerce Checkout Page

Before we get into the step-by-step tutorial, let’s first look at what a WooCommerce checkout page popup is.

You have likely seen such popups before. It’s a lightbox that appears in your browser and darkens the content behind it. Here’s an example of how a lightbox modal popup looks like:

On your WooCommerce website, you can customize the popup’s targeting to appear only on the checkout page.

The goal of such a popup is to grab your customers’ attention and convince them to complete the purchase.

Checkout page popups work because they respond to the most common reasons people abandon their WooCommerce carts.

In other words, they get to the heart of why your WooCommerce store is leaking sales.

More often than not, customers abandon their shopping carts when:

• A product’s cost is too high.
• They aren’t ready to buy.
• Their purchase doesn’t qualify for free shipping.

If you are looking for a quick and easy way to address these concerns, you need to create and customize the right kind of popup for your WooCommerce checkout process.

Today, I’ll show you how to build a WooCommerce checkout page popup like this within just 5 minutes:

Ready? Let’s get to it right away!

Related Content: How to Create a Popup Form With CSS and JavaScript

How To Create and Customize a WooCommerce Checkout Page Popup

The easiest way to add a popup to your default WooCommerce checkout page is with OptinMonster:

OptinMonster allows you to create a WooCommerce checkout page popup using a drag-and-drop builder. OptinMonster also comes with 100+ ready-to-use templates that you can use to:

• Increase sales with limited offer discounts.
• Boost cross-sells with relevant product recommendations.
• Grow your email list to let your customers know about promotions.

Plus, it has advanced targeting features just for WooCommerce sites. These targeting rules let you control when and where a popup appears on your website, and who can see it.

In OptinMonster, you’ll find these targeting functionalities under the Display Rules settings. They let you show your popups based on various triggers and user behavior such as:

• The product your customer is viewing.
• The total order value in the cart.
• The number of items in the cart.

And more.

Scott Wyden Imagery used OptinMonster’s targeting features to recover 21% of abandoned carts and grew his email list by 3x:

Do you want the same results for your WooCommerce store?

Sign up for OptinMonster below. It’s 100% risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee.

Get Started With a WooCommerce Popup Today!

Next, let’s go through the step-by-step tutorial for creating and customizing a popup for the WooCommerce checkout page.

• Step 1: Create Your Campaign
• Step 2: Customize Your WooCommerce Checkout Popup
• Step 3: Set the Display Rules
• Step 4: Integrate With an Email Service Provider
• Step 5: Save and Publish Your Campaign

Step 1: Create Your Campaign

First, you need to log in to your OptinMonster account. Once you are in, click on Create New Campaign from your dashboard:

The next step is to choose your campaign type.

OptinMonster comes with multiple campaign options, such as:

• Lightbox Popups
• Floating Bars
• Inline Campaigns
• Fullscreen Welcome Mats

And more.

For this tutorial, I’ll go with Popup:

Next, you’ll need to select the campaign template.

OptinMonster has 100+ ready-to-use templates that work across all devices.

If you are confused, you can filter by eCommerce templates only. Just enter ‘eCommerce’ in the search box to add new templates that match your needs.

I’ll choose the Get a Discount Code template:

In the next screen, give your campaign a name and assign it to one of your websites:

Once you’re done, click on Start Building. With this, you are now ready to customize your popup.

Step 2: Customize Your WooCommerce Checkout Popup

Editing your WooCommerce checkout page popup is really easy, thanks to OptinMonster’s drag-and-drop builder.

Simply click on any part of your popup to change it.

For instance, you can click on the header to change the text directly in the editor:

You can also change the fonts, background colors, and buttons.

To add your own image, just click on the image. You’ll see editing options on the left side of the screen that you can use to change or delete the image:

I’ll leave the image as it is since it’s perfect for this tutorial.

You can also add things like countdown timers and video clips to your WooCommerce popup.

To do that, click on the home icon on the top-left of the screen:

From the Blocks menu, drag and drop the block element you want to your campaign editor:

Depending on your campaign’s need, you can add a wide range of elements to your campaigns, such as:

• Button
• ChatBot
• Embedded forms
• Form fields
• Divider
• Text
• HTML elements

And a lot more.

Here’s how my WooCommerce page popup looks after I made a few changes to it:

Next, I’ll show you how to set the display rules for the campaign so that you can control when and where the popup appears on your website.

Step 3: Set the Display Rules

In addition to OptinMonster’s special WooCommerce targeting rules, you can also show popups based on:

• Visitor’s physical location.
• Time spent on space.
• Number of page views.

Today, we’ll look at 2 of OptinMonster’s display rules that are most common with online stores:

• Exit Intent® Technology
• InactivitySensor

Exit Intent®

Exit intent popups appear when buyers on your website are about to leave your WooCommerce site.

OptinMonster’s Exit-Intent® Technology can detect when the site visitors move their mouse cursors to the top of the browser window to close the tab or switch to another tab:

Showing an exit intent popup with a targeted offer can encourage your shopper to complete their purchase.

It helped Shockbyte more than double its sales conversion rate with popups like this:

To apply the exit intent targeting rule to your popup, go to the Display Rules tab:

Click on the time on page rule that appears there by default. Select Where from the dropdown and click on the Page Targeting option:

Select the current URL path as contains:

In the 3rd box, enter the URL slug of your WooCommerce website’s checkout page.

For instance, if your WooCommerce checkout page contains the slug ‘www.mywebsite.com/jeans/checkout,’ you’ll need to enter ‘checkout’ as the operator in the box:

Once that’s set, go to the next rule right below the first. Select When from the dropdown. Choose Exit Intent® from the options on the right:

Next, choose the device if you want to enable this rule only on desktop, mobile, or both. You can also choose the Exit-Intent® sensitivity as low, medium, or high:

And that’s it! Your popup will now appear to people when they try to exit the WooCommerce checkout page.

