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Tag: uncanny automator

  • How to Easily Integrate Zoom Meetings & Webinars in WordPress

    Are you looking for a way to integrate Zoom meetings and webinars in WordPress?

    Integrating WordPress with Zoom allows you to automatically enroll customers, visitors, and new members into Zoom video calls and webinars. This can improve user engagement and help build a community around your brand.

    In this article, we will show you how to easily integrate Zoom meetings and webinars in WordPress, step by step.

    How to easily integrate Zoom meetings and webinars in WordPress

    Why Integrate Zoom Meetings and Webinars With WordPress?

    Integrating Zoom with WordPress lets you easily automate your meeting and webinar registration process. This can save you a lot of time that you can spend on other business tasks.

    Zoom is one of the most popular meeting, webinar, and video conference call software in the world, used by over 300 million people every day.

    It’s a must-have tool for businesses with remote teams or WordPress website owners who need to get in touch with customers and clients virtually.

    For instance, if you have an online store, then you can use Zoom for live product demos, customer support, online training, and even host webinars with your customers to promote upcoming products on your site.

    That being said, let’s take a look at how you can easily integrate Zoom meetings and webinars in WordPress. Here’s a quick overview of the topics we will cover in this guide:

    Install and Activate the Uncanny Automator Plugin for WordPress

    The easiest way to connect Zoom with WordPress is by using Uncanny Automator.

    It’s the best WordPress automation plugin that helps you create automated workflows in WordPress without writing any code. The tool lets you easily connect your WordPress site with external apps like Zoom, Slack, and Asana.

    It’s like Zapier for WordPress websites but without the high costs.

    To learn more, see our article on how to create automated workflows in WordPress.

    To connect Zoom with WordPress, you will first have to visit the Uncanny Automator website.

    From here, click the ‘Get Uncanny Automator Now’ button to continue.

    Click Get Uncanny Automator Now button

    This will take you to the ‘Pricing’ page, where you can select a plan of your choice.

    Keep in mind that Uncanny Automator also has a free version, but it has limited features. That is why we are using the premium plan for this tutorial.

    Uncanny Automator pricing

    Upon purchase, you must install and activate the Uncanny Automator plugin on your WordPress website. For detailed instructions, you may want to see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Note: You will also have to install the free version of the Uncanny Automator plugin because it will be used as the base for the pro plan.

    Once you have done that, visit the Automator » Settings page from the WordPress admin sidebar to enter the license key for your pro plan. You will find this information in your account on the Uncanny Automator website.

    After that, don’t forget to click the ‘Activate license’ button.

    Uncanny Automator license activation

    Now that Uncanny Automator is installed and activated, let’s set up your Zoom account.

    Set Up Your Zoom Account the Right Way

    In order to integrate Zoom and WordPress, you need at least the Pro version of Zoom and the Zoom Webinars addon.

    There is a free version of Zoom, but you will need a paid account to set up the integration. First, head to the Zoom website and sign up for the plan that best suits your needs.

    If you want to integrate webinars on your website, then you will also have to buy the Zoom Webinars addon.

    Zoom pricing

    Once you have a premium account, you need to go to the Zoom App Marketplace and sign in to your account. Here, you will create an app that sends data between Zoom and WordPress.

    To do this, click the ‘Develop’ menu item and select the ‘Build App’ option from the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the screen.

    Select the Build App option from the Develop dropdown menu

    This will bring you to the ‘Choose your app type’ page, where you must select the type of app you want to build.

    From here, you have to find the ‘Server-to-Server OAuth’ app type and click the ‘Create’ button under it.

    Select Server-to-Server OAuth as app type

    Next, you can name your app in the popup. The name is to help you remember the purpose of the app and won’t be visible to your visitors.

    Simply enter your app name and click the ‘Create’ button to start the process.

    Type the Zoom app name

    This will take you to the ‘Connect Zoom with WordPress’ screen, where you will see the app credentials listed.

    From here, you must copy the ‘Account ID’, ‘Client ID’, and the ‘Client Secret’ credentials and paste them into a text editor for now.

    These credentials will be used to connect Zoom with your WordPress website. Next, click the ‘Continue’ button.

    Copy the Zoom app credentials

    You’ll now be taken to the next step, where you have to provide basic information for your app, including the app name, company name, short description, developer name, and email address.

    Once you are done, just click the ‘Continue’ button to move to the next step.

    Provide basic information for the Zoom app

    After that, you’ll be taken to the ‘Feature’ screen, where you don’t have to configure any settings, so you can click ‘Continue’ on this screen too.

    This will direct you to the ‘Scopes’ screen, where you have to select at least one scope for your app to be able to activate it.

    These scopes provide a way to limit the amount of access granted to an app. To set a scope, click the ‘+ Add Scopes’ button.

    Click the Add Scopes button

    This will open a prompt on the screen where you can select scopes for Zoom meetings and webinars that will be hosted on your website using this app.

    For example, if you want the app to be able to view live streaming token information or all user meetings information, then simply check the boxes next to these options.

    You can also configure the scopes for Zoom webinars here by simply switching to the ‘Webinar’ option from the left column. After that, click the ‘Done’ button to move forward.

    Next, click the ‘Continue’ button to move to the next step.

    Add scopes for meetings and webinars

    On the ‘Activation’ page, you will now see a message informing you that your app is ready.

    From here, simply click the ‘Activate your app’ button.

    Click Activate your app button

    Create a New Zoom Meeting

    Now, you can create a new Zoom meeting that you will connect to your WordPress site.

    To do this, visit your Zoom account to click the ‘Schedule’ link, and then fill in your meeting details.

    Schedule zoom meeting

    You can even set a recurring Zoom meeting for your users by checking the ‘Recurring meeting’ box in the ‘Timezone’ section.

    Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

    Create a New Zoom Webinar

    To create a new Zoom webinar, click the ‘Webinars’ menu option in the ‘Personal’ tab inside your Zoom account.

    After that, just click the ‘Schedule a Webinar’ button.

    Schedule a Zoom webinar

    On the next page, you can enter all of your webinar information.

    After that, you need to make sure the ‘Required’ box is checked in the Registration section.

    Zoom webinar registration required

    After that, simply click the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page.

    Connect Zoom Meetings and Webinars With WordPress

    Once Uncanny Automator is activated and Zoom is set up, you need to connect both of these apps to each other.

    For this, head over to the Automator » App Integrations page from the WordPress dashboard.

    Next, click the ‘Zoom Meetings’ tab in the left column and then add the ‘Account ID’, ‘Client ID’, and the ‘Client Secret’ credentials that you copied earlier into the fields.

    Finally, click the ‘Connect Zoom Meetings Account’ button.

    Connect WordPress and Zoom app

    If you want to integrate Zoom Webinars, too, then just click the ‘Zoom Webinars’ menu option.

    Then, paste the same ‘Account ID’, ‘Client ID’, and ‘Client Secret’ credentials that you used above.

    Once you are done, go ahead and click the ‘Connect Zoom Webinars Account’ button.

    Click connect with webinar button

    Now that we have set up Zoom and integrated it with WordPress, let’s look at some of the cool things that you can do with this Uncanny Automator integration.

    Register Users for a Zoom Meeting After Form Completion in WordPress

    This integration will automatically register users for a Zoom meeting when they fill out a form on your website. This can be used to onboard new clients, schedule coaching calls, and more.

    If you don’t have an active WordPress form on your website, then you need to create one now.

    Uncanny Automator works with all major forms solutions, including WPForms, Formidable Forms, and more.

    For this tutorial, we will be using WPForms because it’s the best contact form plugin for WordPress, used by over 6 million websites. There’s also a webinar form template in the form templates pack addon that makes form creation easy.

    For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress.

    Now, you are ready to connect your WordPress form with Zoom.

    To do this, you will be creating what’s called a ‘recipe’. In Uncanny Automator, recipes are the automations that link different plugins and apps together.

    To get started, navigate to the Automator » Add new page from the WordPress admin sidebar and click the ‘Everyone’ option as the recipe type.

    The Everyone recipes can be triggered by any user, while logged-in recipes can only be activated by users logged in to your website.

    After that, click the ‘Confirm’ button.

    Choose everyone as recipe type

    Next, you have to provide a name for your recipe. This will help you remember the recipes you create without the name being visible to your users.

    Keep in mind that each recipe has two different parts: the trigger and the action. The trigger is the event that will start the recipe, and the action is the task that runs after the trigger takes place.

    For your first trigger, you need to select ‘WPForms’ in the ‘Trigger’ meta box.

    Choose WPForms as trigger

    After that, you have to choose a specific trigger related to WPForms.

    For example, if you want your users to be added to a Zoom meeting once they submit a contact form, then you can select the ‘A form is submitted’ option.

    Choose a form is submitted option as the trigger

    If you have multiple forms on your WordPress blog, then you will also have to select the form where the submission will trigger the action.

    To do this, simply select a form of your choice from the ‘Form’ dropdown menu.

    Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

    Choose a form that will trigger the action

    Next, you will need to add an action for your automation.

    To do that, scroll down to the ‘Actions’ sections and click the ‘Add action’ button under the meta box.

    This will open a list of all the integrations available in the Uncanny Automator. From here, you need to pick the ‘Zoom Meetings’ option.

    Select Zoom Meetings integrations under the actions section

    This will open the ‘Zoom Meetings’ action settings on the screen.

    From here, you must choose the action that Zoom will perform upon form submission.

    If you want to add a user to a Zoom meeting after they fill out a specific form on your website, then you need to select the ‘Add the user to a meeting’ option.

    Select add user to a meeting option

    Then, you can choose the Zoom meeting you want users to register for in the ‘Meeting’ box.

    Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

    Select a Zoom meeting of your choice from the dropdown menu

    Now, it’s time for you to finally publish your Uncanny Automator recipe. To do this, all you need to do is toggle the switch in the ‘Recipe’ box to ‘Live’.

    Now, when your users fill out the form, they will automatically be registered for your Zoom meeting.

    save WPForms and Zoom recipe

    Register Users for a Zoom Webinar After Form Completion in WordPress

    Another popular integration is registering users for a webinar when they fill out a form on your website.

    To do this, you will follow the same steps as above. However, you will select ‘Zoom Webinars’ instead of ‘Zoom Meetings’ in the actions section.

    First, follow the same initial ‘Triggers’ section as above. This means that you will have to choose WPForms as the integration for the trigger.

    After that, you can select the ‘A form is submitted’ option as the trigger.

    Choose a form is submitted option as the trigger

    Next, scroll down to the ‘Actions’ section and click the ‘Add action’ button to expand the menu.

    Then, simply select the ‘Zoom Webinars’ option as the integration.

    Select Zoom Webinars integration

    This will open up the actions settings for the Zoom webinar.

    From here, you can select the ‘Add the user to a webinar’ option from the dropdown menu. This will automatically add a user to your Zoom webinar after they fill out a specific form on your website.

    Select add user to webinar

    Next, you will also have to choose a Zoom webinar from the dropdown list.

    Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

    Select new user webinar

    After that, you must make your recipe live so that new users will automatically be enrolled in your webinar.

    To do this, simply click the toggle in the ‘Recipe’ box so it says ‘Live’.

    Save Zoom webinar and WPForms recipe

    Register Customers for a Zoom Webinar After They Make a Purchase in WordPress

    Another way to connect WordPress with Zoom is to enroll new customers in a product webinar after they make a purchase in your WooCommerce store.

    Keep in mind that the WooCommerce plugin and store must be set up before you start creating a recipe with Uncanny Automator.

    First, you need to visit the Automator » Add new screen from the WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Everyone’ option.

    After that, click the ‘Confirm’ button to move forward.

    Choose everyone as recipe type

    Next, you have to provide a name for your recipe. This name won’t be displayed to your customers on the front and is only for your identification.

    Once you have done that, choose WooCommerce as the integration in the ‘Trigger’ meta box.

    Select WooCommerce as trigger integration

    This will open the list of WooCommerce triggers in the dropdown menu. From here, you can select any trigger that suits your needs.

    For example, if you want customers to be added to your webinar after they buy a product, then you can select the first option.

    Select a WooCommerce trigger of your choice

    After that, select the ‘completes’ option in the ‘Trigger condition’ box to start the automation when a customer completes a purchase.

    Then, just click the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

    Choose trigger condition

    Now, you can choose a specific product in your store or have the automation run when a customer purchases any product.

    Simply select the ‘Any product’ option if you want all of your products to be included in the automation, and then click the ‘Save’ button.

    Choose product for trigger

    Next, scroll down to the ‘Actions’ section and click the ‘Add action’ button to expand the menu.

    Then, choose the ‘Zoom Webinars’ integration from the list.

    Select Zoom Webinars integration

    This will open the Zoom webinar action settings on the screen, where you can select the ‘Add the user to a webinar’ option.

    This will automatically register new customers for your webinar once they make a purchase.

    Select add user to webinar

    After that, select the webinar of your choice from the dropdown list in the ‘Webinar’ box.

    If you have multiple webinars running, then make sure to choose the webinar that’s associated with your WooCommerce products.

    New product webinar in Uncanny Automator

    The last thing you need to do is make your recipe live.

    To do this, simply click the toggle in the ‘Recipe’ box so it says ‘Live’.

    Save WooCommerce to Zoom recipe

    Now, when your customers purchase a product, they will automatically be registered for your product webinar.

    Register Members for a Zoom Meeting After Sign Up in WordPress

    When running a membership site, registering new members for a Zoom call can be a great way to welcome them into your community.

