Notifications on websites are an important part of letting your customers know that you have a promotion or deal running. These popup notifications can also be used to show an email subscription form, discount codes, and so much more. How do you accomplish this without writing code? Today, I am going to show you how to use a great plugin called Hashbar.
Why Add a Notification Bar?
There is an ongoing debate about how effective notifications and pop-ups are. Can they be annoying for customers? Sure. That being said, there is little doubt they are very effective if used correctly.
Adding a plugin like Hashbar and giving yourself the ability to add a smooth and professional notification bar on your website can be a game changer. You can show promotions, give discount codes, put important news items right in front of your audience, and even put together an email subscription form.
All of these things can work together to grow an audience and drive sales. The key is to build and display these notifications in a way that isn’t disturbing or patronizing to your website user.
Face it, we have all been on a website where there are full-screen popups, nonstop offers, ads, and more. All of these things block our view from the content we are trying to access. We have all clicked off a website we wanted to check out because things like this were nonstop.
The key is to present them in a way that isn’t intrusive, yet does get attention. Hashbar will give you several ways to do this, as the plugin offers quite a bit of functionality.
Perhaps one of the best ways to grab attention is to allow a small pop up to display, and then making it a sticky notification. This means that the notification will follow the site user around, but won’t be intrusive or get in the way.
In the past, you would have to write your own code for something like this. Not anymore. Today, I am going to show you how to create all sorts of status bars using a great little plugin.
Let’s take a look at the plugin together and see all that it offers.
Hashbar – WordPress Notification Bar
Hashbar – WordPress Notification Bar is a notification, alert, offer, and email subscription plugin that will allow you to easily create unlimited notifications for your customers. What types of notifications will you create? Well, the sky’s the limit, there.
The Hashbar plugin is very effective and powerful, offering a lot of built-in options and functionality. Despite all that, it remains lightweight and will not slow your website.
You can show an email subscription form, offer text and button styled promotions, and add unlimited colors and background images to style your bar as professional as you want.
As stated above, the plugin has a lot of great features. Some of the main ones include:
- Hide, show, position on any/all pages
- Unlimited colors
- Placement options
- Button options
- Support for Elementor page builder
- WP Visual Bakery page builder support
- King Composer page builder support
- Set notification amounts
- Enable or disable on mobile
- Show notifications on certain URLs
All-in-all, the Hashbar plugin gives you all the tools needed to successfully build and show dynamic notifications across your website.
Let’s take a look at how to get the plugin installed and running.
Note: There is a pro version of this plugin. You are more than welcome to check it out and see if the extra options offered work for you. That being said, this tutorial is based on the free version of the plugin. It gives you all the tools needed to create a status bar and notifications.
Install and Activate the Plugin
In order to start creating a notification bar, you first need to install and activate the Hashbar plugin. You can do this by heading over to the Plugins page in your WordPress admin dashboard.
Simply search for the plugin by name using the search field and you can install and activate it directly from there.
Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you will want to access the main settings for the plugin. To do so, click on Hashbars > Hashbar Options.
You will notice that this is now an available option in the left menu area of your dashboard.
You will notice that there are no settings options for this particular plugin. Once installed, it is ready to roll. You will add notifications from another tab.
Note: If you have the pro version of this plugin, then you will have a few options available. Otherwise, let’s move on.
Let’s go ahead and add a notification together so you can see how it works and how easy it is.
Add a Notification Bar
To add your first notification bar using Hashbar, click on “Add New Notification” located in the left menu area of the dashboard. You will see it under the main Hashbars tab.
You will notice that the WordPress editor pops up and looks just like it would if you were adding a new post or page.
Add a title, then add your content how you want it to display in the notification.
Now it is time to build the notification and set all of its options. Scroll down a little until you see the “Notification Bar Options” area. This is where you are going to customize the display and all other options for this particular Hashbar notification bar.
Note: You will see there are some pro settings in here is well. They will be grayed out. Just disregard them unless you are using the pro version.
Go ahead and choose where to display the bar, width, and positioning.
Now scroll down a little and choose your display options.
Continue scrolling down and select the settings for more width and display options, including color.
Finally, finish up your settings by tackling all the button color and display options.
When you feel you are good to go, click on the “Publish” button to allow this notification to go live.
That’s it! Your notification is now live and ready to roll. it will display and function based on all the settings and configurations you made.
If you need to make adjustments, then go ahead and do so. Repeat these steps and create as many notification bars as you want.
Final Thoughts
Adding professional notification bars to your website does not have to be difficult. You can do it in a way that benefits you and your site user. Using a solid plugin like Hashbar is the best way to go about it.
It will allow you to create professional notifications that are targeted and easy on the eyes. They won’t take up too much space, or get in the way of anything your website is trying to display.
Create sticky notifications for an even greater impact. Before you know it, you will have increased sales, traffic, and email subscriptions.
I hope the tutorial was able to show you how easy it is to add notifications to your website.
Have you used a different solution to create popups and notifications? Did you find that Hashbar offered more options and was easier to use?