For more exit popup tips, check out this article: 40 Exit Popup Hacks That Will Grow Your Subscribers and Revenue

InactivitySensor

Let’s face it, several customers start having second thoughts about buying after landing on your checkout page.

Using InactivitySensor, you can trigger a targeted sales popup to encourage such ‘fence-sitters’ to complete their checkout.

OptinMonster’s InactivitySensor detects the lack of activity and triggers a popup.

Skates.co.uk used this InactivitySensor popup to convert abandoning visitors into paying customers:

For your WooCommerce store, you can trigger a similar popup offering them a special coupon code or extend live chat help to complete the transaction.

To apply the InactivitySensorTM on your popup, go to the Display Rules tab:

Click on When from the dropdown and select InactivitySensor (Seconds of Inactivity):

By default, the popup is set to trigger if a visitor is inactive on your product page or during the checkout flow for at least 60 seconds:

I’ll change that time to 30 seconds to make matters more urgent:

Next, I’ll show you how to connect the campaign to your email service provider (ESP) so that you can manage your leads in one place.

Step 4: Integrate With an Email Service Provider

OptinMonster has over 30 native integrations with the most popular ESPs on the market. This makes it incredibly easy to grow your email list.

When you connect OptinMonster with your ESP, the email addresses you collect from the campaigns are automatically added to your list.

You can also segment your new leads directly from your OptinMonster account to offer a personalized customer experience.

To make this happen, go to the Integrations at the top of your dashboard:

Type in the email marketing software you want in the search box:

For this tutorial, I’ll choose Constant Contact since that’s what I use for my website:

From there, the exact steps to connect OptinMonster with your ESP depend on which email marketing automation software you are using. For the most part, it involves copy-pasting your email account’s API key.

For more specific instructions, read our detailed guide on how to connect your email service provider with OptinMonster.

Pro-tip: Don’t see your ESP listed? You can get started with Monster Leads.

Monster Leads is OptinMonster’s internal lead storage tool. It lets you store your lead data, export it, and send individual emails from your existing email client.

Step 5: Save and Publish Your Campaign

The final step is to publish your WooCommerce checkout page popup.

First, go to the top-right of the page and click on the Save button. This will help you save changes you have made so far in your campaign:

Click on the Publish tab at the top of your editor:

Change the status to Publish:

And that’s it! There’s just one small thing left for you to do.

You’ll need to configure the WooCommerce settings to make sure the OptinMonster campaign appears on your website.

First, you’ll have to make sure your OptinMonster and WooCommerce plugins are installed on your website.

Here’s a simple guide for you to learn How To Install a WordPress Plugin (Step-by-Step Tutorial for Beginners).

After you have activated both addons, you’ll need to connect OptinMonster with your WooCommerce store.

Head over to your WordPress site dashboard and select OptinMonster:

Click on WooCommerce from the OptinMonster dashboard:

Click on the Auto-Generate Keys + Connect WooCommerce button:

Your WooCommerce site will now be connected with OptinMonster:

Your Checkout Page Popup Is Live

That’s it. Now your popup will appear to your shoppers on your checkout page.

OptinMonster is the best tool for creating a stunning WooCommerce checkout popup. Build an eye-catching popup using OptinMonster’s special eCommerce templates. Make sure it matches your site using the visual drag-and-drop builder.

Get Started With a WooCommerce Popup Today!

If you enjoyed this article, you might find these eCommerce articles helpful:

• eCommerce Store Optimization Guide: 13 Steps to Instantly Boost Revenue
• 11 eCommerce Popup Examples That Actually Convert
• How To Recover Abandoned Carts: 12 Ways To Skyrocket Sales
• How To Add a Buy Now Pay Later Payment Method in WordPress
• What Is the Difference Between Upsell vs Cross Sell?
• Best WordPress Page Builders: Drag and Drop Your Way to a Stunning Website

Ready to boost sales with a WooCommerce popup? Get started with OptinMonster today.

Coming Soon pages can be a valuable asset to your content marketing strategy. They allow you to generate new leads before your page is up and improve user experience (UX) by keeping visitors informed about your new site.

That’s why, in today’s tutorial, I’m going to show you 5 Coming Soon page examples. I’ll also walk you through a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a Coming Soon page in just a few minutes.

But before I show you the Coming Soon page examples, let’s first discuss why you need a Coming Soon page.

Here’s everything that I’ll cover in this article:

• Why You Need a Coming Soon Page
• How To Create a Coming Soon Page
• Adding a Maintenance Mode Page
• Advanced Settings for Coming Soon Pages
• What If You Don’t Use WordPress
• 5 Coming Soon Page Examples

Why You Need a Coming Soon Page

Coming Soon pages are often written off as placeholders or filler pages. While Coming Soon pages do serve that purpose, they also do much more than that.

A Coming Soon landing page is an effective lead generation tool. You can use it in many ways to kick off your marketing campaign before an official product launch, startup, or blog site.

Here are a few great ways I have seen OptinMonster customers effectively use their own Coming Soon launch page:

• Lead Generation: You can collect emails from prospective customers who visit your site before it’s ready.
• Gauge User Interest: Learn how your current marketing channels are driving traffic to your site by tracking how many users land on your Coming Soon page.
• Generate Buzz: Effective Coming Soon pages are persuasive landing pages that get people talking about your product. You can use this to get a headstart in your marketing, launch a pre-sale, or start generating revenue before the launch.
• Improve SEO: You can use a Coming Soon page to rank for the right keywords that will attract the right audience. This is a neat way to improve your search engine optimization (SEO).

In short, Coming Soon pages are great for getting people pumped.

