Black Friday is one of the biggest sale events of the year and you are lucky if you own a WordPress website/store.

WordPress has tons of resources like Black Friday website banners, Black Friday email templates, etc. to help you gear up for the ultimate sale season.

In this article, you’ll learn about the best eCommerce Black Friday resources that’ll help you prepare your store for Black Friday.

eCommerce website Black Friday resources

Black Friday 2024 arrives on November 29, which means you’ve to get your WordPress website ready weeks before D-day.

It is not a great practice to start your eCommerce Black Friday preparations a week before BFCM. To help you out, we have listed some of the most needed resources for your website so you can get started right away.

Black Friday plugins for WordPress

First things first, to make the BFCM 2024 season sale successful, you need to enhance your store with the best WordPress plugins. Here are some of our best and most apt picks for your website.

Icegram Engage

Grab your visitor’s attention and display your deals via attractive popups. Icegram Engage is one of the best WordPress popup builders, acquire new leads and nurture them by using Icegram Engage and boost your sales on Black Friday.

Icegram Express

You need to send out emails to inform your customers about the Black Friday sale. Use the Icegram Express plugin to create an automated email campaign and send a series of Black Friday emails using the best Black Friday email templates.

WooCommerce Smart Coupons

Coupons are an integral part of BFCM. Create the best condition-based coupons using Woo Smart coupons. You can create BOGO coupons, storewide discount coupons, and more using Woo Smart coupon plugin and send them via emails and popups.

Putler

Making improvements from mistakes is the key to growth, and to make improvements you need data and performance analytics reports. This is where Putler saves the day, getting instant performance data from visitors to sales in real-time using Putler.

Compare your data with the previous campaign cycles, rectify the issues and make necessary improvements to your campaigns.

Elementor

Persuade your customers by creating an attractive Black Friday landing page using the best WordPress website builder plugin, Elementor. Not just websites, you can design your BFCM website banners, popups and other visual Black Friday resources using Elementor.

Affiliate for eCommerce

Customers are the driving force behind a successful Black Friday sale. And now is the right time to increase your customer base by running an affiliate program in your store.

Customers acquired through an affiliate partner program tend to purchase more than other costumes, take advantage of the opportunity and use plugins like Affiliate for WooCommerce to boost your word of mouth and sales.

Black Friday website banners

Website banners are the first thing a customer will see when visiting your site. Use Icegram in your WordPress store and display intuitive Black Friday website banners to let customers know of the discount you are offering and redirect them to the sale page.

eCommerce Black Friday coupons

BFCM is meaningless without coupons!

You can display static coupons in your website popup or send dynamic coupons to customers via email.

Most businesses send coupons via email a week before Black Friday to get their customers geared up for the sale. Every store will have customers in various stages of their journey, it is not the best practice to send coupons of the same value to all customers.

For example – If a customer only purchases from a particular category, then you can send a category-based discount coupon. Or if a customer usually purchases in bulk, then you can send a bulk discount coupon to that particular customer. 

To do that, you need a robust WordPress coupon plugin that lets you create discount coupons based on various conditions. That is why we recommended WooCommerce Smart Coupons to create discount coupons for Black Friday.

Woo Smart Coupons have ready-made coupon designs which you customize to suit your style. And you can use email marketing tools like Email Subscribers to create email newsletters and send coupons to customers during Black Friday sales.

Email subject line and newsletter templates

Black Friday emails subject lines increase open rates, never miss out on it. And you can choose newsletter templates to save time. Both can be done easily using Email subscribers.

Let us break down the process in simple steps,

Step 1: Install the Icegram Express plugin in your WordPress.

Step 2: Activate it and head to Campaigns → Send Broadcast

Step 3: From the list of Black Friday email templates, select one, it will take you to the email editor page.

Write a persuasive Black Friday subject line in the Subject section and you can customize your email copy. Add visual elements to make it more engaging. Once done, click Next.

Step 4: In the final preview page, select the recipients, check the spam score and schedule the timing of the broadcast.

Step 5: Once you click Send, the email will be broadcasted to all the recipients at the same time.

You see, all it took is five simple steps from installation to sending the broadcast. Email subscribers have multiple Black Friday email templates to help you create your campaigns quickly.

Resources to get free Black Friday stock images

What sets you apart from other websites is how effectively you use your website space to feature attractive Black Friday images. Customers will not read an all-text Black Friday message – using an image to announce Black Friday will persuade them and increase conversions,

So, here are some of the best resources to get your Black Friday stock images,

• Istockphotos
• Pexels
• Shutterstock
• Unsplash
• Pixabay

Conclusion

Black Friday is a highly anticipated sales weekend, so prepare your store in advance.

Essential resources include popups, coupons, emails, banners, and images to ensure success. Utilize engaging email subject lines to boost open rates. Plugins offer Black Friday email templates and website banners for easy setup.

Don’t procrastinate—start preparing now to effectively manage demand when the time arrives. Competitors are already using these tools, so get started!

FAQ

When should I start preparing my WordPress store for Black Friday promotions?
Ideally, start at least 4–6 weeks in advance. This gives you time to test plugins, schedule emails, design banners, optimize your checkout, and run pre-sale teasers.

