Halloween is a season of creativity, costumes, and fun. For business owners, especially in eCommerce, it’s an opportunity to get imaginative with website design.

Let’s check out some excellent Halloween website ideas to help you stand out this October!

How can Halloween marketing ideas help your business?

Halloween is one of the most anticipated events of the year, and the spending will reach close to 11.6 billion dollars this year, according to Spectrum News.

By embracing Halloween marketing ideas, businesses can:

• Establishing better connections
• Increase in growth
• Brand recognition
• Wider audience and deeper insights
• Increased sales, goodwill, and customer loyalty

As an eCommerce website owner, it is a great opportunity to boost sales during a time of year when you might need some extra help.

Discounts can be used to lure customers and for new client acquisition. Invite them over with discounts on products they most likely would want to purchase — specifically those related to Halloween.

The 10 best Halloween website ideas

It’s always good to offer treats and surprise the people you care for!

What better time than Halloween to surprise your customers with excellent website designs and ideas?

There is no such thing as a perfect principle for a Halloween-themed website. However, with some creative ideas and utilizing some great tools, you can create an effective Halloween website that will help convert visitors into customers.

Here are some Halloween marketing ideas that are easy to implement without coding.

Logo & header

The logo and header of your Halloween website set the tone for the entire site.

All roads lead to Halloween, and what better way to celebrate than with a website dedicated to the spookiest day of the year? A fun, eerie, and creatively themed site is more likely to rank well for any Halloween 2026 search query.

People naturally click on websites that show personality rather than those that look like plain business pages. To build curiosity and excitement, consider adding a countdown to THE DAY or your DEAL DAY, it’s a simple but effective touch.

And with the Icegram plugin, setting up a countdown timer is quick and easy. Just follow a few simple steps to add it to your Icegram Engage campaign.

You can also use graphic design tools like Canva to design your logo, header, or footer and give your site a cohesive Halloween vibe.

Popup normal & exit intent

This is a great way to increase your site’s conversions, especially on Halloween. There are three types of pop-up windows: normal pop-ups and exit intent pop-ups, which allow you to direct visitors toward relevant content or to do something specific; and sales page pop-ups, which promote products as soon as a user lands on your website. The sales page pop-up can be used for sales events, product launches, and more.

I know you must be wondering how to make this happen and what can be the best resource to do it quicker than usual; so, Icegram Engage can be a great help. It has 12 different types of messages and 120+ ready-to-use campaigns.

Already impressed, aren’t you?

Try it yourself now!

Check out this example from M&M and how they have integrated the Halloween essence on their website.

Banners, sidebar, action bar & more

Adding banners, sidebars, and more to the website will make it look more interesting. The main purpose is to catch visitors’ attention.

You can add announcements of the sale, coupon codes, some freebies, or other related offers to add charm.

This can be easily achieved by adding a sidebar to the website and changing some design elements, but you can also add a few more features, like an action bar or drawing element.

Website background theme

If you want an easy way to promote your business through your website, background themes are a great option. With the plethora of website themes, it can be tough to choose the correct one that matches your brand. You don’t have to code any PHP or CSS!

Additionally, if you love Halloween, then a website background template with a Halloween theme designed to spice up your business can be a great addition. Halloween marketing ideas that are easy to implement without coding can help your business stand out from the competition!

Check out how Icegram has done it:

You can use WordPress website themes that can make this task easier and quicker.

eCommerce offers: Coupon

If you offer sales and discounts, consider adding Halloween specials. Halloween is an incredibly popular shopping holiday. Create a couple of smartphone and desktop ads with coupons and save money on eCommerce purchases by calling your customers before the end of the month to offer them a coupon for something special when they shop for that special item. Make the process easy with simple links and copywriting.

This busy time of year can make it hard to plan deals and offers, but the Smart Offers plugin by StoreApps, our sister brand, can help you create them and grow your business on autopilot.

Website newsletter emails with subscription box

Whether you’re a new business or an established one, the right holiday marketing can take your business to the next level. Whether you’re in the holiday marketing niche or not, creating a Newsletter is a great way to build some serious leads and increase sales.

Email newsletter marketing for Halloween is where it’s at. There’s just something about getting a bunch of cool stuff delivered to your inbox on Halloween that makes it extra special. It makes you feel good, it definitely gets people to think about how awesome your brand is in their minds, and it feels like a “special treat”.

Wish to make communications easy?

Learn how to create and send broadcast emails easily.

Gamification wheel

Have you ever heard of gamification? It’s basically a way to add an element of competition to your marketing efforts. The idea is to make something more exciting or fun, and then turn that into an incentive for people to do it.

There can be a lot of ideas for the gamification wheel, like coupons around the wheel, or a freebie with their purchase.

Check out this spin-the-wheel element that Tula has added on their website.

Inline message content: Trick or treat

Trick or treat?

The answer is both!

If you are looking for Halloween marketing ideas, but don’t want to get your hands dirty with coding, then the inline message content can definitely help you. As they create instant activity and action for users, they are perfect for landing pages/blogs.

Sounds

It’s the time of year when you can really make people laugh out loud. If you want your site or landing page to be funny, this is the way to do it. For example, imagine a banner that plays a spooky laugh or creaking door sound when a visitor hovers over it, with funny or eerie sounds like that, your users will keep interacting with your website and clicking on ads. It’s a great way to promote your business by tapping into today’s generation of tech-savvy consumers, and some spooky sounds can definitely make the website win in the moment.

You can even add this sound effect using a tool like Elementor, for instance, you can embed an audio player or autoplay effect via the “Text Editor” or “HTML” widget in Elementor, as described in their tutorial.

Sticky notes

In a world of ever-changing advertisement trends, social media, and technology, Halloween marketing ideas can be hard to come by. The right way to get the most out of Halloween marketing ideas is by creating fun and creative messages for your contacts in an easy fashion. You could go the digital route and put silly or playful messages on your websites, social media profiles, and apps.

It’s one of the best ways to surprise your customers with goofy sticky notes.

Overwhelmed by how you will apply the above ideas? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.

Plugins to make your Halloween Marketing deals easier

Icegram Express plugin: For email marketing

Icegram Express Plugin is an affordable and powerful email marketing tool for WordPress. You can set up your email marketing campaigns and automate them too.

Features of the plugin include:

• Email campaign builder: Create and send broadcast or automated email campaigns directly from WordPress.
• Pre-designed email templates: Choose from responsive templates that match seasonal or themed designs like Halloween.
• Popup forms integration: Collect leads using popups and integrate them with email lists for instant engagement.
• Signup forms & widgets: Embed subscription forms across banners, sidebars, or theme sections.
• Segmentation & personalization: Send targeted emails based on user behavior or interests.
• Autoresponders: Automate welcome, follow-up, or promotional emails for seasonal campaigns.
• Email deliverability tracking: Monitor open rates, clicks, and engagement for banner or pop-up-driven signups.
• Drag-and-drop editor: Customize email layouts and banners easily without coding.
• Dynamic content blocks: Add seasonal visuals, offers, or pop-ups directly within emails.
• Integration with Icegram Engage: Display engaging pop-ups and message bars that align with your theme or seasonal design.

Pricing:

• $0: Starter plan
• $129: Pro plan
• $229: Max plan

Buy Icegram Express now!

Icegram Engage: For popups, CTAs & optins

Icegram Engage is a convenient plugin for onsite lead generation, calls to action, and conversion optimization with around 12 different types of messages and 120+ ready-to-use campaigns.

Features of the plugin include:

• Popup campaigns: Create customizable popups to promote offers, collect leads, or share updates.
• Action bars & header banners: Display floating bars or banners to announce sales or seasonal events.
• Slide-in messages: Subtly engage visitors with sliding messages aligned to your theme design.
• Full-screen overlays: Capture attention with themed full-page popups or announcements.
• Exit-intent popups: Trigger targeted messages when users are about to leave your site.
• Inline messages: Embed callouts or promotional boxes within page content or blog posts.
• Theme-compatible designs: Match popups and banners with your WordPress theme’s colors and fonts.
• Behavioral targeting: Show specific messages based on visitor behavior, time, or device type.
• Scheduling & triggers: Schedule banners or pop-ups for special events like Halloween promotions.
• Email integration: Connect popups with email tools like Icegram Express for lead nurturing.

Pricing:

• $0: Starter plan
• $129: Pro plan
• $229: Max plan

Buy Icegram Engage now!

Icegram Collect: For collecting leads

Icegram Collect is one of those convenient plugins that have prebuilt forms, it saves submissions automatically, and fixes problems. It is intentionally limited to the most common features to avoid slowing you down or your website.

Features of the plugin include:

• Create and embed subscription/contact forms via shortcodes anywhere in your theme (pages, sidebars, banners)
• Save all form submissions to your WordPress database for tracking and automatic email follow-up.
• Redirect users or show custom “thank you” messages after form submission (useful for pop-ups or banner CTA flows).
• Integrate with email platforms, CRM tools, and webhooks to send captured leads into your email campaigns or automated workflows.
• Use pre-designed templates or custom HTML/CSS that inherit your theme’s styling so the form blends with banners or theme design.
• Include GDPR consent checkboxes and spam protection (Captcha/honeypots) to ensure compliant lead capture via pop-ups/forms embedded in banners/theme areas.
• Unlimited forms and unlimited lead storage, allowing multiple banner, pop-up, or email capture placements tied to your theme layout.