You can use them to give early access, sneak peeks, and tease new product releases. Or, you can create one to invite beta testers, collect pre-orders, or roll out discounts.

Now that we know why you would want a Coming Soon page, let’s look at a step-by-step tutorial on how to make one.

How To Create a Coming Soon Page

Since this tutorial is focused on creating pages for WordPress sites, you’ll need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin.

SeedProd is the world’s best landing page builder that allows you to create beautiful Coming Soon pages in minutes:

SeedProd offers tons of templated options to build your Coming Soon page fast. It also has a drag-and-drop editor so you can add custom features to your site’s Coming Soon page.

SeedProd works with all popular WordPress themes and is loaded with features for site owners, marketers, bloggers, or freelancers to make the most of their Coming Soon page.

And since it’s a plugin, getting started couldn’t be easier. Simply download and activate SeedProd to get started:

Never downloaded a plugin before? No worries. For step-by-step instructions, check out this WPBeginner post about how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once you activate the plugin, go to SeedProd » Settings to enter your license key.

You can find your license key in your account on the SeedProd website.

Copy the key and paste it in the License Key field:

Then, click on Verify Key.

Next, head to SeedProd » Pages from the WordPress dashboard and click on the Set up a Coming Soon Page button:

Next, you’ll need to choose a template.

Like I mentioned earlier, SeedProd offers 350+ professionally designed landing page templates you can use. You can find responsive templates for all kinds of pages, such as:

• Homepage
• Pricing Page
• Webinar
• 404 Error Page
• Sales Page

If you can’t find a specific template design that fits your needs, you can use SeedProd’s free landing page template to create custom landing pages within just a few clicks.

Back to our tutorial, you can select one from one of the Coming Soon page templates to get started.

Hover over any template you like and click on the check icon to use it:

After you choose a template, you’ll land on SeedProd’s drag-and-drop page builder where you can customize your Coming Soon page.

On the left panel, you can see all of the landing page blocks you can add to your page. And on the right side, you can see a live preview of how your Coming Soon page looks:

You can click on any existing element on the template to edit it. For example, if you want to change the headline, click on the Get Ready text and write your copy:

You can also change the text size, alignment, font, and more.

To add new elements to your Coming Soon page, you can drag one of the pre-built landing page blocks from the left and drop it in place on the right.

SeedProd has a ton of ready-to-use blocks to help you boost conversions on your Coming Soon page including:

• Images
• Videos
• Giveaways
• Countdown timers
• Optin forms
• Social media profiles
• WooCommerce blocks

I suggest you add a countdown timer to your Coming Soon page to let visitors know when your site will be live:

I also recommend adding a signup form so you can start building your email list early on.

Once you are done designing your Coming Soon page, go to the Connect tab to connect your optin form to your email marketing service provider:

SeedProd integrates with all of the top email marketing platforms including Mailchimp, Drip, ActiveCampaign, and GetResponse.

I’ll use Constant Contact for this tutorial since it has plenty of beginner-friendly features that you can scale based on your growing needs.

Back to the integration, click on Constant Contact and click on the Connect to Constant Contact button.

Follow the prompts to log in to your Constant Contact account. For instance, copy the API key and paste it into SeedProd:

When you are done, click Connect.

Now when visitors provide their email address through your Coming Soon page, they’ll automatically be added to your email list.

Next, it’s time to publish your Coming Soon page.

In the top right corner, click on the Save button to save your progress. Then, click the Publish button from the dropdown menu to make your Coming Soon page publicly available:

After your Coming Soon page is published, exit the builder by clicking on the close button.

Finally, you can enable the Coming Soon mode on your site. This will make people visiting your site will only see the Coming Soon page you just created.

To do this, go to SeedProd » Pages and switch the toggle under the Coming Soon Mode section from Inactive to Active:

And that’s it!

Your Coming Soon website is now live to the world!

This page will now hide your under-construction or pre-launch page and at the same time get subscribers and potential customers:

Now that you know how to create a Coming Soon page, I’ll share a couple of advanced functionalities that SeedProd offers for you to make the most of the tool:

• How To Add a Maintenance Mode Page
• Advanced Settings for Coming Soon Page

Adding a Maintenance Mode Page

If your under-construction or Coming Soon website is due for scheduled maintenance or server downtimes, it’s better to create a ‘Maintenance Mode’ page.

The Maintenance Mode page notifies search engines that the site is unavailable. It will return a 503 header status as recommended by Google and will tell search engines to return in a day.

It’s really simple to show a maintenance mode page instead of a Coming Soon page in SeedProd. Here’s how to do it:

From SeedProd » Pages, you’ll just need to select Set up a Maintenance Mode Page instead of Coming Soon Mode:

From there, you can follow the same steps that I mentioned above to make changes to your page.

Advanced Settings for Coming Soon Pages

We love SeedProd because it’s such a powerful plugin that’s easy enough for beginners. But it also has advanced features that make it stand out from the other Coming Soon mode plugins out there.

Let me list them out for you:

1. SEO Tools
2. Manually Include or Exclude URLs
3. Access Control

1. SEO Tools

SeedProd makes it easy to add custom site titles and a meta description for your Coming Soon page. This means that your site can be indexed using the same title and description that you’ll use once it’s live. This will prevent you from confusing Google once the page goes live.

Learn how to write a high-converting meta description to really kick your rankings into high gear and get you started on the right foot.

And if you’re using an SEO plugin like All in One SEO, you can use SeedProd’s SEO settings page as a shortcut to its optimization settings:

2. Manually Include or Exclude URLs

What if you have had a blog for years, but you are finally ready to take the plunge and monetize? You may decide that you want to leave your blog open and only hide the parts of your site that will be part of the new eCommerce site.

With SeedProd, you can easily do that:

3. Access Controls

If you work on client sites you can give them a secret URL where they can bypass the Coming Soon page and see a live version of their site:

What If You Don’t Use WordPress?