    If you haven’t set up your members-only site yet, then you can see our ultimate guide to creating a WordPress membership site.

    You can also register new users for a Zoom orientation call when they enroll in your online course.

    After your website is set up, you can navigate to the Automator » Add new screen from the WordPress admin sidebar and click the ‘Logged-in’ option.

    Now, only the registered members on your site will be able to trigger the recipe.

    After that, click the ‘Confirm’ button to continue.

    select logged in user as recipe type

    Next, add a name for your recipe. This name won’t be displayed to anyone on the front end and is only for your identification.

    After that, select the ‘MemberPress’ integration in the trigger section.

    Choose MemberPress as trigger integration

    This will open the MemberPress trigger options on the screen in a dropdown menu list.

    We will select ‘recurring subscription product’, but you can select the product type that’s right for your site.

    Choose a MemberPress trigger

    Next, you need to choose the subscription product from the dropdown in the ‘Product’ box.

    After that, just click the ‘Save’ button.

    Choose trigger product

    Now, it’s time to add an action to your recipe. To do this, simply click the ‘Add action’ button in the ‘Actions’ box to expand the menu.

    This will bring up a list of available integrations, where you need to pick the ‘Zoom Meetings’ option.

    Select Zoom Meetings integrations under the actions section

    This will open the Zoom Meetings actions settings on the list.

    From here, choose the ‘Add the user to a meeting’ option if you want to add a user to a meeting when they make a recurring subscription purchase.

    Select add user to a meeting option

    Then, select the Zoom call for your new members in the ‘Meeting’ box.

    After that, simply click the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

    Select a webinar of your choice

    The last thing you need to do is make your recipe live.

    To do this, simply click the Draft toggle in the ‘Recipe’ box so it shows ‘Live’.

    MemberPress to Zoom recipe live

    Now, your new members will automatically be enrolled in a Zoom member orientation call.

    Besides Zoom, Uncanny Automator also allows you to create countless other recipes for different plugins and apps like Twilio and Google Sheets.

    We hope this article helped you easily integrate Zoom meetings and webinars in WordPress. You may also want to see the best WooCommerce automations to increase sales or our expert comparison of the best business phone services for small businesses.

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    The post How to Easily Integrate Zoom Meetings & Webinars in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Share Users and Logins Between Multiple WordPress Sites

    Do you want to share users and logins between multiple WordPress sites?

    Sharing customer, member, or visitor information between multiple sites can improve the user experience, by allowing them to log into multiple sites with the same account. It can also save you a ton of time if you need to add employees, students, or other users to several sites.

    In this article, we will show you how you can share users and logins between multiple WordPress websites.

    Automatically share users and logins between multiple WordPress sites

    Why Share Users and Logins Between Multiple WordPress Sites?

    If you have multiple websites, then you may want to share users and login information between them.

    This can save your visitors time and effort since they only need to complete the user registration form once. For example, you might have a WordPress blog and a website where you sell online courses.

    If someone purchases a course from your blog, then you can automatically add them to the site that has the learning management system (LMS). The user can then log into the LMS and start working on their course, without having to register using their email address, username, and other information.

    If you’re a WordPress development agency or you work on multiple client sites, then you may need to manually create several accounts for each developer, tester, and other staff member. Instead, you can save time by registering each person once and then sharing login information between all the client sites.

    With that in mind, let’s see how you can share users and logins between WordPress websites.

    How to Share Users and Logins Between Multiple WordPress Sites

    The best way to share users and login information is by using Uncanny Automator. It’s the best WordPress automation plugin and helps you create automated workflows that can save you a ton of time and effort.

    When it comes to connecting several sites, many people assume you need to set up a WordPress multisite network. However, it’s often easier to use webhooks. These are bits of code that allow different tools and apps to share information in real time.

    After installing Uncanny Automator, you can use webhooks to share information between WordPress websites, including user accounts and login details.

    To start, you’ll need to install Uncanny Automator on the website where users will create their original account. We’ll call this the ‘source’ website.

    You’ll then need to install Uncanny Automator on every website that should receive data from the source site.

    Finally, you’ll use automation recipes and webhooks to send user information from the source to all the other websites that need this information.

    With that in mind, let’s walk through the steps in more detail.

    Add Uncanny Automator to the Source Website

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

    Note: There is a free Uncanny Automator plugin that lets you automate many common tasks and comes with 300 automation triggers and actions. However, we’ll be using Uncanny Automator Pro because you need it to use the ‘A user is created’ trigger.

    Upon activation, you’ll be asked to install the free version of Uncanny Automator core. The free plugin has limited features, but it’s used as the base for the Pro version.

    With that done, you need to head over to Automator » Settings and enter your license key.

    The Uncanny Automator automation WordPress plugin

    You can find this information under your account on the Uncanny Automator website.

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

    Create a New Automation Recipe

    Upon activation, you’re ready to create automated workflows in WordPress. Uncanny Automator calls these workflows ‘recipes.’

    You’re going to create a recipe that sends information to a webhook, every time a user registers with your WordPress website.

    To get started, simply head to Automator » Add New. Uncanny Automator will now ask whether you want to create a ‘Logged-in’ recipe or an ‘Everyone’ recipe.

    Logged-in recipes can only be triggered by logged-in users, but anyone can trigger ‘Everyone’ recipes. With that being said, select ‘Logged-in’ and then click on ‘Confirm.’

    Creating a new automated workflow in WordPress

    You can now give this recipe a title, by typing into the ‘Title’ field.

    This is just for your reference, so you can use anything you want.

    How to share login information between multiple WordPress websites

    Add Triggers and Actions to the Automated Workflow

    Each recipe in Uncanny Automator has two parts called Triggers and Actions.

    A trigger is any event that starts the automated workflow, such as adding new users and authors to your WordPress blog. Actions are the tasks the recipe will perform, such as sharing information with another website, blog, or online store.

    To start, you’ll need to set the trigger by choosing an integration.

    Uncanny Automator supports many popular WordPress plugins including WPForms, WooCommerce, and OptinMonster. The options you see may vary depending on the plugins you’ve installed.

    To get started, select ‘WordPress’ and then click on ‘A user is created.’

    How to share user information between multiple blogs or websites

    Next, you need to tell Uncanny Automator what it should do when the recipe gets triggered.

    To do this, click the ‘Add action’ button.

    Sharing data between WordPress websites using a webhook

    Uncanny Automator will now show all the different integrations you can use in the action.

    To send data to a webhook, click on ‘Webhooks.’

    How to create user accounts automatically using Uncanny Automator

    This adds a new dropdown menu.

    Here, select ‘Send data to a webhook.’

    Sending data to a WordPress webhook using Uncanny Automator

    You’ll now see a new section where you can set up the webhook.

    For now, scroll to the ‘Body’ section.

    Sharing usernames and emails between multiple websites

    Here, you need to specify the data Uncanny Automator should pass to the receiving WordPress blogs or websites. As an example, we’ll show you how to share the user’s email address, first name, and username. We will not be sharing the user’s password via Uncanny Automator.

    Instead, Uncanny Automator will generate a random temporary password. Later in this guide, we’ll show you how to send an email containing a password reset link, so users can easily create their own password.

    Pro Tip: It is best practice to use a unique password for every account. For more on this topic, please see our ultimate WordPress security guide.

    To go ahead and share the user’s email address, click on the field under ‘Key’ and type in ‘Email.’ You’ll be using the key in your webhook, so make a note of it.

    Retrieving the user's email address from a webhook

    Under ‘Data Type,’ choose ‘Text’ if it isn’t already selected.

    Now, click on the asterisk next to ‘Value.’

    Getting data from a webhook using an automation plugin

    This opens a dropdown with all the different data you can share. For example, you might share the person’s username, first name, and last name.

    To share the user’s email address, click on ‘Common’ and then select ‘User email.’

    Adding dynamic tokens to an automated WordPress workflow

    You’ll typically want to share additional information, such as the user’s first name and last name.

    To share more information, go ahead and click the ‘Add Pair’ button.

    Adding additional key/value pairs to an Uncanny Automator workflow

    Then, type in a key, select the data type, and choose a value from the dropdown menu by following the same process described above.

    For example, in the following image, we’re sharing the email, first name, and username.

    Adding key/value pairs to an automated workflow

    This recipe is almost complete, but you still need to type in the webook’s URL. To get this link, you’ll need to set up Uncanny Automator on the website that will receive the data.

    With that being said, leave the source website open in a background tab, and open a new tab.

    Receive User Login Information using a Webhook

    In the new tab, log into the website, blog, or WooCommerce store that will receive the user information and login data. You can now install and activate the Uncanny Automator plugin by following the same process described above.

    With that done, it’s time to create a recipe that’ll retrieve the data from the webhook, and add it to a new user account.

    To get started, head over to Automator » Add New. In the popup that appears, click on ‘Everyone’ and then select ‘Confirm.’

    How to create a recipe for all users

    You can now type in a title for the automated workflow.

    Once again, this is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

    How to receive data from a webhook on your website or blog

    Under ‘Integrations,’ select ‘Webhooks.’

    In the dropdown that appears, select ‘Receive data from a webhook.’

    Receiving data from a WordPress webhook

    This adds a new section, with the ‘Webhook URL’ already filled in. In a later step, you’ll add this URL to the source website.

    For now, scroll to the ‘Fields’ section. Here, you’ll need to configure all the information you’ll retrieve from the webhook. These are simply the key/value pairs you created in the first automation recipe.

    Under ‘Key,’ type in the exact key you used for the first piece of information. If you capitalized ‘Email’ earlier, capitalize it here, too.

    Adding keys to a WordPress website or blog

    After that, open the ‘Value Type’ dropdown and choose ‘Text.’

    To configure the next key/value pair, click on ‘Add Pair.’ You can now simply repeat these steps to add all the key/value pairs.

    Mapping keys and values in WordPress

    With that done, click on ‘Save.’

    Set the User Data in Uncanny Automator

    If you’ve been following along, then Uncanny Automator will now share the user’s email address, username, and first name with this new website.

    As we already mentioned, the recipe will create a password at random, so you’ll need to give visitors an easy way to reset their password.

    The easiest way is by sending an email containing a link to your password reset page. You can also include other useful information, such as the person’s username, a link to your website, and your contact information.

    To get started, click on the ‘Add action’ button.

    Adding actions to an automated recipe in Uncanny Automator

    Uncanny Automator will now show all the different integrations you can use.

    Go ahead and click on ‘Emails.’

    How to send an email automatically

    In the dropdown that appears, select ‘Send an email.’

    This adds a new section with some settings already filled in. For example, by default Uncanny Automator will send all messages from your WordPress admin email. It will also use your site name as the ‘From name.’

    Automatically send emails using an Uncanny Automator recipe

    To change any of these settings, simply delete the default value.

    Then, either type in the value you want to use instead, or click the asterisk and choose a token from the dropdown menu. These tokens will be replaced with real information when the recipe runs, so they’re a great way to show personalized content to different users.

    Changing the default email automation settings

    Your next task is getting the user’s email address from the webhook.

    To do this, find the ‘To’ field and then click on its asterisk.

    Adding dynamic tokens to an automated workflow

    Next, click to expand the ‘Common’ section.

    When it appears, click on ‘User email.’

    How to share logins and user accounts between multiple websites

    Uncanny Automator will now show a popup, explaining that you need to specify where the user information will come from.

    In the popup, click on ‘Set user data.’

    Settings user data in an automation workflow

    Now, if you scroll up you’ll see a new ‘Actions will be run on…’ section.

    You want to create a new user account every time the recipe runs, so select ‘New User.’

    Automatically creating a new user

    You now need to map each field to information retrieved from the webhook. Some of these fields are mandatory, such as the username and email address, but others are optional such as the display name.

    To get started, simply find the first field where you want to map some data, and then click on its asterisk button.

    Mapping data to a webhook

    In the dropdown, click to expand the ‘Receive data from a webhook’ section.

    You can now choose the information that you want to show in this field. In our images, we’re retrieving the user’s email address from the webhook.

    Mapping user data to a webhook

    Simply repeat these steps for each field where you want to use the visitor’s information. Just remember to leave the ‘Password’ field empty, so that Uncanny Automator generates a new password at random.

    By default, Uncanny Automator will create each new user as a subscriber. If you want to give them a different role, then open the ‘Role’ dropdown and choose an option from the list.

    Changing the default user role

    For more on this topic, see our beginner’s guide to WordPress user roles and permissions.

    Finally, you can tell Uncanny Automator what to do if there’s already an account for this username or email address. Since you don’t want to create duplicate accounts, click on the ‘Do nothing’ radio button.

    With that done, click on ‘Save.’

    Avoiding duplicate users in WordPress

    Create a Password Reset Email

    You’re now ready to create the email that Uncanny Automator will send to your users.

    To get started, scroll to the ‘Send an email’ section and find the ‘To’ field. You can now click on its asterisk button and select ‘User email’ from the dropdown menu.

    Adding an email address to an automated workflow

    When that is done, scroll to the ‘Subject’ field.

    Here, you can type in any plain text that you want to show in the subject line. You can also personalize the email subject using tokens that Uncanny Automator will replace with genuine user data.

    Creating a personalized subject line using dynamic tokens

    To insert a token, select the asterisk button and then click to expand the ‘Receive data from a webhook’ section.