Pricing:

• $0: Starter plan
• $129: Pro plan
• $229: Max plan

Check out Icegram Collect now!

Smart Offers: For running offers on autopilot

The Smart Offers plugin is a powerful WooCommerce upsell plugin designed to help you increase your sales and average order value. Run targeted upsells, cross-sells, BOGOs, order bumps, dynamic pricing, and discount offers. Provide Buy Now buttons for direct checkout.

Features of the plugin include:

• Create conditional offer pop-ups or inline banners based on cart contents, user behavior, or page context.
• Embed offer shortcodes or elements within your theme templates or banners so offers integrate seamlessly with your site design.
• Trigger one-click upsell offers from thank-you pages, checkout pages, or custom pages, suited to pop-ups or email follow-ups.
• Use “Buy Now” links/buttons that skip cart steps, ideal for placing in banners, email links, or pop-up CTAs.
• Sequence offers (upsell → downsell) so you can display multi-step funnels via pop-ups or theme sections and follow up via email.
• Schedule or target displays of offers based on page type, user history, purchased items, or skip-accept rules—good for themed campaigns & banners.

Pricing:

• $149: Single Annual
• $249: Multi Annual
• $549: Single Lifetime
• $649: Multi Lifetime

Buy Smart Offers now!

Smart Coupons: To create unique coupons

Smart Coupons has everything you need for discounts, coupons, credits, gift cards, product giveaways, offers, and promotions. Most popular and complete coupon plugin for WooCommerce.

Features of the plugin include:

• Generate URL coupons/auto-apply links that can be embedded in banners, popups, or email buttons to instantly apply discounts.
• Use shortcodes and embed coupons anywhere (pages, posts, widgets) so you can place them within theme templates or banner areas.
• Bulk-generate unique coupon codes and use them in segmented email campaigns or pop-up giveaways.
• Schedule time-sensitive coupons and flash-sale offers that align with thematic banners or email blasts (e.g., Halloween campaign).
• Restrict coupons by rules (product/category/user role/location) so banner/pop-up offers match theme-relevant content and target the right audience.
• Design responsive coupon visuals and customize them (colors/fonts) to match your WordPress theme and banner/pop-up styling.
• Send gift cards or store credits via email that integrate into your theme’s checkout, banners, or pop-ups for promotional campaigns.

Pricing:
$130/year

Buy Smart Coupons now!

Halloween resources

Is it time to dress up your ol’ web content and make it more appealing? Do you want to add some fun and frolic to your visitors’ day?

Download this ZIP file and get Halloween-based images, GIFs, wallpapers, etc. Use them wherever you want to.

You can add some spookiness (pun intended) to your website with these Halloween freebies.

There are a number of resources available to you for Halloween, but these all came from my personal experience and with this, I hope you will be able to find exactly what you need.

Have a blast this Halloween with your website, content, and all the stuff you have downloaded from here. Happy Halloween to all!

Conclusion

Now that we have amazing ideas on the table, let’s see what we can learn from these festive Halloween website ideas for our own projects.

We hope you’ve found some helpful ideas that can give your website marketing a little Halloween boost this year! If we left out any of the best spooky Halloween website ideas, let us know in the comments section below. Also, be sure to bookmark this guide for next year.

Happy Halloween!

FAQ

What are some popular Halloween website ideas for 2026?
Top Halloween website ideas for 2026 include interactive landing pages, limited-time discount pop-ups, Halloween-themed product banners, email marketing campaigns, and dark-mode redesigns with animated ghosts, pumpkins, and cobwebs.

How can I create Halloween banners for my website?
You can design Halloween banners using tools like Canva, Figma, or Adobe Express. Include elements like pumpkins, bats, and spooky fonts. For WordPress, you can upload these as header images or add them using banner plugins or Elementor sections.

What should I include in a Halloween marketing email campaign?
Include a Halloween-themed subject line, seasonal product offers, limited-time coupons, and creepy visuals. Use Halloween colors like orange and black, and keep your CTA buttons festive and clear — like “Claim Your Treat” or “Get 31% Off.”

How can I add Halloween pop-ups to my website?
Use WordPress popup plugins like Icegram Engage. Choose Halloween-ready templates with spooky animations, countdown timers, and discount offers to grab attention and boost conversions.

What are the best plugins for Halloween website customization?
Top plugins for Halloween website customization include Elementor (for page design), Icegram Engage (for popups), Icegram Express (for emails), and Smart Coupons (for seasonal discounts). These tools help create a complete Halloween campaign easily.

How can I drive more traffic to my Halloween campaign page?
Promote your Halloween campaign via email marketing, social media banners, SEO-friendly blog posts, and Google Ads. Adding interactive elements like countdowns and gamified pop-ups also boosts engagement and conversions.

How early should I start my Halloween website campaign?
Start at least 3–4 weeks before Halloween. This gives you time to test pop-ups, schedule email campaigns, and attract early shoppers searching for Halloween deals online.

Can I reuse my Halloween design for other seasonal campaigns?
Yes. You can easily repurpose Halloween layouts for events like Black Friday, Christmas, or New Year’s by changing colors, banners, and offers while keeping the same website structure and plugin setup.

What are some creative Halloween pop-up ideas?
Creative Halloween popup ideas include “Spin the Wheel” discounts, trick-or-treat offers, mystery gift reveals, or exit-intent popups featuring spooky sound effects or ghost animations to surprise visitors.

How do I make my Halloween emails stand out?
Use personalized subject lines, GIFs or animations, limited-time Halloween coupons, and engaging copy. Add urgency with countdown timers or phrases like “Only till midnight on Oct 31!”

What are the top trends for Halloween web design in 2026?
In 2026, Halloween web design trends include AI-powered personalization, 3D animations, interactive scroll effects, dark UI themes, and eco-friendly campaign messaging for conscious shoppers.

How can small businesses use Halloween marketing effectively?
Small businesses can create limited-time Halloween offers, spooky product bundles, discount codes, and seasonal landing pages. Email automation and festive pop-ups help attract visitors and increase sales during the Halloween season.

TL;DR

• “Icegram” is the umbrella brand now. The original “Icegram” plugin is now “Icegram Engage”. Our most popular email marketing plugin – “Email Subscribers” is now “Icegram Express”. And “Rainmaker Forms” is now “Icegram Collect”.
• All products now have standard pricing plans – a free starter option, a “Pro” plan for $129/year and a “Max” plan with “up to 3 sites” license and even more features for $299/year.
• We’ve redesigned our website to reflect this change – as well as demonstrating our “easy yet powerful” philosophy.
• Existing customers are grandfathered into new plans. Product quality and customer support remains top-notch – as earlier.
• We’re jittery about the negative SEO impact of this change, but hopeful that our users (who are more important) will now find it easier to understand our product portfolio and navigate the site.

The Icegram story so far…

Icegram started as WordPress’s first all-in-one popup and call to actions plugin. It quickly became popular.

Our next plugin was “Email Subscribers & Newsletters” – an email marketing solution. Email Subscribers is now our most popular product, with over 100,000 users.

To make form integrations easier, we then launched “Rainmaker Forms”. That too was successful.

Today, more than 230,000 people use our products to capture leads, grow conversions, store form submissions and send email marketing campaigns. It’s a perfect portfolio for bloggers and businesses that want to grow their audience and increase sales.

Over the years, our team has consistently received 5-star ratings for code quality, support and commitment to customer success.

Why did we change product names?

Simple answer – to avoid confusion.

Our website is icegram.com – and we have three main products. One product too was called Icegram. So when someone refers to Icegram – do they mean the overall brand or the plugin?

When someone lands on the site, should we tell them about the Icegram plugin or all three products?

Clearly there was confusion we needed to address.

A rebranding U-turn

After long and tiring internal debates about pros and cons of different rebranding approaches, we decided to split three products into their own websites. We even brainstormed new product names and booked domains.

Then it came to design those websites – and transitioning existing customers to new product stores.

Migrating old orders to different sites would be hard. Because many people buy multiple products.

We thought of keeping the storefront on the Icegram site and only the landing pages on individual sites.

Eventually, this whole idea was scrapped.

We decided to risk the SEO benefits we had accumulated over the years and do something that would be easier for customers.

Why? “Email Subscribers” is a very popular keyword. If we change the product name, we may lose SEO advantages. WordPress is a market where SEO is one of the biggest factors in product success. And messing up with the main keyword can be dangerous.

We’re taking that risk… albeit with crossed fingers!

So, what is changing?

Three aspects mainly.