There are tons of website builders out there and many of them will let you add a Coming Soon page for your online store.

If you have checked the support for your web builder and they don’t make it easy to create a Coming Soon page, consider switching over to WordPress.

Or you can give Wix a try. You’ll find tons of website templates and Coming Soon page designs for your site.

For more help with Wix, check out this helpful resource: Wix Email Capture: 5 Ways to Grow Your Mailing List.

5 Coming Soon Page Examples

Here are 5 Coming Soon page examples for you to take inspiration from when you are ready to build your own Coming Soon website:

1. SeedProd Demo Coming Soon Template
2. BackPacker Travel 2.0
3. Fixers
4. Les Mains dans les Cambouis
5. Maria Mentiras

1. SeedProd Demo Coming Soon Template

This is a demo Coming Soon page that we created with SeedProd, it’s the best landing page builder with built-in Coming Soon mode.

The under-construction page includes a video, which is an engaging way to teach visitors more about your product or service. Or even give them a teaser or trailer to build hype and show them what they can expect.

It also has a countdown clock to let visitors know when the site will be live. This kind of value proposition is perfect for building excitement and drawing traffic right from the site launch date.

Finally, there’s an optin form to collect email addresses and social media icons to redirect users to the site’s social profiles for even more exposure.

2. Backpacker Travel 2.0

This is a perfect Coming Soon page example for many reasons. It has a sleek image in the background, an email signup form, and icons that link to the company’s social media accounts.

Notice the clever play of words in the CTA copy. Instead of saying something simple like ‘sign up’ or ‘subscribe now,’ the CTA promises to send people notifications once they sign up. This makes it look like the user is at the center of this offer, not the other way around.

In the end, it’s easy to see how this imagery and copy would appeal to the site’s target audience.

3. Fixers

Again, the image here is awesome. They even modified the CTA (call to action) button to be more unique than the generic options. For instance, opting into Take Me Away is much more enticing than Subscribe Now.

The only thing I might change on this Coming Soon page is the text under the headline. The smaller subject colors clash with the bike rider’s white shirt, which is a bit hard on the eyes.

A good way around this is to put a black square background behind the text to make it stand out a bit more. You can modify the background’s opacity to make sure the image still shines through.

You can see that our previous Coming Soon page example, by Backpacker Travel 2.0, did this with their entire campaign. This helps the website design but also makes it easier for visitors to read the text.

Otherwise, this is an awesome example of a website Coming Soon page.

4. Les Mains dans les Cambouis

The French company, Les Mains dans les Cambouis uses a simple and clear Coming Soon page design that contrasts the text and background images nicely.

What really stands out here is the white logo of the company with the fun font family. This leads your visitors’ eyes down toward the CTA button where they can enter their email address.

Also, props to them for adding social sharing buttons so that users can spread the word about the new site launch organically in their online circles.

5. Maria Mentiras

This is a great example that sometimes less is more. It doesn’t have over-the-top headline copy, extravagant design, or long contact forms for people to fill in.

The design is simple but eye-catching and looks like it was taken from a high-quality camera of the restaurant itself. Then the image was darkened to make the main text stand out.

Finally, the wording is straight to the point: Coming Soon.

While we would recommend coming up with something a bit more powerful, this Coming Soon page example shows that you don’t need to be an expert copywriter to put up professional Coming Soon pages in minutes.

And that’s it for today! Now you know how to create a lead-generating Coming Soon page for your WordPress site. And you know where to turn if you’re not a WordPress user.

Use Coming Soon Pages for a Successful Launch

With a compelling coming soon page, you can build anticipation, capture leads, and ensure a smooth launch. So get creative, and start generating excitement for what’s to come!

I hope you found this article helpful. If you did, you might also want to check out the following resources:

• 20 Easy Landing Page Design Tips
• 11 Web Design Principles to Boost Your Conversion Rates
• 9 Best Shopify Popup Apps in 2024 To Boost Sales: Comparison
• The Best Landing Page Creation Tools to Get You More Conversions
• 10 Creative Examples of Testimonials to Win Customers + Tips and Best Practices

These posts will have everything you need to improve your online presence, grow your list, and get higher conversions today.

Once your new website is launched, you’ll also need a lead generation tool to add even more subscribers to your contact list.

For that, sign up 100% risk-free to OptinMonster, the world’s #1 lead generation tool.

Whether you are running an online store or simply monetizing a blog, getting more subscribers can be tough.

When you have a robust email list, you can build a long-lasting relationship with your subscribers and grow your business. For instance, you can use the mailing list to send them personalized emails, encourage them to visit your site often, and increase your sales.

A simple email series can help you attract repeat customers to your online store or blog.

But where do you keep your growing contact list? One of the most popular options is Mailchimp.

Mailchimp is one of the leading email marketing tools that lets you segment your contact lists into distinct groups.

It’s a good tool for beginner marketers, business owners, and bloggers to send personalized emails that convert.

That’s why, today, I’m going to teach you how to add a Mailchimp popup to your website to grow your email list. I’ll use 2 methods: one for your Shopify store and the other for your WordPress site.

Here’s a more specific breakdown of what I’ll cover in this post:

• What is a Mailchimp popup?
• Why use OptinMonster for your Mailchimp popup
• Method 1: Create your popup campaign for Shopify
• Method 2: Create a Mailchimp WordPress Popup

What Is a Mailchimp Popup?

A Mailchimp popup is a marketing campaign on your website that gathers new leads and sends them directly to your Mailchimp account.

That way, you can organize new email addresses into segmented contact lists. Then you can send personalized email campaigns to your audience to boost your conversions.

Here’s a closer look at how this works.

When your customer lands on your website, you’ll display an email subscriber form that looks like this:

I used OptinMonster to build this MailChimp popup. It took me less than 10 minutes to create it.