Can I use the same email templates and banners across Cyber Monday and Black Friday?
Yes, but tweak the messaging and urgency. While the design can stay consistent for brand recall, adjusting CTAs and headlines keeps each campaign fresh and targeted.

What kind of email automation works best for Black Friday sales?
Use a sequence: teaser emails (3–5 days before), early access or VIP preview emails, launch day emails, and urgency-driven last-call reminders. Tools like Icegram Express can automate these flows.

Can I reuse my Black Friday banner designs for future campaigns?
Yes, but with updates. Swap in new colors, text, and expiration dates. Reusable templates save time for future flash sales, new product launches, or holiday promos.

Christmas and New Year’s Eve are prime times for creating a festive atmosphere on your website, enticing customers with immediate sales and exclusive holiday offers.

To attract customers effectively, it’s essential to showcase discounts and unique offers appealingly.

Let’s explore some Christmas template ideas, including coupon templates, newsletter designs, and WordPress plugins to enhance your website.

Christmas website ideas

A few changes to your website before the holiday may appear meaningful.

• Include a Christmas greeting message.
• Include entertaining Christmas games.
• Modify the colors on your website.
• Use a Christmas-themed background using Christmas templates.
• Customize your social profile buttons by changing your logo.
• Some snow effects.
• Change the fonts on your website.
• Personalize your newsletter using the Christmas newsletter template.
• Announce Christmas sales using a Christmas coupon template.

Some fantastic free and premium Christmas WordPress themes and WordPress Christmas plugins are available to help you create an eye-catching website.

Curated Christmas template / resources

WordPress Christmas Plugins

You can decorate your store with Christmas-themed optins to stand out among your customers during this holiday season.

The Icegram Engage plugin has created some elegant-looking popups, action bars, overlays, and so on.

Want this Christmas email template?
Get the Icegram Engage plugin now

With Icegram Engage plugin, you can even convert your welcome or abandoned cart series into Christmas emails.

From the readymade Christmas email template to the Christmas newsletter template, this email marketing plugin is ideal for targeting and engaging your customers before the holiday season.

The Smart Coupon is the best plugin for you to create Christmas card photo templates, and generate bulk Christmas discount coupon codes, store credits, and other features to help you boost Christmas sales.

Putler tool combines, analyses, and enriches your eCommerce data for you to understand and take big decisions quickly and accurately.

You can easily analyze your Christmas and holiday season sales to track what has worked and what hasn’t so as to take key decisions while planning for the upcoming Christmas season.

The WordPress countdown clock plugin allows you to add a Christmas countdown widget and a flash countdown clock to your sidebar.

You can either select from pre-defined occasions, such as Christmas and New Year’s, or create your own custom event, such as a Christmas sale.

Christmas coupon template

Are you convinced that a gift coupon is a great way to both celebrate and increase sales? Store owners use emails to send greetings, offer announcements, coupons, and other information to their customers.

The best Christmas templates, whether it’s a Christmas coupon template or a Christmas wishlist template, are the only way they’ll remember you.

You can use online Christmas coupon templates to provide your customers who make a purchase with a discount coupon for their next visit.

Christmas website templates & popups

It is critical for a website owner that the website looks appealing and trustworthy during a festive sale. Website and popup Christmas templates are the most effective ways to attract visitors and boost conversion rates.

With the Icegram Engage plugin, you can select the best eCommerce template for your online store and create a visually appealing online store without any coding knowledge.

Icegram Engage has a well-designed website and popup templates that blend seamlessly with your existing website. You can easily change the text, images, background color, and background picture to suit your website.

Christmas flyers, cards, and posters

Greet everyone with Christmas posters! The pre-built online Christmas poster templates, which range from sparkly lights to traditional scenes, make holiday event promotion a breeze.

They are stunning, appealing, and the best medium for conveying personal messages for eg: Banners, they are a common form of advertising used on websites and in other digital media.

Add event details and upload photos or logos to make it your own. You can easily change the text, and colors, add/remove objects, and so on to create a variety of combinations to suit the mood of your event.

Canva has a fantastic collection of Christmas templates for cards, posters, banners, flyers, and a variety of other uses. Flyers, in particular, are perfect for promoting holiday sales, festive events, or community gatherings, offering a versatile way to share information both online and offline. If you’re looking for design options beyond Canva, here’s a great Canva alternative for flyers to explore more templates.

Christmas email newsletter

Sneak peeks and preview emails generate interest and boost enthusiasm. Start sending holiday-themed emails at the beginning of December.

Send an initial email and follow up once or twice a week, using pre-built Christmas newsletter templates from the Icegram Express plugin. These templates can be customized for effective promotional emails and flyers for holiday events.

This plugin helps manage mailing lists, design templates, and quickly send emails.

When you activate Icegram Express Max, you can find those templates by going to Icegram Express > Templates.

Check out the other ready-made email templates in the Icegram Express plugin.

Get these templates now

Christmas design assets

We have curated various Christmas design assets that include GIFs, Christmas email templates, Christmas icon sets, etc., so you can use them to decorate your store.
Download them here.

Conclusion

Use the best WordPress Christmas templates to make your holiday sales skyrocket this year.