    You can now choose the token you want to use, such as the person’s username, first name, or last name. In this way, you can create a personalized subject, which may improve your email open rates.

    How to create a personalized email subject

    When you’re happy with the subject line, it’s time to create the email’s body copy.

    Similar to the subject, you can type plain text directly into the editor, or use tokens to create a personalized message. For example, if you’ve retrieved the user’s first name from the webhook, then you can address them by name.

    How to automatically email users on a website, blog, or online store

    You’ll also need to include a password reset link, so the user can create their own password and keep their account safe.

    To include this link, simply click on the asterisk and start typing ‘User reset password URL.’

    Adding a password reset URL to an automated email

    When the right option shows up, click to add it to the message.

    When you’re happy with how the email is set up, click on the ‘Save’ button.

    Automatically send an email using Uncanny Automator

    With that done, you’re ready to make this automated recipe live.

    Simply scroll up and click on the ‘Draft’ toggle so that it shows ‘Live’ instead.

    Publishing an Uncanny Automator recipe

    Connect Multiple WordPress Websites Using a Webhook

    In the ‘Trigger’ section, find the ‘Webhook URL.’ Just be aware you may need to click to expand this section, in order to see the webhook URL.

    Getting a webhook URL

    The final step is adding this URL to the first recipe you created on your source site. To do this, copy the URL and then switch back to the recipe on your original website.

    In this tab, scroll to the ‘Actions’ section and find the empty ‘Webhook URL’ field. You can then go ahead and paste the URL into this field.

    Connecting multiple websites using a webhook

    As soon as that’s done, the source website is ready to share user login data and information.

    To make everything live, just click on the ‘Draft’ toggle so that it shows ‘Live’ instead.

    Sharing data using a webhook

    At this point, you have two live Uncanny Automator recipes on two separate websites.

    Now, every time someone creates an account on the source website, Uncanny Automator will share their information with the second website. The user will also get an email with a password reset link.

    Do you want to share users and login information with more websites?

    Then simply repeat the steps above to set up Uncanny Automator on more websites. In this way, you can easily share user data with an unlimited number of WordPress blogs, websites, and online marketplaces.

    Making Sure Your WordPress Email Is Being Sent Reliably

    Sometimes, users may not receive your emails as expected. This is because many WordPress hosting companies do not have the mail function configured properly.

    To prevent their servers from abuse, many hosting companies even disable the mail function completely. This can be a big problem, as your users won’t receive information about how to create their passwords and access their accounts.

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

    For more details, please see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to automatically share users and logins between multiple WordPress sites. You may also want to check out our guide on how to create a file upload form in WordPress, or see our expert picks for the best 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 Share Users and Logins Between Multiple WordPress Sites first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • Google Meet vs Zoom: Which Is Better for Your Business?

    Are you looking for the best video communication service for your business?

    The right conference call software will make it easy to communicate with co-workers, partners, suppliers, clients, and more. This can help you be more productive, reach your goals, and build stronger relationships even across big geographical distances.

    In this article, we will compare Google Meet vs Zoom to help you decide which video chat software is right for your website.

    Google Meet vs Zoom

    Why Should Your Business Use a Video Communication Service?

    With the rising trend of remote working, many teams no longer work in the same building. If you are a big company, then you may even have staff in multiple countries.

    This can make it difficult to collaborate and build relationships with co-workers. While you could communicate using email, phone calls, or call center software, there’s no substitute for face-to-face interaction.

    That’s where video chat software comes in.

    These services can help people to communicate effectively and build successful business relationships, even when they are in completely different locations.

    Even if you work alone, conference call services are an easy and flexible way to communicate with partners, suppliers, clients, interview candidates, and more.

    When all your contacts are using the same service, it’s easier to set up meetings, send invites, manage attendees, and share and record important meetings.

    However, with so many tools on the market, it can be difficult to find the best software. For example, if you are looking for unlimited video meetings, Microsoft and Salesforce integrations, and business text messaging, then Nextiva is a great choice.

    Meanwhile, if you want video chat that integrates with top services such as Gsuite, Dropbox, and Microsoft, then RingCentral is one of the most feature-rich business phone and online meeting systems on the market.

    There are also plenty of tools that offer free plans, including Google Meet and Zoom.

    In this Google Meet vs Zoom guide, we are comparing these two popular tools to see which is right for your business. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the feature you want to compare:

    Overview – Google Meet vs Zoom

    Even if you are already using software like a virtual business phone number app, the right video communication service can help you run a successful business.

    That being said, let’s start with an overview of these two popular conference call services.

    Google Meet – Overview

    Google Meet is video chat software that’s part of the Google Workspace platform.

    The Google Meet web conferencing service

    It’s essentially an enhanced version of Google Hangouts that’s designed specifically for business owners. Google Meet is a fully web-based service, so you don’t need to install any software to use it.

    To try the service for yourself, simply head over to the Google Meet website and click on ‘New Meeting’. You can then select ‘Start an instant meeting’ to launch a test meeting and try the Google Meet features for yourself.

    Creating a new Google Meet online video meeting

    Zoom – Overview

    Zoom is a popular online video conferencing and meeting tool that allows you to set up an online conference call simply by sharing a link.

    The Zoom video calling software

    Zoom may be easy to set up, but it’s also packed with advanced features that can make your meetings more productive. These include searchable transcripts, instant messaging, screen sharing, and collaborative note-taking.

    Price Comparison – Google Meet vs Zoom

    When choosing business tools, it’s important to find a service that fits your budget. Some video conferencing plans also put limits on the call duration and the total attendees.

    When deciding whether a service is good value for money, it’s important to take these factors into consideration. With that in mind, let’s compare the price for Google Meet and Zoom.

    Google Meet – Price Comparison

    Anyone with a free Google Account can create a video meeting and invite up to 100 participants for a maximum of 60 minutes.

    Google Meet vs Zoom pricing

    If you want to meet for longer than an hour, then you will need to upgrade to Google’s Business Starter plan ($6 per user, per month, with a one-year commitment) or higher. All of Google’s paid plans allow you to meet for 24 hours, which should be enough for most businesses.

    The Business Starter plan limits you to 100 attendees, so if you want to invite more people, then you will need to buy a Business Standard plan ($12 per user/month, one-year commitment), which allows you to invite 150 participants.

    Need to invite even more people? Google’s Business Plus lets you run 500-participant video meetings for $18 per user/month if you buy a one-year plan. Meanwhile, the Enterprise Plan allows you to invite 1000 participants to a video meeting.

    All the paid plans come with a custom business email address, Gmail Business email, phishing and spam protection, US or international dial-in phone numbers, and a digital whiteboard.

    You will also get Chat Team messaging and Drive Secure storage. However, the amount of storage you get will vary based on your plan.

    If you upgrade to Business Standard or higher, then you will also get access to noise cancellation, the option to record meetings and save them to Google Drive, appointment booking pages, Cloud Search Smart search, and advanced security features.

    Zoom – Price Comparison

    Like Google Meet, Zoom has a free plan that allows you to invite up to 100 attendees. However, you can only meet for 40 minutes, compared to the 60 minutes allowed by Google Meet’s free plan.

    The zoom video conferencing pricing page

    If you need to meet for longer than 40 minutes, then all of Zoom’s paid plans allow you to run 30-hour meetings. While this is longer than the Google Meet plan, it may not be required unless you run unusually long meetings or livestream virtual events and conferences.

    Unlike Google Meet, the cheapest paid plan (Pro, priced at $15.99 per month, per user) still limits you to 100 attendees. If you want to invite more than 100 people, then you will need to upgrade to Business (19.99/month/user), which allows 300 attendees.

    If you want to invite over 300 people, then you must contact Zoom and discuss upgrading to their Enterprise plan.

    If you upgrade to a Pro or higher plan, then you will get access to an Essential Apps package. This is a package of third-party apps that Zoom has curated to make your meetings more productive. It includes apps that allow you to take notes, create a visual agenda, get personalized meeting reports, and create automated workflows.

    The Business plan introduces some powerful extra features, including single sign-on and managed domains. You can also add your own branding, which is useful if you are a freelancer, designer, or developer who regularly uses Zoom to chat with clients.

    If you want to make voice calls, then both Business Plus and Enterprise come with Zoom Phone, which allows you to make secure voice calls across all supported devices.

    Winner – Google Meet

    For running short meetings with 100 or fewer attendees, both the free Zoom and free Google Meet plans are great options. However, if you want to run longer meetings with over 100 attendees, then you will need to upgrade to a paid plan.

    Generally, Zoom’s plans are slightly cheaper than the Google Meet equivalent. However, all of Google’s paid plans include the Google Workspace bundle of business and personal productivity tools and a secure business email.

    This gives Meet a big advantage over Zoom, especially if you are a new business that needs a full suite of productivity tools and a professional email address.

    If you are already using the Google apps, then it also makes sense to choose Google Meet since it works seamlessly with the other Google tools.

    With all that in mind, the paid Google Meet plans do have a slight advantage over Zoom, even if both free plans represent great value for money.

    Ease of Use – Google Meet vs Zoom

    Choosing easy-to-use tools can save you a ton of time. This leaves you free to focus on more important tasks, including growing your business.

    Here is how the two video conferencing software options compare for user-friendliness.

    Google Meet – Ease of Use

    Google Meet aims to make the user experience as effortless as possible. You can visit the Google Meet website in any supported web browser and start a meeting with just a few clicks.

    If you have already accepted a Meet invite, then you can click on the event in your Google Calendar. This will open a popup with a ‘Join with Google Meet’ button.

    How to join a Google Meet event

    Another option is to click on the ‘Meet’ button inside your Gmail account.

    As you can see, it’s very easy to create or join a meeting, especially if you are already using Google tools.

    Creating a Google meeting from the Gmail email interface

    Google Meet also has a pre-meeting ‘waiting room’, where you can toggle the camera and microphone on and off. You can also check the sound and video quality and change the settings before joining the meeting.

    Google Meet’s settings are very simple, with just a few options. You can change the microphone, speakers, and camera that Google Meet uses and tell Google to log you out of meetings automatically if no one joins after a few minutes.

    During meetings, you will find a row of buttons at the bottom of the screen where you can access some basic settings, send emojis, raise your hand to ask a question, and perform other basic tasks. You can also enable closed captions, which is great for accessibility.

    The Google Meet user interface

    To invite other people, simply share the link or dial-in number that Google Meet creates for you automatically.

    If you want to schedule a team meeting, then just create a new event in Google Calendar. Then, click on the ‘Add Google Meet video conferencing’ button.

    How to create a meeting using the Google Meet video chat service

    This creates a meeting link automatically.

    With that done, just click on ‘Add Guests’ and type in the name or email address of every contact you want to invite.

    Adding guests to an online conference or webinar

    As you can see, Google Meet is designed with simplicity in mind.

    Most of the time, the video conference software works out of the box, and you can schedule meetings with just a few clicks. However, this ease of use does mean that Google Meet lacks some of the more advanced features you get from platforms like Zoom.

    Zoom – Ease of Use

    When it comes to ease of use, the Zoom experience is very different depending on whether you are using the online client or the desktop app.

    The Zoom online client isn’t particularly user-friendly compared to the Google Meet experience. For example, if you want to schedule a meeting, then you will need to fill out a form.

    Creating a new Zoom meeting using video chat software

    However, the desktop app is much easier to use.

    You can schedule a meeting or create an instant meeting with the click of a button.

    The Zoom desktop app

    You can also easily share your screen or join a meeting by typing in the meeting ID or link.

    Before you join a meeting, you will get a chance to enable or disable the audio and video. However, unlike Google Meet, there’s no ‘waiting room’ where you can preview how the video feed will look before joining the main meeting.

    Joining an online conference call using Zoom

    No matter whether you are using the desktop app or the online client, Zoom’s settings are much more detailed and in-depth compared to Google Meet.

    This does mean there’s a steeper learning curve, and non-techy users, in particular, may struggle with some of Zoom’s more advanced features.

    Zoom's advanced video settings

    However, Zoom’s comprehensive settings do mean the tool is far more flexible and powerful compared to Google Meet. For example, with the right Zoom settings, you can share a second webcam, which can be useful if you run webinars, demonstrations, or virtual classrooms.

    Zoom can even recognize gestures and translate them into a corresponding meeting reaction. For example, you can trigger the thumbs-up emoji by putting your thumb up to the camera.

    With that in mind, it’s no surprise that Zoom’s settings can be a bit overwhelming and confusing at first.

    Winner – Google Meet

    When it comes to ease of use, Google Meet definitely has the edge, particularly if you already use Google’s services. You can start a meeting instantly from the apps you are already using, including Gmail and Google Calendar.

    If you already have a Google account, then getting started with Meet feels effortless. The default settings are also a good fit for most users, so Google Meet often works out of the box.

    If you download the Zoom desktop app, then you will get a much better experience compared to the online client, and you will also have a ton of advanced features to explore.

    However, if you are simply looking for click-and-go video chat software, then Google Meet is the clear winner.

    Cross-Platform Support – Google Meet vs Zoom

    A good video conferencing solution should always be within easy each, no matter what device or web browser you are using. This is particularly important if you regularly work from different places or give employees the option to work from home.

    That said, let’s see how Google Meet and Zoom stack up in terms of the devices and operating systems they support.

    Cross-Platform Support – Google Meet

    Much like Google’s other web-based tools, Google Meet runs completely in the web browser. It supports Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Apple Safari.

    This means you should have no problems joining a meeting from your desktop computer, assuming you have a good internet connection and one of the major web browsers.