If you are making a popup like this, make sure it has some kind of offer that’s hard for people to refuse. This could be a promotional deal, an eBook, or anything else you think your audience would find valuable.

We call these special offers lead magnets.

Since your lead magnet is enticing for customers, they are willing to enter their email addresses to receive the offer. That email address goes straight to a specific contact list in your Mailchimp account.

As your list grows, you’ll have more opportunities to reach out to these contact lists with follow-up promotions. This will bring customers back to your store or blog and increase your overall profits.

But where does OptinMonster fit into all this? Does Mailchimp allow its users to create subscriber popups too?

Let me answer these questions in the next section.

Why Use OptinMonster for Your Mailchimp Popup

OptinMonster is the best popup builder for growing your email subscribers, increasing conversion rates, and driving more sales from your website.

OptinMonster not only gives you the ability to create visually appealing popups that convert, but also facilitates campaigns that offer a good user experience.

But how?

With targeted optin campaigns.

Optin campaigns are small messages that you show to your site’s traffic when you want them to take a specific action.

These campaigns can be in the form of popups, welcome gates, slide-in scroll boxes, and other optin forms that help you improve your lead generation.

OptinMonster also integrates with popular form builders, such as WPForms so that you can embed an HTML form into your OptinMonster campaign.

Related Content: 9 Best WordPress Form Plugins To Capture New Leads in 2024

OptinMonster’s popup plugin helps you achieve your marketing goals no matter if it’s getting more page views, more newsletter signups, or more sales. Whatever the case may be, OptinMonster is the best tool to meet your goals.

And it’s a lot better than Mailchimp. Here’s why.

Mailchimp is primarily an email service provider (ESP) that offers a few optin campaigns on the side, such as popups and landing pages. The popup campaigns they provide are basic and limited in terms of what they can do.

For example, here is how one of their popup form designs look like:

There’s some text, a call to action (CTA) button, an email form field, and an image box. Mailchimp offers 5 layouts in total, each involving these same elements.

Then for their display settings, you have the following options:

• Immediately
• After 5 seconds
• After 20 seconds
• Scroll to the middle or end of the page
• On exit

This works for some website owners. However, your personalization options are highly limited.

So, how does this compare with OptinMonster?

To begin with, OptinMonster isn’t an ESP. You can use it to create an email newsletter or schedule it. Instead, OptinMonster specializes in helping you generate leads.

To understand the nuances between the 2 software, read our comparison article on OptinMonster vs. Mailchimp: Which Is Better for Lead Generation?

Since generating leads is what OptinMonster specializes in, we’ve made sure we’re the best at it.

OptinMonster offers more campaign types to reach your audience and more ways to target them. With OptinMonster, you can send the right campaigns to the right people at just the right time in their customer journey.

To give you a quick comparison, here’s a snapshot of OptinMonster’s display rules:

Each of these display options offers further choices and lets you control where and where the campaign appears, or who can see it.

More on that later.

Finally, OptinMonster syncs with any ESP on the market, Mailchimp included. So if you ever decide to change your ESP as you grow, you’ll never feel locked into a software you don’t want anymore.

You can still use OptinMonster to grow your lists and have the freedom of sending your email campaigns with whatever ESP you like.

Want to get started? Sign up for OptinMonster today risk-free with our 14-day money-back guarantee.

Coming back to our tutorial today, there are 2 reasons why you might want to add a Mailchimp signup form to your site:

• To grow your Shopify business.
• To increase subscribers for your WordPress site or blog.

Let’s go through the step-by-step process of how you can create a popup for each scenario.

Method 1: Create a Mailchimp Popup for Shopify

In this tutorial, I’ll create a Mailchimp signup popup for your Shopify store.

Shopify is one of the biggest eCommerce platforms in the world. It’s popular because of how easy it is to use and how many features come locked and loaded with its basic package.

In short, it’s a great platform for new businesses and entrepreneurs who want to make money with Shopify. But to create an email signup form in Shopify, you’ll need OptinMonster.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do that:

• Step 1: Connect OptinMonster With Your Shopify Store
• Step 2: Create Your Popup Campaign
• Step 3: Design Your Popup
• Step 4: Set Your Display Rules
• Step 5: Integrate Mailchimp With OptinMonster
• Step 6: Save and Publish Your Campaign

Step 1: Connect OptinMonster With Your Shopify Store

To get started, log into your Shopify account:

Next, head over to OptinMonster’s app in the Shopify store and click Install:

Allow OptinMonster the necessary permissions and proceed to install the app:

And you’re all set! You’ve just connected your Shopify account with OptinMonster. You’ll see this message in your OptinMonster dashboard:

With this, your Mailchimp Shopify popup is nearly complete.

We just need to build your popup campaign with OptinMonster.

Step 2: Create Your Popup Campaign

First, you need to log into your OptinMonster dashboard and click Create New Campaign:

Select your campaign type. For this tutorial, I’ll use Popup:

From there, you’ll need to choose your campaign’s template.

OptinMonster has over 700 pre-built templates. That means you can build beautiful campaigns in a matter of minutes. This saves you both time and headaches along the way.

And if you want a truly custom popup for your site, you can build one from scratch with our Canvas template:

This will give you a blank template that you can design with our drag-and-drop editor. No coding required.

For this tutorial, I’ll choose the Shopping Coupon Discount template:

This template is perfect for eCommerce. It gives you plenty of space to showcase your products on the left and enough room to write compelling copy on the right.

Next, name your campaign. I’ll name mine MailChimp Popup Shopify. Now assign it to your Shopify site, and click on Start Building:

Then you’re ready to start configuring your popup design to match your brand style.

