Would you like to implement a sequence of automated drip notifications for your audience?

Automated drip campaigns serve as a valuable tool for welcoming new users and enhancing engagement on your WordPress site. They enable you to gently guide your users through a specific journey.

In this piece, we will demonstrate how to establish automated drip notifications in WordPress, employing both push notifications and email notifications.

When is it Appropriate to Employ Automated Drip Notifications in WordPress? Drip notifications refer to automated messages dispatched to your subscribers, typically in the form of push notifications or emails.

These messages constitute a series and are automatically scheduled to be sent at predetermined intervals. In simpler terms, they are gradually relayed to your subscribers over time, rather than being delivered all at once.

Drip campaigns can be employed to promote a product, increase pageviews on your WordPress blog, foster relationships with your users, boost sales, and even conduct a course over a specified period.

Here are a few scenarios where you can optimize automated drip campaigns in WordPress:

1. Extend a warm welcome to new subscribers and customers through an automatic drip notification. This enables you to educate users about your products and services while establishing brand trust.
2. For eCommerce businesses, having automated drip notifications can facilitate upselling and cross-selling various products upon purchase.
3. You can spotlight your most significant content and encourage visitors to revisit your website.
4. Utilizing drip notifications allows you to display targeted messages to individuals from different geographic regions, thereby increasing conversions based on geographical segmentation.
5. Drive registration for your webinars and upcoming events using automated drip notifications.

This guide will cover push notifications and email drip campaigns. Feel free to click the links below to jump to your preferred method:

1. How to Configure an Automated Push Notification Drip Campaign
2. Set Up Automated Drip Notifications Utilizing an Email Marketing Tool
3. Bonus: Enhance Your Email List in WordPress

How to Configure an Automated Push Notification Drip Campaign The most straightforward way to establish automated push notifications is through PushEngage. It is the premier web push notification software for WordPress, trusted by over 10,000 businesses for delivering targeted messages.

Firstly, visit the PushEngage website and click the ‘Get Started for Free Now’ button.

Next, select a pricing plan that aligns with your requirements. PushEngage offers a free plan, including 30 campaigns and up to 200 subscribers.

Once you’ve chosen a pricing plan, create an account or register using your Google account.

Upon logging in, you’ll access the PushEngage dashboard.

The tool will then guide you to Site Settings » Site Details, where you should input your website details, such as site name, domain name, site icon, and more.

Scrolling down the ‘Site Details’ section, you can generate the API key to integrate PushEngage with various platforms, set your time zone, and enable geolocation services.

Additionally, you can choose to remove the ‘Powered by PushEngage’ branding.

Now, you need to connect your WordPress website with PushEngage. To do this, install and activate the PushEngage WordPress plugin. If you require assistance, refer to our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After activation, you’ll encounter the PushEngage setup wizard. Click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.

A new popup window will appear.

Choose your website from the dropdown menu and click ‘Let’s Get Started.’

You’ll receive a confirmation that PushEngage is successfully connected to your website. Click the ‘PushEngage Dashboard’ option to exit the setup wizard.

For more details, refer to our comprehensive guide on adding web push notifications to your WordPress site.

Now, you can set up automated drip notifications using PushEngage. For this example, we’ll create a welcome campaign for new subscribers.

Begin by navigating to PushEngage » Drip in your WordPress dashboard, and click ‘Add New.’

You can now create different push notifications and customize the displayed content.

Click the arrow at the end of each notification to access more options. Customize the notification title, message, URL, icon image, and more. A preview of how your notifications will appear in the browser is available as well.

Further down, you’ll find additional options, such as enabling multi-action notifications, where you can add call-to-action buttons to your push notifications and edit their text.

You can also set a notification duration to establish an expiration time for your notification.

PushEngage allows you to schedule when each notification is sent. For instance, you can send the first notification immediately and specify a different time for subsequent notifications.

To choose when to send a push notification, simply click the ‘Send notification’ dropdown menu.

To add another notification to the drip campaign, click the ‘Add New Notification’ button at the bottom.

After adding all your notifications, click the ‘Drip Settings’ button.

You can now decide whether you want to send notifications to all subscribers or a specific audience group that you’ve created. PushEngage enables you to segment your subscribers and establish various groups. For this tutorial, we’ll choose the ‘Send to All Subscribers’ option.

To enable automated push notifications for your WordPress website, click the ‘Activate Autoresponder’ button.

