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Despite their overwhelmingly bad reputation, popups are a useful tool, but high conversion potential is not worth sacrificing user experience. Luckily, with the right WordPress popup plugins, you can leverage the high-conversion potential of popups without driving users away.)

Before diving into the tools, let’s look at the features to determine if a plugin suits your needs.

What to look for in a WordPress Popup Plugin

Popup plugins offer many features — from customization to screen display locations and built-in analytics — but the most important features to watch out for are targeting and trigger options.

Targeting refers to where the popup will appear on your website and who it will be shown to. Popular ways to target users with popups include page-level targeting, geolocation, device, and traffic source.

Triggers are actions that a user needs to take for the popup to appear. Popular trigger options include page entrance, scroll depth, clicks, time on page, and exit intent.

Having a few popup forms on your WordPress website could boost your lead capturing game. A quick Google search shows that there are many tools to choose from. To help you sort through the clutter and find a tool that moves the needle for your team, we’ll take a look at 12 WordPress popup plugins you should consider below.

1. HubSpot WordPress Plugin

HubSpot’s plugin allows you to connect your WordPress website to your HubSpot account for seamless integration. Any changes made to your popups in your HubSpot portal will be automatically reflected on your WordPress website without any extra work on your part.

 

HubSpot’s popup tool is highly intuitive and easy to use. You are first prompted to select the type of popup you want (box, banner, or slide-in) and then taken to the customizer where you can edit the text, add an image and relevant form fields, and even design your own thank-you message at the end.

Every contact you capture is automatically added to your free HubSpot CRM account. You can also target users by simply typing in the URL of the page(s) you want your popup to show up on and choose whether you want it to be triggered by a 50% page scroll, exit intent, or time elapsed. And if users decide to dismiss your popup, you can choose when they will be exposed to it again.

All the features in this tool are free.

What We Like: Other than the obvious reason being that this is our plugin, we love it for all it offers for free. This is an all-in-one plugin that handles everything you need on WordPress. With popups, you can create or manage your pre-existing popups with little to no hassle.

2. OptinMonster

OptinMonster was one of the firsts to popularize the use of popup forms in the marketing space. Its drag-and-drop feature makes it highly easy to use. You can choose from a variety of pre-built templates or create your own popup from scratch. Their Canvas feature allows you to create any type of popup (not just forms!) with the use of custom HTML/CSS and WordPress shortcodes.

Small Success is another unique feature that lets you display different offers to people who have already converted on one of your popups so you won’t annoy your visitors by showing them forms they’ve already signed up for. You gain access to plenty of triggers, such as exit intent, time on page, user inactivity, clicks, as well as many advanced targeting options like new vs returning visitor, cookie, geolocation, device, adblock usage, and more.

The main drawback with this plugin is that there is no free version. Plans start at $9/month, but you will need to upgrade to a higher tier for the more advanced features like A/B testing and exit intent.

What We Like: This is the best option for easy customizability. You have drag-and-drop for design, different templates to work off of, or even the ability to design from scratch. You’ll easily be able to with any type of popup you want to make with this plugin.

3. Elementor Popups

Design stunning popups with the popular page builder plugin Elementor and their Popup Builder feature. Elementor Popups uses the same interface as the page builder, allowing you to apply the same widgets and styling options to your popups, like buttons, countdown timers, email opt-in forms, and more. Similarly to many of the other plugins, this one offers a variety of popup forms like fly-ins and full-screen overlays.

With more than 100 beautiful templates to choose from, this popup builder lets you create WordPress specific page targeting options (categories, tags, post formats, etc.) with several triggers to choose from, such as click, time, scroll, inactivity, and exit intent.

This plugin does not come with built-in analytics or A/B split testing. And while the Elementor page builder plugin is free to use, this popup builder is only available when you purchase the pro version, which costs $49 for one website, and up to $199 for unlimited sites.

What We Like: Elementor’s popup plugin is a great choice for premium designers. You won’t need any coding experience to create stunning popups for your users. This is another all-in-one plugin that helps you build

4. Sumo List Builder

Sumo is more than just a popup form builder. On top of growing your email list, this plugin also helps with your social media, link building, and site analytics. The app has a module called List Builder, which allows you to create popups. You can set you popups to show up according to traffic source or different triggers such as clicks, time on page, exit intent and scroll depth.

Though this plugin comes with a free version, only one template is available in the free tier and you’ll need to upgrade to remove the Sumo branding. Premium plans start at $29/month, which puts Sumo on the more expensive side compared to other popup plugins.

