Do you want to create a custom Facebook feed in WordPress?

A custom feed allows you to show posts from your Facebook page or group on your WordPress website. This can make your site more engaging and encourage visitors to follow you on Facebook.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create a custom Facebook feed in WordPress.

Why Create a Custom Facebook Feed in WordPress?

With almost 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the biggest social media site in the world. As a website owner, you may have already created a Facebook page or group where you engage with your audience.

However, people who only visit your website won’t see your Facebook posts. By adding a custom Facebook feed you can show visitors what’s happening on your group or page.

This can make your website more engaging and interesting, especially if you post multimedia content to Facebook such as videos and images.

It’s also a great way to promote your Facebook page or group, which will help you get more Facebook likes and grow your following.

If you’re using the Facebook remarketing/retargeting pixel on your website, then you can also show targeted ads to your visitors.

Having said that, let’s see how to add a custom Facebook feed to your WordPress site.

Installing a Custom Facebook Feed Plugin

The best way to add a custom Facebook feed to your WordPress website is by using the Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin.

This plugin lets you show Facebook content and comments directly on your site, and even combine posts from multiple Facebook feeds. It also makes it easy to display powerful social proof, by embedding Facebook reviews and community posts on your website.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

In this post, we’ll be using the pro version of Smash Balloon as it allows you to show videos and photos in your Facebook feed, choose different layouts, filter your feed based on post type, and more.

However, there’s also a free version that allows you to create a custom Facebook feed for WordPress, no matter what your budget.

Upon activation, you’ll need to go to Facebook Feed » Settings and enter your license key into the ‘License Key’ field.

You’ll find this information under your account on the Smash Balloon website.

After entering the key, click on the ‘Activate’ button.

Connect Your Facebook Page or Group to WordPress

Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed allows you to create multiple feeds from your different Facebook pages and groups. You can even merge feeds to create a custom feed.

To create your first feed, go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then click on ‘Add New.’

Smash Balloon lets you display posts from your timeline, photos, videos, albums, events, and more. For this guide, we’ll create a ‘Timeline’ Facebook feed but you can select any feed type you want.

After choosing a feed type, click on the ‘Next’ button.

Now, you need to select the Facebook page or group where you’ll get the content from.

To get started, click on ‘Add New.’

On the next screen, choose whether you’re creating a feed from a Facebook page or group.

Then, simply click on ‘Connect to Facebook.’

This opens a popup where you can log into your Facebook account and choose the pages or groups that you want to use in your feed.

After making your selection, click on the ‘Next’ button.

Once you’ve done that, Facebook will show all the information that Smash Balloon will have access to, and the actions it can perform.

To restrict Smash Balloon’s access to your Facebook account, simply click any of the switches to turn them from ‘Yes’ to ‘No.’ Just be aware that this may affect the content that you can show in the custom Facebook feed.

With that in mind, we recommend leaving all these switches enabled.

When you’re ready, click on ‘Done.’

After a few moments, you should see a message that you’ve successfully linked your WordPress website to Facebook. You can now click on ‘OK.’

With that done, Smash Balloon will return you to the WordPress dashboard automatically.

How to Create a Custom Facebook Feed in WordPress

You will now see a popup with the group or page you just linked to your WordPress website. Simply select the radio button next to your source and then click on the ‘Add’ button.

If you accidentally closed the popup, then don’t panic. You can simply refresh the tab to reopen the popup.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll be returned to the Facebook Feed » All Feeds page.

Just like before, click on the ‘Add New’ button and then choose the type of custom Facebook feed you want to create, such as Timeline, Photos, or Videos.

Then, click on ‘Next.’ Now, under ‘Select a Source’ you’ll see your Facebook group or page as an option.

Go ahead and select the page or group, and then click on ‘Next.’

You can now choose the template that you want to use as the starting point for your feed. All of these templates are fully customizable so you can fine-tune them to perfectly fit your WordPress blog or website.