You can select a template to enhance the festival atmosphere based on the purpose of your website. All of the themes mentioned have eye-catching designs that promise to improve aesthetics and expand the customer base.

To enlighten you further, here are the key points to remember when decorating your store and emails for Christmas. By using these resources, businesses can create professional-looking marketing materials and website designs that reflect the holiday season and help to promote their products and services.

• Create a vibrant Look
• Establish a sense of immediacy
• Make sales and announcements noticeable
• Keep the purchasing procedure simple
• Personalize them

Do you know of similar resources? If yes, make sure you add it to the comment section below. I will quickly update it on the blog.

FAQs

• What are Christmas templates for WordPress?
  Christmas templates for WordPress are pre-designed layouts and resources that help you create festive content, such as emails, banners, and popups, to enhance your website during the holiday season.
• How can I use Icegram plugins for my Christmas marketing?
  Icegram plugins allow you to create visually appealing popups, banners, and email campaigns tailored for Christmas. You can engage visitors with special offers, countdowns, and festive games to boost conversions.
• Are these templates easy to customize?
  Yes! Most Christmas templates and plugins are user-friendly and do not require coding skills. You can easily customize them to fit your website’s theme and branding.

What Is Spam?

Spam is irrelevant, unsolicited messages sent over the Internet, typically to large numbers of users, for advertising, phishing, spreading malware.

About only 79% of permission-based emails sent by legitimate email marketers reach the inbox.

So what happens to the rest of them? They end up in the recipient’s Spam or Junk folder instead of their Inbox.

Top Reasons Why An Email Reaches The Recipient’s Spam Folder?

• The Junk Mail filter has identified one or more keywords that spammers repeatedly use in their messages
• The recipient has flagged the sender as someone that sends spam
• The recipient’s ISP has filtered the mail as spam or junk mail based on the content or the senders IP address
• You are sending certain attachments or only pictures with your message that are not needed
• You have included HTML code in your email
• The email was addressed to a large group of people (either in the ‘TO’ or using ‘CC’)
• The recipient has set up ‘rules’ in their mail program that are too generic and therefore tagging your mail as spam.

Awesome Tips to Keep Email Out of the Spam Folder

In reality, unless the recipient checks their Spam folder they will never know that you responded to their inquiry. There are several ways to prevent your emails from landing in your customers’ spam folders and ensure that they reach their intended recipients. One important tip is to use a reputable and legitimate email service provider, as this can help to improve the deliverability of your emails.

So here are the top simple and awesome tips you need to follow to make sure spam emails don’t let you lose your valuable customers:

Focus every bit of your content

Write a valid subject line

The most important part of any email message is the subject line. Your subject line should be as specific as possible. Subject lines that include random characters, starts with “Re:” or “Fwd:” or contains any deceptive claims will damage your sender reputation and send your mail to the spam folder. Also, don’t use CAPITALS.

You should also make sure to follow best practices for email marketing, such as obtaining permission before sending emails, using a clear and accurate subject line, and avoiding spam trigger words and phrases. Additionally, you should use a double opt-in process to confirm that your recipients really want to receive your emails, and make it easy for them to unsubscribe if they wish to do so.

Watch what you say

• DON’T SHOUT IN ALL CAPS IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE / IN YOUR EMAIL CONTENT!
• D o n t p u t g a p s b e t w e e n l e t t e r s a n y w h e r e!
• One exclamation marks works fine, don’t go crazy like !!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!
• Stay away from gimmicky words and phrases: Buy Now, Click Here, Free, Double Your X, Money Making, Get Paid, Make Cash, Satisfaction Guaranteed, Low Price, Save Big, etc.
• Using black type is easy to read, looks professional and clean.
• Avoid too much-colored fonts. They’ll only excite spam filters.
• Keep the number of links minimized and don’t use URL shorteners.

Avoid certain attachment types

You should be careful not to send emails with large attachments or use suspicious links, as these can increase the risk of your emails being flagged as spam. Finally, it’s important to regularly check and clean your email list to remove inactive or invalid email addresses, as this can help to improve the deliverability of your emails

In general, .jpg, .gif, .png and .pdf attachments are safe to send, provided you include some content in the email as well. However, executable attachments such as .exe, .zip, .swf, etc. should be avoided entirely.

If you need to email a large attachment or an attachment type that usually can be flagged as spam or trigger virus scanners, we recommend services such as DropBox.com or Google Drive.

If the attachment contains sensitive data, you may consider using your company’s secure FTP server.

Balance the image-to-text ratio

Keep images minimal. Having more space in the body of an email taken up by images than by text raises lots of red flags. Aim for a high text to image area ratio. Some tips while using the image :

• Do not send any image-only emails
• For every graphic, include at least two lines of text
• Optimize your images the best you can
• Use well-formed HTML for email

Provide a clear unsubscribe link

As a marketer, if your focus is to put up sign-up forms on prominent places where they’re easy to find, the same should apply to the Unsubscribe option.

Nobody likes it when somebody unsubscribes from their email list. However, providing a clear way to unsubscribe means that users are less likely to get frustrated and just mark you as spam.