New plugin names and an Icegram prefix

• Icegram plugin → Icegram Engage – because it’s about “engaging” and converting website visitors. We’ve called it “Icegram Engage” for many years, but most people still refer to it as Icegram!
• Rainmaker forms plugin → Icegram Collect – because it lets you collect leads and form submissions easily.
• Email Subscribers & Newsletters plugin → Icegram Express – because it’s about the users’ “self expression” as well as about “express” sending speeds and ease of use.

Standardized pricing & a three site license for businesses and agencies

All products now get similar plan names and pricing. A free plan, a Pro plan ($129/year) and a Max plan ($299). Max plan now comes with a much-demanded multi site license for pro-bloggers, businesses and agencies.

• Icegram Engage pricing (formerly Icegram plugin) – revised pricing, Max gets 3 sites license.
• Icegram Collect pricing (formerly Rainmaker Forms plugin) – we’re removing Plus plan, Max gets 3 sites license.
• Icegram Express pricing (formerly Email Subscribers & Newsletters plugin) – new plan names, all annual pricing, and Max gets 3 sites license.

Website redesign

If you’re a product developer or agency owner, you know that you’re never happy with your own website.

We weren’t either. But we kept so busy working on our product we never paid enough attention to the website.

We’ve now updated product landing pages for clarity and simplicity. We’ve improved the blog earlier this year and will continue to remove the rest of the site.

How do these changes impact existing customers?

Nothing much changes for them actually.

You will see new product names when you upgrade our plugins to their latest versions. You will also see new names when you login to our “My Account” section. All our communications will now refer to new product names as well.

Existing subscriptions and added features

We’ve grandfathered all existing customers into new plans. So if you bought “Max” plan earlier, you can now use the plugin on up to three sites, instead of just one. Most other people will get better features as well.

Your renewal prices also do not change. You will continue paying what you paid earlier – even if the new price has gone up.

What’s next?

We will iron out some rough edges around the branding over the next few weeks. We also have a lot of product and website updates on the roadmap – so you will continue seeing solid progress.

We are ever thankful for your support and stay committed to your success. We will continue to bring you the best and most stable products.

Our focus will continue on solving your marketing problems – onsite and beyond.

Give us your feedback on the rebranding!

Do you like the new site and product names? Please comment on this post and give us your feedback. Notice a problem? Please share that too! Thank you!

Or someone who keeps in constant touch with the customers to remind them to visit the store again?

Physical stores have an advantage in this situation, to build more customer relationships than online stores.

In a world where competition simply keeps growing, an engaged customer base is the key to success. One of the simplest ways to achieve this is through email autoresponders. The autoresponder software helps you automate personalized and timely emails, keeping them interested in your offering for the long haul.

Email marketing autoresponders help you save time and effort while building strong relationships with your customers. So, why not give it a try and see the positive impact it can have on your business?

But before that, let’s dive deeper and check out more about autoresponders, their types, and a lot more.

What are autoresponders?

Email autoresponders help marketers set pre-scheduled automated email series to recipients. An email autoresponder is a tool that automatically sends out predefined emails to subscribers or customers in response to certain trigger events or actions.

The purpose of an email autoresponder is to keep your customers engaged and connected to your business. This means that it keeps the engagement ball rolling even when you are unable to personally respond to each email promptly.

These are pre-scheduled automated emails that a customer receives throughout their customer journey. These are triggered by specific events like buying a product, joining your list, abandoning the cart, browsing behavior, and others.

Steps to create effective autoresponder emails

• Set goals: Firstly, it is important to understand the motive behind sending autoresponders. Ask yourself questions like “Why should I send a sales emailer?”, “Will a welcome email be helpful for recurring customers?”. Once your goals are set, then you can proceed to plan.
• Plan series: The best way to plan an autoresponder series or drip series campaign is to look at a customer journey. You might need a different series of targeted emails for onboarded customers and a different one for customer acquisition. Since autoresponder emails are triggered based on a user’s action. You can create a plan of action to target a specific customer with a tailored message. For example, sending offers to customers who have abandoned their shopping carts.
• Build lists: Building lists is the next step towards creating effective autoresponder drip campaigns. This is the most important step as it will define your target audiences. Many email marketing plugins don’t cater to features that help you build lists.

However, considering this, we have created a list-building and cleaning feature in Icegram Express Pro. It automatically helps clean redundant and fake accounts from your database.

• Write eye-catching content: Once you have things in place, begin creating eye-catching content. Some tips to follow:
  1. Research and choose topics carefully
  2. Keep up with social media trends
  3. Take inspiration from other brands
  4. Use email optimization tools to create trendy content
• Schedule with accuracy: Schedule autoresponder emails based on peak traffic times on your website. Experiment with different timings and frequencies to find the best fit for your audience. Consider factors like time zones, industry, and customer behavior. Use data and analytics to track performance and make adjustments. Examples include:
  • Sending a welcome email after customer onboarding
  • Sending a ‘We miss you’ email when a customer stops visiting

  These strategies help in building customer relationships.

• Precise monitoring: No drip campaign is effective without regular monitoring. The key is to track, learn, and use insights to improve future campaigns. Email marketing autoresponders can significantly enhance your marketing efforts.

Types of autoresponder emails

Now that you know the steps to make your autoresponder efforts count, it’s time to know its various types.

Welcome Emails

Welcome emails are the best way to connect to customers. These emails lay a strong foundation for a strong business relationship with the customers in the times to come.

Based on your offering and brand, you can opt for diverse content types in your emails. Likewise, this also gives the customers an idea about the information they’ll receive through emails in the future.

This creates a feeling in the audience that they are valued by the brand.

Confirmation email

These emails are important to confirm an activity, build trust, and improve customer experience. This could be a confirmation for making a purchase, signing up for a service, or resetting a password.

Confirmation emails help in preventing errors and fraud by verifying order details, account creation, and subscriptions and more.

Check out this confirmation email sample to learn more.

Support emails

No business is complete without good customer support. These emails acknowledge customer enquiries and queries, address common issues and help them set expectations for response times.

This reduces frustrations among customers and reduces the possibility of continuous follow-ups. The support team can extend help through useful resources, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, community forums, tutorial videos, and a lot more.

Sales emails

Sales emails are the most used autoresponder emails.

Sales emails can be used for nurturing leads, driving conversions, and maintaining customer relations. A few best practices can be gauging the recipient’s pain points, past interactions and personalization.

Other aspects to incorporate include testimonials, case studies, and other content verticals that help in upselling, cold outreach, and re-engaging inactive leads.

Newsletter emails

Newsletters are a great way to create a brand connection and keep your customers updated about the new developments in your organization.

Newsletters provide valuable content, industry insights, company updates and educational resources and other value-driven verticals. Other resources that can be added include blog links, upcoming events, product updates, and user-generated content, to name a few.

Brands can establish consistency with these emails by sending them weekly, bi-weekly and monthly.

Review emails

Review emails are an effective way to understand your product performance and bring a fresh perspective to your marketing efforts. You can always ask a customer to review your product or give their thoughts about your company’s performance because there is always room to do better!

You can provide a direct link for the review and offer multiple rating options or a one-click response, which makes the process seamless. These positive reviews can then be used to create other marketing material.

Relationship-building emails

These are simple emails to help connect with customers regardless of the stage of the customer journey they are on. From asking how your customers are doing to reminding them about your company, they help maintain brand presence in the minds of the customers.

In these emails, you can personalize the experience, offer value, acknowledge milestones and industry insights, and make exclusive offers to encourage engagement.

Enhance email campaigns with email autoresponder software

Email autoresponder software can help businesses automate their email marketing campaigns and streamline communication with their customers.

Businesses can send timely and personalized messages to their subscribers, keeping them engaged and interested in their brand. With features like segmentation, A/B testing, and advanced analytics, email autoresponder software can help businesses tailor their messages to their audience and improve their overall email marketing strategy. In short, email autoresponder software is an essential tool for any business looking to grow their email marketing campaigns and build lasting relationships with their customers.

Conclusion

Email autoresponders are an amazing tool. Not only do they save you time, but they also keep in touch with your customers on your behalf.

Not many tools today provide you with complete email service, but we have created Icegram Express with this requirement in mind.

Here’s what Icegram Express helps you with:

• It’s a great time saver
• Helps build customer relationships for the long term
• You need zero monitoring efforts as the smart tool handles everything on your behalf
• You just need to configure the setup once, you’re now good to go!
• It’s a great tool to scout, onboard and retain customers for your business

Here’s how you can set up autoresponders using Icegram Express.

Create an autoresponder With Icegram Express Now

FAQs

How frequently should I send autoresponder emails?
The frequency depends on your goal and audience. Welcome sequences may include multiple emails over a few days, while re-engagement emails should be spaced out to avoid overwhelming customers.

How do autoresponders help increase sales?
Autoresponders nurture leads by delivering relevant information, offering discounts, reminding users about abandoned carts, and upselling or cross-selling products based on customer behavior.

What are the best practices for setting up autoresponders?
Best practices include segmenting your audience, personalizing content, optimizing subject lines, monitoring performance, and continuously refining emails based on engagement metrics.

When you’re running a reasonably successful business, you don’t want to change your core tools like your email marketing system or your help desk or your online commerce platform. The risks of goofing up are too high.