What We Like: This plugin is great for building your email list. You have an intuitive integration with email and e-commerce, making this the perfect plugin for anyone looking to grow their business through email marketing.

5. PopUp Domination

PopUp Domination is one of the oldest popup tools out there. However, this hasn’t stopped them from making the right updates to stay competitive on the market. Its visual interface still makes it fairly easy to customize one of the 100+ pre-built templates available.

This plugin lets you show your popup to different users based on time on page, user inactivity, exit intent, clicks, total time on website, and mouse hover. On top of page-level targeting, more advanced targeting options include geolocation, traffic source, and device.

PopUp Domination has a royalty rate pricing structure. Each tier grants you access to all the features: unlimited domains and popups, A/B testing, live chat support, and more. Instead of being charged to have access to more features, you’re charged based on the number of total views your popups get across all of your websites.

If you want to use your popups on many websites that have low traffic, PopUp Domination might be a good solution. However, this may not be the best option for you if you have very few sites with high traffic volumes.

What We Like: This plugin is great for beginners since you will have many resources to help you use the tool and a relatively low price for getting started. Once your website starts getting more subscribers, however, you might want to look toward pivoting toward a more price-friendly option for your popup ads.

6. MailOptin

MailOptin is a fast-growing popup plugin for WordPress. It converts your website visitors into email subscribers using different types of opt-in forms including popups, notification bars, inline or embedded forms, scroll boxes, slide-ins, sidebar forms etc.

It is intuitive and easy to you in part because it uses the WordPress Customizer that you already know and love. It ships with a ton of professionally designed and mobile responsive templates to choose from.

It includes a number of display triggers such as page-level targeting, exit intent, time on site, pageviews, scroll trigger, adblock and referral detection, device targeting, new versus returning visitors etc. And integrates with all major email marketing providers and CRMs including Hubspot.

MailOptin is freemium. You can try out the plugin for free by downloading the lite version on WordPress.org repository or purchase a premium license to unlock more powerful features and top-notch customer support.

What We Like: This popup plugin integrates well with WordPress since you work directly through WordPress customizer. This can be great for people familiar with WordPress and just want something that works.

7. Ninja Popups

Ninja Popups is one of CodeCanyon’s top selling plugins. For $24, you gain access to their drag-and-drop popup builder with over 70 templates and animation effects to choose from.

And if you want more than just forms, Ninja Popups lets you create all kinds of popups, such as video displays and social sharing boxes. Its anti-adblocker technology lets you show your popups even to visitors who use ad blockers. This plugin also offers page-level targeting, and trigger options include scroll depth, time on page, exit intent, and user inactivity.

Although there is no free version, at only $24, Ninja Popups offers some of the most creative freedom for the price.

What We Like: This plugin is effective and enables your creativity. Bypassing adblockers is especially helpful considering 2 in 5 people use adblock today.

8. Icegram

If you’re looking for a more native option, Icegram lets you create popups right from the WordPress dashboard, thought its text-based interface makes it slightly less user friendly than most. Icegram’s trigger options include time on page, exit intent, user inactivity, clicks, and time delay. Targeting options include page, user retargeting, device, and geolocation.

This plugin offers a fair amount of value for free, but to access more functionalities, you will want to upgrade. Premium plans start at $97/year.

What We Like: This plugin is another great choice for working directly through WordPress. If you can get past the text-based interface, this is a good option for those needing a simple popup ad solution.

9. Popup Maker

Popup Maker offers a lot of flexibility in terms of what you can build. In addition to opt-in forms, you can create cookie notices, video lightboxes, notification boxes, etc.

A big draw of this plugin is its WooCommerce integration, which lets you target users based on their shopping cart items, purchase data, and more. However, this plugin’s lack of a visual editor makes it less friendly to use.

You can use Popup Maker for free, but for more functionality, individual extensions can be purchased starting at $87 per year

What We Like: This plugin lets you tailor your website popup ads to your user. You also have a good set of basic options to work off of as mentioned. Popup Maker is another good choice for those who are familiar with WordPress and just want a simple way to add popups to their page. The extra benefit is being able to work off of consumer data.

10. Bloom Email Opt-Ins

Provided to you by the devs at Elegant Themes (authors of the popular Divi theme), Bloom comes with over 100 templates to customize and lets you create a variety of forms on top of popups, including widgets, inline boxes, and optin lockers which you can use for gated content. Along with basic page targeting, this plugin contains unique trigger options — for example, make a popup appear after a user has left a comment on your page or after a user has made a purchase.