We’ll be using the ‘Default’ template, but you can use any template you want.

After choosing a design, click on the ‘Next’ button.

Smash Balloon will now go ahead and create a Facebook feed based on your source and chosen template. This is a great start, but you may want to fine-tune how this feed appears on your website.

How to Customize Your Facebook Feed

The Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin gives you lots of ways to customize your feed. With that in mind, it’s worth seeing what changes you can make.

On the Facebook Feed » All Feeds screen, find the feed you just created and click on its ‘Edit’ button, which looks like a small pencil.

This opens the feed editor, which shows a preview of how the custom Facebook feed will look on your website.

On the left-hand side, you’ll see all the different settings you can use to customize the feed. Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly cover some key areas.

To start, you can change how your posts are displayed by clicking on ‘Feed Layout.’

On this screen, you can switch between different layouts, such as masonry and list, and change the feed height. As you make changes, the preview will update automatically so you can try different settings to see what works best for your website.

By default, the feed will show the same number of posts on desktop computers and mobile devices such as smartphones.

However, mobile devices usually have smaller screens and less processing power, so you may want to show fewer posts on tablets and smartphones. To do this, just type a different number into the ‘Mobile’ field under ‘Number of Posts.’

You can preview how your changes will look on desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones using the row of buttons in the upper-right corner.

By trying out different layouts you can create a custom feed that looks great, no matter what device the visitor is using.

By default, the Facebook feed shows fewer columns on smartphones and tablets, compared to desktop computers. This helps all your content fit comfortably on smaller screens.

However, after testing the mobile version of your WordPress website, you may be unhappy with how the columns look on smartphones and tablets. If this is the case, then you can adjust the columns by changing the numbers in the ‘Columns’ section.

When you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, click on the ‘Customize’ link at the top of the menu.

This will take you back to the main Smash Balloon editor.

Next, you can click on ‘Color Scheme‘ in the left-hand menu and take a look at the different colors you can add to the Facebook feed.

By default, Smash Balloon uses a color scheme inherited from your WordPress theme, but you can also choose ‘Light’ or ‘Dark,’ or even create your own custom color scheme.

By default, Smash Balloon adds a header to your feed, which is your Facebook profile picture and the name of your page or group.

To change how this looks, click on ‘Header’ in the left-hand menu.

On this screen, you can change the size and color of the header, hide or show your Facebook profile picture, and more.

If you want to remove the header completely, then click the toggle to turn it from blue (enabled) to grey (disabled).

Next up is the ‘Posts’ screen. Here, you can change how the individual posts are displayed inside the custom Facebook feed.

For example, you can switch between regular and boxed styles, change the background color, add a boxed shadow, and more.

By default, Smash Balloon doesn’t include the Facebook ‘like’ button in your feed.

To encourage more visitors to follow your Facebook page, you may want to add this button by selecting ‘Like Box’ from the editor’s left-hand menu.

After that, simply click on the ‘Enable’ button so that it turns blue. Now, if you scroll to the bottom of the preview you’ll see a ‘like’ button.

You can style this area using different settings. For example, you can choose whether the button appears at the top or bottom of the feed, and whether to include the cover photo from your Facebook page.

When you’re happy with how the ‘like’ button looks, you can move on to the ‘Load More Button’ screen.

The ‘Load More’ button encourages visitors to scroll through more of your Facebook feed.

For this reason, you may want to make the button more eye-catching by changing its background color, text color, and label.

Another option is to remove the ‘Load More’ button completely by clicking on the ‘Enable’ toggle so that it greys out.

Disabling the ‘Load More’ button is useful if your Facebook feed is time-sensitive. That wat, visitors don’t need to scroll through your previous posts that don’t apply to them.

When you’re happy with how the custom Facebook feed is set up, don’t forget to click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.

You’re now ready to add the Facebook feed to your WordPress website.

How to Add Your Custom Facebook Feed to WordPress

You can add your custom Facebook feed using a block, widget, or shortcode.

