[FAQ]

Hey everyone,

I’m thinking about adding a pop-up form to my website to try and grow my email list more quickly. However, I’m a bit concerned that in 2025, most people are so used to pop-ups that they just find them annoying and will immediately close them, or worse, leave my site.

Are pop-up forms still an effective strategy for getting email subscribers? Or are there better, less intrusive methods people prefer now? If they do still work, I’d love to hear about any best practices to make them effective without alienating my website visitors.

Curious to hear what people’s experiences are with this. Thanks!

[Jeff Bullas]

This is a common and valid concern. The direct answer is yes, pop-up forms can still be a very effective tool for growing an email list in 2025, but their success depends entirely on how thoughtfully they are implemented. A poorly executed pop-up is an annoyance; a well-executed one is a high-converting asset.

The reason they can be so effective is that they command attention and present a clear, direct call to action that is impossible for the visitor to miss.

To ensure your pop-ups are effective and not just irritating, there are several best practices to follow. First, and most importantly, timing is critical. You should avoid showing a pop-up the instant a visitor lands on your page. It is much better to give them time to engage with your content first. You can trigger the pop-up based on specific user behaviours, such as time spent on the page (for example, after 30 seconds), scroll depth (after they have scrolled 60% of the way down a page), or on “exit-intent” (when the visitor’s cursor moves towards closing the browser tab).

Second, the offer presented in the pop-up must be genuinely valuable and relevant to the content on the page. You need to provide a compelling reason for someone to provide their email address. This could be a discount, access to an exclusive guide or checklist (a lead magnet), or entry into a competition. The value of your offer must outweigh the minor interruption of the pop-up itself.

Third, the design of the pop-up should be clean, on-brand, and user-friendly. It should be easy to understand what is being offered and, just as importantly, it must be easy for a user to close if they are not interested. Hiding the ‘close’ button or making it difficult to find is a poor practice that creates a negative user experience.

Fourth, you should use smart targeting and frequency rules. Good pop-up software allows you to control who sees the form and when. You should avoid showing the pop-up to visitors who have already subscribed. You can also set rules so that if a visitor dismisses the pop-up, they will not see it again for a set number of days.

Fifth, ensure the pop-up is optimised for mobile devices. On a smaller screen, a poorly designed pop-up can be especially intrusive and difficult to close, which can lead to visitor frustration and can also be penalised by search engines like Google.

A poorly implemented pop-up – one that appears immediately, is irrelevant, and is difficult to close – will almost certainly harm your user experience and increase your bounce rate. However, when used intelligently with respectful timing, a strong value proposition, and user-friendly design, pop-ups remain one of the most effective methods for building an email list.

Cheers,

Jeff

[Author]

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