Last updated Tue Oct 01 2024
12 Effective SMS Popup Examples [+ How to Create Them]
An SMS popup can be a great tool for your marketing. SMS popups are the popups that appear on websites to collect mobile phone numbers for future SMS marketing. If you are planning on investing in SMS marketing, these popups are a great place to start.
In this post, you’ll learn how to make SMS popups. Also, you’ll see high-performing examples from successful businesses. But first, we’ll go over the benefits of using SMS popups in marketing.
Click to go to sections:
Transform website visits into SMS subscribers
Capture phone numbers with SMS popup campaigns on your website.
Benefits of Using SMS Popups
Why collect visitors’ phone numbers in the first place? Answer: SMS marketing. It’s a powerful tactic to drive sales and brand awareness. To get started, though, you need SMS popups. Add them to your site, and you should reap the following benefits:
Increased sales
Customers are comfortable with buying from mobile. In fact, smartphone owners are up to 50% more likely to buy on mobile right away while using their devices. So adding SMS popups to your site could be the first step towards higher sales.
Higher open rate of marketing messages
Marketing studies report the opening rate of SMS marketing at a whopping 98%. This is much higher compared to other marketing methods (even great email campaigns achieve about 20%, for example). And SMS popups are the best way to get started.
Better performance of promotional campaigns
Need to encourage more customers to use discount coupons? SMS popups can help. Research says shoppers redeem discount coupons in text messages up to 10 times more often than traditional coupons.
Related: Discount code ideas for ecommerce
SMS Popup Examples
To help you create great SMS popups, I’ve included 10 examples in this section. They follow the best practices of popups (design, copy, incentive, etc.) and should inspire you to create your own campaign.
Let’s dive in!
1. The Try Guys
This SMS popup example prioritizes readability. Black text on a white background creates maximum contrast and optimal clarity. Also, the headline promoting the discount is written in a larger font, which is a good idea to grab visitors’ attention.
SMS popup tip:
Set up your campaign to appear “on scroll.”
This SMS popup from Try Guys appears when the visitor scrolls down to about 60% of the homepage. It’s a good idea because it gives visitors some time to learn about your products.
2. Miss A
This brand is running monthly SMS giveaways, which they promote with this SMS popup. The window is nicely designed using Miss A’s colors and fonts, which makes it a great example of a branded SMS popup. Also, note the attention-grabbing headline (who wouldn’t want a $100 shopping spree?)
SMS popup tip:
Try Spin-the-wheel popups for contests and giveaways. They gamify your customers’ experience and can convert up to 30.3% of visitors.
3. Soylent
This SMS popup from Soylent combines SMS and email signups. Note the beautiful custom background image featuring the product. Together with the logo, it’s a great example of a branded SMS popup design from one of the top Shopify stores.
This SMS popup also appears as a tab—a small window shown on the website at all times. So, if a customer decides to get the discount after browsing around, they can click the tab to see the popup again.
SMS popup tip:
A tab is a great way to make popup less intrusive on mobile screens. Here’s How To Use Tabs in Wisepops to create better campaigns for mobile.
4. NaturAll
This brand took a creative approach in this SMS popup campaign by combining lead generation and surveys. The result: a relevant, interactive, and useful three-page discount popup.
First, the campaign offers website visitors the chance to answer a quick question to get a 15% discount in a popup. All they need to do is click Start.
If they click, the popup then asks a question about their hair goal, along with answer options to make it easier for visitors. Indeed, this question might be relevant to many of the brand’s customers.
Next, the campaign asks visitors to provide their phone number to get the discount code. That’s it. This way, the SMS popup helps the brand collect useful information about customers and generate leads.
SMS popup idea:
“How did you find our website?”
“How likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend?”
If you’d like to have on-site surveys with questions like these on your website, try popup surveys. They’re a simple way to learn about impressions of your product, customer experience with ordering, or anything else.
5. Williams Sonoma
This good-looking popup example includes email and SMS signups. Our eyes are immediately drawn to the headline promising special savings and recipes – a great way to attract visitors’ attention. A high-quality food image appeals to the brand’s target customers who are often looking for new recipes.
SMS popup tip:
There might be two reasons for the optional SMS signup. It’s possible that Williams Sonoma is experimenting to see if visitors leave phone numbers. Or, the brand is simply offering two ways to sign up to get as many leads as possible.
6. Nine West
Want to create a black-and-white SMS popup campaign? Then check out this simple and clean example. It follows the best practices by displaying benefit-driven copy, a stunning branded visual, and a large CTA button. Also, the popup does a great job reinforcing the brand by matching the style of the website.
Want to take a step back and learn more about popups in general? This guide has useful info: What is a Popup?
7. Ally Fashion
Would you like to personalize your marketing campaigns with customers’ names? Then you can create an SMS popup similar to this example. It has a section where customers can provide their names in addition to emails and phone numbers.
Personalization with a customer’s name is great, but not the only method to improve customer experience and conversions:
8. Stasher
Stasher chose a friendly approach to SMS popups. This one is short, sweet, and helpful for customers. And I just love “Let’s be friends” – it’s a good way to introduce a brand as approachable and helpful.
SMS popup tip
Try different copywriting styles to engage visitors:
9. Venus Et Fleur
“Yes, I would!”
That’s how many customers would answer the question from this SMS popup example. Since free delivery is a top reason to buy online for 51.1% of online shoppers, including this offer in a popup campaign is a brilliant idea.
10. Proozy
Proozy is a retailer, so its exit-intent SMS popup emphasizes the main value for customers: getting discounts up to 70% off. The value is pretty compelling, so the campaign doesn’t even have any extra calls to action.