If you’ve created more than one custom feed, then you’ll need to know the feed’s code if you’re going to use a block or widget.

Simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then look at the feed=”” part of the shortcode. This is the value you’ll need to add to the block or widget, so make a note of it.

In the following image, we’ll need to use feed=”1″.

To use this shortcode in a page or post, you can use the ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ block in the content editor.

Simply open the page or post where you want to show the feed. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon to add a new block and start typing ‘Custom Facebook Feed.’

When the correct block appears, click to add it to your page or post.

The block will show one of your feeds by default. If you want to use a different feed instead, then simply find ‘Shortcode Settings’ in the right-hand menu.

You can now add the feed=”” code to this box. After that, click on ‘Apply Changes.’

The block will now show your custom Facebook feed, and you can publish or update the page to make it live on your website.

Another option is to add the feed to any widget-ready area, such as the sidebar or similar section. This is an easy way to show the custom Facebook feed across your whole site.

To get started, go to Appearance » Widgets in the WordPress dashboard. Then, click on the blue ‘+’ button.

You can now find the ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ widget.

Then, just drag it onto the area where you want to show the feed.

Again, Smash Balloon will show one of your custom Facebook feeds by default.

To show a different feed, type the feed’s code into the ‘Shortcode Settings’ box and then click on ‘Apply Changes.’

You can now click on the ‘Update’ button.

To learn more, see our step-by-step guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

Finally, you can add the custom feed to any page, post, or widget-ready using a shortcode.

Simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and copy the code in the ‘Shortcode’ column. You can now add this code to your site.

For more information on how to place the shortcode, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you add a custom Facebook feed in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to add web push notifications to your WordPress site, or check out our list of the best social proof plugins.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Create a Custom Facebook Feed in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking to enable the debug mode in your WordPress site?

You might encounter different errors when working with WordPress themes, plugins, or custom codes. Using WordPress debug mode, you can easily fix these issues.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily enable WordPress debug mode to fix site errors.

Why Enable WordPress Debug Mode?

Sometimes a WordPress plugin, theme, or custom code like PHP or JavaScript can cause conflicts on your website. This can lead to different errors, and you may notice that your site isn’t functioning properly.

Now, you can always deactivate and uninstall multiple plugins to see which one is causing the error. Similarly, you can also switch to a different WordPress theme or remove the custom codes to find the root cause of the error.

However, all of this takes a lot of time. You’ll have to rule out each plugin individually, change multiple themes, and edit custom codes.

An easier way of fixing website errors is by enabling WordPress debug mode. It shows a log of all the errors and warnings on your website. This way, you can pinpoint issues on your WordPress site and fix them quickly. It even uncovers errors that might not be visible otherwise.

That said, let’s look at how to enable the WordPress debug mode. We’ll show you 2 methods. You can use a WordPress plugin or manually view the debug mode.

Method 1: Enable WordPress Debug Mode Using a Plugin

An easy way of enabling debug mode is by using the WP Debugging plugin. This method is recommended for beginners and those who aren’t comfortable working with website files.

WP Debugging is a free WordPress plugin that works out of the box. By using this plugin, you won’t have to edit your website files manually.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the WP Debugging plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can go to Tools » WP Debugging from your WordPress dashboard. Next, ensure that the ‘Set WP_DEBUG to true’ option is enabled.

After that, you’ll see a ‘Debug Quick Look’ option added to your admin bar at the top.

Go ahead, hover over it, and then click the ‘View File’ option.

This will open the log file with all the errors on your website. You can then find out what’s causing issues on your site and quickly fix them.

When you’re done debugging your website, don’t forget to disable the plugin.

Method 2: Manually Enable WordPress Debug Mode

The second method you can use to enable WordPress debug mode is editing the wp-config.php files. This method is more advanced and suitable for users who are comfortable editing website files.

We recommend creating a backup of your website before editing files. This way, you can easily restore your website in case anything goes wrong.