That’s why I ducked all attempts at trying HelpNinja for nearly a year.

HelpNinja is a help desk / support management platform. Vinodh David – the founder, is a WordPress veteran and a long time friend. He kept on inviting me to try HelpNinja and I kept on giving him one or the other excuse. My real reason was that I didn’t want to cause unnecessary troubles for our team and our customers.

Today, I thank Vinodh for being persistent!

Why?

Because my team freaking loves HelpNinja now!!

A little backstory first..

We started our products business in 2009, with building extensions for activeCollab – a project management solutions. We created an extension that allowed using the task management module within activeCollab as a help desk! Yes, it grew out of our own needs, activeCollab had great foundation, and our add-on became successful pretty quickly.

I personally don’t like help desk systems that felt like robots.. And our system felt more like one-to-one communication for the customer. We’ve been using that same “transparent help-desk” system all these years.

What was wrong with our earlier support desk system?

There was no significant problem actually. The old technology platform did make the system a bit slow and searching things was hard. But it worked flawlessly and the team was really comfortable with it.

So we didn’t really have any major “incentive” to search for an alternative.

That’s what I was referring to at the start… If a tool is working good enough, there is huge reluctance to try any alternatives.

So what changed? Why did we try HelpNinja?

We’d been tracking HelpNinja from the start, and we’d seen some demos. We liked how the product was maturing, plus it offered great search and speed.

And then Vinodh said they’re building a system that will allow providing support on WP.org forums from within HelpNinja.

So to please a dear friend, I tasked Malay (product owner for Icegram), with giving HelpNinja a fair trial.

He tried a few things, pushed a few sample support tickets, switched to a single product support to HelpNinja and experimented with a lot of features they had.

Malay was convinced this is a good tool.

And we switched.

Hmm… How’s been the switch? What do we like in HelpNinja?

HelpNinja helped us improve help!

Our support team’s productivity is higher. We have better insights into quality of support. And we could automate many things elegantly.

Here are some specific things we like about HelpNinja:

Design / Interface / Aesthetics

It’s clean, eye pleasing and functional. We like our day to day tool to help us get our job done as quickly as possible. Without cognitive load of hoping through screens. HelpNinja gets this right.

Quick and Easy Setup

We were up and running within five minutes. And since we didn’t import old support tickets, migration was super quick. Just connect the support mailbox and tickets were flowing in.

Speed

HelpNinja is super fast! Like impressively fast. That just makes it a lot better than a lot of competition out there. Clunky and slow tools kill productive time. HelpNinja actually saved a ton of time for our support team.

Auto saved reply drafts

This is a small feature, but very useful. Sometimes we need to go back and forth while composing answer to a ticket. And since HelpNinja auto saves the draft reply, we don’t have to use a text editor to keep a draft until it’s ready and then paste it into the support system.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Many support systems have keyboard shortcuts. But we find HelpNinja’s shortcuts intuitive and logical. Again, saves us from remembering them and performing the task manually.

Automatic Workflows

Automation is good. Automation that works like it’s personal, is even better. HelpNinja allowed us to setup flexible workflow rules and auto responses. This reduced follow up work and auditing.

Saved / Canned Replies

Ok, this is another standard feature for a support help desk, and we had it even in our activeCollab extension, but nonetheless, it’s really well implemented in HelpNinja. And for someone who’s migrating from email to a support solution, this can be real timesaver

Search

Again, search is fast, and finds good matches! Building a good search system doesn’t come easy, and when you can find a specific ticket in the haystack of hundreds of thousands, it’s definitely a win!

Easy attachment handling

Again, a small feature on the sales page, but a big productivity booster in actual usage.

Reports

We’re still exploring analytics and reporting within HelpNinja, but we’re liking what we’re seeing so far!!

Our verdict on HelpNinja

We love it. Good solutions are worth spending for, and HelpNinja is definitely one of them.

Flat 20% recurring discount on PRO plan

You can try HelpNinja before you decide to buy. Plus you can use this code ICEGRAM to get 20% recurring discount on HelpNinja Pro plan. That’s a big savings – which you can invest towards buying more of our products?

Business aside, I think HelpNinja is a good solution worth trying out – even if you’re reluctant.

A lot of marketers fail to understand that marketing a product is about providing value to your consumers/audience. This rule is especially liable in email marketing which by the way isn’t dead. It’s still considered an effective tool for conversions.

A high open rate will ensure that you have a good audience base and that the audience is interested in your content and of course, it’s a good way to earn a return on investment.

What Does Email Open Rate Mean?

It is the percentage of people that have successfully seen and opened your email campaign. The higher the percentage, the better the success of your campaign.

What is a good email open rate?

On average a good open rate would be somewhere between 15-25%. If you have an open rate which is 2% or less then it’s time to consider some good campaign optimization tricks.

There are a few reasons why your email campaign may be failing:

1. Having more fake audience accounts than real ones
2. Not having clear lists
3. Restriction of the number of emails that you can send in a day

Typical email plug-ins are not effective in this scenario as they don’t have features like list creation and cleanup like our product. Icegram Express will ensure that redundant and fake accounts get eliminated and your lists stay focused in your WordPress domain. After all, you want to reach the right people.

Here are 6 effective tips to improve your email open rates:

1. Use clear and compelling subject lines that accurately reflect the content of the email and entice the reader to open it.
2. Segment your email list and send targeted emails to specific groups.
3. Keep your email lists clean and up-to-date.
4. Optimize the timing and frequency of your emails.
5. Ensure your email content is grammatically proofread and includes pictures and infographics.
6. Make sure your content is in clear precision of your topic.

A good email open rate is between 15-25%, and you can use Icegram Express to help with list creation, clean-up, and building forms for user data collection. Remember, email marketing is about providing value to your audience, so keep that in mind when crafting your emails.

If there is one daunting question that today’s digital marketers have, then it is- How effective is Email Marketing?

A lot of marketers fail to understand that marketing a product is about providing value to your consumers/audience. This rule is especially liable in email marketing which by the way isn’t dead. It’s still considered an effective tool for conversions.

A high open rate will ensure that you have a good audience base and that the audience is interested in your content and of course, it’s a good way to earn a return on investment.

So now that you know the importance of open rates, let’s discuss how you can achieve the same through some simple tips:

Headlines and Subjects

One effective tip is to use a clear and compelling subject line that accurately reflects the content of the email and entices the reader to open it.

The first thing that catches a person’s eye is the headline/subject line. Having a catchy headline gives an edge to your content. Now, we understand that not everyone may be good at creating catchy headlines, it needs practice. If you have bought Icegram Express (ES) then you may have headline swipe templates that you can choose from, this can cut down your work and enable you to focus on other areas of your campaign. A few helpful tips and examples that you can follow are:

• Keep the headlines short

Email headlines get cut off when they’re too long. Hence, keeping them short will ensure that your recipient has read them.
E.g. Baking Tips at Your Rescue!

• Make use of numbers in your headlines

Numbers are known to hook a person’s interest immediately. They invoke a subconscious reaction in the brain.
E.g. 10 Effective Ways to Use Baking Soda or Earn 10,000 Leads in Just 3 Days

• Make sure your topic is clear

Your headline gives a gist of your entire content to the reader. It shouldn’t be too clever or too cryptic, it may leave your reader confused.
If your content is about feeding puppies then your headline could be: How To Feed New-Born Puppies or The Secrets of Huntington Beach

• Ask questions

Questions help evoke curiosity. They’re a good way to create expectations about the content.
E.g. Are You Ready For These New Clothing Trends of 2022? Or Did You Know of These 5 Ways To Use a Blush?

• Have a conversational tone

Conversational tones are a good way to personalize the feel of the write-up.
E.g. Here’s Why Political Debates Are Necessary Or Why I Sold My Shares in 2 Days.

Segmenting your lists

If you want to reach your audience in the most effective way possible, then you need to categorize them. This means segmenting your email list and sending targeted emails to specific groups. And the best part? This can increase the relevance and personalization of your emails, which in turn makes them more likely to be opened.

Let’s say you have a mixture of new and old users, as well as people living in different parts of the world. It might seem daunting to try and reach them all at once, but by segmenting your list, you can customize your approach and reach them in the most effective way possible.

Here are some key bullet points to keep in mind:

• Segment your email list to reach different groups of users
• Send targeted emails to specific groups to increase relevance and personalization
• Use tools like Icegram Express to create different lists for different groups of users
• Send customized email campaigns that resonate with your audience

And remember, segmenting your list is all about making sure you’re sending the right message to the right people.

Keeping cleaner lists

As we mentioned above, having a targeted audience list can go a long way to building a loyal audience base. While some plug-ins can help you create targeted lists, not all allow you to create and clean up your lists from time to time.

Optimize the timing of your emails, sending them when your audience is most likely to be checking their inbox. You should also consider the frequency of your emails, and avoid sending too many emails that may result in fatigue or too few emails that may be overlooked.

