How I Fixed Our Annoying Pop-up Problem

Well, that was embarrassing.

Last week, I got this email from one of our newsletter subscribers that made me want to crawl under my desk:

“As e-mail automation experts/authority, it annoys me that you keep asking me to sign up for your newsletter, when I am actually coming from just that. It is pretty amateurish and could easily be avoided, by checking the url for utm_source=newsletter.”

Ouch. But you know what? They were absolutely right.

Here I am, running a website called Email Love, positioning myself as someone who knows a thing or two about email marketing, and I’m committing one of the most basic UX sins in the book: showing signup popups to people who are already subscribers.

The Amateur Hour Problem

For months, I’d been using MailerLite’s out-of-the-box pop-up form. Don’t get me wrong – it was performing pretty well from a conversion standpoint. But here’s the thing about basic pop-up tools: they’re, well, basic.

MailerLite’s pop-up could exclude certain pages (which is helpful), but it couldn’t do anything smart with UTM parameters or user behavior. So every time someone clicked through from our newsletter with that utm_source=newsletter parameter, they’d land on the site and immediately get hit with a “Subscribe to our newsletter!” pop-up.

Imagine being a loyal Email Love subscriber, clicking on an article link in your inbox, and then being asked to… subscribe to Email Love. It’s like going to a restaurant where you’re a regular and having the hostess ask if you’ve ever heard of their establishment.

For an email-focused website? That’s not just bad UX – it’s professionally embarrassing.

Remembering the Good Stuff

Lucky for me, I had a solution brewing in the back of my mind. Back when I was at Campaign Monitor, we’d partnered with a company called Digioh and their founder, Rishi Shah. I remembered Digioh being ridiculously powerful when it came to pop-up targeting and personalization.

So I reached out to see if they could help solve this specific problem. Spoiler alert: they absolutely could.

Turns out Digioh doesn’t just do basic “show on this page, hide on that page” targeting. They can filter based on UTM parameters, user behavior, time on site, pages visited, and a bunch of other data points I hadn’t even considered.

Designing a Better Experience

Instead of just fixing the targeting issue, I decided to completely rethink our popup strategy. Why ask for just an email address when I could gather more valuable data?

I designed a new multi-step popup in Figma that starts with a simple question: “What best describes your role?” with options for Lifecycle Marketer, Marketing Leader, Designer, Developer, Agency, and Freelancer.

This serves two purposes:

It feels less intrusive than immediately asking for an email
It gives me data I can use for segmentation and personalization later

Once someone selects their role, then we ask for their email address. It’s a small extra step, but it creates a more engaging experience and provides way more value for future email campaigns.

The Technical Setup

Here’s where Digioh really shines. Setting up the UTM exclusions was straightforward – I created a rule that prevents the popup from showing to anyone with utm_source=newsletter in their URL. Problem solved.

But I didn’t stop there. The targeting conditions I set up include:

Display until: Form is submitted (obviously)
Time on page: Greater than 2 seconds (no immediate popup annoyance)
Max displays: 1 per session (don’t be pushy)
Days since last view: Greater than 10 (give people a break)
Current page URL: Exclude specific pages like /figma-plugin, /subscribe, /login, /sign-up, /pro, and anything with utm_source=newsletter

It’s the kind of granular control that makes you realize how limited basic pop-up tools really are.

Early Results and Future Plans

The immediate win? No more angry emails from newsletter subscribers. The pop-up now only shows to people who actually haven’t signed up yet, which is exactly how it should work.

But I’m already thinking about what’s next. With job role data coming in, I can start creating more targeted email content. Imagine sending design-focused emails to designers and technical deep-dives to developers. That’s the kind of personalization that actually adds value.

Digioh also has capabilities I haven’t even tapped yet – things like A/B testing different popup designs, advanced behavioral triggers, and exit-intent detection. I’m planning to experiment with these over the coming months.

What This Means for You

If you’re running any kind of content site with email signup popups, here are the key lessons:

Stop showing signup forms to existing subscribers. It’s 2025 – there’s no excuse for this anymore. Use UTM parameters, cookies, or any other method to identify people who came from your emails. Many tools can do this these days.

Think beyond basic email capture. Multi-step forms can actually improve conversion rates while gathering more useful data. Don’t just collect emails; collect insights.

Invest in proper pop-up technology. Basic tools might seem cost-effective, but they can hurt your brand credibility. Advanced targeting pays for itself in better user experience.

Listen to your subscribers. That feedback email stung, but it led to a much better solution. Sometimes the best product improvements come from complaints.

The Bottom Line

Email marketing is all about respect, respecting your subscribers’ time, attention, and intelligence. When I was showing signup popups to people who were already subscribers, I wasn’t respecting any of those things.

Now, with proper targeting and a more thoughtful signup flow, our pop-up actually enhances the user experience instead of detracting from it. And honestly? That’s how it should have been from day one.

Have you made similar UX mistakes with your popups? I’d love to hear about them. Sometimes the best learning comes from our most embarrassing moments.

Until next week, may your popups be perfectly targeted and your subscribers forever grateful.

P.S. If you want to see the new popup in action, just visit emaillove.com in an incognito window (unless you came here from our newsletter, in which case… you won’t see it at all, which is exactly the point).

Much love,
Andy

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @emaillove