Follow rules & technical aspects

Be aware of the CAN-SPAM Act

The CAN-SPAM Act is a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations.

If you are sending “any electronic mail message, the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service,” then you must comply with the following 7 main requirements or face penalties up to $16,000 :

• Don’t use false or misleading header information
• Don’t use deceptive subject lines
• Identify the message as an ad
• Tell recipients where you’re located (simply add your physical address in your email)
• Tell recipients how to opt-out of receiving future email from you
• Honor opt-out requests promptly
• Monitor what others are doing on your behalf

Use correct ‘FROM’ address

Mailbox providers evaluate more than just the sender’s IP, domain and content. Yahoo! Mail, in particular, pays close attention to your From field addresses.

• Avoid frequent changes of From field names
• Make sure your From address matches your brand.
• Avoid obscure From field names, such as: “1338sdsd8@domain.com”, “noreply@domain.com”
• Use clear, trustworthy From field names, such as: “contact@yourdomain.com”, “newsletter@yourdomain.com”, “support@yourdomain.com”, feedback@yourdomain.com”.

Setup DKIM & SPF on your email server

DomainKeys Identified Mail(DKIM) means an authentication mechanism to help protect both email receivers and email senders from forged and phishing emails.

Sender Policy Framework(SPM) is a simple email-validation system designed to detect email spoofing by providing a mechanism to allow receiving mail exchangers to check that incoming mail from a domain comes from a host authorized by that domain’s administrators.

You will want to make sure your email server supports these protocols (DKIM & SPF) and that they are properly implemented. Contact your Host Provider & tell them to set it up for you.

Use clean code

Spam filters check for bad HTML code so make sure any code you’re using is clean. Any sloppy HTML code or extra tags will likely cause a problem.

For example, copy and pasting HTML from a program like Word can cause format issues and trigger spam filters, and hence we don’t recommend it. Use a professional coding tool or a template provided by your email sending partner.
Tip: How to Code HTML Email Newsletters

Send a plain text version if you are sending HTML emails

An email that consists of all HTML or all images and links will trip a spam alarm. Spam filters like to see a plain text alternative. This a good practice for avoiding a spam filter as it also covers in the case where the recipient cannot view HTML emails.

Have a genuine email list

Ask people to whitelist you

The first step is to check if your email server is on a blacklist. If it is, it becomes extremely difficult to reliably send email, especially to new people on your lists. Following are a few free services to check:

• Free Email Blacklist Lookup
• Email Blacklist Check
• Spam Database Lookup

The second step is to ask your subscribers to add your email address to their contacts/address list. It is a foolproof way to save all your future emails from the constraints of the spam filters.

Clean your email list before sending

According to MarketingSherpa, the average email list depreciates by 25% every year. Cleaning your list regularly, say every three months, is a good way to drop non-responsive subscribers (including old & invalid email addresses) from your list.

It can result in a high number of bounces which will ultimately trigger a lot of spam complaints against you and destroy your send credibility. Following are a few services that you can use to clean your list:

• IsNotSpam.com
• ProgrammersHeaven.com
• Data Validation
• NeverBounce

Break large lists down

If you’re sending to a large list, even if you have a fast and efficient email sending server, have the server “drip” the messages out slowly. Breaking down the email list will mean that the spam complaints that you receive when you send your email won’t be in one huge mass.

Inevitably, even loyal subscribers sometimes mark you as spam. If you send your large list in smaller segments, the email provider will see less spam complaints bundled together at one time.

Test your email with the recipient list

When you send an email or newsletter to a list, send a test message using the same server and information that you’ll use with your main list to each of the big email providers (Hotmail, Yahoo, MSN, Gmail, AOL and one generic office address that is viewed in an Outlook client).

If the test ends up with most of your emails going to junk folder, then it means you’ll end up in the junk box on your main send also. The pre-send test means that you can try different subject lines and email content to try to figure out what sent you to spam.

Stay in touch

Monitor your email and choose how often you send with care. Sending an email to the same addresses everyday might be too often, but sending mail only once every three months might not be enough because your recipients can forget about you. Determine a consistent sending schedule that will keep your subscribers engaged.

Ready For More Conversions?

By following the above guidelines, you can send emails efficiently with a lower risk of it ending in the SPAM folder contributing yourself to an increase in conversions and sales.

Do you find this post useful? Have any other tips to share? Let us know in the comment section below.

In this article, I will explain GDPR in the simplest terms possible. I will also cover how Icegram Engage will comply with these new privacy rules and also redirect you to some useful resources on how to implement GDPR on your website.

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice. It’s our understanding of GDPR and information on how we will implement it in Icegram Engage.

Jump to how Icegram Engage is getting GDPR compliant

What is GDPR?

It is a new set of EU privacy rules aimed at enhancing the protection of EU citizens’ personal data. It makes it obligatory for organizations to deal with such data in transparent and secure ways.

When will GDPR take effect?

The date announced is 25th May 2018.

Will GDPR apply to my business?

If your business is set up in EU or you process the data of EU citizens then YES, it applies to you. If you ever collect, record, store, use, or erase personal data from customers or contacts in the EU, then it should be your priority.

How is Icegram preparing to be GDPR compliant?

