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:

• Benefits of SMS popups

• SMS popup examples

• ➡️ How to create an SMS popup

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.

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?)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 (5 stars on Shopify), with a proven record of helping businesses. Here are some success stories (visit Wisepops customers to see more):

• Blume converts 5% of its visitors

• 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)...

Alexander B., Trustpilot

Step 1: Create a new campaign

In the Wisepops dashboard, click the New campaign button (make sure you're in the Popups tab). Then, choose the Custom campaign option in the menu that appears.

Step 2: Choose a campaign format

You have three campaign format options: popup, bar, and embed.

Let’s go with the classic one: popup.

Step 3: Remove the email block

Now, you’ll be in Wisepops editor where you can customize your campaign.

By default, Wisepops will create a popup with email signup. So, we need to replace it with a phone number signup.

Go ahead and delete this block by clicking the trash bin icon. Just hover your pointer over the signup to make that icon appear.

Step 4: Add a Phone Number Block

Now, turn to the main menu on the left side of your screen.

Find and click Phone to add the block. This feature will appear automatically in the main menu after you delete the email signup.

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.

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 the copy?

If yes, then scroll back up to the section with SMS popup examples. There, you’ll find various examples to inspire your copy.

Step 7: Choose a background

This step lets you add a custom image or a colored background to your popup. The background is important to make a unique design and keep text readable.

To add an image, go to Design > Style, then find the Background Image toggle switch. Turning it on to choose an image on your device.

Want to add a colored background instead?

Find Background in the same tab (Design > Style). This button is located just above the popup viewer. Click it to open the color menu and make a choice.

Step 8: 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.

Step 9: 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.

Step 10: 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 11: Add a thank-you window

How about thanking customers for signing up?

You can do so with a special thank-you window. Just head over to Blocks > Buttons and choose Display a thank-you message in the Submit button section.

Once you choose this option, a THANK YOU tab will appear next to the MAIN POPUP (see below). Click it to view and customize the thank-you window.

Step 12: 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).

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!