    If your browser doesn’t support Google Meet, then you can still dial in using a phone number or PIN that Meet creates automatically.

    If you regularly have video calls on your smartphone or tablet, then you can download the Google Meet app for iOS or Android. This app has a similar user interface to the desktop version, which allows you to join and create meetings with just a few taps.

    The Google Meet online video chat interface

    Cross-Platform Support – Zoom

    Unlike Google Meet, Zoom has a desktop application for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It may take longer to set up compared to Google Meet, but the desktop app provides a much better user experience compared to the Zoom online client, so it’s well worth the effort.

    If you don’t want to install the app, then the web client supports Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Chromium Edge. There’s also a mobile app for Android and iOS.

    Winner – Zoom

    No matter what device you are using, you should have no problems accessing Google Meet or Zoom. Both video communication services also have well-designed mobile apps, which we highly recommend if you regularly make calls from your smartphone or tablet.

    However, Zoom is the winner simply because it’s the only platform that has a dedicated desktop app. If you have a busy schedule, then you can just leave Zoom running in the background while you work on other tasks. You can then connect to meetings, create new events, check your schedule, and more simply by checking the desktop interface.

    Text Chat and Channels – Google Meet vs Zoom

    Google Meet and Zoom allow you to have face-to-face conversations with people no matter where they are in the world. However, they both also support text chat, so let’s see how these features compare.

    Text Chat and Channels – Google Meet

    Google Meet allows you to send messages that appear alongside the main video screen. However, everyone on the call can see these messages, so there’s no way to have private one-on-one conversations.

    Google Meet vs Zoom: Which is right for your business?

    You also can’t see any messages that people sent before you joined the meeting. Unless the meeting is being recorded, the entire conversation history will also disappear as soon as you leave the call.

    You can’t add emojis or GIFs to your messages, although you can send a limited number of reactions that float across the main video window.

    Text Chat and Channels – Zoom

    Unlike Google Meet, you can send private messages to individual attendees in a Zoom call. This is particularly useful if you regularly host large meetings with lots of attendees. Without the option to send private messages, the chat could easily become too noisy and distracting, with multiple conversations happening at once.

    Zoom also makes it easy to add emojis to your messages, although, just like Google Meet, there’s no option to add GIFs.

    Using emojis in text chats and channels

    Similar to Google Meet, Zoom also adds a conversation log to recorded meetings, so people can follow along with the chat.

    It also hides any messages that were sent before you joined the call. This is exactly the same behavior as Google Meet, but it may still be frustrating for some users.

    Winner – Zoom

    With the option to send private messages and built-in support for emojis, Zoom is the clear winner when it comes to text chat.

    WordPress Integrations – Google Meet vs Zoom

    If you have a WordPress website, then you may be wondering whether you can integrate WordPress with your video conferencing software. Let’s take a closer look at how both tools handle WordPress integration.

    WordPress Integrations – Zoom

    There are several ways to connect Zoom to your WordPress website. If you run webinars or online conferences, then you can use WPForms and the Uncanny Automator plugin to automatically register attendees when they fill out a form on your website.

    In this way, you can onboard new clients, schedule coaching calls, and more. If you sell online courses or training, then you can even add students to an upcoming webinar or session as soon as they enroll.

    To get started, simply add a registration form to your website using WPForms, which is the best contact form plugin for WordPress.

    Adding a webinar registration form to a website or blog using WPForms

    Then, you can use Uncanny Automator to create a recipe that registers the visitor automatically when they complete the form.

    If you have a WooCommerce store, then you can use the same Uncanny Automator recipe to enroll new customers in a product webinar after they buy an item in your online store.

    For step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to easily integrate Zoom meetings and webinars in WordPress.

    Additionally, if you want to manage your Zoom meetings from the WordPress dashboard, then you may want to look at Video Conferencing with Zoom. This plugin allows you to import all your Zoom meetings into the WordPress dashboard with a single click.

    You can even restrict your Zoom content using a membership plugin. In this way, you can make money online by selling access to your Zoom recordings.

    WordPress Integrations – Google Meet

    You can connect Google Meet to your WordPress website using Zapier. This popular automation tool comes with a ready-made workflow that will automatically schedule a Google Meet every time you publish a new post.

    This can improve your editorial workflow by giving all team members a time to meet and review the new content, provide feedback, or review the post’s traffic, conversion rates, and other important metrics using a tool like Google Analytics.

    Even better, you can build your own custom Google Meet and WordPress automation workflows using the Zapier editor. This gives you the freedom and flexibility to integrate WordPress and Google Meet in the way that works best for you.

    Winner – Zoom

    You can integrate Google Meet and WordPress in lots of ways using Zapier. However, the combination of Uncanny Automator and WPForms gives Zoom a definite advantage.

    These two must-have WordPress plugins allow you to automatically add students, customers, co-workers, and other contacts to your Zoom webinars and calls. For this reason, Zoom is a great choice for WordPress blog and website owners.

    Professional and Community Support – Google Meet vs Zoom

    Google Meet and Zoom are both easy to use, but everyone needs help from time to time. Let’s compare their support options to see the help that’s available.

    Professional and Community Support – Google Meet

    If you prefer to find answers yourself, then there is an entire library of tutorials and videos in the Google Meet Help portal. You can look through the different pages or type in your question and get articles recommended to you.

    The Google Meet Help support portal

    There’s also a Google Meet Community where you can browse questions that other people have posted.

    While there is a lot of information here, thankfully, Google has created a detailed sorting and filtering system that can help you find the information you are looking for, fast.

    Support options for live chat software

    If you can’t find a relevant thread, then you can always create your own.

    Simply post your question to the Community portal, and wait for a response from the Google Meet community.

    Posting a question to a community support portal

    If you want to improve your Google Meet knowledge and boost your productivity, then you can check out the Google Workspace Learning Center. Here, you will find quick start guides, cheat sheets, productivity guides, and many other useful resources.

    Do you prefer professional support instead?

    Google’s Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus all come with standard professional support. However, if you buy an Enterprise plan, then you will get access to Enhanced Support, which promises faster response times, more advanced product knowledge, and even support for third-party technologies.

    Professional and Community Support – Zoom

    If you have any questions, then the Zoom Support portal should be your first stop. Here, you will find a knowledge base with thousands of articles, a learning center with on-demand video courses, and an active community question-and-answer site.

    The Zoom community support portal

    If you are interested in community support, then the Zoom Q and A threads are helpfully divided into categories and organized into Latest, Trending, Solved, and Unanswered tabs.

    This system should help you get answers to common questions, fast.

    A video chat support potral

    If you have a Zoom problem that no one else has posted about, then you can always start a new thread and get direct help from the Zoom community.

    The Zoom support portal also has a chatbot, so you can type in questions and get answers at any time of the day or night. Often, this is much faster than looking through all the Zoom documentation yourself.

    Professional support options: Zoom vs Google Meet

    If you buy a Business plan or higher, then you will also get live chat support, phone support, and the option to submit web tickets.

    Alternatively, if you have a Pro plan, then you can submit web tickets and may be entitled to live chat and phone support, depending on the total cost of your Zoom subscription.

    Additionally, if you need professional support, then Zoom offers a range of premium support plans.

    Winner – Tie

    While both Google Meet and Zoom offer professional support, it’s the community support and online resources that really put these two popular video services ahead of the competition.

    No matter whether you choose Meet or Zoom, you will get access to detailed and extensive articles, tutorials, video guides, forums, and countless other online resources.

    That said, both Google Meet and Zoom are excellent choices when it comes to support.

    Google Meet vs Zoom: Which Is Better For Your Business?

    If you are looking for an easy, convenient video conferencing tool with excellent support, then both Google Meet and Zoom are great options.

    Both video chat platforms make it easy to communicate with teammates, employees, customers, and other contacts around the world. They are also available across all major browsers and work on smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. This means you can use both Google Meet and Zoom from any location.

    Ultimately, the software that’s right for you will vary depending on the features your business needs, the size of your organization, and how long your meetings typically last.

    Each tool has its own strengths and drawbacks. If you want a solution that works out of the box for most users and integrates with the full suite of Google Workspace apps, then Google Meet is likely better for your business.

    But if you want more advanced features and a dedicated desktop app, then Zoom is the better option. We also recommend Zoom if you run a WordPress website due to its seamless integration with WordPress via powerful plugins like Uncanny Automator and WPForms.

    Alternatives to Google Meet and Zoom

    In this guide, we focused on Google Meet vs Zoom, but there are lots more communication tools on the market that might be better for your business.

    If you are looking for an alternative solution, then Nextiva is the best virtual business phone number service on the market.

    Nextiva

    At WPBeginner, we use Nextiva for all our business phone needs because it helps our team answer incoming customer calls from anywhere in the world without having to share their personal cell phone numbers. Plus, the Nextiva Video plan comes with video conferencing, screen-sharing, and file-sharing features.

    If you regularly video chat with customers or offer customer support, then RingCentral is another popular business VoIP service provider that lets you set up a cloud call center solution for your business.

    The RingCentral phone system

    They also offer an AI-powered video meeting experience with advanced features such as live transcription, intelligent meeting summaries, and virtual backgrounds.

    We hope this article helped you decide whether Google Meet or Zoom is right for your business. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter and our expert picks of 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 Google Meet vs Zoom: Which Is Better for Your Business? first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Send SMS Messages to Your WordPress Users

    Recently, one of our readers asked if it was possible to send SMS messages to their subscribers along with email newsletters.

    The answer is yes. You can easily send text messages to your website users by using one of the many SMS plugins and services for WordPress.

    In this article, we will show you how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users.

    How to Send SMS Messages to Your WordPress Users

    Why Send SMS Messages to Your Users?

    Sending SMS messages can be highly effective in bringing back customers to your WordPress website. For the best results, you can combine SMS messages with other marketing tools like an email newsletter, push notifications, and search traffic.

    Text messages have a fantastic open rate. Some studies suggest that SMS open rates are as high as 98%.

    Compare that with a typical open rate of just 20% for emails, and you can see why SMS messages are becoming a preferred marketing medium.

    People also check text messages much more quickly than they check emails. It takes an average of 90 seconds for someone to respond to a text and 90 minutes to respond to an email.

    Of course, you don’t want to overdo it. Even when they have opted in, most users won’t want daily texts from you. Even weekly might be too much.

    Important: Make sure that you obey the law. Different countries have different legal requirements for text messages, particularly marketing messages.

    You might also want to use SMS messages to send receipts or order updates from your WooCommerce store. We will cover how to do that later in this tutorial.

    For the sake of this tutorial, we will be using the Brevo platform. However, you can also use other email marketing solutions like Omnisend, HubSpot, and more.

    With that being said, let’s take a look at how to send SMS messages using Brevo.

    Sending SMS Marketing Messages Using Brevo

    Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) is an email marketing service that also allows you to send SMS messages to your subscribers.

    To get started, you will need to set up an account with Brevo if you haven’t already got one. On the Brevo website, just click the ‘Sign Up Free’ button to start creating your account.

    Brevo Home Page

    You can get started creating an account by typing in your email address and password. After that, you will need to click the ‘Create an account’ button.

    Alternatively, you can use the buttons to sign up using your Google or Apple credentials.

    Creating a Brevo Account

    This will bring you to a screen where you can complete your user profile. Simply fill in the form and then click the ‘Next’ button. There will be several pages to fill in.

    During this process, an activation code will be sent to your phone in an SMS message to confirm the number is actually yours.

    Completing Your Brevo User Profile

    After that, you will be able to choose one of Brevo’s plans, including a free plan. The different plans include sending emails, starting at 300 emails per day. However, you will need to purchase credits to send SMS messages.

    Once you have finished the account setup process, you will see your Brevo dashboard.

    Brevo Campaigns Dashboard

    Before you can start sending messages, you will need to contact the support team. Go to the Brevo contact page and write a message that includes:

    • A request to activate your account
    • Your WordPress website’s URL
    • A note that you will be sending marketing messages

    Once your account has been approved, you will get an email from Brevo. Note that this can take up to 24 hours.

    Buying SMS Credits for Your Brevo Account

    While you are waiting for your account to be approved, you can continue setting up your Brevo account. The first thing you need to do is activate the SMS app in Brevo.

    From the Campaigns dashboard, click the ‘Create a campaign’ button.

    The Brevo Campaigns Dashboard

    You will see the different types of campaigns you can create. Notice that email campaigns are active while the other types of campaigns are not.

    You just need to click ‘Activate’ next to SMS.

    Click the Activate Button Next to SMS Campaigns

    After a few seconds, you will see a message that the app was enabled successfully, and there will be a tick mark next to ‘SMS’.

    You can now close the popup by clicking the ‘X’ icon at the top right.

    SMS Campaigns Activated

    Now that the SMS app is active, you can purchase some SMS credits.

    To do that, you need to click ‘Usage and plan’ at the top of the page. This will show you how many emails and SMS credits you have to use in your campaigns.

    Click 'Usage and plan'

    Your current SMS balance is 0, so you will need to click the ‘Get more credits’ link.

    Brevo defaults to selling you 100 messages at a time. If you like, you can purchase more credits by typing a larger number under ‘Number of messages’.

    Add message credits in Brevo

    Note: It costs 1 credit to send a text message in the US, but you will need to pay more than 1 credit per message in other countries.

    Once you have selected the number of credits, go ahead and complete your purchase.