Despite its high-quality templates and beautiful dashboard, Bloom lacks a lot of the advanced features other plugins offer like an exit intent trigger option, and it doesn’t have a visual customizer.

Because this plugin comes from Elegant Theme, you can only access it by purchasing an Elegant Theme subscription, which costs $89/year or $249 for lifetime support and updates. This subscription also gives you access to 87 premium themes and 2 other plugins. But if all you’re looking for is a popup plugin, this may not be worth the investment.

What We Like: Bloom Email Opt-ins is a great choice for people who need more than just a popup plugin. You can fully customize your website through this plugin, and that includes popup ads.

11. Popup Builder

Popup Builder lets you insert any type of content into your popups and create custom animation effects. It offers features like automatic closing, user retargeting, and time delay triggers, as well as integrations with email service providers MailChimp and AWeber.

While this plugin can be used for free, just like Popup Maker, you will need to purchase extensions for additional functionality. Individual extension prices vary between $5 and $15, but you can get the full bundle starting at $49/month.

What We Like: Popup builder is a good option for those wanting to make mobile-friendly popup ads. Its intuitive user experience lets you build great looking popups in seconds.

12. Poptin

Poptin is a free popup and form builder specially designed for marketers, website owners, and digital agencies. Its powerful conversion optimization features are effective in boosting email signups, reducing cart abandonment, increasing engagement, and improving your overall sales conversion rate. It has a variety of fully responsive and customizable popup and forms templates that you can utilize without the need for coding.

In a matter of minutes, you can create your lightbox popups, full-screen overlays, gamified popups, countdown popups, slide-ins, bars, widgets, email forms, and more. You can add different elements such as images, videos, icons, countdown timer, coupons, and even custom CSS. The best part is that you can Integrate it with HubSpot CRM and emailing software to experience a seamless lead generation funnel. Poptin also offers a wide range of smart triggers and targeting rules to better convert the most qualified leads and customers.

Poptin’s free plan already includes major tools and features like analytics, A/B testing, exit-intent trigger, unlimited popups, and forms, among others. If you want to get access to more advanced features, you can always upgrade to its paid plans which start at only $25 per month.

What We Like: This plugin gives you a lot of bang for your buck. While other plugins on this list charge you for access to analytics, this tool gives you all of that for free. Poptin is best for marketers looking to add popups and dive into the data behind what makes them effective.

Choose whichever plugin fits your needs the best.

There are endless options when it comes to WordPress popup tools.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to collect user information and convert leads, check out HubSpot’s free form popup WordPress plugin. Installing the plugin will automatically connect your demand capture tools to the free HubSpot CRM so you can easily create follow-up emails for people who have filled out your form, track their activity on your site, and manage your leads all in one place.

 

Video has become a cornerstone of modern marketing, landing front-and-center in many marketing strategies.

Yet, despite being an ROI powerhouse and top lead generator, video is a hard medium to pull off.

To state the obvious, video creation isn’t quick. On average, it takes marketers two weeks to create a video from start to finish.

But what if there was a way to streamline the process — to quickly come up with ideas and execute them in a fraction of the time?

The solution could be here already, and it’s with artificial intelligence.

Here, I spoke with Chris Lavigne, Head of Production at Wistia, to learn how AI is changing the way we create videos, and how it can power your next marketing video.

How AI is Changing Video Marketing

Imagine creating a video without writing a script or picking up a camera.

Thanks to new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tools, it’s not only possible, it’s already happening.

Generative AI uses existing content like audio, video, and text to generate original content. In this case, video marketers can automate many stages of the process — like scripting, editing, and transcription — in a matter of seconds.

The ability to create videos in record time is an obvious benefit of using AI. But for Lavigne, it’s more than just saving time. It also has the potential to push the creative envelope.

“For me, AI is opening the door to new ideas, new executions, and new visuals that I may not have come up with on my own. It’s expanding my creative palette, not just saving me time,” he told me.

For instance, Lavigne and his team at Wistia created a video almost entirely powered by AI.

The process began with Lavigne opening up ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot, to generate a 60-second script about how to make an apple pie in the style of a YouTube video. He then uses AI software Synthesia to create a human avatar of himself to read the script.

To top it off, he adds a few final touches with visuals and b-roll. Here’s the end result:

Let’s take a look at more ways you can use AI in the video creation process.

