And - believe it or not, that simple "pop up" has turned out to exceed everybody’s wildest expectations! That’s us, our clients -- the whole ball of wax!
Want to see it again? Click here, then close the window.
Why this otherwise innocuous add-in is so blasted hot is painfully obvious with a little 20-20 hindsight.
Visitors despise having to weed through a ton of text or a half-dozen web pages to find what they are looking for.
Even if a website is organized for maximum information retrieval, there are some visitors that (not to put too fine a point on it) -- couldn’t find their hindside with both hands and a map!
Sticking a promotional message "in their face" to point them to a specific feature of the website that owners want to emphasize -- often simplifies the visitor’s search and does a "suggestive sell"* for products and services.
But, we at HirMon "kicked it up a notch," compared to how most other websites present a pop up:
- The pop up only appears once per browser session. That is: it is shown to visitors on first access to the Home Page but not subsequent accesses. Repeating the pop up is an annoyance that defeats it’s purpose.
- The home page always contain a link to redisplay the announcement, if the visitor decides they want to see it again. Note: If the pop up is disabled (Don’t Show) the link doesn’t appear.
- The information contained within the popup message -- can be freely changed by website owners: 24/7
- The Home Page "fades out" to emphasize the contents of the pop up. It returns to normal when the pop up box is closed.
- The controls for the popup include:
- A simple show/don’t show checkbox
- A Shutoff date entry (optional). When that date is reached, the pop up is set to Don’t Show automatically.
Important: The version of the Home Page Popup used on this page is intentionally setup such that every time the page is refreshed, the message will appear. Normally, this does not happen.
Want to try is on a "real website?"
Go to: http://www.rapsnowdemo.info/scripts/admin/admin.php -- and look for the link that reads: Home page (popup) its on the lower right side of the menu.
Try it! Go to: http://www.rapsnowdemo.info and use the Redisplay announcement link (top right of banner on page), if needed to see your changes.
Remember: Once you look at the pop up once, you will have to use the Redisplay announcement link to see any further changes! (That’s the way it’s supposed to work...)
Some success stories:
- The Buckhorn Exchange restaurant in Denver, CO, saw a 10% increase in gift certificate sales, for no better reason that the Home Page pop up had a link and a "suggestive sell" to buy them for the holiday season.
- Our website for Meadow Creek Bed & Breakfast Inn and Events Center in Pine, CO, used it for one day to do a Valentine day special offer, then took it down. Why? It "filled the house!"
- Cowboy singer Bill Barwick promotes his website actively and when he annouced a local house concert - it was standing room only shortly there after.
The nice part is that if your website includes an self-administration feature that allows you to upload PDF fliers (like all of our website do), you can link to them directly from the pop up to further encourage visitor participation!
What can we say? It works!
Oh and by the way, we’re sorry, but this add-in is only available for conventional websites. It cannot be used with blogware based websites like: Zen Cart, WordPress, Joomla, Concrete 5 or similar website presentations. Maybe you can score an add-on for them somewhere else. We just hope it is half as good as ours ;)
* You already know what "suggestive selling" is even if you have never heard that term before.
Here’s a common example: You go to a drive-up window at a local fast-food chain and place an order.
9 1/2 times out of 10 the clerk will say something like: Do you want to super-size that?
Their question is an example of "suggestive selling."
"Mickey D" has made a fortune doing that for years.
