Did you know email marketing is one of the most effective ways to engage customers? In fact, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $40.
Seeing this stat, it’s no surprise that 81% of small businesses use email marketing to build customer relationships, launch new products, and drive sales.
But before you can use email marketing to do all that, you need to build your email list. And without a doubt, email popups are the best way to generate more email subscribers by catering to your target visitors.
In this article, we’ll guide you through how you can get new subscribers using newsletter popup forms and show you 34 email popup examples to get inspired.
Let’s get started!
Popups are overlays that appear on your website based on different targeting and triggering options, and they usually promote a secondary offer for website visitors, such as:
Email popups (also known as newsletter popups or email subscription popups) are the most popular type of popups. As the name suggests, email popups are used to collect email addresses from your visitors with an email capture form.
Here’s an example of a newsletter popup:
Email popups are highly effective tools for growing your subscriber list, though conversion rates vary depending on the incentive offered.
Here’s what our data shows:
Incentive-free email popups have an average conversion rate of 5.10%, proving that compelling messaging alone can persuade visitors. But Brand Growth Experts was able to achieve an 8.33% conversion rate with a simple newsletter promotion popup.
Offering something valuable like an ebook can increase this average conversion rate to 7.49%.
If you tie a discount to the signup, the average conversion rate jumps to 7.65%, with some brands achieving much higher rates. For example, Vegetology achieved a 13.8% conversion rate by offering a mystery discount.
These statistics show that email popups work best when tailored to what your audience values most.
Now that you’ve got the basics down, here are some great and eye-catching email popup examples to inspire you.
What’s great about this email popup example:
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If you’d like to create a similar popup form that promotes a coupon code, you can get started with this popup template:
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Try this popup template:
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If you don’t want to offer a discount and simply want to promote the value of your newsletter subscription, try these email popup templates:
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Reducing white and enhancing the overall design could make the popup more visually appealing and effective.
Ready to design email popups of your own? Below are some popup best practices to help you grab visitors’ attention and grow your mailing list.
You only have a few seconds to grab your visitors’ attention. A strong headline is paramount, and it will offer value right away.
With popups, simplicity wins. A cluttered popup is annoying because it’s confusing and takes far too long to figure out what your offer is.
Every great popup example we cover has one thing in common: they give visitors something of value like a discount code, free shipping, or a lead magnet. A popup that doesn’t deliver value isn’t a good popup.
The call-to-action should be both prominent and direct. It should be the main focus of the popup design and should be immediately recognizable within a fraction of a second.
And remember to only use one call-to-action per popup. Otherwise, your message becomes confusing.
Boost engagement by tailoring your popup headlines to match visitors’ interests. Personalization creates a connection, increasing the likelihood that users will pay attention to your message and take action.
You can use OptiMonk’s Smart Popups tool to show a personalized popup for each visitor automatically.
Watch this short video for more tips on how to get the most subscribers with your email subscription popup campaigns:
The short answer is yes. According to our own statistics, popups with a discount offer have an average 7.65% conversion rate. But even incentive-free email popups have a 5.10% average conversion rate. And lucky wheel popups (which are also a type of newsletter popups) perform even better, with a 13.23% average conversion rate.
If a popup appears too quickly (right after the site loads, for instance), it can annoy your new visitors. Plus, they probably won’t be ready to sign up for your newsletter yet. Generally, we recommend displaying popup forms on exit intent, but for more details, check out this article.
To get started, you’ll need a reliable popup builder tool that offers customization options and templates. OptiMonk is one of the best popup builder tools out there and it offers a free plan to get you started. Begin by selecting a suitable template from our Template Library.
Then determine the targeting and triggering conditions that will prompt the popup window to appear. Don’t forget to integrate it with your email marketing tool, so you can track email marketing metrics and send email marketing campaigns to your new subscribers.
Now that you’ve seen some examples of great email popups, are you ready to build your own?
Take a look at our Template Library to see how you can grow your email list with the help of eye-catching email popups like the ones covered here.
We offer a slew of ready-to-use templates and color themes to choose from and add to landing pages, blog posts, or anywhere else on your website.
Building subscriber lists for your email campaigns has never been easier!
Would you like to learn more about popups? Check out these articles:
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Product updates: January Release 2025