Visit PushEngage » Drip on your PushEngage dashboard to see the drip notifications marked as ‘Active.’

Congratulations! You’ve successfully established an automated push notification drip campaign for your site. Detailed performance statistics are available in the Analytics section of your PushEngage account.

Set Up Automated Drip Notifications Using an Email Marketing Tool Another approach to create automated drip notifications in WordPress involves leveraging an email marketing tool.

We recommend Constant Contact as the premier email marketing service available. It offers a user-friendly interface and a drag-and-drop email builder. However, the functionality for drip email notifications is present in all major email marketing platforms, including Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), HubSpot, and others.

You can set up email automation with just a few clicks and easily send email series to your subscribers. Constant Contact also integrates seamlessly with WordPress plugins like WPForms and OptinMonster. Moreover, it’s compatible with eCommerce platforms such as WooCommerce and Shopify, allowing you to automate emails for new customers or assist in cart recovery.

To begin, visit the Constant Contact website and create an account. The advantage of this software is that it offers a 60-day free trial, giving you the opportunity to test the tool before committing to a premium plan.

Use our Constant Contact coupon code to enjoy a 20% discount on upfront purchases.

After setting up your account, access the Constant Contact dashboard to create a contact list.

Constant Contact automatically provides a default list, but you can create your own list by navigating to the ‘Contacts’ tab in the top menu and clicking the ‘Create List’ button.

A popup window will appear, prompting you to enter a name for your list. After inputting a name, click the ‘Save’ button.

Now, you can add contacts to your email list. You have several options, including manually adding contacts by going to the ‘Contacts’ tab and clicking the ‘Add Contacts’ button. A popup window offers various methods to add new contacts.

You can connect your WordPress newsletter form to Constant Contact, allowing you to build an email list. For more details, refer to our guide on adding email subscriptions to your WordPress blog.

Alternatively, you can manually create new contacts, upload a spreadsheet or CSV file, or integrate with various other platforms to import saved email addresses.

With subscribers added to your Constant Contact list, the next step is to create an automated drip campaign.

To get started, go to the ‘Marketing campaigns’ tab and click the ‘Create’ button. Constant Contact provides several options for creating a campaign.

Select the ‘Automations’ campaign.

Constant Contact will present you with multiple templates to choose from. Opt for a pre-designed template and customize it to meet your specific needs, or create an automation path from scratch.

For this tutorial, we’ll select the ‘Create custom path’ template option.

Next, you must specify when your contact begins the path. Constant Contact offers various options. Choose the ‘Subscribes for email’ option and click ‘Next.’

Name your custom path and click ‘Create path.’

This opens the Path Builder, where you can establish an automated workflow. The default trigger is when someone subscribes to any list. You can drag actions and rules from the menu on the left onto the path, adding actions like sending emails or SMS messages to your workflow. Rules allow you to customize your automation, enabling you to add time delays and specify when the next email should be sent. Conditional split options permit you to establish Yes and No conditions, splitting the path.

To edit an action in the workflow, click the three dots icon and select ‘Edit.’ For example, to edit the ‘Send an email’ action, click on it.

A popup window will open, where you can either create a new email or copy an existing one. Since we’re creating the workflow for the first time, choose the ‘Create a new email’ option, provide a name for your email, and click ‘Continue.’

Constant Contact will display multiple email templates. You can select a template based on the occasion, or use a blank template to craft an email from scratch.

Once you’ve selected a template, the email editor will launch. Here, you can add various blocks to the template, edit existing text, customize the design, and more. When you’re finished, click the ‘Save & Close’ button at the top.

You will return to the Path Builder in Constant Contact. Complete your automation path by adding additional actions and rules, and edit each one as needed.

After creating the automated workflow, click the ‘Activate’ button at the top.

Congratulations! You’ve successfully launched an automated drip notification campaign using an email marketing tool.

Bonus: Expand Your Email List in WordPress In the second method of this tutorial, we demonstrated how to configure email drip notifications. However, before sending your emails, you need a list of subscribers.

Here are a few tips to grow your email list:

1. Utilize OptinMonster to design multiple email newsletter signup forms and exit-intent popups to target users before they leave your website.
2. Offer content upgrades such as downloadable PDF files, podcast transcripts, and blog post checklists in exchange for email addresses.
3. Organize giveaways and contests using RafflePress, where participants must provide their email addresses to enter.

For more ideas, explore our comprehensive guide on growing your email list. You may also find our article on starting an email newsletter helpful in designing effective email campaigns.