Exit intent popups like Proozy’s provide one more chance to convert visitors before they leave. These Exit Intent Popup Examples will be useful if you’d like to design a similar campaign.
11. Splits59
This SMS popup shows how serious this brand is about personalization. Besides collecting emails and phone numbers, it requests the first name, newsletter frequency preferences, and even birthday. Why birthday? Because birthday emails generate twice the revenue of typical marketing emails to the same customers.
12. Jawzrsize
This SMS popup has a black background, which contrasts with the text and draws readers’ attention to the value proposition. Also, note that the offer is time-limited—this way, the brand increases the sense of urgency.
How to Create an SMS Popup (Step-by-Step)
In this tutorial, we’ll be using Wisepops.
Wisepops is one of the highest-rated popup apps (4.9 stars on Shopify), with a proven record of helping businesses. Here are some success stories (visit Wisepops customers to see more):
Charlotte Bio got 17% of monthly sales in six hours
Faguo collects 5,000+ emails with popups every month
If you’re ready—
Unlimited free trial, zero commitment.
"Wisepops helped me in many ways. I increased my conversion rate with marketing messages displayed at the right moment thanks to their targeting options... Last but not least, it integrates very well within my stack (Klaviyo for emails and Postscript for SMS)...
Step 1: Create a new campaign
In the Wisepops dashboard, click the New campaign button (make sure you're in the Popups tab):
Step 2: Choose a campaign format and use case
Make sure you've chosen popup format and "email & phone" as the use case:
Step 3: Pick an SMS popup template
You have many templates to choose from, as you can see, but you'll go with this one below. Feel free to choose any you prefer, of course.
Step 4: Customize the template design
Click on any SMS popup element to customize it to resemble your website design:
Design tip:
Make sure to choose a color/image that keeps the popup text readable. Often businesses play it safe by choosing a light background and dark text.
Heads up: Besides phone number signups, you can add images, videos, surveys, links to Facebook pages, and even countdowns to your popups.
Step 5: Add integration with an SMS marketing app
SMS marketing apps automate the creation and sending of campaigns. So, it’s better to add one right away.
In Wisepops, you have three great options to choose from:
Blueprint. SMS marketing for Shopify stores, designed for conversational marketing and cart recovery. How to integrate Blueprint with Wisepops.
Klaviyo. All-in-one text message marketing app with clear pricing, a simple interface, and useful analytics. How to connect Wisepops and Klaviyo.
Postscript. Advanced-level SMS marketing app that includes ROI tracking, analytics, segmentation, cart recovery, and transactional messaging. How to set up Wisepops and Postscript.
When you’re ready to make a choice, click your selected app in Blocks > Sync.
Please note that you need to have an account in your chosen SMS marketing app to complete integration. But you can still continue making an SMS popup and add the app later.
Heads up: Be sure to check consent requirements for SMS collection in your country. You might need to add an extra section to explain how you’ll use customers’ numbers. Here’s a Guide to US SMS Compliance Laws if your business collects numbers of US-based customers.
Step 6: Write compelling copy
Copy is what engages visitors and makes them convert. So, you need to add a title (headline) and text to encourage signups.
Click the headline and the text block to add your text.
Need some inspiration with writing your popup message?
If yes, then scroll back up to the section with SMS popup examples. There, you’ll find various examples to inspire your copy.
Also, check out our popup copy guide. It contains useful tips in popup creation, along with other ideas and examples.
Step 7: Choose a display scenario
Now, let’s make sure that you’re displaying your SMS popup at the right time.
You can choose among six display scenarios:
On landing
On exit
On scroll
On click
On hover
On custom event
For this SMS popup campaign, let’s choose On Exit.
This setup means that your campaign will be displayed once visitors try to leave your website. Exit intent popups are some of the most effective, converting up to 7% of visitors.
More helpful information on popup display scenarios:
Step 8: Select the audience
Many companies collect phone numbers from mobile visitors only. But let’s include desktop visitors, too. This way, you’ll get more leads, and, therefore, more sales opportunities.
Choose Audience in the Display rules main menu tab.
Then, click All devices to show your campaign to both desktop and mobile visitors.
Did you know you could display SMS popups at the bottom of mobile screens to avoid blocking the entire screen? More expert tips on mobile popups:
Step 9: Preview the campaign
At this point, the campaign is about ready. Let’s just preview it to make sure that everything looks great.
Click Preview to display your campaign.
Step 10: Save your campaign
Congratulations!
You did a great job making your first SMS popup. Now, you have a campaign to collect subscribers for your SMS marketing. Only the last step remains: saving your creation.
Click Save (the button is located right on top of Preview).
Note:
Wisepops has too many customization and design features to cover in one post. If you'd like to learn more, visit our Help Center. his detailed Guide to Email Popups and these email popup examples can be helpful with your first campaign.
SMS popups: summary
SMS marketing is a proven method to market and sell, so it can be a great addition to your strategy. Start by adding SMS popups to your website and testing different value propositions (newsletter signups, discounts, etc).
Wisepops has everything for you to get started: a beginner-friendly popup creator, useful campaign templates, helpful support, and straightforward A/B testing—try our tool and grow your business!
Pawel Lawrowski
Pawel is the Head of Growth at Wisepops and an expert in lead generation, popups, ecommerce, and onsite marketing.
With over a decade of experience in digital marketing and ecommerce, he has both build marketing teams from scratch and led strategic business growth projects.
Pawel has worked with countless online businesses on marketing strategies and is now sharing his knowledge. Previously, he was an head of growth at Tidio, where his responsibilities ranged from creating marketing materials to building acquisition channels.
Education
West Pomeranian University of Technology
Certifications
Marketing Strategy (course)
Advanced Growth Strategy (course)
Retention & Engagement (course)