Step 3: Design Your Popup

This is how the default template looks like in the editor:

In this tutorial, I won’t get into too much detail about how to design your campaign because there are too many customization options to choose from in one post.

If this is your first time working with OptinMonster, I recommend watching this video:

Editing your popup is easy with our drag-and-drop builder even if you have never done it before.

You can change any element of your campaign by clicking on it in the editor. Then the editing tools will appear on the left-hand side menu.

To change the header copy, for example, just click on the text in the image and edit the text directly in the editor:

You can also change the image by clicking on it and using the editing tools that appear on the left-hand side:

For instance, you can upload a new image or use one from a previous campaign:

Finally, if you want to add anything to your popup campaign, you can do that, too. Just go to the left-hand menu panel and look for the right elements in the search box under Blocks:

You’ll see many options that you can add to your Mailchimp Popup Shopify campaign, including:

• Button
• ChatBot
• Countdown Timer
• Divider
• Text
• Image
• Video

To move these blocks into your campaign, drag and drop them on the editor:

And the best part? You can easily map any field to your Mailchimp popup.

Here’s the design I created for the Mailchimp Popup Shopify campaign:

Again, this took less than 10 minutes to create!

Next, I’ll show you how you can use OptinMonster’s targeting features to control where and when to show the MailChimp Popup Shopify campaign.

Step 4: Set Your Display Rules

There are many ways you can choose to display your campaign. OptinMonster has a ton of targets and trigger options to make sure you’re reaching the right audience at the right time.

Today, I’ll focus on 2 powerful popup triggers:

• Exit-Intent®
• MonsterLinks

Triggers are rules that track your site’s user behavior to determine if a popup should appear. This includes events such as when users are about to leave your webpage if they click a link or button, or how far down the browser page they scroll.

Let’s look at how these 2 triggers can be set up for your Mailchimp popup and briefly talk about why they are so powerful.

Exit-Intent®

This trigger shows a popup whenever someone tries to leave your website. It’s a great way for eCommerce websites to recover abandoned shopping carts and convert them into sales.

Setting up an exit intent trigger is easy with OptinMonster.

First, head over to the Display Rules tab:

Click on the time on page condition. Next, click When from the dropdown and choose Exit Intent® from the available options:

Then choose which devices you want to use your exit intent rule for. You can choose between desktop-only, mobile-only, or both:

You can also set the sensitivity level for your Mailchimp exit intent popup:

Keep in mind that the sensitivity level you choose will have a direct impact on your mobile popup. That’s because Low and Medium sensitivity creates a scroll-up trigger, but High sensitivity creates a back button trigger.

Read this article to learn more about these 2 types of mobile exit intent triggers.

Exit-Intent® Technology is incredibly powerful. As an example, Crossrope used this feature to grow its email list by 900%.

But there’s another popular trigger that we’ll look at in this tutorial, too.

MonsterLinks

MonsterLinks is the perfect solution if you want a Mailchimp popup on click. That means whenever your visitors click on a specific link in your content, they’ll see your popup campaign.

MonsterLinks is how Bulkly was able to increase free trial signups by 134%. It’s a great way of making your popup campaigns more accessible to your readers.

And setting them up is easy. Once you are on the Display Rules page, click on time on page. Click on When from the dropdown and choose MonsterLinksTM (On Click) from the options:

Next, click on the Copy MonsterLink Code link:

You can now embed this link anywhere in your content. With this, your popup campaign will appear when a user clicks on the MonsterLink.

But here’s an important question: Where do the details go when visitors enter their email addresses to sign up for your offer?

For that, you have to integrate Mailchimp (or any other email automation software) with your OptinMonster account.

Let me walk you through how that’s done in the next section.

Step 5: Integrate Mailchimp With OptinMonster

Integrating your favorite email marketing software with OptinMonster is incredibly simple.

If you don’t use Mailchimp, or you are thinking about changing providers, read this resource on how to connect your email service provider in OptinMonster.

For today, I’ll show you how to connect OptinMonster to Mailchimp.

To get started, click on the Integrations tab:

OptinMonster integrates natively with over 30 of the most popular ESPs on the market.

This integration functionality allows you to automate your lead generation so you can add new leads from your marketing campaigns to your ESP.

Type the name of your ESP or scroll through the page to find it manually:

I’ll choose MailChimp since that’s what we are covering in this tutorial:

Here, you’ll need 2 things:

• Your Mailchimp account label
• Mailchimp API key

Your account label won’t be seen by others. This just keeps you organized.

You can label your Mailchimp integrations however you want it. You can also stick to something generic like My Mailchimp Integration.

But now you need your API key from Mailchimp. For that, go to your Mailchimp dashboard and click Account in the dropdown menu by your username in the top right-hand corner:

In your account dashboard, go to API keys within Extras:

Copy your most recent API key from your Mailchimp dashboard:

Here, you can also create a new API key if you need it. Now go back to your OptinMonster Integration page and paste the API key. When you are done, click on the Connect to MailChimp button:

And that’s it! Your Mailchimp account is now synced to your popup. You can even decide which contact list you would like to send your new leads to straight from your OptinMonster dashboard.

Pro-tip: Don’t see your ESP listed? You can get started with Monster Leads. Monster Leads is OptinMonster’s internal lead storage tool. It lets you store your lead data, export it, and send individual emails from your existing email client.

All that’s left to do now is save and publish.

Step 6: Save and Publish Your Campaign

Click on the Save button on the top-right corner of your screen:

Next, go to the Publish tab:

Under the Publish Status, click on Publish:

What if you don’t have a Shopify store? What if you want a Mailchimp popup for your WordPress website?

That’s what I’ll cover in the next method.

Method 2: Create a Mailchimp WordPress Popup With OptinMonster

In some cases, you may not have an online store. Instead, you might be making money online through affiliate marketing and running a blog. Still, you need a robust email list.