We at Icegram are reviewing and updating our internal data processes, systems as well as our plugins to make sure we are ready by May.

Soon we will be releasing our new Data Processing Agreement to allow customers to lawfully transfer EU personal data to Icegram before 25th May.

NOTE: We’re committed to achieving GDPR compliance to the earliest and are working towards the same.

How can you make your business GDPR compliant?

Just like us, I know you want to make your business GDPR compliant too. So I’m sharing a few resources we have been referring to.

Feel free to check them and leave a comment if you have any questions or doubts.

• MailChimp has created a helpful guide on GDPR – take a look at it here.
• Learn how you can turn GDPR into an opportunity – read now.

A great strategy that has stood the test of time is popups.

While it works incredibly to engage visitors, the catch lies in designing those popups well. 

Since a potential this strong cannot be missed, I have curated a list of five of the most important WordPress popup designs. These elements, if implemented right have a huge potential to increase conversions. 

Let’s dive deeper.

5 Top Popup Design Best Practices You Need To Know

Popups can be a powerful tool for website owners to increase conversions, capture leads, and promote content. However, poorly designed popups can also be intrusive, and annoying and can miss the mark which defeats its purpose.To create effective popups that engage your audience without driving them away, it’s important to follow these 5 top popup design best practices:

Craft Great CTA Buttons

The Call-to-Action button is the most important part of your web popup design.

Strategy:
Here are a couple of things to keep in mind to make your CTA more clickable:

• Use contrasting button colors: Make sure your CTA button stands out. And a simple way of ensuring that is by giving the CTA a color that completely contrasts the body of the popup. Below are some good WordPress popup designs having contrasting CTA buttons:

• Make button text appealing: If you only have one CTA button, make it sound as action-oriented as possible. Use positive words like:

1. Get This Now
2. Begin Download
3. Reserve My Seat

In case, you have two CTA buttons that are a ‘YES’ as well as a ‘NO’, you must make the text on the NO button sound very regretful. This will make the reader think twice before clicking on the No button.

• No, I don’t like offers
• Nah, Not interested in traffic
• No, I want to let this go!

• Leverage psychological triggers
  You can do this by incorporating scarcity and urgency tactics in your CTA. This can be done through countdown timers or limited-time offers to boost urgent action. You can also use FOMO actions such as ‘Only 3 spots left’ or ‘Offers end soon’. 
• Testing and optimization
  You can run A/B testing to compare different button sizes, buttons, text variations, and placements. Continuous testing helps you identify what works for your brand, what doesn’t and the areas of improvement going forward. 
• The right size
  Make sure that your popups are large enough to be noticed but don’t overwhelm or interrupt the reader. Small popups may get overlooked while the bigger ones might feel too pushy.

Focus On The Typography

Which text was easier to read? Of course, it was Text 2. Why?

Because – it did not stress your eyes. One glance and you knew the word in the picture was ‘Flourish’.

Strategy:
The above example clearly proves, why typography is extremely important when it comes to convincing customers.

• If the font used in your WordPress popup is unreadable, the customer won’t attempt to understand it.
• So it is very very important to pay attention to the typography you use in your popups.

• Use Google Fonts. You can type in your sentence and check how it looks. Once you are sure about which font you like, use it in your popup.
• If you are an Icegram Engage user, and you wish to change the default font. Here’s how to do it in under 5 minutes.

Decide The Position Of The Close Button

Yes, the close button can also be a factor that increases the click-through rates of your popup.

Wondering how?

Strategy:

• • Make the close button difficult to click view As shown in the example below, the close button is kept at the extreme top right corner. Making it very difficult to spot. So reducing the possibility of the viewer blindly closing the popup.

• • Replacing the close button with a negative CTA button or secondary text
    In this example, there is no close button. Instead, you have negative secondary text -‘ No thanks I don’t like free stuff’ which when clicked closes the popup. Now as the negative text is guilt-inducing, a reader thinks twice before clicking on it. Instead, he is pushed to give his email id and end-up downloading the free ebooks instead.

• • Eliminating the close button completely
    This strategy may sound a bit pushy. The reader is given no option but to click on the desired CTA. Here’s an example of how this strategy can be implemented.

Download e-books popup

• Close button proximity
  Keeping the close button in the top right corner is standard, but placing it too far away can frustrate users. A well-placed button will prevent accidental exits and won’t disrupt the user experience. Place the close button inside the popup frame to make it visible and less tempting to click.
• Test different close buttons
  You can consider using a subtle but visible alternative. You can also try to experiment with subtle and fading options or reduce the contrasts to ensure that they are still accessible.
• Experiment with texts
  Instead of using texts, some popups use texts such as ‘not interested’ or ‘remind me later’. This leads the visitor to put in more thought before quitting.
• Sliding or fading popups
  Instead of a popup flashing on the screen abruptly, you can try one that slides on the screen and fades away when closed. Not only will this improve the user experience, but will also reduce intrusiveness.

Pick aesthetics images

An image acts as an anchor in your popup. It’s no surprise that, even if your popup is well designed but the image used in it is mediocre, there are high chances that it might fail.

Similarly, even if you have a simple popup with an aesthetic image, it might just work.