How AI Can Power Your Next Video

1. Ideation and Script Writing

For most video marketers, the hardest part of the process is coming up with a great idea, followed by a compelling script.

For Lavigne, using AI for scriptwriting has been a game-changer. Specifically, he uses ChatGPT to create a framework.

“I can input a prompt and get an incredible starting point to take me from zero to 100. I can input how long I want the video to be, how detailed I want it to be, and what style of video I want it to be. The results are quite remarkable when you prompt it with the right things,” he told me.

For example, you can prompt ChatGPT to write an ad in the style of an info-mercial or a TikTok video. You can even request a specific tone, such as funny or academic.

While economists and investors debate whether we are or aren’t in a recession, 78% of marketers say it’s already here.

Since marketers are usually the first to see budget cuts in an economic downturn, it’s no surprise they’re already being hit hard. As one marketer in our sums it up:

“The company is losing money, having to raise pricing, and the budget for marketing is smaller. Because prices are higher and the marketing budget is lower, there is not enough marketing for the traffic and conversions we need.”

To help marketers recognize they’re not alone, we surveyed 300 marketers to find out exactly how they are being impacted by the recession.

While 47% of marketers said that the economy was already having a negative impact on their work, we also dug deeper to discover three key impact themes marketers are experiencing.

In this post, we’ll highlight those themes, share quotes from anonymous marketers who’s participated, and offer resources or tips to help you navigate this time.

Three Marketing Impacts Caused by Recession Concerns

1. Consumers are spending less and exercising more caution/discretion:

Though not surprising, the biggest impact marketers are seeing is that consumers are cutting costs back due to uncertainty. This aligns well with data we’ve found from multiple consumer pulse surveys over the last six months.  

From inflation to geopolitical uncertainty and lingering COVID-19 concerns, consumers simply have no idea what to expect from the future.

“People are spending less because they do not know how long the recession is going to last. As a result, they spend less on our products,” says one survey respondent.

To make matters worse, a majority (67%) of marketers expect the recession to last more than six months, and one-third expect it to last more than a year:

While we don’t have a crystal ball, aren’t giving legal or financial expert advice, and can’t possibly know what a full-blown recession will feel or look like at this point, it’s important to remember that recessions are often unavoidable. While we can’t prevent them, it’s important to continue leveraging credible sources, data, and experts beyond just a few publications when determining when, if, and how a modern-day recession would impact your business.

2. Inflation has made everything more expensive across businesses.

While consumers are pulling back spending, inflation forces businesses to raise prices and cut budgets for things they’re purchasing to stay afloat.

As a marketer in our survey put it, “higher prices make it hard to make ends meet. I have to delay payments, purchases, and planning.”

Company’s raising prices while consumers are scraping by leads to a misalignment between the two parties, leading to frustration on both sides.

3. 37% of marketers have already seen budget cuts.

Marketers in our survey say they’re “needing to spend more to get similar results from six months ago.” At the same time, their budgets are being cut.

With their usual marketing channels proving to be less effective than before, marketers are having to get creative.

On top of that, one in three marketers say a recession will have an even bigger impact on their marketing activities than COVID-19, while another 33% say it will be about the same.

One way to stay ahead of the game is by following suit of the 80% of established marketing leaders, who participated in another survey we ran, saying they’ve already planned or prepared for a recession. 

If you run a team or major project that requires a budget, and haven’t started strategic planning for different company outcomes, here’s a helpful guide. For marketers at any level, it can also be a great idea to make pivot or backup plans for how you’ll adjust your content, schedules, or other aspects of your work if something unexpected happens. 

What’s Next?

So what now? We’ll run this same survey at a later data in the coming year and keep you updated on how the recession continues to impact marketers. In the meantime, you can review consumers’ take on this time, get insights from marketing executives, or catch up on everything else going on in our quickly-changing field with our 2023 Marketing Strategy and Trends Report. 

Disclaimer: This blog post is not legal or financial advice for you or your company to use in navigating a recession, economic downturn, or any other type of economic landscape. Instead, it provides background information to help you better understand how anonymously surveyed marketers unaffiliated with HubSpot are currently experiencing this time.

This information is not the same as legal or financial advice, where an attorney applies the law or a financial expert applies their expertise to your specific circumstances, so we insist that you consult an attorney or trustworthy financial sources if you’d like advice on your interpretation of this information or its accuracy.

In summation, you may not rely on this as legal advice, or as a recommendation of any particular legal, economic, or financial understanding.