Icegram Express ensures that your lists stay up-to-date, it has a special feature which creates forms for your user base. This way, you’ll be able to collect user information, so you can build your lists and manage them accordingly. P.S.: The forms are customizable!

Optimizing email content

While you optimize blogs for more views, optimizing email is equivalent to gaining more clicks. Keep the following points in mind for optimizing content:

• Ensure your content is grammatically proofread
• Add pictures and infographics to enrich
• Your content needs to be in clear precision of your topic
• Make sure your images are of smaller sizes so as to not make the loading slow, an ideal size would be to have images that are less than 1 MB in size

Personalization is the key

Your content may be great, but is it personalized for effectiveness? It’s always better to write like you’re writing to a friend rather than for a general audience. This gives the email a feel of personalization rather than spam.

Additionally, using a catchy and visually appealing design, as well as including a clear call-to-action, can also help to improve your open rates. Finally, testing different approaches and analyzing the results can help you determine what works best for your audience and improve your open rates over time.

Hence, creating familiarity can engage customers and motivate them to open your emails in the future. To help you with the same, we do have some great templates for newsletters and post notifications in Icegram Express to enhance your campaign. If you don’t have Icegram Express then you can look at the below example to understand what we mean:

“Hi John,

How has your Sunday been? It has been an amazing week for our company and we thought you’d like to know about some recent developments …”

Sending emails at the right time and place

Timing is everything, especially in email marketing. After you create your list, the first thing you need to ensure is that you send the email at the right time. It can be tricky to operate full time especially if your audiences live in a different time zone. This can be hard work especially if your plug-in doesn’t have a scheduling option.

Hence, keeping this in mind, Icegram Express can help you schedule your emails to the right audience at the right time. All you have to do is build up a list, create content and then schedule it. Half your work is done right there!

Being Mobile friendly

Digital content begins and ends with mobile phones. The world does everything on mobile, including checking emails. Optimizing your email content to become more mobile-friendly is the best way to root for success for your campaign. Big brands are following up on the trend and ensuring that their offers don’t get missed. Here are a few examples we can learn from.

Track open rates from time to time

Tracking open rates from time to time will give you an understanding of your campaign’s performance. Apart from this, it will also suggest how many people are interested in your company. Hence, it is important to keep a tab on it.

The best way to track open rates would be to install an Icegram Express. It’s a tool that allows tracking of the open rates for free and it also analyses them to provide you with a detailed report on open rates as well as conversion rates. Not all plug-ins have the facility to give you an analysis of your campaign like Icegram Express. It’s designed for marketers by marketers.

The free version of Icegram Express is equipped with features that can help you with your campaign, however, the pro version is equipped to enhance your brand as a whole with quality features.

Go check this out!

What’s one thing you could improve in your next email campaign?

If you’re looking to improve your email campaign, there’s one thing you can focus on that can have a big impact: your email open rates. After all, if people aren’t opening your emails, they’re not going to be reading your message or taking any action.

So, what can you do to improve your email open rates? Here are a few tips:

1. Make sure your subject line is attention-grabbing and relevant to your audience. This is often the first thing people see, so you want to make it count.
2. Segment your email list and tailor your message to each group. People are more likely to open emails that feel personalized and relevant to them.
3. Test different send times to see what works best for your audience. You might find that certain days of the week or times of day result in higher open rates.
4. Keep your email copy concise and engaging. People have short attention spans, so you want to make sure your message is clear and compelling.
5. Use an email open rate calculator to track your progress and see how your open rates compare to the industry average.

Remember, improving your email open rates is an ongoing process. Keep testing and refining your approach to see what works best for your audience.

Conclusion

Now that we have established the importance of gaining good open rates, it’s time to start considering the above steps. Inevitably marketers find innovative ways to land on an audience inbox and not spam. It’s a never-ending struggle, however, we hope that this article helps you in gaining some clarity. Share your views and opinions & leave a comment below.

FAQ

How do I increase my open rate for emails?
To increase your email open rate, you can try a few things. First, make sure your subject line is attention-grabbing and relevant to your audience. You could also consider segmenting your email list so that you can send more targeted messages to specific groups of people. Additionally, you could try sending your emails at different times of the day to see if that affects your open rates. And finally, make sure the content of your emails is high-quality and valuable to your readers so that they will be more likely to open and engage with your messages.

What is an Email Open Rate and How do you Calculate It?
An email open rate is the percentage of recipients who opened an email that you sent them. To calculate your email open rate, you divide the number of unique opens by the number of emails delivered (excluding bounces). For example, if you sent 1,000 emails and 200 people opened them, your open rate would be 20%.

What is an Average Email Open Rate?
The average email open rate varies by industry, but as of 2021, the overall average open rate is around 18%. However, this can vary significantly depending on your industry and the type of emails you are sending. It’s a good idea to research the average open rates for your specific industry and compare your own rates to that benchmark.

Most of all managing all these multiple tasks from a single place.

But inspite of all this goodness, customers have faced issues when it comes to email deliverability.

Dive in to know how we solved this issue.

Understanding email deliverability woes

Well, Icegram Express is not an Email Service Provider. It is a plugin which works along with WordPress or an Email Service Provider to send out emails.

Now the deliverability completely depends on the Email Service Provider. So technically, we had no direct way to resolve this issue except building it into our own system or finding a reliable ESP and integrating with that. We decided to go with the latter.

Choosing the right ESP for a smooth integration process

There are multiple ESP’s in the market. Some very popular ones being – Mailgun, Sparkpost, Pepipost, Amazon SES.

We wanted to go beyond just finding a reliable solution. We wanted to find a solution that we would use and only then recommend. So we did tons of research, tried a few services and then zeroed down to Pepipost.

Price-wise here’s how Pepipost compares with its counterparts:

Besides price here are other things we liked at Pepipost:

• It had the highest deliverability rate when compared with others.
• Easy to configure, can be done within 3 minutes.
• It is trusted by over 20,000 brands.
• Provides real-time tracking.
• Has an artificial intelligence to understand customer behavior.
• Has sub-account support.

Integrate Icegram Express with Pepipost: step-by-step guide

If you’ve ever faced difficulties with email delivery, we recommend considering Pepipost. Follow these steps to integrate it seamlessly with your Icegram Express plugin and enjoy hassle-free email delivery:

1. Install and activate the Icegram Express plugin.
2. Sign up for a Pepipost account and retrieve your API key.
3. Configure the integration settings in Icegram Express by entering your Pepipost API key.
4. Verify the integration by sending a test email and confirming successful delivery.
5. Enjoy efficient email delivery with Icegram Express and Pepipost.

Skyrocket your email success today

Say goodbye to email deliverability issues by integrating Icegram Express with Pepipost. Follow our step-by-step guide to set up the Email Subscribers tool and enjoy hassle-free email delivery for your WordPress website.

Remember, successful integration is just a few steps away!”

Try it out now

It is the POST DIGEST feature.

To give you a bit of insight:

It is one of the most asked for features for some time now.

And as we researched we knew, we had to get this done.

So here it is…

What makes Post Digest a must-have?

As bloggers, we love to keep our readers/tribe/circle (whatever you call them) interested.
You churn out content and email them and ensure they are aware of the new blog.

Now put yourself in your reader’s shoes…

Chances are they are not just subscribed to your list. Say they are subscribed to 3 (that’s the least), other bloggers. Now, what if all these 3 bloggers are as active as you and create content and email frequently.

The result, all these emails could bloat the inbox of your reader which may lead him to take the most drastic step of ‘UNSUBSCRIBING’

Well, I don’t want that happening to you or your readers. And the post digest feature ensures that.

How Post Digest Works?

Using the Post Digest feature you can merge multiple articles in one email. You can then send this email to your contacts at a specific amount of time like:

• Once a day at a specific time. For example, every night at 7:00 p.m.
• Weekly on a specific day at a specific time. For example, every Thursday at noon.
• Monthly on a specific date at a specific time. For example, the 3rd day of every month at 6:00 a.m.
• Monthly on a specific day during a specific week. For example, the fourth Thursday in November at 7:00 p.m. (convenient for a Thanksgiving email)

Advantages:

• Lower unsubscribe rate by not sending frequent emails
• Increase engagement with subscribers
• Focus on a post rather than emails
• One time setup

Cool right?

Over To You

Liked this feature? Let me know your thoughts. It is included in our Email subscriber plugin.

 Get Icegram Express Max. 

Be it a list builder form, a contact form, or a survey form, they are integral parts of any website design. That’s because forms are a priority feature to collect inputs from your prospects and initiate a relationship with them.

Essential elements of WordPress forms

A professional form makes it easier for your website visitors to reach out to you.

It is an effective channel of communication that can bring you business opportunities, leads, blog subscribers, potential customers, and more.

The possibilities are endless.