Strategy:
Use images that gain instant attention. Something with a pleasant background, and attractive people is a common strategy used by many. Checkout this example:

Include Your Brand

It’s important to blend your WordPress popup design with the rest of your website. The reason is, it should look like a part of your website. If it doesn’t, visitors will assume it’s some spam and simply close the popup or abandon your website. If you’re looking to improve the design of your website’s pop-ups, there are a few quick ways to do so in just 5 minutes.

First, consider the placement of your pop-up. A well-placed pop-up can be highly effective at converting visitors, but a poorly placed one can be annoying and drive people away. You should also pay attention to the design and layout of your pop-up, making sure it is visually appealing and easy to understand

Strategy:
Keep in mind the brand colour, and brand logo while making your WordPress popup design template. Suppose your brand colour is blue and yellow, you can design a popup having a similar colour scheme.

A few examples are listed below-

More Designs From Icegram Engage’s Gallery

Like these designs? Another way to improve your pop-up design is to use engaging and persuasive copy, highlighting the benefits of taking the desired action. Additionally, using compelling images or videos can also help to grab the attention of visitors and improve the effectiveness of your pop-up.

Finally, testing different designs and layouts can help you determine which ones are most effective at converting visitors. Get them within Icegram Engage’s Gallery

Conclusion

When done right, popups can change the results of your sales funnel. From CTAs to images and typography, all these aspects play a key role in boosting conversions.

Now that you know about the things that can make a difference, why not put them to the test?

Try them, track your results, make tweaks if necessary and see the difference in engagement.

If you’ve already implemented these strategies, let us know in the comments below.

And yes, if you are looking for a popup that can do the heavy lifting for you, check out Icegram Engages’ light pricing plans.

FAQ

• How do I trigger a pop-up in WordPress?
  With Icegram Engage, you can trigger pop-ups using a variety of options. You can trigger them based on user behavior, such as scrolling or clicking on a specific link, or on a time delay. You can also trigger them based on user location, device, or referral source.
• Which Is the Best WordPress Popup Plugin?
  Icegram Engage is a highly recommended WordPress popup plugin due to its powerful features, user-friendly interface, and affordable pricing. It offers a free version with basic features and several premium plans that provide additional functionality, such as advanced targeting and A/B testing.
• Can I use popups without annoying my website visitors?
  Yes, you can use pop-ups without annoying your website visitors. The key is to use them strategically and make them relevant to your visitors’ needs. Icegram Engage allows you to create pop-ups that are targeted to specific user groups and show them at the right time and place, which can make them less intrusive and more effective.
• How can I make my WordPress popups mobile-friendly?
  To make your WordPress pop-ups mobile-friendly, you can use responsive templates that adjust to different screen sizes. Icegram Engage offers a range of mobile-friendly templates that are optimized for different devices, as well as targeting options that allow you to show pop-ups only on mobile devices or specific screen sizes. Additionally, you can customize your pop-ups’ design and content to make them more mobile-friendly, such as using shorter headlines and calls to action.
]]> https://www.icegram.com/popup-designs/feed/ 7 https://www.icegram.com/welcome-mat-yes-no-cta-buttons/ https://www.icegram.com/welcome-mat-yes-no-cta-buttons/#respond Mon, 05 Jun 2017 04:08:01 +0000 https://www.icegram.com/?p=33689 May has been a laser-focused month at Icegram Engage. Instead of just fixing issues and working on the look and feel of Icegram Engage, the team has been at work creating something more concrete.

We are excited to introduce to you, not one but two new features in Icegram Engage. Yes, we have added:

• Welcome Overlay
• Yes / No CTA

Let’s check out more about what the features can help you with.

Welcome Overlay

Welcome Overlays are also called Welcome Mats. These are overlays that show up as soon as the visitor lands on your website. That is, Welcome Overlays are triggered at zero seconds.

This message type inserts itself right above the site’s content. Thus, it’s the first thing a visitor views when they land on your webpage.

Proof they work

Here’s the proof.

Major marketers like Neil Patel, and Jeff Bulas along with top companies such as Uber, Spotify and others use Welcome Overlays.

And this is not a mere coincidence.

They use it because it simply works.

Let’s find out why Welcome Overlays work so well.

• Intelligent placement: Welcome Overlays are the first thing your visitors view when they land on the website. As a visitor has just landed on your website, he’s attention span is at the peak and any information shown during this time is bound to make an impact on him.
• Doesn’t block site content: Unlike the basic Overlay, the Welcome Overlay places itself above the website content, thus not blocking visitors’ view in any sense.
• Less annoying: Most visitors term popups, and overlays as annoying as they block them from viewing site content. As Welcome Overlays are placed above the content they come across as non-annoying.

Top 5 Best Uses Of A Welcome Overlay

Give visitors a resource



Welcome Overlays are an excellent mechanism for winning over visitors in the first go. Providing them with a valuable resource will please visitors and keep them interested in your site.

Distribute early bird access



Early bird access is generally limited to a few hundred or thousands. Welcome overlays help in inducing urgency in such time-limited offers.

