A popup signup forms are one of the most effective ways to capture new signups. Unlike forms placed in a footer or on a separate page, popups appear directly while visitors are actively browsing your site. This makes them more noticeable and gives you the chance to highlight the value of signing up—such as early ticket access, special offers, or event updates—right at the moment your audience is most engaged.
You can leverage this capture tool to collect SMS opt-ins! If you’d like to learn more about SMS marketing compliance, you can refer to this article for a detailed overview: SMS compliance overview (US and Canada)
Create a new popup form
In your Hive account, go to Capture in the left-hand navigation and select Popup Forms. This will bring you to your main popup forms page. From here, click + New Popup Form (top right).
You’ll see three options:
Popup Form – the standard popup that appears when someone visits your site.
Exit Intent Popup – a form that appears when someone tries to leave your site.
Hive SDK – for sites with a custom-built popup form, allowing you to connect signups directly to Hive.
For this article, we’ll walk through creating a standard popup form.
Next, you’ll be taken to your popup form where you can complete the configuration.
Add form details
Give your popup form an internal name. This name is only visible inside Hive, so choose something clear and recognizable for your team.
Customize the design
When you create a popup form, Hive generates an embed code that you can further customize to match the look and feel of your website. Within the popup form builder, you can:
Add header text – the main message that appears on your popup.
Select a form layout – choose vertical or horizontal.
Pop-up Delay
Decide how long a visitor should stay on your site before the popup appears.
Note: If someone closes the popup or completes the signup, they won’t see the form again.
Button label
Customize the call-to-action text on your button. By default it says Subscribe, but you can edit this to match your brand voice.
Choose your form fields
Select the information you’d like to collect (e.g. name, email, mobile number) by checking the box next to each field. As you make selections, you’ll see a live preview of your form update on the right-hand side of your screen.
Notes:
If you include a mobile number field, Hive will automatically add the required compliance text to ensure the data is collected correctly.
The more fields you add, the higher the chance of signup drop-off. Collect only the information you know you’ll use in your marketing efforts.
If a returning fan who is already in your contacts, Hive will recognize them and pre-fill any applicable form fields (such as name, email, phone, location, birthday, segments, and custom properties). This happens automatically and helps reduce the effort required for returning fans to complete the form.
Add to segment(s)
Choose which segment(s) new signups should be added to. This won’t display on your form—it’s just for organizing your contacts in Hive.
To add users to an existing segment, type the segment name exactly as it appears in Hive (case and character sensitive).
You can also create a new segment directly from here.
Set up opt-in segments (optional): Add interest or preference segments as checkboxes on your form. When visitors select these, they’ll be added to the corresponding segments in Hive. You can remove any default options by clicking X.
We’ve seen opt-in segments work especially well for venues that host different types of events—for example, rock, hip-hop, or jazz. When contacts complete your form, they can indicate which genres they’re most interested in (and which ones they’re not).
This gives you the ability to send more relevant, targeted content for upcoming shows. Not only does this create a better experience for your audience, but it can also improve key email performance metrics such as open and click-through rates—ultimately driving higher conversions and attributed revenue.
Write your success message
Create the confirmation message visitors will see once they successfully sign up (e.g. “Thanks for joining!”).
By default, the preview will display your main form. To view the success message, toggle the preview switch. We recommend reviewing both the main form and the success message (what visitors see after submitting) before going live.
Save and get embed code
When everything looks good, click Save & Get Embed Code (top right).
Copy the generated HTML code and paste it into your website where you’d like the popup to appear.
For details on how to view and export the contacts collected by a signup form, check out this help article.
Customize your welcome email/SMS
Did you know that 74% of people who sign up for SMS or email expect to receive a welcome message? Without it, they may assume something went wrong. A welcome message also ensures SMS compliance by clearly showing new subscribers how to opt out if they choose.
Setting up the welcome email/SMS automation
When you create a popup form and click the edit welcome email/ sms, Hive automatically generates a Welcome Email/SMS automation for you. From here, you’ll need to:
Review the content to make sure it matches your brand’s look and tone
Toggle from pause to live when you’re ready to start sending
For step-by-step instructions on customizing and editing automations, check out this help article.
Note: the great thing about starting with your signup form page is Hive will automatically create a draft automation for you.