WordPress forms may contain any of the various input fields for different purposes:

• Text boxes: Short answers
• Text area: Long responses
• Submit button: Send the message
• Radio buttons: Choose one response from many alternatives
• Check boxes: Choose multiple responses from a list of options
• Upload button: Allow users to upload a document, image, etc.
• Reset button: Clear the form fields
• Drop-down list: Select an option from a set of given alternatives
• Web Address: Allow users to enter a URL of their website

Some things to keep in mind while designing your form

• Limited fields: Keep only necessary input fields. Having irrelevant fields and questions on a form can frustrate your prospective clients.
• Mobile responsiveness: Since we are living in the mobile era, your forms must be responsive.

Types of WordPress forms

Based on your requirement, the forms are classified into six types:

1. Contact form
2. Survey form
3. Lead generation form/Subscription form
4. Order form
5. Event registration form
6. Unsubscribe form

Contact form

Primary Purpose: Resolve customer queries or concerns.
The contact form is one of the most common types of web forms. Almost all the sites on the internet have a contact form for their visitors and they should.

Most contact forms have three input fields: Name, Email and Message. Some sites may have additional input fields based on the requirements and type of website. Some may even show an acknowledgment message to confirm that the message has been sent.

The contact form is also a safe way to receive emails. The messages are directed to your inbox, but you do not need to publicly display your email to the visitors. Thus, this helps in fighting spam as your email address is hidden.

Another advantage of a contact form is that the user can quickly fill out the form fields and press send. This avoids the hassle of copying the email ID from the website and then composing a new email using an email client like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.

Survey form

Primary Purpose: Gather feedback and data about your potential customers.

Survey forms are used for the following:

• For market research or to validate a product idea.
• By bloggers and marketers to gather feedback about their content and website design.
• As a pop-up or a dedicated web page.

Lead generation/Subscription form

Primary purpose: Capture the email leads and convert a casual visitor into a lead for your business.

Almost all the modern blogs have an opt-in form that collects leads.

Social media updates might get missed or ignored, but an email will definitely land in front of your potential client. This is why it’s crucial to convert your social media fans into email subscribers.

By entering an email in the lead generation form, the website visitor allows you to send them email updates regularly.

Lead generation forms are also used on landing pages where lead magnets are used to get emails from potential clients.

A few examples of strong lead magnets are tutorials, freebies, offers, white papers, and more.

Order form

Primary Purpose: Sell services or products.

If you run an e-commerce website or a SaaS (Software as a Service) business, an order form will help your users place their orders and proceed to checkout. The order forms can also have an integrated payment option such as PayPal, debit cards, credit cards, and more.

An order form may have elements such as credit card details, coupon code, ‘Buy Now’ button, etc.

Event registration form

Primary Purpose: Build a list for events

If you are organizing an event, a conference, or a meeting, you can avoid the hassles of maintaining a physical logbook by placing an event registration form on your website.
The form will automatically maintain attendee records and collect payments.

Unsubscribe form

Primary Purpose: Allow users to unsubscribe from your list

Some of your email subscribers might want to opt out of receiving any future emails. In another case, if you are a service-based business that regularly sends emails to its leads, you might want to create an unsubscribe page on your website.

The unsubscribe forms will let the disinterested users or subscribers opt out from future email updates, promotions, or announcements.

Although no one wants to place an unsubscribe form, you can’t force visitors to be your subscribers forever.

How to create WordPress forms: Coding or plugins?

I hope you are now clear on which type of form to use in a particular case.

Now let’s look at form creation.

Building a form using programming languages like PHP, HTML, and JavaScript would either require you to know the programming languages or you’ll have to hire a professional developer.

But hiring a professional web developer might be difficult to consider as it might go beyond an organization’s budget.

While there are plenty of WordPress form builders and plugins with the same elements like text input, buttons, drop-down menus, and others, the only difference is the customization options.

Benefits of form plugins

There are a plethora of reasons why websites are benefiting from form plugins. We’ve listed some of them below:

Saves costs

Plugins build forms without the help of a programmer. You can change or modify the style of a form anytime, making it a feasible option for an organization.

Custom design

The plugins help design forms that match your website theme. The customization includes brand colors, custom fields, shapes, and more.

Easy to build

The plugins provide a user-friendly interface to customize a form. This eliminates the need for your team to have a technical prowess or prior coding experience.

Multi-purpose forms

The WordPress forms created using plugins are easy to customize so they can be used for various purposes like contact forms, subscription forms, newsletter forms, email forms, signup forms, and others.

5 Best WordPress form plugins

There are a variety of WordPress form plugins available in the marketplace. Here we picked one of the best ones available:

Contact Form 7

Contact Form 7 is the most popular WordPress form creation plugin. After activation, a ready-made contact form is automatically added to your website and can be inserted into whichever page you’d like.

Pros

• Free of cost.
• Installation on unlimited sites is possible.
• Easy to create a basic contact form.

Cons

• Difficult to use for beginners.
• Difficult user interface and limited support options.

Ninja Forms

Ninja Forms is also a free WordPress form creation plugin with some pro features. It provides a drag-and-drop interface for beginners and customizable options for developers.

Pros

• Installation on multiple sites is possible.
• Easy for beginners since it offers drag and drop functionality.

Cons

• The extensions available for the plugin must be purchased separately.
• Does not support A/B testing.
• Editing form HTML is not possible.

Icegram Collect

Icegram CollectIcegram Collect is the easiest WordPress form and list-building plugin. The Icegram Collect plugin offers ready-made, high-converting opt-in forms that can be displayed anywhere on your website using the shortcode.

Pros

• Readymade forms and design styles.
• Embed forms anywhere on the website using a shortcode.
• Sends data directly to the CRM service.

Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms is a WordPress form plugin that creates stylish WordPress forms. It allows creating posts, tables, and graphs using collected data.

Pros

• Editable HTML
• Drag and drop functionality

Cons

• Form style is an enterprise feature
• Generic templates

Pirate Forms

Pirate Forms also joins the list of WordPress plugins having an easy user interface and creating simple forms.

Pros

• Completely free
• Includes CAPTCHA & SMTP

Cons

• No advanced functionality such as subscription forms, payment integrations, and others.

Seven vital tips to create WordPress forms

Keeping it simple

Ask for relevant information and make the process seamless with quick form fields such as clear labels and descriptions. Complicated forms might discourage visitors from filling it.

A conversion-driven CTA

Your CTA should inspire visitors to take action. Simple form design coupled with a click-worthy CTA is a recipe for lead generation success.

Simultaneously, you can also use power words like free, instant, discount, massive, best-selling, etc.

Create a sense of urgency

You can employ the persuasion tactic called scarcity to move your visitors to action. We are more likely to value opportunities that appear scarce and limited.
For example, the countdown timer pushes the visitors to enter their name and email.

Alignment with brand elements

The button on the form must stand out to grab your audience’s attention. While there is no particular color that you must stick with, it is best to add the color that aligns with your brand.

Likewise, you can also experiment with animations, GIFs, and other graphical elements that help your CTA to stand out.

Test for optimal placement

Placement of forms will affect your conversion rates. For example, subscription forms that are displayed above the page fold might capture more leads than those displayed at the end of a blog post.

You must test and find optimal placement to embed and display the forms, preferably above the page fold area of your website.

Images to build credibility

Nothing converts better than having an authoritative image that builds credibility.

This is another tactic that you can use to increase your conversion rates. We tend to associate popular and known figures with trust, credibility and success.

Show forms in pop-ups

It is proven that pop ups forms are best for conversion. Visual Website Optimizer increased its sign-ups by 50% using pop-up forms.

Why do pop-up forms work?

Here’s why:

• Less UI distraction.
• When a pop-up is displayed only the form is highlighted and the background is blurred or darkened.
• Minimum required fields = increased form completion rates.

Besides that, Yes-No CTA popups are also a promising option.

Read more about why Yes-No popups convert so well.

How to create high-converting popups in minutes?

Icegram is one of the most powerful WordPress plugins to grow subscribers and increase conversions. Icegram offers beautiful, attention-grabbing, and well-timed popups that can skyrocket your conversion rates.

Using the Icegram plugin, you can easily create customized popups with text, images and background colors of your choice. The option for customization allows you to create popups that match your website theme.

What to do after form creation?

Okay, you have made the best form ever and collected leads. What to do next?

It’s now time to market your brand through emails. Here’s what to do:

Connect your form to an email marketing tool

You must nurture the subscribers and leads that you collect through your lead forms.
Email marketing tools such as Icegram Express is compatible with list-building/form-building plugins like Icegram Collect that will make your email marketing efforts a breeze.

Also, people who subscribe to this Icegram Collect form will be saved in the database. You can then send automatic blog post notifications to subscribers.

Not just that, you can also send promotion offers, updates, etc., using Icegram Express.
Icegram Collect also integrates with MailChimp, AWeber and other top email marketing services.

Target/re-target to boost conversions

Target visitors based on time, location, or behavior.

You may show forms or pop-up forms depending on the time spent by the visitor on your website. Another way of targeting is showing forms on specific pages of your site.

You can also set re-target rules for visitors who aren’t convinced in the first visit.
A plugin like Icegram does all the heavy lifting for you once you have defined the targeting and re-targeting rules.
All these efforts help you increase your relationship with customers and get you more and more loyal customers.

Bonus: How about readymade forms?