To access the website files, you’ll need a file transfer protocol (FTP) client for Mac or Windows.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the FileZilla FTP service. If you need help, then please can see our guide on what FTP is and how to use it.

Once you’re logged in, simply go to the public_html folder. Here, you’ll find the ‘wp-config.php’ file.

Alternatively, many WordPress hosting services also let you manage your site files using the cPanel.

For instance, in Bluehost, you can visit the ‘Advanced’ tab and then go to File Manager.

From here, simply access the public_html folder from the panel on your left.

After that, scroll down to the ‘wp-config.php’ file.

Next, you can right-click the file and download it on your computer. It’s smart to make a copy of the file as a backup, just in case anything goes wrong.

After that, open the file using any software or tool like Notepad or Sublime Text.

Once the file is open, scroll down to the ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing‘ line and add the following code before that:

Don’t forget to save the file before closing it.

Next, you’ll need to upload the wp-config.php file back to your website server using the FTP client.

For more details, please see our guide on how to use FTP to upload files to WordPress.

To view the error logs for your website, you’ll need to view your website files and navigate to the public_html/wp-content/debug.log path. Simply download the file and view it in a notepad software to see issues on your site.

Once you’re done debugging your site, you can disable the debug mode.

To do that, repeat these steps and then remove the code you added to the wp-config.php file or edit the following code to have a false value:

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily enable WordPress debug mode to fix site errors. You can also see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners and our expert tips on how to improve WordPress security.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Easily Enable WordPress Debug Mode to Fix Site Errors first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking to embed a Discord widget in WordPress?

Discord is a well-known VOIP chat application that allows you to build your own communities and enables your users to communicate with each other through text, voice, and video. As of 2022, Discord has about 150 million active users.

In this article, we will show you how to embed a Discord widget into WordPress.

Why Should You Add a Discord Widget to Your Website

Discord chat allows users to communicate with each other over messages, voice calls, and video calls.

By embedding a Discord widget in your WordPress site, you can provide a way for your users to connect with each other. This widget will display the total members of your Discord server, and it will also provide an invite link for new members to join.

Your WordPress users will be able to join your Discord chat rooms through the link provided by the widget, so you can build a huge community for your website.

That being said, let’s see how you can add a Discord widget in WordPress.

How to Embed a Discord Widget in WordPress

To embed a Discord widget in WordPress, you must visit the official Discord website. You will need to create a Discord user account and create a Discord server for your community.

Step 1. Creating a Discord Username and Server

Once there, simply click the ‘Login’ button present at the top right corner if you already have a Discord account.

If you don’t have an account, click the ‘Open Discord in your browser’ button.

You will be then asked to choose a username for your Discord account.

This will be your handle for others to find you, but you can change your display name on a server-by-server basis.

Next, Discord will take you to the ‘Channels’ page and then ask for your date of birth.

Simply enter your details and click the ‘Next’ button.

Then, you’ll be asked to create your first Discord server. Now, you can either create your own template or choose any of the premade ones.

For this tutorial, we will be using the ‘Gaming’ server template.

After that, you’ll be asked to choose a ‘Server Name’ for your Discord chatroom. You can also upload an image for the server.

After choosing a name of your liking and uploading an image, simply click the ‘Create’ button to create your Discord server.

Lastly, you’ll be asked to provide your email account and choose a password for your Discord account.

Once you provide these details, click the ‘Claim Account’ button.

Now, an email will be sent by Discord to the email account you provided to verify your details.

Once you verify your account, your Discord server will be set up.

Now all you have to do is embed the Discord widget in WordPress.

For that, first, you need to click the arrow icon present beside your server name at the top of the Discord ‘Channels’ page.

This will open up a dropdown menu.

Here, you simply have to click the ‘Server Settings’ option to open up your Discord server settings.

Once you’re on the ‘Server Settings’ page, click the ‘Widget’ option from the sidebar.

This will open up the ‘Server Widget’ section where you simply have to toggle the switch present beside ‘Enable Server Widget’.