    Pay for your SMS credits

    Once you have bought your credits, you may need to wait up to 48 hours for them to appear in your account. You might also get an email from Brevo asking you for more details about what type of SMS marketing you plan to do.

    This is to help you stay in compliance with SMS laws.

    You will need to reply to them with answers to their questions before your credits can be added to your account.

    Creating Your SMS Marketing List

    In order to send out SMS messages, you will need to import your contact list.

    You can get started by clicking the ‘Contacts’ tab on the left. Or if you are still looking at the Campaigns Dashboard, then you can click the ‘>’ arrow next to ‘Total contacts’.

    Go to the Contacts Page in Brevo

    This will display a list of all your contacts. Right now, you will be the only contact on the list.

    Now you can click the ‘Import contacts’ button at the top of the page.

    Click the Import Contacts Button

    This will take you to the ‘Import options’ page. You will be given two options for importing your contacts.

    You can either upload a .csv file from your computer or you can copy and paste contacts line by line. Whichever option you choose, Brevo will offer examples to help you.

    Brevo Import Options

    Important: Your users need to have opted in for SMS marketing messages. You can collect website visitors’ phone numbers and consent using a WordPress form plugin like WPForms or a marketing popup plugin like OptinMonster.

    Sending Your First SMS Campaign

    Once your credits show up, you can start sending messages.

    It’s a good idea to send a test message first so that you know that everything is working correctly. The phone number you use for the test message needs to belong to a contact in your list.

    You can use the number you added when you first signed up. Or, if you want to use a different phone number for your test, then you will need to add a test contact in Brevo.

    Simply go to the Contacts section in your dashboard and click the ‘Create a contact’ button.

    Creating a Contact in Brevo

    A panel will pop up on the right of the screen where you can create a contact.

    You need to fill in your details, including your mobile phone number.

    Enter Your Own Contact Details in Brevo

    After that, you need to add your test contact to a list.

    You can use an existing list or add a new one.

    Add the Contact to a List

    Once you have done that, you need to click the ‘Create’ button at the bottom of the page. You should see a message telling you that the subscriber has been successfully added.

    Now you can try sending a test SMS.

    First, go to the Campaigns » SMS tab in your Brevo dashboard. Next, click either the ‘Create an SMS campaign’ or ‘Create my first SMS campaign’ button.

    Create your first SMS campaign

    You can enter whatever you want for your Campaign Name. This isn’t seen by the recipients but should make sense to you when you look at your campaigns in the future.

    You should also enter an SMS Sender. This will display for users in certain countries.

    Entering a name and a sender for your SMS campaign

    If you will be sending SMS messages to customers in the United States, then you must enable the ‘Manage compliance for the United States’ toggle.

    This is important because it will help you follow United States laws for text messages.

    Compliance With United States Regulations

    This will give you two more options to fill in: an organization prefix so that your customers will recognize who the message is from, and unsubscribe instructions.

    If customers in the United States or Canada will be receiving this SMS message, then you will also need to click the ‘this form’ link in the orange box to register for a toll-free number and comply with regulations.

    Next, enter your SMS message. Beneath the message box, you can see how many characters you have used and how many SMS messages will be sent.

    Entering the text for your SMS message

    If you use more than 160 characters, then the message will be counted as 2 SMS messages.

    At the bottom of the screen, click the ‘Send a test’ button when you are ready.

    Send a test SMS message

    This will pop up the ‘Send a test’ box.

    There is just one field where you should enter your mobile number, which you included when you added yourself as a contact earlier. After that, you need to click the paper airplane button to send the SMS.

    Enter a Phone Number for the Test SMS

    You should see a message telling you that your test message has been sent successfully.

    Now, check your phone to see if the text has come through. Here’s ours:

    Sample Test SMS

    If your text hasn’t arrived, wait a minute or two, and it should appear. If not, double-check that you are using the right mobile number.

    Once you know that everything’s working, you can continue setting up your campaign. Click the ‘X’ button to close the ‘Send a test’ window, and then click the ‘Next Step’ button in the top right corner of the screen.

    Moving to the next step of the SMS campaign

    Now, you will need to choose the contact list you want the message to go to. If you like, you can select multiple lists.

    Just check all the lists you want to use, then click the ‘Next Step’ button.

    Choosing the contact list for your SMS campaign

    Your SMS campaign is now ready to send.

    You can review the details and change them if you want to, using the ‘Return to this step’ links. Once you are happy, simply click ‘Schedule’ in the top right.

    Reviewing your SMS campaign before sending

    You can either schedule your campaign so that your texts are sent out at a specific time, or you can send the messages immediately.

    Just make sure you avoid sending the campaign early in the morning or late at night. Be mindful of time zones, too. Not everyone will remember to turn on Do Not Disturb mode overnight.

    Reviewing your SMS campaign before sending

    Sending SMS Messages to Your WooCommerce Customers

    What if you want to send your customers notifications about their orders?

    If you have decided to start an online store, then you might want to send text updates as well as emails to your customers.

    Sending WooCommerce SMS Notifications Using YITH WooCommerce SMS Notifications

    The easiest way to do this is with a plugin like YITH WooCommerce SMS Notifications. This plugin lets you use an SMS gateway, such as Twilio, to send SMS messages to your customers. They receive these texts when their order status changes, such as when it’s dispatched.

    You can set up YITH WooCommerce SMS Notifications so that it’s enabled for all customers, or you can let customers opt-in at the checkout.

    Also, you can use it to get your own SMS notifications about new orders. This makes it easy to stay on top of things if you are away from your computer.

    Yith SMS Notifications Plugin

    Sending WooCommerce SMS Notifications Using FunnelKit Automations

    If you are looking for an alternative, then you can use FunnelKit Automations to send SMS messages to your WooCommerce customers.

    FunnelKit Automations is one of the best marketing automation tools for WooCommerce sites. It allows you to easily set up automated SMS and email campaigns right from your WordPress dashboard.

    It comes with pre-built automations for new customers, first orders, post-purchase sequences, shipment tracking notifications, abandoned cart reminders, anniversary coupons, and more. Or, you can create your own workflows using the visual automation builder.

    Sending WooCommerce SMS Notifications Using Uncanny Automator

    A third option is to use Uncanny Automator to send SMS messages to your WooCommerce customers, and we have written a step-by-step tutorial to show you how. You can learn more in our guide on how to send Twilio SMS notifications from WooCommerce.

    We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best business VoIP provider and our expert picks for the best live chat software to grow your sales.

    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 SMS Messages to Your WordPress Users first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • 15 Best WooCommerce Automations to Increase Sales

    Are you looking for easy and smart ways to automate tasks and increase sales in your WooCommerce store?

    By automating tasks in your online store, you can save time and money while growing your business and increasing sales.

    In this article, we will show you how to use WooCommerce automations to increase sales.

    15 WooCommerce Automations to Increase Sales

    Why Automate Your WooCommerce Store?

    If you are running a WooCommerce store, then you probably spend a lot of your time performing repetitive tasks. These can be anything from sending marketing emails for your online store to processing customer invoices.

    Wouldn’t it be nice if you could automate all of those tasks and focus on growing sales and your business instead?

    Luckily, you can use the best WordPress automation tools and plugins to automate WooCommerce tasks. By doing this, you will save time, offer a better user experience to your customers, and ultimately increase sales.

    With that being said, here are 15 WooCommerce automations to increase sales:

    1. Use Automation to Personalize Your Email Marketing
    2. Set Up an Automated Marketing Campaign With Push Notifications
    3. Let Customers Track Orders With Automated Transactional Emails
    4. Quickly Update Your Customers With Automated SMS Messages
    5. Automate All Invoicing and Payment Processes
    6. Use Automated Store Activity Notifications to Boost Sales
    7. Automatically Display Your Best Product Reviews
    8. Use an Automated Sales Funnel to Boost Sales Conversions
    9. Reduce Cart Abandonment With Popups and Push Notifications
    10. Send Automated Coupons to Bring Back Customers
    11. Automate Your Social Media Channels
    12. Automatically Display Social Media Content in WooCommerce
    13. Make Your Forms Smarter Using Automation
    14. Automate Live Chat Using Artificial Intelligence
    15. Use Uncanny Automator for Even More WooCommerce Automations
    16. Bonus: Track Conversions to Learn How to Increase Sales

    1. Use Automation to Personalize Your Email Marketing

    Are you keeping in touch with your customers using an email newsletter? You may not be taking advantage of all the automation tools available in your email marketing software.

    For example, the best email services like Constant Contact, Sendinblue, and Omnisend all have integrations with WooCommerce. They allow you to personalize your emails by adding the customer’s name and more.

    They also let you set up a Welcome email series using a drip campaign. This is a sequence of automated emails that will go out automatically to new customers.

    Choose an email automation

    You can learn how to get started by scrolling down to the automated drip emails section of our guide on how to send automated emails in WordPress.

    Additionally, if you are looking for a complete tool that offers WooCommerce email customization and automation, then we highly recommend using FunnelKit Automations.

    Apart from letting you fully customize your WooCommerce emails, it also lets you set up smart, automated follow-up emails and workflows to boost your sales.

    You can get started with FunnelKit Automations by selecting an automation from a library of handy templates.

    Autonami Email Library for WooCommerce

    For example, you can automatically send an email series to new customers, recover abandoned carts, send promotional emails to selected audiences, and more.

    There is also an option to create your own WooCommerce automation from scratch. You will then see a visual email automation builder where you can make any customizations that you need.

    Autonami Marketing Automation Email Analytics for WooCommerce

    For example, the screenshot above shows the workflow for sending out a thank you email after a customer makes their first order. You can even see in-line analytics for each email.

    You can learn more in our guide on how to customize WooCommerce emails. Make sure you scroll down to the section on FunnelKit Automations.

    Tip: We recommend combining FunnelKit Automations with an SMTP service like WP Mail SMTP. This will make sure your emails are delivered to your customers and won’t get lost or end up in the spam folder.

    2. Set Up an Automated Marketing Campaign With Push Notifications

    You can also run an automated marketing campaign using push notifications instead of emails. These notifications go directly to the user’s web browser or mobile device. This means they have a much higher engagement rate, similar to SMS messages.

    The easiest way to set up automated push notifications is with PushEngage. It is the best web push notification software for WordPress, and over 10,000 businesses use it to send targeted messages.

    Create a new drip autoresponder

    For each notification, you can change the title, message, URL, icon image, and more by expanding it.

    There is also a preview of how your notifications will look in the browser.

    Edit your push notifications

    PushEngage also lets you choose when to send each notification. For example, you can immediately send the first notification and select a different time for the following one.

    For more details, see our guide on how to set up automated drip notifications in WordPress.

    3. Let Customers Track Orders With Automated Transactional Emails

    WooCommerce will need to send different transactional emails to your customers. These help them get order confirmations, track their order status, get invoices, and find out more information about your online store.

    You can customize and automate these emails using FunnelKit Automations, which is a popular WooCommerce plugin for marketing automation.

    The FunnelKit Automations dashboard makes it easy to create a new automation. You can simply click on one of the plugin’s many templates.

    Funnelkit Automations WooCommerce Automation Templates

    You can filter the list to quickly find the WooCommerce automation you wish to use. For example, you might want to send automatic thank-you emails to repeat customers.

    You can then customize the automation using the visual automation builder, including the content of the email.

    Funnelkit Automations Workflow and Email Customization

    For detailed instructions, please see the section about sending automated transactional emails with FunnelKit Automations in our guide on how to send automated emails.

    4. Quickly Update Your Customers With Automated SMS Messages

    Many customers prefer to receive text messages to notify them about their orders. Plugins like YITH WooCommerce SMS Notifications or FunnelKit Automations will automatically send SMS messages to your customers.

    Yith SMS Notifications Plugin

    SMS messages are an effective way to keep your customers up to date. They have a 98% average open rate, with 95% of messages being read in the first 3 minutes!

    You can send automatic texts to your customers when their orders are dispatched or their status changes. You can automatically send SMS notifications to your customers or let them opt in at checkout.

    Learn how by following our guide on how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users.

    5. Automate All Invoicing and Payment Processes

    As a business owner, there is a lot to manage. If you are still creating invoices manually, then you can switch to professional invoicing software that automates all invoicing and payment processes. Then, you will be free to focus on growing your business.

    A plugin like WooCommerce PDF Invoices makes it easy to automatically generate invoices, collect orders, and manage your finances.

    WooCommerce PDF Invoices

    You can also save time by accepting recurring payments or adding subscriptions to WooCommerce. These WooCommerce automations will help automate the billing process and can save you time.

    With automatic recurring payments, you don’t have to spend time manually sending invoices and waiting for payments from your customers.

    Plus, adding subscription payments to your eCommerce business will give you a more consistent cash flow, fewer payment errors, and fewer payment delays.

    Creating a recurring payment in WooCommerce

    6. Use Automated Store Activity Notifications to Boost Sales

    Automated FOMO and social proof notifications can also increase sales in your WooCommerce store.

    FOMO, short for fear of missing out, is a marketing technique used to create excitement about a product. It uses psychology to encourage customers to make buying decisions faster.

    Plus, social proof shows visitors that other customers have purchased your products. This can convince users that your online store is trustworthy.

    The best way to add social proof to your website is by using TrustPulse. It is one of the best social proof plugins for WordPress on the market.

    TrustPulse automatically monitors activity on your site. When potential customers are close to buying something, they will see a notification showing that another customer has just made a purchase.