Icegram Collect WordPress plugin is compatible with all WordPress themes and plugins. It has beautiful, readymade forms with easy customization options.

It gives you the freedom to place forms anywhere on your website.

You can integrate Icegram Collect with the MailChimp email marketing service. The data collected through Icegram Collect can also be submitted to your own CRM.

Icegram Collect can be coupled with Icegram, which offers high-converting popups, action bars, overlay and calls to action.

Whether you’re a blogger, marketer, or an e-store owner, Icegram Collect can help you collect leads without any coding hassles. It saves tremendous time and effort in form creation.

Set up the conversion machine in 5 minutes! Get started with Icegram Collect now!

Conclusion

The form is a communication medium that encourages visitors to take action, initiating a communication loop.

Using WordPress forms on your website is effortless using WordPress plugins, providing high benefits and will remarkably improve your conversions and provide a better user experience.

I hope this guide helped you discover the potential of WordPress forms and the opportunities that it brings to you!

FAQ

Are WordPress forms mobile responsive?
Most modern form plugins are mobile-friendly by default. However, it’s still good practice to preview your form on various devices to ensure smooth user interaction.

What are the performance impacts of using too many forms or plugins?
Using too many form plugins can slow down your website. Stick to one well-optimized plugin, limit the number of fields per form, and ensure all scripts load only where necessary.

Is it possible to get form submission notifications via email?
Yes. Most form plugins allow you to configure email notifications for each submission—either to the admin, the user, or both.

How do I prevent spam in WordPress forms?
You can enable Google reCAPTCHA, use honeypot fields, or limit form submissions with anti-spam settings in most form plugins. This helps prevent bots from misusing your forms.

Are WordPress forms GDPR compliant?
They can be. You should add checkboxes for user consent, clear privacy statements, and avoid storing sensitive data without permission. Most plugins provide built-in GDPR compliance features.

What are the performance impacts of using too many forms or plugins?
Using too many form plugins can slow down your website. Stick to one well-optimized plugin, limit the number of fields per form, and ensure all scripts load only where necessary.

Since the dawn of popups, they have been the best friend of internet marketers, bloggers and e-commerce sites to grow their email subscribers list and display offers for visitors. Marketers have reported 1350% increase in subscription rate as well as 10X conversions using popups.

Now, mobile being the hot favorite among millions, marketers targeted their email subscription popups on mobile along with desktops to boost their conversions to more than 1700%.

But now, suddenly Google has made a high voltage announcement that it will Penalise Mobile Pages showing Intrusive Popup & Interstitial Ads from January 10, 2017 and kick them to the bottom in search results.

Oh dear!! It’s a huge punch in the face for you and me! Overlay popups, full screen Welcome Mats and standalone Interstitials have been critical conversion boosters for most people – and primary revenue source for many.

With Google cracking down these pages, it’s a *$@#&$ situation.

Top 3 reasons Why Google will Punish Sites Using Full Screen Popups & Interstitials

There’s always some reason why something needs punishment at a point of time. Keeping the visitors experience of mobile browsing in mind, following 3 reasons poked up as to why Google will punish such sites:

• Main content getting blocked– Due to smaller screen space on mobile devices, the main content of websites got obstructed with the display of popups, full screen popups (overlays) and interstitials; also referred as the most annoying ads on mobile.
• Poor user experience– Pages that show intrusive interstitials provides a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible.
• Accidentally clicking ads– These annoying ads and announcements takes over the whole page and have the smallest possible button for dismissing them, which inevitably leads user to accidentally click on the ad even though the user didn’t want to.

What’s this penalty?

The main aim of Google Search is to help users quickly find the best answers to their questions, regardless of the device they’re using.

So, to improve mobile search experience, Google decided to punish these sites by ranking them very low in search results. The worst would be to rank among the last in search results.

After January 10, 2017, pages where content is not easily accessible to a user on the transition from the mobile search results may not rank as highly as they used to be earlier.

What kind of popups and ads will get you punished?

Google Webmaster Tools says:

• An intrusive Popup that covers the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results, or while they are looking through the page.
• An intrusive Interstitial that looks like a forced ad which user has to dismiss before main content is accessible
• A standalone interstitial (Full screen popup-overlay) which the user has to dismiss before accessing the main content.

It’s very likely to be unhappy for you as it will take away visitors as well as ad revenue.

How this penalty will affect Search Rankings?

Search result is something what everyone pays very close attention to. It’s a major source of visitors and Google’s continued nudges could make a huge difference in the long run. You will face:

• Very low visitors count to the website
• Difficult to reach out to audiences
• Hard to pitch offers, membership sign-ups, coupons, etc.
• High fall in conversion rates
• Less sales and ultimately less profits

Who will be the lucky one’s to be benefited from this punishment?

Popups, overlays and interstitials to be punished, the biggest benefit will be enjoyed by visitors and they would easily find the content visitors looking for.

• Forced popups and interstitials will no more distract and annoy visitors
• No more forced subscriptions and accidentally clicking call-to-action buttons

Who will face hard times from this punishment?

Due to fear of lowest ranking in search results, the worries will be big enough for:

• Online store owners
• Marketers and bloggers
• People using AdFly etc..
• Plugin sites that makes Popups, Interstitials,
• Life coaches
  And many others

The big dilemma…

You are most likely to face this dilemma…

• If I show an ad via popup or interstitial on mobile, I will be ranked lower in Google…
• If I don’t show an ad, how will my offer be seen and how will my email subscriber list grow??

But, there’s always a solution to each problem and you won’t have to scratch your head or consult an expert for it.

There are some green signals provided by Google following which popups won’t be considered punishable and won’t lower your site in search results.

No Penalty for these kind of ads and popups…

Google Webmaster Tools says:

• Interstitials that appear to be in response to a legal obligation, such as for cookie usage or for age verification.
• Login dialogs on sites where content is not publicly indexable. For example, this would include private content such as email or unindexable content that is behind a paywall.
• Banners that use a reasonable amount of screen space and are easily dismissible. For example, the app install banners provided by Safari and Chrome are examples of banners that use a reasonable amount of screen space.

Solutions to keep your rankings intact…

3 Alternatives to convert “intrusive” popups to “friendly” popups…

• Use display targeting rules in your popup / interstitial program, and show them only on desktop / larger screens.
• Don’t use popups and interstitials on mobile. Instead use smaller messages like banners, inlines or slide ins.
• Automatic conversion using Icegram Engage

Option 1: Hide Popups on Mobile Devices

If you are running a popup on desktop, hide the same popup for mobile to avoid Google punishment. This is smart targeting where your popup will be shown only to visitors on desktop but not on mobile devices.

Depending on the plugin you use, you may have different options for targeting. Some may give direct option while in some, you need to use a JavaScript code.

If you are an Icegram Engage user, you just need to make sure that the mobile box is kept unchecked as shown in the image below.

Option 2: Use other ad / messaging styles – Banners, Slide ins, etc

There are tons of innovative opt-ins other than popup lighhtboxes or list builders, full screen overlays and interstitials that are highly effective.

Infact, these opt-ins have given a better conversion rate, are small and smartly adjust to the mobile screen space than the age-old pop-ups. So get rid of popups and start using the below solutions/message styles to overcome Google penalty.

Style 1 – Floating Header/Footer Bars (Action Bars)

Floating bars stick either to the top or bottom of the page making them highly noticeable and effective. They are like banners and being small, automatically gets adjusted to the screen size of mobile without obstructing the content and making your message clearly visible to your audience. Be it a newsletter subscription, giving resources, membership sign-up or offers, you can add anything.

Key benefits:

• Any of 2 display positions- top/bottom occupying clever screen space
• No content blocking
• Attractive & customizable design templates
• Easy integration with all email marketing services

Style 2 – Slide-Ins (Messengers)

Messenger are also small size optins that can appear at any of the two bottom corners of the screen without blocking website content. Blog announcement, offer announcement, social media follow, etc. you can simply display your message.

Key benefits:

• Display positions at the bottom screen corners
• Adding Images
• No visitor distraction
• Easy integration with all email marketing services

Style 3 – After-post & Inline

Inline opt-ins are so flexible that they can be placed within your content piece of web-page or after/before your blog post. This can be the best source for asking for email subscription. No visitor distraction at all.

Key benefits:

• Flexible to fit anywhere- within content, after/before post, after/before header-footer
• Attractive & customizable design templates
• Easy integration with all email marketing services

Style 4 – Tabs

Tabs create huge marketing impact. They are small boxes, non-disturbing and expand on user demand. You can simply ask for feedback from audiences or post your contact details to make visitors reach out to you quickly.

Key benefits:

• Quick helper for audiences to contact you without effort
• Feedback/suggestions/survey collector
• Social Media/ Offers announcement made easy

Style 5 – Toast Notifications

Toast notifications can be used for instant announcements or sharing an inspirational quote. Toast notifications are tiny boxes that uses mobile screen space cleverly completely focusing visitor’s attention on your message.

