How to create a newsletter popup for your Shopify store

When someone fills out this form, it means two opportunities for you. First, you get a new email subscriber whom you can reach directly using email marketing tools. Second, you give away a discount code which increases your chances to make a sale.

Sounds like something you’d like to implement in your store? Then keep reading to find out how to do it.

Below, we’ll show you how to create a high-converting newsletter popup using Getsitecontrol – an easy-to-use popup builder for Shopify.

You’ll also learn how to display the popup at the right moment, track sales that happened after store visitors had interacted with it, and send new subscribers to your Shopify Customer list.

How to add a newsletter popup to Shopify

Getsitecontrol makes it really easy to create a newsletter popup and adjust it to your goals. There’s no need to deal with the code or the theme of your store. Just select a template from the gallery, adjust its appearance, if necessary, and activate the popup on your website.

Here is a step-by-step walkthrough of the process 👇

Step 1. Pick a template

Assuming you’ve already installed Getsitecontrol to your Shopify website, log into the dashboard, click Create widget, then proceed to Premade widgets, and select an email form to your taste.

Each template has its own set of features, including display triggers, coupon codes, and follow-up emails. Hover over the templates to learn more about them, but keep in mind that you’ll be able to change those settings if you want.

Step 2. Adjust the copy

Once you’ve added the template to your dashboard, click any piece of the description right on the popup and type your text instead.

Make it clear what your offer is, and what a visitor should do to take advantage of it. In our example, we’re offering a discount code in exchange for an email subscription.

If you want to encourage visitors to make a purchase right away, provide the discount code on Page 2 which opens as soon as they fill out the form:

Noticed that “Copy the code” button? It allows customers to copy the discount code to the clipboard with a click. Although you can include the discount code in the text, having a click-to-copy button is more convenient because it prevents customers from making a typo at checkout.

Here is how to set things up 👇

Step 3. Let customers copy the code with a button click

If your template doesn’t have a second button, go ahead and click +Add button in the right-side menu. If you’re using a template with a pre-designed copy-the-code button, click it and open the Actions menu as illustrated below:

All you need to do is make sure that you have the ‘Copy to clipboard’ action selected, and your discount code is added in the first field.

The second “Back to shop” button is set up to close the popup.

So here is how it works: after subscribing, your customers can click the first button to copy the code to the clipboard and the second button to close the popup and continue shopping.

Step 4. Adjust the image, font, and form style

To replace the image on the popup, you have three options: import any image from your store, select a stock image or GIF from the built-in gallery, or upload a picture from your computer. To get started, just click the image and proceed to change it; then choose your preferred option from the menu:

💡 To change the font, style, and color theme, open the Theme menu at the top and see your options.

Step 5. Set up audience targeting

Your Shopify newsletter popup is ready to go live. If you’ve selected a premade template, check the default targeting settings it comes with. For example, ours is set up to pop up after a visitor spends 3 seconds on the page:

You may also want to target first-time visitors only, or those who’ve viewed at least 2-3 pages of your store. Most of the targeting controls are rather self-explanatory, so feel free to click around and see what your options are.

Step 6. Create an automated follow-up email

Whether you choose to display a coupon code right on the popup or not, it’s a great practice to send a confirmation email to your new subscribers – also known as a welcome email, or a follow-up email.

Use a follow-up email to thank people for joining your list and repeat the discount code in case they end up without purchasing this time.

If you opt for a premade widget at the beginning, you’ll get a default follow-up email template to start with. Feel free to use it or choose something else from the premade gallery instead:

By default, most templates include a GIF or a countdown timer, a generic message, a click-to-copy coupon code, and a button leading to your website. Of course, you can change every element of the email to make sure it’s aligned with your branding and tone of voice.

💡 Instead of a single email, you may want to create a welcome email sequence where each email will be sent after a certain time delay. For instance, you can use your second email to introduce your brand and its mission; the third email – to feature your bestsellers, and so on. To get inspired, check this collection of welcome email examples.

Integrate your newsletter popup with Shopify customer list (optional)

Whenever someone joins your list through the popup, their email address will be saved in your Contacts section. However, you may also want to send new subscribers directly to your Shopify customer list. To do that, open the Integrations tab and select Customers from the menu; then map out contact fields:

If you’re using any other email marketing software, you can connect it as well. Check the list of options already available and consider Zapier apps as well.

How do I know if my Shopify newsletter popup drives sales?

That’s our favorite question!

Getsitecontrol allows you to access detailed statistics report for each popup, including the report featuring sales associated with it.

This means you’ll be able to see how many sales have been made after customers interacted with the popup.

To access the report, go to the main Getsitecontrol dashboard, and expand the Sales metric for the newsletter popup. Then proceed to Statistics:

The first screen of the Sales report helps you understand how many orders the selected popup has driven over time. As you start scrolling down, you’ll see a detailed breakdown for each widget-related order.

Using this report, you can tell whether a popup helps you generate sales and get a better idea of what your customer journey looks like. Learn more about widget-related sales from our recent blog post.

Create a newsletter popup for your Shopify store

When set up right, popups work very well, especially for ecommerce brands whose struggles are often caused by the lack of user engagement. A simple newsletter popup, in particular, can help you accomplish multiple crucial tasks, email list building being just one of them. Add one to your store today, and see how it works for you.