
Ask HN: Do you ever sign up to a newsletter modal? - aledalgrande
I can&#x27;t stand how (low skill) marketers try to capture your attention, especially on fashion&#x2F;ecommerce sites, with a modal for you to sign up to their newsletter (which must be junk 99% of the times) and I bet the conversion is in the lower one digits.<p>Is it really worth it to shove this in the face of a user who just landed, risking to piss them off and losing the actual purchase?<p>Is it one of those things that everyone reads on marketing blogs and will continue to apply mechanically for another 10 years?
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makecheck
If pop-ups are designed to gain customers, they always have the opposite
effect on me: I leave _immediately_ if something is annoying the hell out of
me. (Also makes me wonder why companies _immediately_ abuse my personal
information, e.g. sending daily spam practically the minute I become a
customer, as if that’s going to help.)

On the other hand, I can make my own “newsletters” by revisiting sites that
have proven themselves to post interesting things. Sometimes I even go looking
for their ad-supported podcasts. And do you know what evil, underhanded dark
pattern produces this kind of reader loyalty? Having good content presented in
a simple article format, with text that flows normally on a web site with no
scripting tricks.

~~~
aledalgrande
What you described requires commitment and knowing your (small) audience.
Scarse these days. One of its preachers is Seth Godin.

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luckylion
> Is it one of those things that everyone reads on marketing blogs and will
> continue to apply mechanically for another 10 years?

No, they work, just not on this audience. The same goes for exit intents ("Do
you _really_ not want to buy this great product? [] Of course I want to [] No,
my life is the best it ever could be, it doesn't need improvement"), they
convert for large audiences but are hated by others. The question then is: is
the trade-off worth it. Apparently, it is for many.

~~~
aledalgrande
Do you have any data on that?

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luckylion
None that would be considered scientific. I work for a few affiliate/seo-
people, and the exit intents, newsletter popovers etc worked well on sites
that target non-tech-savvy people (as in: better newsletter-signup-rate,
higher overall conversion rate with exit intents; it's not gigantic, but it's
large enough to be meaningful). They didn't work at all on the one site that
targets tech people. While we didn't see a lot of total rejections (e.g. "I
see that and I just close the tab"), we also didn't see more signups or
conversions. Would be improved if it was tested on more tech-audiences, but
they don't do a lot of those.

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QueensGambit
Because it works! Google tried to penalize these sites with popups by reducing
their SEO rank. Yet, they found workarounds (like 5 second delay) to show
these popups. The point is - they are not "low skill" marketers. They do it,
because the signup conversions are usually 4x higher than not having the
popup.

Popups force users to make a choice. Users who are not interested in the site
will be annoyed and leave the site. Users who are interested will signup, if
you offer them something more (like discounts). So, while you may not like it,
it does the job!

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soulchild37
I have a newsletter modal in my own technical blog (usually placed below the
article and above the comment box), and usually I attach a gift to bribe user
to subscribe (cheatsheet, completed project code etc) .

Conversion rate from visitor to subscriber is around 1.5% , and conversion
from subscriber to customer (once in a while I email them that I have
technical ebook solving X problem) is around 4%!

I avoid spammy popup modal and just place the form at the end of article, and
offering relevant CTA usually. And this mode of marketing worked very well for
me

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dazc
A lot of the time they offer a discount in return for signing up. Anecdotally,
people sign up for the discount if they were going to buy something anyways,
otherwise they don't.

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aledalgrande
I understand they work in the short term, but how is the long term churn? The
only positive I can see is that you get direct metrics for your funnel.

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enz
No. When a pop-up pops up, I hit the "back" button right away. I don't even do
it consciously, actually...

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buboard
In Europe you typically have 3 popups: cookies, GDPR and then newsletter
followed by a fixed header / notifications popup / something. It's every time,
and a lot of time wasted.

I bet HN users are not their target audience so i think it's pointless to ask
here.

However we should ask, how can we create a standard for these forms. (The end
goal is to create a blocker for them, but in order to be adopted we have to
provide a carrot to the webdevs).

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beezle
I do not via modals, or anything else.