Key benefits:

• Being notification messages, they never go unnoticed
• Choose any display position
• Quick message conveyer to audiences

What about previously targeted popups? Will Google penalize my website if I have a popup displayed on mobile view?

Yes, google will most certainly penalize your website if you continue using popups on mobile view after 17th January, 2017.

However, if you are an Icegram Engage user you will not face this problem. As we have taken all the necessary precautions and made sure that websites that use Icegram Engage popups stay unaffected.

Option 3: Icegram Engage Automatically Saves You from the Google Penalty

Along with providing you with other two options of converting ‘intrusive popups’ to friendly popups – i.e Device Targeting & Mobile Friendly Optins, Icegram Engage automatically converts zero second popups to google friendly action bars.

Icegram Engage internally converts every popup that shows up at 0 seconds on the mobile device to an action bar. This action bar will show the exact headline as your original popup. And onclick of the CTA the popup will appear. Thus, not annoying the visitor in anyway.

To avoid these penalties and ensure that their mobile websites are accessible and user-friendly, businesses should consider using alternative ad styles or hiding pop-ups on mobile devices. Icegram Engage is one tool that can help businesses avoid Google’s penalties and create mobile-friendly opt-ins and messaging styles for their websites.

By following best practices for mobile website design and avoiding intrusive ads, businesses can improve the user experience for mobile users and protect their search engine rankings.

The best part is, Icegram Engage identifies if any Icegram Engage popup on your website is targeted at 0 seconds on a mobile device and converts it to an action bar automatically. Not giving Google a chance of penalizing your website and also saving you tons of time and effort.

Want to be fully covered against the Google Penalty?

Then Icegram Engage is your go-to plugin.

Icegram Engage is a free WordPress plugin ideal for lead generation and traffic conversion. It has tons of features for making any website the best in class. If you are a WordPress user, you can simply create and target campaigns on mobile devices.

Mobile-friendly websites are optimized to be easily viewed and navigated on a smartphone or other mobile device. Google has implemented mobile-friendly updates to its algorithms to improve the user experience for mobile users and to ensure that mobile users are able to access relevant, high-quality content on their devices.

Google has also implemented penalties for websites that use “intrusive” mobile pop-ups and interstitials, as these types of ads can obstruct the main content of the website and create a poor user experience.

If you are a non WordPress user, Contact us and we will assist you further.

Icegram Engage gives much more than Google friendly opt-ins…

• Besides the 5 message styles mentioned above, Icegram Engage also provides other styles that can be targeted without Google Penalty restrictions: Ribbons, Badges, Sidebars, Stickies- Check out the demos:
• Free conversion and impression Analytics to check optin performance on mobile
• Split Testing to find which variation converts better than others
• Powerful Page & User Level Targeting Rules
• Exit Intent and Smart Timing Controls to show opt-in on mobiles
• Integration with all Email marketing services: MailChimp, Aweber, InfusionSoft, iContact, MailPoet, MadMimi, etc.

One solution: Infinite Use Cases

With Icegram Engage at your kitty, you can explore a never ending list of ideas to engage and convert your audience without the fear of Google penalty. Other than newsletter subscription and display offers, you can also :

• Display sales offers, contest winners
• Create scarcity by running a countdown
• Trigger reciprocity by giving audience something useful- pdf, ppt, coupons
• Add image/video to build credibility
• Promote any event, webinar
• Ask user to install a mobile app
• Ask for feedback
• Share an inspirational quote
• Give important updates/reminders
• Increase your social media presence
• Provide contact details
  And a lots more…

Download Icegram Engage Now

Comments, Questions, Alternatives??

I hope you make the best of this information. Also if you’re using a zero second popup or interstitial kindly resort to one of the alternatives mentioned above. If you need any help, we’d be happy to help you.

PS. Icegram Engage completely supports Google’s policy and hopes that visitors get a better user experience real soon.

To make this ordeal simpler we’ve reviewed two fantastic conversion optimization plugins- Icegram Engage and Popup Maker.

Note: Both these plugins have free as well as premium features. But for simplicity sake, we’ve concentrated more on what the free versions offer. And the features are mind boggling.

Quick installation

Both Icegram Engage and Popup Maker are available for free on the WordPress repository. You can easily search, install & activate them.

Unlike other competitors like Sumo Me and OptinMonster, these plugins don’t force you to sign-up for using any of it’s functionality. Making them crowd favourites.

How many types Of optins do these plugins provide?

Today the types of optin used to gain attention is a crucial thing. And Icegram Engage spoils you with loads of choices.

Icegram Engage

Icegram Engage provides 4 optin types in the free version

• Popups
• Action Bars (header/footer bars)
• Messenger (slide-ins)
• Toast notifications

Icegram Engage also provides 8 more optin types in it’s paid plans:

• Tabs
• Overlays
• Interstitials
• Ribbons
• Sticky
• Badges
• Inlines
• Sidebars

These optins are very different from each other and fit almost every niche out there.

You can also preview how your optins will look on your website before making it live.

Popup Maker

Popup Maker on the other hand concentrates more on Popups. Popup Maker says that you can also create sidebars, slide-outs (messenger) but you need to play with code for it.

You can have a live preview of your popup when you tweak changes to it.

Here’s how these plugins help in growing your subscriber list

The main purpose website owner use an optin are to grow their email list. The two main components of any a subscriber optin is the email field and the CTA. However, only one of the two plugins compared allows you to insert a subscriber form in the free version.

Icegram Engage allows you.

In Icegram Engage, you can embed any HTML form to your optins from any contact form plugin for your email marketing work. That too, in the free version.

Popup Maker doesn’t.

But in Popup Maker, there is no such provision in the free version. You need to purchase their extensions to add a subscription form from any contact form service in popups.

You can add different types of form to the popup as per your requirements. Popup Maker is generally “Bring your own Form”.

Some beautiful themes for your website

Themes are the backbone of optins. Themes give optins the actual character that make them appear pleasant and grab eyeballs instantly.

Icegram Engage

Icegram Engage provides 20 high converting themes in the free version. These themes have excellent designs which can be easily customised to fit the colour scheme of your website.

Icegram Engage also has premium theme packs that further increase the number of themes to a whopping 90+.

Popup Maker

Popup Maker provides 6 simple themes in the free version.

You can customise each one of them for colour, fonts, contrast, styles, etc. In this way, you can create many theme combinations.

How many optins can you show in the free version?

With Icegram Engage and Popup Maker, you can create and display unlimited optins / popups on website

Simplicity of the editing panel

Both Icegram Engage and Popup Maker come with a simple and easy-to-use editing panel. You can add images to your optin as well as change optin size. You can also add your own custom CSS code for your optins.

In Popup Maker you need to buy their addon to enable the background image feature.

Tool to create powerful headlines

If themes grab attention, powerful headlines convert visitors.

In Icegram Engage you can add your own headlines or generate strong headlines from the in-built headline generator.

In Popup Maker, you need to create your own headlines. There is no headline generator.

Show optins based on expert targeting rules

Visitors are smart. The old techniques of showing optins right when the visitor lands on the website just doesn’t work. You need to be smarter than them so as to make them convert.

Use powerful targeting rules to trigger optins at the right place and right time.

Icegram Engage

Icegram Engage has awesome targeting rules that cover almost every case. The targeting rules are well organized and simple to understand.

The rules that are available in Icegram Engage are listed below:

• When to show optin
• Whom to show optin
• Show on mobile phones
  and more…

Icegram Engage also has exit intent trigger for all its 12 optin types. It’s available in the paid plan. Check out Icegram Engage’s pricing.

Popup Maker

Popup Maker provides limited targeting rules in the free version such as targeting optins on different pages.

Other rules such as showing on mobile devices, exit intent popup and others are available as a paid addon.

More essential features

Analytics

If you can measure what messages people are looking and clicking at, you can implement an overall strategy to improve your conversion rates. That’s the reason analytics are of prime importance.

Icegram Engage

Icegram Engage provides conversion and impression analytics as well as click through rate as to check which of the optin is converting better than others.

Along with these metrics, you can also see color graphs representing your campaign performance. Analytics is available in Icegram Engage’s paid plan.

Popup Maker

Popup Maker provides only open counts of popups in their analytics. Their conversion and impression analytics is available as a paid feature.

Animations

Animations act as a supporting feature to the optins. A little bit style to display the optins makes it more attractive.

Icegram Engage

Icegram Engage has option to add beautiful animation effects to it’s optins.

Entry animations, exit animations as well as CTA button animations makes your optin very engaging. It’s available in the paid plan.

Popup Maker

Popup Maker provides animation effects in the free version.

Free features at a glance:

Conclusion

Icegram Engage

If you are looking beyond popups, need subscription forms, CTA and powerful targeting rules that too for free, go with Icegram Engage.

Icegram Engage also has more powerful features in it’s paid plans.

Popup Maker

If you looking for just popups to show visitors without asking for subscriptions, go with Popup Maker.

For all other important features like forms, CTA, targeting rules, you need to purchase their individual add-ons or the core bundle.

Your Decision

We have been as unbiased as possible. It comes down to you to decide which one is your favourite and why.