After that, simply scroll down to the ‘Premade Widget’ section and click the ‘Copy’ button present below the ‘Premade Widget’ option.

You can now embed the Discord widget anywhere on your website by pasting this code.

Step 2. Embedding the Discord Widget in WordPress

First, go to the WordPress page or post where you want to embed the Discord widget.

Then, simply choose the ‘Custom HTML’ block from the block editor and paste the code.

After that click the ‘Publish’ button at the top to embed the Discord widget.

This is how your Discord widget will look on your WordPress website.

Note that you can embed the Discord widget in any block-enabled area of your themes, such as a sidebar, header, or footer.

We hope you learned how to embed the Discord widget in WordPress. You may also want to check our top picks of the best VOIP themes in WordPress and our article on the best email marketing services for small businesses.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Embed Discord Widget into WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking to automate emails in WordPress?

Your small business or online store relies on email. However, keeping up with marketing emails, transactional emails, email notifications, and engaging with users can become overwhelming. Automating these emails can save you time and effort while delivering you better results.

In this article, we’ll show you how to send automated emails in WordPress to streamline your workflow and grow your business.

Why Send Automated Emails in WordPress?

Whether you have an online store, a membership site, or a small business website, you rely on email to keep it growing and running smoothly.

For example, you can use email to welcome new users and let them know when new content or products are available. Email is also useful for marketing campaigns and updating your customers on the progress of their orders.

You can even use email to notify yourself when there is a new post waiting for you to review, or that a WordPress update needs to be installed.

Since email is used for so many tasks on your WordPress website, it only makes sense to save time and effort by automating as many emails as possible.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to send automated emails in WordPress. Here are the topics we’ll cover in this tutorial:

Making Sure Your WordPress Email Is Being Sent Reliably

Before you start automating your emails, it’s important to make sure that emails from your website are being delivered reliably.

By default, most WordPress hosting companies do not have the mail function configured properly. To prevent their servers from abuse, many hosting companies even turn it off completely. In these cases, your WordPress emails will fail to reach users.

Luckily, you can fix this easily by using WP Mail SMTP. This plugin lets you send your WordPress email through a reliable SMTP platform which is configured specifically to send emails like SendLayer, Gmail, Outlook, etc.

The free version of WP Mail SMTP should be more than sufficient for most websites. For more details, see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email.

Sending Automated Drip Emails Using Constant Contact

A good place to start thinking about email automation is the way you market your store or business. And one of the best ways to automate marketing is with a drip campaign.

What Is an Automated Drip Campaign?

Automated drip campaigns are email messages that automatically guide your users along a specific journey. They’re great for boosting user engagement on your WordPress site.

For example, these messages can welcome new users, promote important content, upsell products, target specific geographic regions, and encourage users to register for events.

To send automated drip notifications by email, we recommend using Constant Contact because it’s the best email marketing service on the market. However, you can use any other major email marketing platform, including Sendinblue, HubSpot, and others.

To start, you can visit the Constant Contact website and create an account. The software gives you a 60-day free trial, so you can try it out before committing to a premium plan.

Creating a List of Contacts

Once you sign up, you can visit the Constant Contact dashboard to create a contact list.

Constant Contact has already created a default list for you. However, you can create your own list by going to the ‘Contacts’ tab in the top menu, and then clicking the ‘Create List’ button.

A popup window will appear where you can enter a name for your list.

After that, simply click the ‘Save’ button.

You can add contacts to the list by going to the ‘Contacts’ tab and then clicking the ‘Add Contacts’ button.

A popup window will open with multiple options for adding new contacts.

Now you can add your contacts manually, upload them in a spreadsheet or CSV file, or import them from other apps.

Creating an Automated Drip Campaign

Once you’ve added your contacts, you need to create the drip campaign.

To do that, head over to the ‘Campaigns’ tab and then click the ‘Create’ button.

Next, Constant Contact will show you multiple options for creating a campaign.

