The Arrogant Popup

So what is the arrogant popup?

We all used to find Google arrogant when it often came back with a *sigh* did you mean this? And similarly the arrogant popup also relates to the language used.

An arrogant popup is one that states an arrogant reason for why the user would not want to go ahead with an offer prompting them to close it. As you can see from the two examples below the user has to choose a pre-defined reason of why they don’t want to receive what the popup is offering.

I see why some sites might do this, but I can’t help but feel it’s a little….bitchy? It’s like saying if you don’t choose us then you’re hurting your business so it sucks to be as arrogant as you! It is of course different when it relates to ignoring a free gift or discount.

Here is where popups can be as arrogant as they want because it actually would be disadvantageous for the user to blindly close it. Whether it be a percentage discount off a cart amount or a gift with purchase, you want your users to realise what you’re offering them for free.

From the example below Conversion XL ran a test using an arrogant popup down to just normal ‘no thanks’ copy.

Using an arrogant popup in this regard works wonders. Something like ‘No Thanks, I prefer to pay full price for my clothing’ will catch someone’s eye immediately and make them think twice about what they’re ignoring.

We’re so used to reading ‘No Thanks’ or ‘I am not interested’, in fact it’s common to look for the tiny text link that says this in contrast to the big ‘Yes Please’ button. This is hardly going to encourage a user to consider the offer. If we spend so much time fussing over conversion based off the wording on call to action buttons then we also need to look at the wording when a user wants to decline.

You need to emphasise what the user is missing out on.

You could simply say ‘No thanks I don’t want a discount’.

Or you could be arrogant and say ‘No thanks I prefer to ignore discounts’. 

You could simply say ‘No thanks I don’t want this’.

Or you could say ‘No thanks I don’t like receiving free gifts’.

You could simply say ‘No thanks I’m not interested’.

Or you could say ‘No thanks I like to pay maximum shipping costs’.

Get your users thinking about what they're closing. Be arrogant.