The Offer That 3x’d Email Opt-Ins (Without a Discount)

This weekend was one for the books.

Saturday, my sister-in-law had to get her appendix removed, which left my wife, mother-in-law, and me managing a total of seven kids under the age of six under one roof.

It was pure survival mode. Non stop Bluey, pizza, and ice cream.

Then Sunday, I borrowed a car from my brother-in-law to run some errands. 

As I pulled up to a busy intersection the car stopped. 

Smoke started pouring into the cabin. The a guy in the next lane started waving at me to shut off the car and said there was oil pouring out from the engine.

Turns out the transmission line had snapped and dumped fluid everywhere.

We finally managed to push the car to the side of the road and wait for a tow truck.

So after all that weekend wildness it was actually a relief to sit down and cook up this issue.

Today, we’re going to be talking about pop up optimization.

The Opt-In That Couldn’t

For most brands, pop-ups are the front door to your email list. The right offer can turn a curious window shopper into a subscriber, and eventually, a customer.

That opt-in is the best way to grow your list. This is your shot to bring people into your world before they leave forever.

The pop-up I optimized for this client was basically like the car I drove this weekend. Stalled in the middle of the road.

This brand is a bike retailer with high AOV products and tight MAP pricing restrictions. So the cliche eCom offer of giving 10%  off in exchange for an email wasn’t an option.

This was their old pop-up offer :

“Up to 50% off top brands. Sign up to get exclusive offers.”

Pretty freakin’ lame. And sadly, I’m the one that wrote that. 

I’ve worked with this client for years and could never get the opt-in rate above 1%. 

The offer was too vague and not compelling at all. 

The SMS offer was even worse

Offer Over Everything

We didn’t need a fancy new design. We just needed to fix the offer.

And as I mentioned above due to MAP restrictions discounts were off the table.

So, I worked with the brand to build out real member pricing. 

If someone created an account, they’d unlock access to deeper discounts on select bikes and see prices that weren’t visible to the general public. 

This let us stay MAP-compliant while still offering real value.

That solved the offer side. But the structure was still a little confusing.

There were three different price points: full retail, a public discount, and then a deeper members-only discount.

Our new offer did a good job of grabbing attention but we still had to explain how member pricing worked.

So we rebuilt the first welcome email. The first email walked people through how the member pricing worked, step by step. 

We added screenshots showing where to find the deals and made it clear what they’d get once they logged in.

SMS was next.

Historically, our text opt-ins were even worst than email. So we really pulled out all the stops and just went with a free monthly give away

The client already had tons of branded merch, so fulfillment was easy. And to build trust, we started announcing each month’s winner to the list by name and city. Later this month they’ll publish a running “winners” page on the site for even more social proof.

The Results

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if all this extra work would actually move the needle. So when we turned on the new pop-up, I wasn’t expecting much.

But within a few weeks, the impact was clear.

Email opt-ins jumped from 0.68% to 2.23%.

SMS went from 0.45% to 1.36%.

I know… I know those numbers are still on the lower side compared to what some brands might see. But for this business, with tight MAP restrictions and no blanket discounts, it was a massive win.

We went from collecting around 500 emails per week to over 1,900. More than triple the list growth.

But the biggest signal that it worked?

New member account creation more than doubled.

This was the missing step that unlocked access to member pricing and now, more people were opting in, logging in, and moving further down the funnel.

We’ve since started working the members-only page into regular campaigns, giving subscribers even more reasons to engage. So the value of the offer doesn’t just live in the pop-up anymore. It’s become a key part of the retention strategy.

The Takeaway

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to pop-ups.

What works for a high-AOV retailer with MAP restrictions won’t work for a snack brand with 40% repeat purchase rates. 

In some cases, a straight discount might be the right move. In others, a giveaway or gated pricing might perform better.

The real lever isn’t design. It’s the offer.

So if your opt-ins are flat, start there. Think carefully about what you can give people that feels valuable enough to trade an email or phone number

Get that part right, and the rest gets a whole lot easier.

Well I hope you folks enjoyed yourselves. I’ll catch you later on down the trail.

Got a topic you want me to cook up a recipe for? Drop me an email or a DM.

- Ben

P.S.

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