    By simply displaying social proof, you will give your visitors a small push to complete their purchase. To learn more, see Method 1 of our guide on how to use FOMO to increase conversions.

    7. Automatically Display Your Best Product Reviews

    Would you like to automatically display the best reviews of your products from across the internet? You could copy and paste them manually, but that is a lot of work. Plus, there would be a delay before they appear on your website.

    Luckily, Smash Balloon has a Reviews Feed Pro plugin that lets you automatically show off your best reviews from platforms like Google Reviews, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and more.

    Customer reviews, displayed on a WordPress website

    It comes with pre-designed templates, so you can display your reviews in different layouts, including showcases, carousels, grids, and more.

    The Reviews Feed automatically copies your website’s design so that the reviews look like a natural part of your website rather than content embedded from another platform.

    You can follow our guide on how to show Google, Facebook, and Yelp reviews to set up your own automatic review feed in WooCommerce.

    8. Use an Automated Sales Funnel to Boost Sales Conversions

    A sales funnel is the path a user takes on your website to become a customer. It is made up of the specific pages a user may visit before making a purchase.

    For example, a new visitor might land on a blog post, then view a product page, then go through your checkout flow.

    Unfortunately, only 10% of shoppers, on average, will add anything to their carts. After they do, 60-80% of them abandon their carts without completing the purchase.

    Luckily, you can use FunnelKit, the best WooCommerce sales funnel plugin, to change that. You can use the plugin to optimize each step, offer a better user experience, reduce distractions, and nudge users toward completing their purchases.

    For example, it comes with a one-click Upsells feature, which allows users to add products to their carts on their way to the checkout.

    WooFunnels One Click Upsell

    FunnelKit also lets you customize the user journey with pre-checkout offers, custom checkout form layouts, beautiful templates, and more.

    For instance, the FunnelKit Funnel Builder lets you add order bumps to boost profits if someone adds $X to their cart. You can also add one-click order bumps to your checkout page.

    Edit design of your bump offer

    To learn more, see our guide on how to make a high-converting sales funnel in WordPress.

    9. Reduce Cart Abandonment With Popups and Push Notifications

    As we said earlier, 60 to 80% of people who add items to their cart don’t actually buy them. This means if you have an online store, then you are losing out on a lot of sales.

    Luckily, you can use automatic push notifications to reduce cart abandonment rates. For example, you can pop up a notification when a user is about to leave your website and offer a coupon or free shipping.

    Or, if the customer already has discounted items in their cart, they may just need some reassurance that they are making the right decision. Push notifications like these can help you recover 3 to 8% of abandoning cart sales.

    Smash Balloon exit intent popup

    You can learn how to use OptinMonster to add exit-intent popups by following our guide on how to create a WooCommerce popup to increase sales.

    But what if the customer leaves your site before they see the popup? Push notifications can also help you connect with your visitors after they leave your website. These messages will display in your subscriber’s browser even when they are not actively browsing your store.

    Push notification abandoned cart example

    The easiest way to do this is with PushEngage. It is the best web push notification software on the market, and it is used to send over 15 billion push messages every month.

    For more details, see our guide on how to add web push notifications to WordPress.

    You can also significantly reduce cart abandonment by simply improving your online store and checkout process. We share plenty of proven tips with real examples in our guide on how to recover WooCommerce abandoned cart sales.

    10. Send Automated Coupons to Bring Back Customers

    It costs 5 times more to get a new customer than to keep an old one. Over time, people may lose interest in your website, forget about your products, or start shopping with a competitor.

    One way to bring those customers back is to automatically send them a coupon code via email. You can use automation tools to send a coupon to customers who have become disengaged, such as when they don’t place an order for 2 months or have stopped opening emails.

    Scheduling an automated coupon code

    You can learn how in our step-by-step guide on how to send automated coupons in WordPress to bring back customers.

    Another good use for automated coupons is recognizing and rewarding customers when they engage with your online store. For example, you might send a coupon after a customer reviews one of your products.

    This builds loyalty to your store and can get you more sales. It also encourages shoppers to review more products in the future.

    You can also schedule coupons in advance so that they go out automatically on popular holidays like Black Friday, Christmas, New Year’s, Mother’s Day, and Valentine’s Day. This will leave you free to focus on promoting your offers and getting as many sales as possible.

    See our guide on how to schedule coupons in WooCommerce for detailed instructions.

    Additionally, as we mentioned earlier, you can also offer a coupon in a popup. Showing a coupon at the right time makes a huge difference in converting your website visitors into paying customers.

    There are a few ways to do this, and we give you all the details in our step-by-step guide on how to create a coupon popup in WordPress.

    11. Automate Your Social Media Channels

    You can also use automation to post your online store content to your social channels. This lets you keep your social followers engaged with fresh content.

    Uncanny Automator has integrations with all popular social platforms. It will let you publish new blog posts on Facebook, show off your latest product images on Instagram, advertise your sales on Twitter, and more.

    Post a featured image to Instagram from WordPress

    You can learn how to do this step-by-step by following our guides on how to automatically post to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

    12. Automatically Display Social Media Content in WooCommerce

    Are you looking for ways to show fresh content without doing any extra work? One way to do that is to automatically display your latest social media activity in your WooCommerce store.

    This can save you time and keep your website content fresh and engaging for visitors. Plus, it can boost social proof by displaying your social media followers, comments, and like counts.

    Smash Balloon automates your website content by displaying your latest social media activity. It is a popular social media feed plugin for WordPress that is used by over 1.4 million websites.

    For example, you can add a Facebook feed to WordPress, and new posts will automatically appear in real time. Your customers can also like, share, and comment on your WordPress posts, which is a great way to get more engagement on Facebook.

    An example of an embedded Facebook feed, created using Smash Balloon

    You can change the feed’s color scheme, design a custom header, add ‘like’ and ‘load more’ buttons, and much more.

    If you are posting beautiful photos and engaging videos to Instagram, then it makes sense to post that content to WordPress too.

    An Instagram photo feed, created using Smash Balloon

    You can even show other people’s photos on your site by creating a hashtag feed or displaying the posts that other people have tagged your account in.

    In the following image, you can see an example of an online store that uses a custom Instagram feed to show user-generated content.

    An example of Instagram user-generated content

    For details, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add your social media feeds to WordPress.

    Tip: For more tips on how to use social channels to grow your online store and increase sales, you can see our complete social media cheat for WordPress.

    13. Make Your Forms Smarter Using Automation

    You can use form plugins like WPForms to collect all kinds of information from your customers.

    For example, you can use a form plugin to display a contact form, create a questionnaire, gather testimonials, or build a survey form.

    The best thing is that WPForms easily integrates with many other tools and plugins, so you can easily automate any action after someone fills out your form.

    For example, when someone fills in an order form, you can use conditional logic to send an email notification to the correct department, depending on the product that was purchased.

    WPForms Conditional Logic for Sending Notifications

    You can also send a confirmation email to the customer who filled in the form to let them know you will be in contact soon. This a nice gesture that lets your users know that you have received their information.

    In addition, by using the Google Sheets Addon, you can send any form fields you want to a spreadsheet. This will allow you to use spreadsheet features to analyze the data and collaborate with others in your team.

    Using WPForms' Google Sheets Addon

    To automate your forms further, Uncanny Automator will let you connect WPForms and other form plugins to 100+ third-party services without having to pay fees to services like Zapier.

    For example, you can create an Uncanny Automator recipe to send customer form data to Airtable. Then, your team will be able to access and use the data easily.

    Using Uncanny Automator to Send WPForms Data to Airtable

    To learn more, see our guide on how to create automated workflows with Uncanny Automator.

    14. Automate Live Chat Using Artificial Intelligence

    Automated chatbots are the future of live chat software because they allow you to engage with your customers 24/7. They can free up time by automatically answering common customer questions, generating leads, improving user experience, and making more sales.

    Chatbot.com is the best AI chatbot software for WordPress. It lets you easily automate live chat on your website by setting up your own chatbot using a drag-and-drop builder. You don’t need to do any coding or have any special technical skills.

    ChatBot live chat

    It even comes with pre-built templates that you can use as a starting point to quickly get your AI chatbot up and running. These templates include different scenarios like selling products, customer service, recruitment, bookings, and more.

    For example, you can use the eCommerce bot template to walk your customers through the entire buying process. There are even templates for specific industries, including a coffee shopbot, recruitment bot, and restaurant bot.

    If visitors want to communicate with a real person, then you can easily forward them to your customer support agent, phone support, or any of ChatBot’s live chat software integrations, such as LiveChat.

    15. Use Uncanny Automator for Even More WooCommerce Automations

    This article contains many specialist tools that do specific automation jobs very well. By contrast, Uncanny Automator is a Swiss army knife that allows you to create all types of automation workflows without having to write any code.

    It acts as a bridge so that you can get different WordPress plugins talking to each other, as well as loads of third-party services.

    You create automation by building Uncanny Automator recipes, consisting of triggers and actions. The action will be automatically run when a user or WooCommerce triggers an event.

    Uncanny Automator Triggers and Actions for WooCommerce

    Here are some of the WooCommerce triggers you can use to run a recipe:

    • A customer viewing a product
    • A customer adding a product to their cart
    • A customer paying for a product
    • A payment failing
    • A customer reviewing a product
    • And much more

    Then the recipe can automatically run any of these WooCommerce actions:

    • Creating an order with a product
    • Changing the price of a product
    • Generating and emailing a coupon code
    • Giving an order a specific status

    There are dozens of recipes that you can create, allowing you to save hundreds of hours while running your online store more efficiently.

    For instance, you can use Uncanny Automator to automatically create a new customer account when someone submits a contact form on your website, or send notifications to Slack.

    Bonus: Track Conversions to Learn How to Increase Sales

    To use any marketing automation platform effectively, you will need easy-to-understand reports that tell you exactly what is working for your business and what isn’t.

    MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It lets you get a clear picture of what is happening on your site and what you can do to bring in more sales.

    It comes with WooCommerce conversion tracking, form submissions, outbound link tracking, and user tracking.

    Its Reports page has an ‘eCommerce’ tab that shows your most important conversion metrics, including the conversion rate, transactions, revenue, and average order value. Below that, you will see a list of your top products with quantity, sale percentage, and total revenue.

    Ecommerce report in MonsterInsights

    You will also see your top conversion sources. You can use this report to attract more customers and offer exclusive discounts for customers from specific sources.

    For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to set up WooCommerce conversion tracking.

    You can also connect Google Sheets with WooCommerce to easily record and manage your orders and customer data. Once the information is in a Google Sheet, you can easily filter it based on factors like the order total, the customer’s location, coupons used, and more.

    You can then share this information with your team, even if they don’t have access to the WordPress dashboard. For example, you can easily send this data to your suppliers, marketing departments, or other team members.

    You are even able to turn this data into charts and graphs. All of this makes it easier to analyze the information and then use these insights to fine-tune your business and get more sales.

    We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to increase sales using WooCommerce automations. You may also want to see our guide on how to add wholesale pricing in WooCommerce or our expert picks for the best WooCommerce plugins for your store.

    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 15 Best WooCommerce Automations to Increase Sales first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • 14 Best Ways to Use OpenAI on Your WordPress Website

    Are you wondering how to use OpenAI and ChatGPT on your WordPress website?

    OpenAI can help with everything from generating meta descriptions for your posts to writing email sales copy. You can use OpenAI on your WordPress site to save time, cut costs, improve your SEO and workflows, and grow your business!

    In this article, we will show you 14 of the best ways to use OpenAI on your WordPress website.

    The best ways to use OpenAI on your WordPress website

    A (Brief) Introduction to OpenAI

    You have probably heard the terms “OpenAI” and “ChatGPT” used interchangeably, but they’re not exactly the same.

    OpenAI is the research laboratory (read: a group of very smart people) behind the chatbot ChatGPT and the deep-learning, image-generating model DALL-E 2, among other AI-powered products.

    OpenAI homepage

    The team over at OpenAI created ChatGPT which is an AI assistant to help streamline your workflows and save you time.

    It can write email newsletters for you, suggest blog post ideas, do keyword research, automate your workflows, and so much more.

    To improve your WordPress website workflows with artificial intelligence, you will first need to create an account with OpenAI. Getting signed up is FREE. All you will need is an email and a password.

    We also recommend reading our guide on the best ChatGPT prompts for bloggers, marketers, and social media, so that you can interact with the program more easily.

    With that in mind, let’s look at 14 ways to use OpenAI on your WordPress website.

    1. Generate Titles and Meta Descriptions with AIOSEO
    2. Generate Ad Copy and Product Descriptions
    3. Generate Blog Post Ideas
    4. Perform Sentiment Analysis
    5. Automate Customer Support with Intelligent Sentiment Analysis
    6. Create Event Summaries, Recap Podcast Episodes, and Take Meeting Minutes
    7. Draft Blog Posts (and Seamlessly Integrate Them Into Your Workflows)
    8. Draft Emails in Minutes
    9. Create Blog Post Summaries for Social Media
    10. Generate AI Images for Your Posts or Landing Pages
    11. Create Course Outlines in Your LMS
    12. Create Lessons in Your LMS
    13. Create a Chatbot
    14. Have Fun! Write Short Stories, Poems or Cook Up Recipes

    1. Generate Titles and Meta Descriptions with AIOSEO

    All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best SEO plugin for WordPress, and it just got an AI-powered boost. After adding your keywords to your blog posts, let AIOSEO and OpenAI further optimize your content for search engines.