Go ahead and select the ‘Email Automation’ campaign.

From here, you can select single-step automations or multi-step automation.

Single-step automations send just a single email, such as a welcome email. Multi-step automations let you create a series of emails that are automatically sent to your subscribers so you can let them know about your products and services, send special offers, and more.

In this tutorial, you’ll create a multi-step automation for when new subscribers join your email list. Go ahead and select the ‘A contact joins a list’ option.

Next, you will have to enter a name for your campaign.

Make sure you click the ‘Save’ button.

Constant Contact will then ask you to choose what activity will trigger the email. For example, the drip series is automatically triggered when a user joins your email list, opens an email, clicks a link, or buys a product.

You can use the default ‘Contact joins a list’ option as the trigger type. Then you can choose the email list you created earlier. Go ahead and click the ‘Save’ button when you’re done.

Creating the Emails for Your Drip Campaign

Now you need to create the emails to send in your automated drip campaign. The first one you create will be sent automatically when the user signs up.

To begin, simply click the ‘Create New Email’ option.

Constant Contact will now show different email templates to choose from.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the ‘Agent Welcome’ template.

You can customize the email template using the drag-and-drop email builder.

You can choose multiple elements from the menu on your left and place them on the template.

You also need to add the email’s content by removing the placeholder text and adding your own. Once you’ve done this, simply click the ‘Continue’ button at the top right of the editor and the email will be added to the drip series.

Next, you can add a second email by clicking the ‘+ Add to series’ button and then the ‘Create New Email’ button.

You’ll need to select a template and customize the new email as you did earlier. You can set the delay before the drip campaign sends its next email.

By default, this value is set to 4 days. You can change this by clicking the ‘Edit’ button in front of the section titled ‘Wait 4 days.’

This will open the ‘Time Delay Editor’ where you can choose when the next email in the drip campaign will be delivered. You can click the ‘Confirm’ button when you’re done.

Now, you should see all your emails in the campaign summary area.

Go ahead and click the ‘Activate’ button in the upper-right corner to launch your campaign.

Constant Contact will then show a prompt to verify whether you wish to activate your campaign.

Simply click the ‘Continue’ button, and the tool will check if everything is working properly and activate your campaign.

You’ve now successfully launched your automated drip email campaign.

For more detailed instructions, and to learn how to create a drip campaign using push notifications, see our guide on how to set up automated drip notifications in WordPress.

Sending Automated Transactional Emails With FunnelKit Automations

If you are running a WooCommerce store, then your customers will receive different transactional emails. These help them get order confirmations, track their order status, get invoices, and find more information about your online store.

You can customize and automate these emails using FunnelKit Automations, a popular WooCommerce plugin for marketing automation. It is a sister product to FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels), a powerful sales funnel builder for WooCommerce.

First, you need to install and activate the FunnelKit Automations plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Creating Email Automation Workflows With FunnelKit Automations

Upon activation, you need to go to Campaigns » Automations (Next-Gen) to add a new automation from your FunnelKit Automations dashboard. Here you will see a library of email types that make it simple to create new automations.

You can import an email automation workflow with a single click, then use the visual email automation builder to make any customizations that you need.

For example, here’s the workflow for Abandoned Cart Reminder.

Customizing WooCommerce Emails With FunnelKit Automations

FunnelKit Automations lets you customize any WooCommerce email and create new emails using a drag-and-drop email builder inside WordPress.

You can go to FunnelKit Automations » Templates from your WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Add New Email Template’ button.

Next, you can enter a name for your email template.

After that, make sure you click the ‘Add’ button to continue.

Now the plugin will let you enter a subject line and preview text for your email.

You can customize the content of your WooCommerce emails using rich text, HTML, or the visual builder.

The visual builder lets you select different elements from the menu on your left and place them on the template using drag and drop.

For instance, the ‘Content’ tab lets you can add columns, buttons, headings, menus, text, and more to the email template.

