Notification bars are message bars usually displayed on the top of the website. In most cases, you can see them as narrow strips that appear at the top of the screen. They mostly carry some important messages and/or announcements.
Most website owners use them to recruit new subscribers and grow their mailing lists, to offer discounts and promotions, or to link some other important content.
Notifications bars are also helpful if one wants to grab users’ attention as they are not seen as annoying and intrusive as other pop-ups.
Having a plugin designed for creating notification bars enables you to manage your marketing, promotions, and to grow your email list.
Here, we will list the top 5 notification bar plugins we think you should consider.
1. Apex Notification Bar Lite
Apex Notification Bar Lite is a plugin that allows you to display an attractive and responsive notification bar in different positions. It will also enable you to create a notification bar with pre-made templates, custom designs, and different options.
You can use social icons and enable your users to close the notification. Your visitors can fill in a subscriber form and you can create static or dynamic texts with slider, ticker, or scroller effects to make them more interactive.
The plugin is compatible with almost any theme. It also ensures the site is safe and SEO optimized. Plus, the premium version provides you with the ability to add countdown timers, custom fonts, and customize the bars even more.
Lastly, you can add different elements to your bar such as Twitter feeds, post title slider, contact popups, email subscription form, and more. You can also upload a background image, add a custom logo, RSS feeds, and add static text.
2. MailChimp Top Bar
MailChimp Top Bar is a plugin designed to grab your visitors’ attention easily. It has more than 10,000 active installations, comes with great support, and is often updated.
With it, you can edit the bar color and the text you display, in the settings options. You can also choose if you want to put the bar at the top or the bottom of the screen. Either way, the bar will not be intrusive and can be dismissed easily, which is a feature some visitors will greatly appreciate.
The plugin can also create mobile-optimized subscription forms and customize them. On top of that, it is compatible with WooCommerce, and you can integrate it with Contact Form 7.
3. WP Notification Bars
WP Notification Bars is a free plugin that creates sleek message bars and is perfect for growing your email lists. It is easy to use and lightweight so no need to worry it will slow down your site. It is also responsive and made to work on every device.
Using it, you can manage your marketing and promotions so that you can grow your audience. Moreover, you can edit the colors, fonts, and text, as well as add custom display rules so that you can hide the bar after several seconds.
You can also choose who you want to show the bar to, for example, just visitors coming from Facebook or Google. And luckily, this is quick and easy to implement.
The plugin has an easy to use interface and allows you to add some rich content to your bars, such as Google Maps or sidebars. You also get HTML support. However, the free version has limited targeting options.
WP Notification Bars is available as a free and premium plugin. The free version lets you create any number of bars with shortcodes and call to action posts or pages.
The premium version costs $29 and offers email opt-ins, social follow buttons, countdown timers, post feeds, and search forms.
4. Top Bar
Top Bar is another lightweight and simple-to-use WordPress bar plugin. With this plugin, you can display a message of your choosing to the visitor and add a custom link. It is quite popular with more than 10,000 active installations and it is frequently updated. However, the free version has no trigger settings and offers limited customization.
The plugin comes with status, buttons text, and button URL and is great for communication regarding offers and promotions. It is also visible while a user scrolls down.
Using Top Bar, you can edit the message and the text of the buttons, save it, and the bar is ready to be shown to visitors.
The premium version lets you edit borders and font sizes, decide on the bar’s visibility for a specific group of visitors, such as all users or registered users, and to delay showing the bar altogether. You can also choose the bar’s position on your site.
5. Hello Bar
Hello Bar is a really popular plugin, mostly because it is designed to help you increase your conversions, link users directly to the items that may interest them, and to collect emails for product updates or newsletter mailing lists.
It has a clear interface and offers many features, such as collecting email addresses, A/B testing, and social media integration. It can also be easily integrated with any WordPress theme. However, with the free version, you only get up to 5,000 views a month.
The plugin will help you promote your content on Facebook, Buffer, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other apps. And the cool thing about it is that you don’t need any coding skills to set everything up.
It comes in two versions, free and premium, with the premium version allowing you to remove branding and increase the number of interactions with visitors. That way you can promote and show your social profiles to attract the attention of potential visitors.
Conclusion
Basically, notification bars can help you increase your mailing list and communicate with your visitors effectively as they are not seen as intrusive.
That’s why we hope you will give a chance to one of these plugins and see all the benefits you can achieve with them.