When you’re looking to drive conversions on your WordPress site, pop-ups and notifications can help. However, it’s important to make sure these elements don’t hurt the user experience (UX) by obstructing their view.
That’s where notification bars come in. They offer a non-intrusive way to promote a new product, drive traffic to a specific page, or capture emails. Plus, there are plenty of WordPress notification bar plugins to choose from.
In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of adding a notification bar to your WordPress site and some popular ways to use them. Then we’ll provide you with three of the best WordPress notification bar plugins to consider. Let’s get started!
The Benefits of WordPress Notification Bars
WordPress notification bars offer a powerful way to display important announcements, messages, and Call To Actions (CTAs) on your website. They typically appear along the top or bottom of the screen to grab visitors’ attention and direct them to a certain page on your website:
Notification bars are a non-intrusive method of making important content on your site more visible to your audience. Unlike full-screen pop-ups and slideouts, they don’t obstruct the viewing area, making them less irritating or likely to hamper the UX.
You can use notification bars to:
- Display important updates, news, and announcements
- Capture emails to build your subscriber list and generate leads
- Promote special offers and sales
Plus, adding them to your site is quick and easy when you use a WordPress notification bar plugin. Many come with a variety of style and customization options, as well as features and integrations for maximizing their impact.
For example, depending on the plugin you use, you can add dynamic and interactive elements, including CTA buttons, animations, and countdown timers. Some WordPress notification bar plugins even let you create alert bar campaigns, perform split testing, target messages, and more.
3 Best WordPress Notification Bar Plugins
Once you decide to add a notification bar to your website, the next task is deciding on a plugin. Let’s take a look at three of the best WordPress notification bar plugins.
1. NotificationX
NotificationX is a freemium WordPress marketing plugin that lets you create and customize attention-grabbing notification alerts on your WordPress site:
The notification bar feature is included in the free version of the plugin and is particularly useful if you’re looking to display special offers and promotions. It includes:
- A clean and simple interface
- Option to select a start and end time for notifications
- Countdown timer feature
- Support for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads
- Display customizations, including the option to exclude the notification bar on specific pages
If you want to leverage some of the advanced features, such as custom alerts, notification themes, or Mailchimp and ConverterKit integration, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version. There are three pricing options, with plans starting at $39.
For more information, check out our full NotificationX review.
2. Hello Bar
Hello Bar is one of the most popular WordPress notification bar plugins out there:
It’s a freemium plugin that boasts a clean, user-friendly interface, making it useful even for beginners. In addition to notification bars, you can also use it to create slider and whole-screen pop-ups.
Hello Bar notification bar features include:
- Real-time preview tool to see how it will display on the frontend
- Option to define the CTA link and display message
- Style and customization options for changing the bar color, placement, and size and button style
- Ability to capture unlimited subscriber emails and integrate with email services
- Live A/B testing feature
To use the plugin, you’ll need to sign up for a free account on the Hello Bar website. Then you can use their cloud-based tool to create and customize your notification bar. When you’re done, you can add it to your WordPress site by copying and pasting the generated code.
The free Hello Bar WordPress plugin is an effective choice if you’re only looking for basic customization options and your site doesn’t get more than 5,000 views per month. However, one thing to note is that you can only remove the Hello Bar branding with a premium plan, which start at $29 per month.
3. My Sticky Menu
Another freemium WordPress notification bar plugin to consider is My Sticky Menu:
While technically a plugin for creating headers and sticky navigation menus, this plugin recently added a Welcome Bar feature you can use for displaying important site announcements and promotions. It makes it easy to create a colorful, attention-grabbing notification bar without any coding.
You can also:
- Change the bar background and button colors
- Select the display frequency
- Add custom HTML
- Redirect visitors to another URL
- Change font size and font family
- Set your own text and call-to-action button text
After you install and activate the plugin, you just need to enable the Welcome Bar in the plugin settings. Then you can define the announcement text and customize the display. It also includes features for adding fade and slide-in effects.
Although there is a Pro version available, the free plugin includes all the basic features and functions you’ll need to create a floating welcome bar. However, if you want to leverage even more customizations and effects, there are three premium plans to choose from.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a user-friendly way to increase conversions on your website, a notification bar is the way to go. However, it’s important to choose a plugin that will effectively meet your specific needs and budget.
In this post, we discussed three of the best notification bar plugins to use with your WordPress site:
- NotificationX. A freemium plugin that is particularly useful for promoting a special offer with a countdown timer.
- Hello Bar. This popular WordPress notification bar plugin offers a variety of features for customizing notification bars, particularly those used for capturing emails.
- My Sticky Menu. If you’re looking for a simple, no-frills tool for adding a site announcement notification or welcome bar, this plugin is a solid choice.
Do you have any questions about WordPress notification bar plugins? Let us know in the comments section below!