Connecting OptinMonster to your WordPress site is really easy. Here’s how you do it:

Step 1: Connect OptinMonster to WordPress

Most businesses need a subscription form on their WordPress sites to build an email list.

It’s incredibly easy to add MailChimp popups to your WordPress site once you’ve created your OptinMonster account.

Head to your WordPress dashboard. Go to Plugins from the menu and click on Add New Plugin:

Search for the OptinMonster plugin and click Install Now:

Next, click on the Activate button in the widget:

If you’ve never done this before, check out this helpful article that gives you 3 methods to install a plugin.

In your OptinMonster plugin dashboard, you’ll have 2 options:

• Create a free account
• Connect to your existing account

Click Connect an Existing Account if you’ve already signed up for OptinMonster. On the next page, click Connect To WordPress:

Now you can create and manage your campaigns from your WordPress dashboard. If this is a new account, you likely won’t have any campaigns yet:

After this tutorial, your Mailchimp WordPress popup will appear in your OptinMonster’s campaigns dashboard.

The OptinMonster WordPress plugin is a great option because it doesn’t require you to know where to put your Mailchimp popup code in WordPress. Instead, everything happens automatically for you.

If you aren’t super technical, this is a huge advantage.

Now all that’s left is creating your WordPress popup to increase new subscribers for your website.

Step 2: Create Your Mailchimp WordPress Popup

This is the easy part. Now, you just need to repeat steps #2–5 which I covered earlier in the previous section!

If you need a refresher, click here to jump back to step #2 for creating your Mailchimp popup.

Grow Your Email List With a MailChimp Popup

Since you want to grow your email list, that means you’re probably interested in learning how to monetize your email campaigns.

Here are a few resources to help you with that:

• What is Email Marketing? The Easiest Way To Grow
• How to Build a Brand New Email List: 14 Proven Strategies
• Why You Need to Build a Mailing List Right Now
• 12 Successful Spots For Email Signup Forms on Your Website

Ready to grow your list and generate more revenue? Sign up for OptinMonster risk-free today!

Popups can be annoying to your visitors who have already opted into (or rejected) your offer. Showing people the same popup they have already interacted with can negatively impact your bounce rate, website conversions, and sales.

In this post, I’ll share 4 step-by-step methods that will teach you how to hide popups from existing subscribers. Here’s everything that I’ll cover today:

• Why Should You Turn Off Popups for Subscribers?
• How To Hide Popups: 4 Methods

Why Should You Turn Off Popups for Subscribers?

People get annoyed when popups are irrelevant or interrupt the user experience (UX). Like popup ads and cookie consent notifications, your site visitors grow conditioned to ignore popups entirely when they become annoying. This is known as popup blindness.

On the other hand, the best popups use great design principles and precise targeting to match the customers’ expectations.

For example, you can trigger a popup with a discount offer to buyers who are about to abandon their shopping carts without buying anything.

Or, you can show relevant popups to buyers based on their past behavior on your website, their location, or the pages they visit on your site.

OptinMonster allows you to create highly effective popups, welcome gates, slide-in scroll boxes, and other optin forms that help you improve your lead generation. And our users love us for that!

It’s why OptinMonster has more than 1,213,437 customers across the globe who rate OptinMonster 5 stars in review sites like G2, Capterra, and the WordPress Plugins store.

Here’s one such review from an OptinMonster customer in G2:

A common request that we often get from our users is the ability to hide popups from existing subscribers.

All OptinMonster campaigns come with advanced targeting rules that you can configure to make sure you don’t trigger the same popups again to a specified group of website visitors.

At OptinMonster, we give our customers not just the ability to create visually appealing popups that convert. We also facilitate campaigns that facilitate a good customer experience.

But what if you have people who already subscribed to your email list before you started using OptinMonster? Or, what if you have multiple campaigns running simultaneously?

If you haven’t configured your popups to trigger for the right audience on the right pages, they will show up regardless of whether the visitor has already opted in or not.

And even your long-time newsletter subscribers will see them for the umpteenth time, creating a bad customer experience for them.

It’s similar to if you owned a restaurant, but you can never remember who your regulars were. That doesn’t sound like a great dining experience, right?

Contrast that with a restaurateur who greets their regulars by their first names and remembers their ‘usual’ order.

With OptinMonster, you can be that friendly restaurateur.

You can replace those pesky popups with smart popups that appear to the right people at the right time. And don’t appear to everyone and everywhere.

If you are a fast-growing brand, you might probably be sending out a weekly, or even a daily, email newsletter to your subscribers with links to your blogs.

To ensure a positive user experience for those warm leads and customers, it’s important to hide popups from existing blog subscribers or popups that visitors have already interacted with.

How To Hide Popups: 4 Methods

If you are an OptinMonster user, there are 4 different methods that you can use to hide popups from existing subscribers.

Let me take you through each of them in detail:

• Method 1: Set Global Success or Interaction Cookies
• Method 2: Use a Specific URL Parameter in Your Email Campaigns
• Method 3: Display a Different Popup with Campaign-Specific Cookies
• Method 4: Prevent Popups with Your Own Cookie

Method #1: Set Global Success or Interaction Cookies

The 1st method requires you to add a global cookie. With this, all of your popups will stop appearing once a visitor interacts with a popup, either by opting in or exiting out of it.

Cookies are text files that are stored in your browser containing information about a specific site visit.

You can set these cookies to be stored in your visitor’s browser whenever they interact with one of your popups. This way, your popups will display (or not display) the next time the same users visit your site.

To set your global cookie settings, go to your OptinMonster dashboard and click on your profile picture. Click on Sites from the dropdown menu:

Next, go to the site you want to configure and click on the Edit button:

Here, you can set the global success cookie and/or the global interaction cookie:

For context: the Global Interaction Cookie is the number of days that all optins will be prevented from loading after the visitor has closed out any optin.