    The first step is installing AIOSEO. Please see our guide on how to install WordPress plugins.

    Then, from within the WordPress post editor, you can tell OpenAI to generate titles and meta descriptions that best fit your content with the click of a button.

    Simply go to the ‘AIOSEO Settings’ at the bottom of your page and find the ‘Post Title’ box.

    The AIOSEO OpenAI post title generator
    Next, you need to click on the robot icon. If you hover your mouse over it, you will be able to see a ‘Use AI Generator’ message.

    Now, you can see 5 post title suggestions. Simply click on the ‘+’ icon next to one to use it for your post.

    AIOSEO OpenAi SEO post title suggestions

    If you don’t like any of the suggestions, you can also click ‘Generate New Titles’ to see new ones.

    Then, simply repeat the same steps by clicking on the robot icon in the ‘Meta Description’ box. AIOSEO will then suggest a few meta descriptions for your post.

    Plus, connecting your OpenAI account to your AIOSEO account is as easy as copying and pasting an API key. You can check out AIOSEO’s documentation for more details.

    2. Generate Ad Copy and Product Descriptions

    Due to GPT-3’s talent for SEO, it is probably no surprise that it can handle more of your content creation needs. You can use OpenAI to create short, effective ad copy that matches your brand or long-form product descriptions for your WooCommerce store.

    For example, we prompted ChatGPT to describe the need for running shoes using the “problem-agitate-solve” framework.

    Creating a product description with ChatGPT

    Simply edit the text to match your preferred sentence structure, include your keywords, throw in some on-brand and product-specific language, and then watch your sales increase!

    3. Generate Blog Post Ideas

    If you are anything like us, then coming up with content ideas for your WordPress blog can be time consuming. Fortunately, OpenAI runs on one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

    So, you can ask it to come up with ideas for new content on your blog.

    In our previous examples, we used OpenAI to help with tasks by inputting prompts directly into ChatGPT.

    In our next few examples, we will look at how to integrate OpenAI directly into your WordPress workflow, truly leveraging the power of automation and AI to save time and resources.

    Uncanny Automator is one of the best automation plugins for WordPress, and it enables you to connect OpenAI to your WordPress site in many useful and interesting ways.

    For this example, we will use OpenAI with Uncanny Automator to generate ideas for new content based on a user’s form submission. Then, we will automatically send OpenAI’s response to your content management spreadsheet or database, like Google Sheets or Airtable, for the whole team to access.

    If you don’t already have Uncanny Automator, you can download the Automator plugin for FREE to try on your WordPress site.

    Once you have downloaded Automator, you will need to connect Automator to OpenAI. Then we will build the automation recipe below.

    Automator and OpenAI content ideation recipe

    First, you need to create a new form using a contact form plugin like WPForms. From your WordPress admin sidebar, navigate to WPForms » Add New.

    Then, create a new contact form and make sure to add two number fields labeled ‘Temperature’ and ‘Maximum length’, and one single line text field labeled ‘Open AI Prompt’.

    WPForms OpenAI prompt

    Now, you must head to Automator » Add New. In the pop-up window that appears, simply select ‘Logged-in users’, followed by ‘Confirm’.

    Automator logged-in recipe

    Next, give your new recipe a title that makes it easy to recognize. For example, we have named our recipe ‘OpenAI Content Ideation’.

    In the ‘Triggers’ panel, you need to select ‘WPForms’. From the drop-down list that appears, select ‘A user submits a form’ and choose the WPForms form that you just made. When you are finished, just click ‘Save’.

    WPForms Automator trigger

    After that, in the ‘Actions’ panel, you have to select ‘OpenAI’.

    From the drop-down list that appears, choose ‘Use a prompt to generate text with the Davinci model’.

    Use a prompt to generate text with the Davinci model

    In the Actions section, map the fields from the WPForms form to the Temperature, Length, and Prompt fields in the OpenAI action.

    To do this, click the ‘*’ icon to the right of each field to choose the correct token associated with the trigger.

    How to use WPForms tokens with OpenAI prompts using Automator

    When you are finished, simply click Save.

    To send the blog post ideas to an external spreadsheet, you will need to add a second Action. To do this, click ‘Add action’ in the ‘Actions’ panel.

    Add recipe action with Automator

    From the menu of available integrations, simply choose Google Sheets.

    Then, from the drop-down list, select ‘Create a row in a Google Sheet’.

    Create a row in a Google Sheet with OpenAI

    In the editor, you must select your content management spreadsheet. Then, click ‘Get columns’ and add the OpenAI Response token to the appropriate column(s).

    Make sure to click ‘Save’ when you are done.

    Add response token to Automator recipe

    Finally, in the top right corner, toggle your recipe from ‘Draft’ to ‘Live.’

    Now, whenever you enter information into your blog post idea generator form, Automator will tell OpenAI to suggest new content ideas and send them to your Google Sheets spreadsheet.

    Make the Automator recipe live.

    In our example, we entered “Give me 5 fun blog posts on pediatric dentistry” into the WPForms form.

    Then, OpenAI generated a response, and Automator added it to the worksheet in the recipe.

    OpenAI topic ideas

    4. Perform Sentiment Analysis

    There is no way of knowing if AI has any feelings of its own. If we had to guess, we would say that it probably doesn’t. At least, not yet. But that doesn’t mean that it cannot understand human emotions.

    You can use OpenAI to perform sentiment analysis by asking it to interpret the mood of your customers’ feedback.

    OpenAI sentiment analysis

    But how can you use this with your WordPress website?

    Maybe your contact forms are connected to a help desk plugin, and you want to assign priority based on the message urgency.

    Alternatively, maybe you want to automatically approve positive blog comments. You could even quickly identify negative feedback in surveys powered by your favorite WordPress form plugin.

    In both cases, you will be able to address negative feedback quicker, keep your customers happier, and improve your online reputation.

    5. Automate Customer Support with Intelligent Sentiment Analysis

    Now that you know how to use OpenAI to perform sentiment analysis, you can easily add it to your workflows. By combining OpenAI’s emotional intelligence with Uncanny Automator’s efficiency, you will be able to create a seamless customer support system.

    For this example, you will need the pro version of Uncanny Automator so that you can add conditional actions to the automation.

    Let’s put together an Automator recipe that creates tickets in our customer support plugin whenever a customer reviews a product.

    First, we have OpenAI perform sentiment analysis on the reviews as they come in.

    Then, using Automator’s Filters feature, we create tasks with different priority levels based on OpenAI’s assessment of the customer’s sentiment.

    In this recipe, if OpenAI decides that a new WooCommerce product review is negative, then it creates a new help desk ticket in FluentCRM and adds an Urgent tag.

    How to tag a negative support ticket with OpenAI and Automator

    If you are ready to take things to the next level, you could even use the submission to create a draft reply for the ticket.

    Just add an extra OpenAI action to generate a draft reply, then include that response as the ticket draft.

    This works best with the GPT-3.5-Turbo model because you can use Automator to also send context. For example, you can tell it to answer the prompt as a helpful support agent from your website.

    6. Create Event Summaries, Recap Podcast Episodes, and Take Meeting Minutes

    Running special events on your WordPress website is easy with WordPress calendar plugins. Unfortunately, not every customer of yours can save the date.

    After all, we cannot do everything and be everywhere all at once, but OpenAI can.

    If your customers missed the big day, OpenAI can create event summaries for you. You can even choose the length and format of the summary you want OpenAI to make.

    For example, we asked ChatGPT to create a 100-word summary of an October 2008 IMF town hall. In less than one minute, ChatGPT turned the 1,500-word opening remarks into a 100-word summary.

    ChatGPT text summary

    Alternatively, maybe you are trying to grow your podcast audience. To help your listeners who don’t have two hours a day to consume media, you can use OpenAI to recap your podcast episodes, hitting all of the highlights.

    Using transcripts, we asked ChatGPT to summarize the first 15 minutes of a popular podcast.

    Podcast summary from OpenAI

    Finally, some conference call tools, like Zoom and Google Meet, allow users to record their meetings with audio transcripts. You can then feed those transcripts into OpenAI and create meeting summaries in just a few seconds.

    7. Draft Blog Posts (and Seamlessly Integrate Them Into Your Workflows)

    For content writers (including us), few things are more stressful than a blank page. Thankfully, artificial intelligence is the sledgehammer that can break through any writer’s block.

    Using one of our blog post ideas from our previous recipe, we told OpenAI to draft a blog post for us.

    In this Automator recipe, a form submission (the trigger) tells OpenAI to draft a new blog post. Then, it messages the writer in Slack to let them know the draft is ready for them.

    Generate a post with OpenAI

    From your WordPress admin sidebar, simply go to WPForms » Add New.

    Then, create a new form with at least two number fields labeled ‘Temperature’ and ‘Maximum length.’ You will also need two single-line text fields labeled ‘Title’ and ‘Open AI Prompt’.

    WPForms OpenAI blog post draft

    Next, you must go to Automator » Add New. In the pop-up window that appears, select ‘Logged-in users’. Then, simply give your new recipe a title like ‘OpenAI Blog Post Draft’.

    In the ‘Triggers’ panel, you need to select ‘WPForms’ From the drop-down list that appears, you must choose ‘A user submits a form’ and pick the form you just created.

    OpenAI blog post generator

    When you are finished, make sure to click ‘Save’.

    Moving on, in the ‘Actions’ panel, you must select ‘OpenAI’. From the drop-down list that appears, choose ‘Use a prompt to generate text with the Davinci model’.

    In the editor, fill in the fields using the tokens from your form’s fields that match the fields in the editor. When you are finished, just click ‘Save.’

    How to use WPForms tokens with OpenAI prompts using Automator

    Now, it is time to set up an automatic blog post that will be created with the OpenAI content.

    In the ‘Actions’ panel, simply click ‘Add action’. Then, from the menu of available integrations, select ‘WordPress’.

    Automator WordPress integration

    Next, from the drop-down list, hit ‘Create a post’. In the editor, you must fill in the ‘Title’ field with the Title token from your form and enter the OpenAI Response token into the ‘Content’ field.

    Then, make sure to click ‘Save’.

    Create a post using Automator and OpenAI

    Optional: You can also add a ClickUp action to your recipe to create a task with the post URL in the description.

    Additionally, you can include a Slack action to notify your content writer that a new task and draft post is waiting for their review.

    Send a direct message to a Slack user

    Finally, in the top right corner, toggle your recipe from ‘Draft’ to ‘Live’.

    In our WPForms form, we then asked OpenAI to ‘Write a casual blog post on three ways to make dental visits fun for kids.’

    And here is the draft that Automator created with OpenAI’s response.

    OpenAI blog post

    We call that the anti- writer’s block recipe! You can also use AI to generate your SEO title, write a meta description, and even set up a featured image.

    8. Draft Emails in Minutes

    Writing carefully-worded emails takes time. Unless, of course, OpenAI is writing them for you.

    Whether you are sending out an internal notice, responding to a customer’s questions, or reaching out to prospective clients, OpenAI can draft your email in seconds. After that, it is just a matter of proofreading and including specific information.

    We prompted ChatGPT to “write a 300-word marketing email promoting a Black Friday sale on limited edition clothing.” Less than 30 seconds later, we had an email that we could easily customize to suit our branding and needs.

    ChatGPT Black Friday marketing email

    If you pair OpenAI with customer relationship management (CRM) apps, you will be drafting emails faster than your SMTP server can send them!

    9. Create Blog Post Summaries for Social Media

    Promoting your blog posts on social media is important. However, sometimes, writing the appropriate character-length tweets and captions can be even more challenging than creating a whole article.

    With OpenAI and Automator, you won’t have to stress about the perfect hashtags.

    Here is an example of an action that takes a new blog post and sends it to OpenAI to generate a summary that can be shared on Twitter:

    Create a post summary for Twitter

    Automator will send that summary, complete with hashtags, to our WhatsApp account. There, we can review, edit, copy, and then paste the content into our social media accounts when we are ready to publish it.

    For a post on connecting ChatGPT to LearnDash, OpenAI wrote this summary:

    Embrace the robot revolution and use OpenAI and LearnDash to create the e-learning platform of your dreams. #AI revolution is here! Harness the power of AI for your #elearning platform w/ OpenAI & ChatGPT models. Automate content creation, create course outlines & answer students’ questions. Save time & money w/ Uncanny Automator! #LearnDash #NolejAI #RobotRevolution.

    You could even extend your recipe to make Automator post the summary straight to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.

    OpenAI social sharing

    10. Generate AI Images for Your Posts or Landing Pages

    Are you tired of scrolling through stock photography databases trying to find the perfect image for your blog post? Or finding a picture and then realizing that every other article with your keywords is using the same image?

    Fortunately, OpenAI’s image generator DALL-E 2 can create original images from descriptive plain text.

    OpenAI’s Content Policy and Terms give you all of the rights to the images that you create with DALL-E 2, “including the right to reprint, sell, and merchandise.”

    Using our original WPForms form with an added field for an image prompt, we used Automator to create a draft blog post complete with a featured image.

    Generate AI images with Automator

    Here is that same blog post about dental visits with a featured image created by DALL-E.

    As you can see, it has a fun graphic with a tooth, toothpaste, and different toothbrushes.

    To make the process even easier, whenever you tell DALL-E to create an image using Uncanny Automator, Automator will add the image to your WordPress media library, with no hotlinking necessary.