The ‘Body’ tab lets you further customize each element, such as the text color, alignment, font, size, and more.

Once you’re done, you can click the ‘Save’ button at the top.

For more detailed instructions, see our guide on how to customize WooCommerce emails. Once there, make sure you scroll down to the second section titled ‘Customizing WooCommerce Emails using FunnelKit Automations.’

Automating Marketing Emails Using Uncanny Automator

Of course, you’ll also still need to send marketing emails outside of your drip campaign. These are most effective when they are personalized and timely.

For example, you can use automated emails to showcase products similar to what your customer has already bought. Or you can automatically send users an email as soon as you publish a new article on your website.

You can do this easily by using Uncanny Automator. It’s the best WordPress automation plugin that allows you to create automated workflows for your WordPress site.

The free version easily connects with popular email marketing services such as Mailchimp, HubSpot, and others, making it easy to automate your email.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the free version of Mailchimp because it’s popular and they offer a free forever plan where you can send up to 10,000 emails per month to 2000 subscribers.

Getting Started With Uncanny Automator

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the free Uncanny Automator plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, head over to the Automator » Add New page to create your first recipe. In this tutorial, we’ll send an automated email to subscribers whenever we publish a new post.

You’ll be asked to select which type of recipe you want to create. You should choose ‘Logged-in users’ and then click the ‘Confirm’ button.

Setting Up the Automation Trigger

Next, you need to choose whether the automation will be triggered by Uncanny Automator or WordPress.

Since you will be sending an automated email when a new WordPress post is published, you should click on the ‘WordPress’ option.

Now you can choose from a long list of available WordPress triggers.

You need to select the trigger labeled ‘A user publishes a type of post with a taxonomy term in a taxonomy.’

You can use the search feature to find this trigger more quickly.

If you like, you can get specific about the types of posts that will trigger the email. You can choose a post type and a specific category or tag from the drop-down menus.

For this tutorial, we’ll go with the default settings.

Make sure you click the ‘Save’ button when you have finished setting up the trigger.

Setting Up the Automation Trigger

Next comes the action part, where you choose what action will be triggered. To get started, simply click the ‘Add action’ button.

Now you will be shown a long list of integrations that are available for the action.

You should click the Mailchimp icon to connect it to your website.

This will bring up a popup where you need to follow the on-screen instructions to finish the connection by logging into your Mailchimp account or creating a new one. Once connected, you will be able to choose what action you want to perform on your Mailchimp account.

You should then choose the option ‘Create a send a campaign’.

Now you need to type a name for the campaign. You might like to use tokens so that the Mailchimp campaign name for each new post is different.

For example, you can click the ‘*’ button to the right of the field and select the ‘Post title’ token.

After that, you can use the drop-down menus to choose your audience and segment and fill in the subject and other details of your email.

You can compose your email in the ‘Email contents’ field. Make sure you use tokens so that the content is updated for each email campaign.

For instance, you can include tokens for the post title, post author display name, post excerpt, post URL, and featured image URL.

Once you are finished, you can switch the recipe from ‘Draft’ to ‘Live.’

From now on, when you publish a new article on your website, Mailchimp will automatically send an email to your subscribers.

You can learn more about building an effective mailing list in our guides on using Mailchimp and WordPress and how to create an email newsletter the right way.

You might also like to see our guide on how to automatically send a coupon to users who leave reviews in WooCommerce. It’s another good example of how you create automated emails using Uncanny Automator to build customer loyalty.

Bonus: Sending Automated Notification Emails

Now that you have set up automated emails for your users, you can do the same for yourself and your team.

For example, you can create automated email notifications to keep track of issues that require your immediate attention, such as when an author submits a post for you to review.

You can also stop the WordPress notifications you don’t need from filling up your inbox, such as comment notifications.

To learn how to customize notification emails, see our step-by-step guide on how to add better custom notifications in WordPress.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to send automated emails in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to get a free email domain, or check out our list of the best WordPress membership plugins.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Send Automated Emails in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.