Offer discounts



Running an offer on your store? Show it in a Welcome Overlay. Make visitors aware of the offer as soon as they land on your website. This technique will reduce bounce rates and keep them interested for longer.

Build your subscriber list



Convince visitors to join your list as soon as they land on your website. Putting a personal picture of you will only increase relatability and help you grow this list faster.

Direct them to the most important page on your site



Direct visitors to the most important page on your site. In the above case, it’s the blog. You may choose to direct visitors to a new article, the shop page, or any other page according to your requirements.

Try the Welcome Overlay on your website

It’s your turn to experience the magic of Welcome Overlays on your website. So go right now and set up a Welcome Overlay of your choice using Icegram Engage.

Where to find the Welcome Overlay?

It’s located right above the Headline Generator.

The new feature of Welcome Overlays is only present in Icegram Engage Max plan.

Read More



Moving forward…

The next feature added is the Yes-No CTA buttons

Yes – No CTA buttons

Initially, Icegram Engage only provided one CTA button for any message type. However, we ran a survey and realized that high-performing campaigns usually have two and not just one CTA.

That’s when we decided to add this feature to Icegram Engage.

You can locate it inside Icegram Engage’s campaign editing panel.



Note: The Yes-No CTA button is available in the Pro plan and above. Also, it can be added to any message type that allows the insertion of buttons.

Want to use the Yes – No CTA buttons? Get the Icegram Engage Pro Plan today!

What makes Yes-No CTA so appealing?



Yes – No CTA’s can be really powerful if used in the right manner. When a visitor reads a message having a Yes – No CTA they automatically decide in his mind.

You may argue that the visitor makes a decision even when there is only one CTA button, right?

Yes, he does. But in case of a Yes and No CTA, you have the power to reinforce and test the visitor’s decision.

How? By making the Yes CTA text more appealing and the No CTA text more regretful.

One such example is shown in the image above. Here’s another example:



Still in doubt about the effectiveness of Yes – No CTA buttons? I suggest to try it out yourself.

FAQs

• Q: What plans offer these features?
  The Welcome Mat is available in the Max Plan, while the Yes-No CTA Buttons are part of the Pro Plan and above.
• Q: Do these features work on mobile?
  Yes, both are mobile-friendly and adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes.
• Q: Can I customize the messages?
  Absolutely! You can tailor the text, design, and behavior to fit your brand and audience.

Additional resources

]]> https://www.icegram.com/welcome-mat-yes-no-cta-buttons/feed/ 0 https://www.icegram.com/simplest-way-to-collect-leads-giveaway-freebies-and-send-automated-post-notifications/ https://www.icegram.com/simplest-way-to-collect-leads-giveaway-freebies-and-send-automated-post-notifications/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2017 10:25:35 +0000 https://www.icegram.com/?p=30335 Customers are the lifeline of every business. And maintaining good relations with them is the most important activity you carry out as a business owner.

In this article, you will learn the simplest way to:



Plugins Needed

Let’s get started. First you need to download three light weight, free plugins onto your WordPress website.

• Download Icegram Collect
• Download Icegram Engage
• Download Icegram Express


Benefits of these plugins:

• Free
• Lightweight
• Work Seamlessly together
• No coding required
• Can be setup within 10 minutes

First, Form Creation

Step 1: Create a new form
Let’s call it ‘New Subscriber List’. Select the parameter like – email address, name.

Icegram Collect’s Step-1

Step 2: Select the design
Icegram Collect is really simple and gives you 3 elegant form designs to choose from.

Icegram Collect’s Step-2

Step 3: Fill in the form actions
Next, fill in the form actions. Make sure you select the Icegram Express option. Once the form is filled out, the leads will be automatically added to the Icegram Express database.
Another important step here is, putting the URL of the page where the Freebie is loaded.

Icegram Collect’s Step-3

Second, Create Icegram Engage Message

Step 1: Create the Icegram Engage message

Fill in the message content. Make sure, you select the Icegram Collect form you previously created that’s ‘New Subscriber List’.

Icegram Engage’s Step-1

Step 2: Fill in the Display Rules

Select the pages, the device the retargeting rules etc.

Icegram Engage’s Step-2

Step 3: Publish the Icegram Engage message

Third, Set the Post Notification Emails

Step 1: Compose/ Edit the New Post Notification Email
For simplicity sake, let’s edit and publish the already created email template – New Post Published

Post notification mail Step-1

Step 2: Go to Notifications
Next, add a new notification. Make sure that you select the previously composed email template. In our case, the template is New Post Published.

Post notification mail Step-1

Step 3: Save the notification

Last, Test the Process

Now that, all the initial settings are done. Test the whole leads cycle. Ideally, you should subscribe to the list with a test email id, you get your freebie then go ahead and post a new blog and check if you get a notification email on the test email id.

With these three plugins, you can easily collect leads, give away freebies, and keep your subscribers informed about new content.

If these things are achieved, your process is working fine.

Any Questions?

Feel free to write down any questions, suggestions in the comment section below.

]]> https://www.icegram.com/simplest-way-to-collect-leads-giveaway-freebies-and-send-automated-post-notifications/feed/ 13 https://www.icegram.com/icegram-1-9-12-released/ https://www.icegram.com/icegram-1-9-12-released/#comments Sat, 16 Jan 2016 05:50:31 +0000 https://www.icegram.com/?p=10977 This post is about the addition of the Custom Code Block.