The Global Success Cookie is the number of days that all optins will be prevented from loading after the visitor has successfully opted into any optin.

Enter your preferred number of days in one or both form fields and click on the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page once you’re done:

If you want a quick and easy way to automatically hide popups from existing subscribers, this is the best way to do that.

There are only 2 downsides to using this method alone:

1. It does not cover existing subscribers who opted in before you installed OptinMonster.
2. Since this method relies on browser cookies, it doesn’t work if your subscribers view your site from a different device than the one they opted in with.

But don’t worry. Method #2 will cover how to hide popups from existing subscribers, no matter what device they are using.

You can also exclude users who were on your list before you started using OptinMonster.

Method #2: Use a Specific URL Parameter in Your Email Campaigns

This method doesn’t rely on cookies. Therefore, it works across desktop, laptop, and mobile devices that the subscriber uses to view your site.

To apply this method, all you have to do is create a specific URL parameter that you’ll use when you don’t want to show a popup.

There are 2 ways you can accomplish this. The 1st way is to use our built-in parameter ?omhide=true.

If you add it at the end of any URL, it’ll hide all OptinMonster campaigns on that page.

Example: yoursite.com/blog-post/?omhide=true

The 2nd way involves creating a custom URL parameter and adding it to OptinMonster’s Display Rules.

To set your URL parameter so that it prevents your page from loading a popup, simply go to the Display Rules tab within a campaign:

Click on the default condition and select Where from the dropdown options. From the menu, select Query Targeting:

Next, enter the query strings you wish to use:

Click Save in the top-right corner of the screen when you’re done:

With this display rule, you can choose to only show a popup when a user has or doesn’t have a specific parameter.

You can use this URL parameter in your email campaigns too. That means whenever you link a blog post or any webpage in your newsletter, you can append your query string to include the link. This will keep the popup from showing to your existing email subscribers.

The only downside to this method is that it only works when your subscribers are accessing your site via a specific link.

If you want to hide the popup from users regardless of which link they use, go with method #1 which makes use of the Global Interaction Cookies. Or, you can consider the other methods I’ll cover below.

Method #3: Display a Different Popup With Campaign-Specific Cookies

The 3rd method is slightly different from the 2 methods I covered so far. That’s because it involves displaying a different popup to those who have already opted into one of your offers.

For instance, you might be offering different lead magnets to your site visitors depending on which blog posts they are reading.

While you want to prevent your visitors from seeing the same popup again, you might still want them to optin to another one of your lead magnets or content upgrades.

So once they optin or exit a popup, you can show them a new popup the next time they visit your site.

Another benefit of applying this method is that it helps you create a ‘popup funnel’ to move your visitors further along the sales process.

For example, the 1st popup can be an optin form. Once they have successfully opted in, they can see a different popup that offers a discount code.

And once they have successfully grabbed the discount code, you can show them a popup reminding them to finish their checkout process.

This is very similar to how a tripwire funnel works.

For this tutorial, let’s say you want to display Popup B after someone opts into Popup A. Then after someone opts into Popup B, you want to display Popup C.

Here’s a visual representation of how this works:

To make this work, you’ll need to add a campaign-specific cookie to your popups.

Start by going to your OptinMonster dashboard and create Popup B with a discount offer.

If you need help, read our guide on how to Create Your First Campaign.

From there, click on the Display Rules tab within the campaign:

Click on the 1st condition and select OnSite Retargeting from the dropdown. Then click on Has Converted from the right-hand side:

Next, choose a campaign from the dropdown list:

In our case, you should select Popup A (optin campaign) for this to work. Once you’re done, save the campaign:

Next, create Popup C (reminding customers to finish their checkout) and go to the Display Rules tab within the campaign:

Once again, go to the OnSite Retargeting option and select Has Converted:

When it comes to choosing the campaign, make sure you choose Popup B:

And that’s it! You now have a dynamic popup campaign that you can use in so many ways:

• To hide specific popups from existing subscribers
• To enhance the user experience
• Move your visitors further along your funnel

Method #4: Prevent Popups With Your Own Cookie

The last method I’m going to show you includes using your own specific cookie to prevent popups from showing. This gives you more control over displaying popups than other methods I covered earlier.

First, go to the Display Rules tab within your campaign:

Delete the 1st condition since we don’t need it:

Click on the current URL path option in the 2nd condition and select Who from the dropdown. Then choose Cookie Targeting from the options:

Here, you’ll have 2 options:

Click on the default options in the corresponding Key and Value boxes and choose does not contain in both places. Next, enter your cookie key and value:

Click on Save once you are done:

With this, you will prevent popups from appearing based on any cookie that you want. The possibilities are endless!

The only downside to this method is that you may need to hire a web developer to help you create the cookie.

If that’s not a possibility for you, you can go with the other 3 methods that I shared earlier. After all, you now know how to hide popups in 4 different ways!

Do More Than Just Hiding Popups

If you noticed, each of the methods has its merits and shortcomings. There is no single catch-all method that will help you hide popups from your existing subscribers.

However, if you use a combination of these methods, you can cover multiple scenarios to fulfill your requirements.

What’s even more exciting, however, is the possibilities that these methods offer you to enhance the user experience on your site. You can use these methods not just to hide popups from existing subscribers, but to display more targeted popups for specific visitors to make their buying journey more personalized and contextual.

And the best part? You can use these methods to create popups that work like a sales funnel!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like the following blogs:

• How To Show Smart Popups Only to Existing Email Subscribers
• How To Create a Popup Based on Location To Boost Your Sales
• Retargeting Best Practices + What It Is and Why You Need It

Want to try one of the 4 methods we discussed earlier in this post?

Get started with OptinMonster today!