What's your name?
On many sites, shoppers are greeted with popups that offer 10% off their purchase if they provide their email address. But we need to find a more creative way to get more email signups because shoppers are becoming conditioned to these overused popups. As a result, they’re immediately closing out of these popups (as we’ve mentioned many times on our blog).
Hydroflask.com does something different, and we believe a similar approach could be useful on your site.
When you land on their site, this is what you see:
What they’re doing is what we call “Lead In”, which is essentially asking an interesting question to lead shoppers closer to your conversion goal. And when you lead a shopper deeper into a funnel, they’re likely to become victims of the “sunk cost fallacy”, which describes how people are more likely to continue a behavior because they’ve already invested time, money, and/or resources into that behavior.
In this case, it’s hard to argue that no shopper would be interested in free shipping. Therefore, we expect a lot of shoppers to click “Yes”. After clicking “Yes”, this is what Hydroflask.com shows:
We’re willing to bet this will drive many more email signups than the standard “sign up for 10% off” popups. Why? Because no one wants to pay for shipping. But also because shoppers have already spent time reading the popup content and feel as if they might as well enter their email address since they’ve gone this far (sunk cost).
What do you think about this popup?
Comments 5
“Want free shipping?” is rather odd-baller.
I think at this day and age, shipping must be FREE.
Hydroflask.com could have also said “I want free shipping”, Yes & No. Need to be action-oriented and not ask a question that is either a yes or a no, in the first place. Why begin with a 50% chance?
Furthermore, I also see sites that also require a minimum amount of purchase like $200 for free shipping.
The better way of doing all of this would be to sending the goodies right away and NOT wait until the next purchase. Send a $10 gift voucher right away to the email and convert the cart, if you’re liking the idea of giving goodies out.
But, in the long run, need to have the value proposition of a product stand out and provide enough motivation for a sale, without gift vouchers and other goodies. Got to create such habits in users. 🙂
Good take, Preston and Rishi!
Hey, Sumantha.
Sumantha: Hydroflask.com could have also said “I want free shipping”, Yes & No. Need to be action-oriented and not ask a question that is either a yes or a no, in the first place. Why begin with a 50% chance?
Rishi: We prefer to frame things as a question. We find it performs better. But your suggestion could work just as well.
Sumantha: But, in the long run, need to have the value proposition of a product stand out and provide enough motivation for a sale, without gift vouchers and other goodies. Got to create such habits in users.
Rishi: On this point I agree 100%. Well said.
This is very interesting. Never thought about the sunk-cost fallacy when it came to email sign up and copywriting. Will definitely think about how I can incorporate this into my business!
I get the idea of “sunk cost”. That sounds like a more scientific concept. Yet I just wonder if it isn’t simply making it easier to say “yes” in this case.
For me, I have always focused on getting small yesses and letting those compound into the ultimate yes. The Hydroflask.com example suggests an idea that it’s more likely someone would agree to a benign offer of free shipping, than agreeing to make a significant monetary transaction. Also, it appears Hydro is offering something up first, which is always recommended.
Again, I know it’s not that scientific of a thought, but it’s used by sales professionals all the time. In this case, the retailer is likely using something that will be viewed as small, but builds into something bigger. While conventional wisdom tells us to cut to the chase, I think an asterisk needs to be applied to that thought. Sure, get your target to your desired destination as quickly as possible, but you might want to do it in a fashion that makes them feel like they are in control. I have too many stories of SaaS clients who experience high turnover to note how “cutting to the chase” just led to incredible churn or lack of converted users.
Hubert, first of all, thanks for your first comment (celebration in the background).
Second, you are 100% correct in your straightforward read. You’re right that this is about getting the micro ‘yes’. That first micro ‘yes’ increases the likelihood that this user will also say yes to the next question. In this case, the next question is “willing to share your email?”.
I also really liked your “cutting to the chase” SaaS story. I’d love to learn more about that. Sounds fascinating.