Achieve anything with Custom Coding



• You can increase/decrease the height of a message type.
• Change the width of the message type.
• Apply a different font to the message body.
• Change the font size of the headline.
• And lot more…

How to quickly run Custom Code In Icegram Engage

You can now add all your CSS and JS code in a separate code block. It appears right above the targeting rules section in the Icegram Engage Campaign Editing Panel.



Try in under 5 minutes



Use these simple custom css codes in your next Icegram Engage campaign and have fun!

Change the width of the entire Icegram Engage message

#ig_this_message{width:30% !important;}

2. Change the font-size of the headline

#ig_this_message .ig_headline{font-size: 3em !important;}

3. Change font-family for the entire message

#ig_this_message .ig_message{font-family:"Times New Roman", Georgia, Serif !important;}


German Translation



We have also added the German translation to Icegram Engage thanks to one of our client’s Mr. Franz for helping us with it.

Other Notable Mentions

The add-ons and docs page inside the plugin are revamped. And we hope this change will only prove beneficial. Please give it a look. Also, we’ve internally prevented the false impression count caused due to crawling. Thus Analytics will only record true impressions by real visitors and not the ones by crawlers/bots.

]]> https://www.icegram.com/icegram-1-9-12-released/feed/ 31 https://www.icegram.com/how-to-trigger-messages-onclick-of-button-or-link/ https://www.icegram.com/how-to-trigger-messages-onclick-of-button-or-link/#comments Thu, 19 Feb 2015 13:21:11 +0000 https://www.icegram.com/?p=2735 When we created Icegram Engage we had a vision to make it as flexible as possible. Thus we came up with a variety of targeting rules. While the current Where, When, Device and Who rules cover a vast majority cases, a few cases are still left out.

Use Case

One such case is when you want to show a message only when user clicks on a button or link. You want to use your own button or styling, and then invoke a message when user clicks on it.

Solutions

There are two methods of achieving message display on button / link click. First is to use Behavior Triggers addon (which makes it extremely simple), and the other is without using any addon – with just Icegram Engage core.

In both approaches, we first ensure message does not display automatically, and then trigger it with JavaScript.

Let me walk you through both approaches.

Using Behavior Triggers

The magic method for creating a popup trigger on click in WordPress is to use a plugin that allows you to select the ‘Using JavaScript’ option as the message display option via the Behavior Triggers setting, and then call the JavaScript function when the button or link clicks.

• Configure your campaign. Create a message and fill in details as usual.
• Go to the Show Trigger option and set it to Using JavaScript.
• Copy the JavaScript code shown after the “Show Trigger” dropdown. The code looks something like: window.icegram.get_message_by_id({message_id}).show();
• Add targeting rules and any other campaign settings as needed and save your campaign.
• Go to the page where this message would be displayed. Create your button or link and paste the JavaScript code in the onclick attribute.
• For buttons, the code may look like: <button onclick="window.icegram.get_message_by_id({message_id}).show();return false;">Show me a Popup!</button>
• For links, the code may look like: <a href="#" onclick="window.icegram.get_message_by_id({message_id}).show();return false;">Show me a Popup!</a>

For example: Suppose the message id = 6344.
The code will look like:
<a href=”#” onclick=”window.icegram.get_message_by_id(6344).show();return false;”> Show me a Popup!</a>

Make sure to ensure correct message id is present in the code, and that you are adding return false; after the code. Now test and verify everything is working as expected!
Congratulations! You’ve successfully implemented “Using Javascript” functionality of Behavior triggers add-on!

Learn how to trigger a popup on a link click in WordPress using a simple plugin and some JavaScript code, and create engaging and interactive experiences for your website visitors.

No Behavior triggers? No problem!

If you do not have behavior triggers addon, but still wish to show messages on click, it is possible. Though not as simple but still possible!

Here’s how to do it…
Configure your campaign. Create a message and fill in details as usual. Copy the shortcode of this campaign.
The code looks something like: [ icegram campaigns=”campaign_id” ]

Shortcode to show an offer/optin on-click of a LINK

<a href="#">Your Text </a>

Shortcode to show an offer/optin on-click of a BUTTON

[ icegram campaigns="XXXX"]<button>Your Text</button> [/icegram]

It is necessary to insert the message into a campaign and then use the campaign id. If you insert the message-id it will give you an error.

What’s the difference in these two methods?

The Behavior Triggers method works using campaigns. So all the analytics tracking – both on campaign and message will work.

The message embed with shortcode will not track analytics at campaign level, but only at message level.

Taking this beyond onclick…

The JavaScript code to show a message works from anywhere. In this example, we used it on a button or link. But you can also use it in your own JavaScript code. Easily add a popup-on-click feature to your WordPress website using a plugin and a bit of custom JavaScript, and create engaging and interactive experiences for your visitors.

Icegram Engage has extensive JavaScript API to show / hide messages. Experiment with it and let us know if you have any questions!

Hope you found this useful! Do try it out and share your site with us!

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