    11. Create Course Outlines in Your LMS

    OpenAI is smart. After all, “intelligence” is in the name.

    With Uncanny Automator and a learning management system (LMS) like LearnDash, you can be just as smart as AI. Or, at least, you can create outlines for courses that will make you as smart as AI (if you do your assigned reading).

    We asked OpenAI to create an advanced 8-week course outline on supercomputers, which, funnily enough, is kind of like an OpenAI autobiography.

    OpenAI course outline

    Once you have your course outline, don’t forget to use AIOSEO’s OpenAI integration to write your meta description.

    12. Create Lessons in Your LMS

    Using a similar Uncanny Automator recipe to the previous one, you can easily fill in the course outline that you created with OpenAI-generated content.

    Automator recipe for an OpenAI lesson

    We used OpenAI’s response from our previous recipe to help us create this lesson.

    Here is the first part of it.

    ChatGPT lesson on supercomputers

    With the right prompts, you can also create a recipe that generates unique images for your lessons and uploads them automatically to your WordPress media library.

    Using Automator tokens, you can also set your new DALL-E 2 generated image as the featured image for your lesson or include it somewhere in the lesson itself.

    OpenAI supercomputer lesson with DALL-E image

    13. Create a Chatbot

    As a natural language processor, OpenAI loves to talk. You can use this feature to communicate with customers in your online store or business website.

    This can help you target users who are having problems on your site or want to learn more about your products and services.

    With the right recipe, you can actually turn OpenAI into a chatbot on your WordPress website. You can read this guide on how to create an AI-powered chatbot with OpenAI and Automator.

    14. Have Fun! Write Short Stories, Poems or Cook Up Recipes

    Once you have fully integrated OpenAI and Uncanny Automator into your workflows, you will have enough time to do the things that really matter like growing your business or spending more quality time with family.

    Playing around with OpenAI and trying out new things is a great way to learn how to create better prompts that get the results you are looking for, so you can continue to save time and optimize your workflows.

    OpenAI and WordPress plugin development are in the super early stages right now, and there is so much more in the works. We will be sharing more details and updates in this guide in the coming months.

    We hope this article helped you find some ways to use OpenAI on your WordPress website. You may also want to see our guide on the best AI chatbots software for your website, or how to create an email newsletter to connect with visitors after they leave your website.

    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 14 Best Ways to Use OpenAI on Your WordPress Website first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Import & Export WooCommerce Products with Images

    Do you want to import and export WooCommerce products with images?

    Importing or exporting WooCommerce products with images allows you to easily move your store or add new products in multiple stores.

    In this article, we will show you how to easily import and export WooCommerce products with images.

    How to Import & Export WooCommerce Products with Images

    Why Import & Export WooCommerce Products?

    Many users need to import and export WooCommerce products for a number of reasons.

    • You may want to move products from one WooCommerce store to another
    • You may want to start an online store with a new WordPress website but with the same WooCommerce products
    • You may want to move your website to a new server but need a better way to move products
    • You may want a faster way to add your products to multiple stores that you manage
    • and more

    Now normally if you are moving your website to a new server, then you can just duplicate your entire website and set it up on your new host.

    We have a complete step-by-step guide for that, see how to easily move WordPress to a new host or server.

    On the other hand, if you only want to move products, then this tutorial will help you learn how to properly export and import WooCommerce products with images and other product data.

    We’ll show you two methods, you can choose one that works best for you.

    Method 1. Import & Export WooCommerce Products without a Plugin

    WooCommerce comes with built-in functionality to easily import and export products with images, but without using any additional plugins.

    First, you need to visit the Products » All Products page in your WordPress admin area. There, you will see two buttons at the top to ‘Import’ or ‘Export’ products.

    Import export WooCommerce products

    Let’s first check out how the export feature works.

    Exporting WooCommerce Products without Using a Plugin

    Simply click on the ‘Export’ button at the top to continue.

    On the next screen, you’ll see a bunch of options to choose what data you want to export.

    Default WooCommerce product export options

    For instance, you can choose to only export certain columns from product data. You can also choose to export specific product types or products in specific categories.

    To export all products with images and all other data, you can leave these options unchecked.

    Optionally, you can check the ‘Export custom meta.’ If you are unsure, then it’s better to check it so that you have the data.

    Go ahead and click on the ‘Generate CSV’ button to continue.

    WooCommerce will now prepare a CSV file and download it to your computer.

    What is a CSV File?

    CSV is short for Comma Separated Values, and it is file type of plain text that separates different columns or fields of data with a comma.

    You can open it with any spreadsheet software like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Here is how it would look:

    CSV file opened in spreadsheet software

    Importing WooCommerce Products without Using a Plugin

    Simply go to the Products » All Products page and click on the Import button at the top.

    Import products

    If your WooCommerce store is empty, then instead of the buttons at the top, you will see buttons at the center of the page.

    Click on the ‘Start Import’ button to begin the import.

    Start import

    This will bring up the import wizard.

    First, you need to click on the ‘Choose File’ button to select the WooCommerce export CSV file you downloaded earlier.

    Choose import file

    Click on the continue button to upload the CSV file.

    WooCommerce will now check to see if your CSV file is in a compatible format. After that, it will ask you to map that data to existing WooCommerce product data.

    Map columns

    The default settings here will work for most WooCommerce stores.

    However, you still need to review and if a column is missing, and then click on the drop-down menu next to it and select a matching field if available.

    Particularly, if you are using variations attribute for products, then make sure to scroll down to the attributes columns and match fields.

    Match attribute fields

    This will allow you to ensure that the fields in your CSV file match the corresponding WooCommerce fields.

    Click on the ‘Run’ the Importer button to begin.

    WooCommerce will now start importing data from CSV file. It will also download any images attached to your products.

    Products imported

    Once finished, you can visit the Products » All Products page to see the imported products.

    Make sure to visit your shop and product pages to check that everything is working as expected.

    Method 2. Import & Export WooCommerce Products with a Plugin

    For this method, we’ll be using a plugin to import and export WooCommerce products.

    The advantage of this method is that it offers more flexible options and also allows you to export / import product reviews.

    Plus, it allows you to import / export WooCommerce products in batches which comes in handy if you have a large store with many products and images.

    Exporting WooCommerce Products with a Plugin

    First, you need to install and activate the Product Import Export for WooCommerce plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    The plugin comes as three separate addons. You’ll need to download and install all of them.

    Download plugins

    Upon activation, you need to visit the Webtoffee Import Export (Pro) » Export page and select the ‘Product’ as the post type you want to export.

    Exporting WooCommerce products using a plugin

    On the next screen, you need to select an export method.

    The default Quick Export method automatically selects all your products for export.

    Quick export method

    Optionally, you can also choose ‘Advanced Export’ which allows you to filter products by category, tag, and status.

    You can also exclude individual products manually.

    Advanced filtering options

    Click on the Export button to continue and the plugin will start preparing your product data.

    Once finished, you’ll be prompted to download the export file to your computer.

    Download export file

    Importing WooCommerce Products with a Plugin

    Now that you have your export file ready, you can use it to import products on another WooCommerce store.

    Simply install and activate the Product Import Export for WooCommerce plugin on the store where you need to import the products.

    After that, go to the Webtoffee Import Export (Pro) » Import page and select ‘Product’ as the post type you want to import.

    Import products using a plugin

    Click on the ‘Step 2: Select import method’ button to continue.

    Next, you need to select an import method and upload the exported file you downloaded earlier to your computer.

    Import method

    Click on the ‘Step 3: Map and Import Columns’ button to continue.

    On the next screen, you’ll see a list of fields and the matching fields from your import file. If you see an empty field, you can choose a matching field for it in the next column.

    If you are using product variations like sizes and colors, then make sure to click on the Attributes tab to match attribute fields.

    Map fields

    However, if you are not using any products with variations or custom attributes then you can use the default settings.

    Click on the ‘Step 4: Advanced Options / Batch Import’ button to continue.

    On the final screen, you’ll see advanced options. For instance, you can choose to match products by ID or SKU, choose what to do if a product already exists, and more.

    Import options

    If you are importing products into an empty WooCommere store, then you can use the default settings.

    Finally, click on the ‘Import’ button to run the product import process.

    You’ll see the progress of the import on screen. Once finished, you can click on ‘View Products’ to check if everything has been imported correctly.

    products imported

    The plugin also allows you to import and export Product Reviews.

    If you want to import or export the product reviews too, then simply choose ‘Product Reviews’ post type on the import or export page.

    Import or export product reviews

    Improve Your WooCommerce Store with Automations

    If you find yourself doing a lot of manual work around your WooCommerce store and want to save time, then we recommend using Uncanny Automator for workflow automation.

    Uncanny Automator helps you connect over 100+ plugins and apps with a simple no-code visual builder. You can use it to create automated workflows for things that you normally do without writing any code.

    There’s a free version that you can try out, and it’s already used by over 20,000 websites.

    Aside from workflow automation, if you’re looking for a marketing automation tool for WooCommerce, then we recommend using FunnelKit Automation. It will help you grow your sales and improve conversions without the high costs.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to easily import and export WooCommerce products with images in WordPress. You may also want to see our pick of the essential WooCommerce plugins or see these practical tips on recovering abandoned cart sales in WooCommerce.

    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 Import & Export WooCommerce Products with Images first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Run a Virtual Classroom Online with WordPress (Tools)

    Do you want to run a virtual class online on your WordPress website?

    Creating an online virtual classroom may sound too technical or expensive. Luckily, there are easy tools that allow you to run a virtual classroom online without any special technical skills.

    In this article, we’ll be showing you how to run a virtual classroom online class with WordPress using different tools.

    How to run a virtual class with WordPress

    Why Create a Virtual Classroom for My Business?

    Almost anything can be taught online. Just type your class’s topic into YouTube’s search bar, and you’ll likely find hundreds or thousands of videos of people teaching that skill.

    One great advantage of virtual classes is that you don’t have to teach them live. You can record videos in advance if you want. That way, it doesn’t matter if it takes you several attempts to explain or show something.

    Taking your class online could be the best thing you’ve ever done for your business. It’ll let you reach people all around the world, and you won’t be limited by how many people can fit in your classroom or fitness studio.

    This isn’t just for large classes, either. You might offer a one-to-one service, like math tutoring or career counseling. You can create an online classroom without a lot of tech skills or expensive tools.

    Here’s what you’ll need.

    What You’ll Need to Run Your Class Online (Virtual Classroom)

    So where do you even begin to set up a virtual class? There are a few key things you need to get into place.

    To run a class online, you’ll need these 3 things:

    • A WordPress website or online platform for your class. This is a place where students can find and access the class content.
    • A way for students to sign up for your class, like a fillable form.
    • A way to frequently communicate with your students, like email.

    You’ll also likely want a way for students to talk and interact with each other, such as an online group or forum. Besides that, you can offer members-only recorded content such as video or audio seminars so that students can work through it at their own pace.

    Your virtual classroom can also include live video content with features like interactive polls, audience feedback, screen sharing, and audience questions.

    Plus, an LMS or membership site plugin is really useful for managing repeat payments, creating members-only content, and creating different levels of your class.

    Don’t worry if that sounds like a lot. We’ll help you decide on the right tools and platforms for your virtual classroom. Here’s a quick outline that you can click to jump straight to a particular section in this article.

    Creating an Online Platform for Your Class

    It’s possible to run an online class through a private Facebook group or an email list where you link to videos you’ve posted on YouTube.

    However, these aren’t great options. Not everyone uses Facebook, for instance. Plus, Facebook or YouTube could decide to ban you without any fault of your own.

    An alternative is to sign up for a site like Teachable. This is a popular option, but it’s definitely not free. The most basic Teachable package costs $29/month, and you’ll pay a 5% transaction fee for each student on top of that.

    Instead of third-party platforms, we recommend that you create a website for your class. There are lots of ways you can do this, but the #1 website builder in the world is WordPress. Over 43% of the websites on the internet are powered by WordPress.

    The best part about WordPress software is that it’s completely free. However, you’ll need a domain name and web hosting to build a website. This is required for making any type of website.

    Bluehost, one of WordPress’s recommended hosting providers, is offering our readers a great deal. You can get a free domain name and web hosting for just $2.75/month for your first year.

    → Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

    Note: If you are looking for a Bluehost alternative, then you can also try SiteGround, another popular WordPress hosting company that’s offering a great discount for small business owners.

    Once you have signed up, you will need to install WordPress. Bluehost does it automatically for you, and other hosting companies make it super easy with just a few clicks.

    After you have installed WordPress, you will need to install a few WordPress plugins to get your online classroom ready. Plugins are like apps for your WordPress site that lets you add essential features like contact forms, membership restrictions, and more.

    We’re going to take a look at some important plugins to help you run your online class.

    Getting Students to Sign Up for Your Class

    You’ll need a way for students to register for your class. Even if you’re not charging for the class, you’ll want to know how many people are planning to attend. You may also want to get some information from them beforehand.

    We recommend using the WPForms plugin for WordPress. It is the best WordPress contact form plugin and lets you create registration forms simply and easily.

    The WPForms form builder plugin and signature addon

    The lite version of WPForms is totally free, but you may want to pay for the Pro version of WPForms, so you can integrate payments and email marketing services with your form.

    Once you’ve installed and activated either version of the WPForms plugin, you can follow WPForms’ instructions to create an event registration form.

    You can modify the event registration form template as much as you want. Here’s how a very simple registration form for a free class could look:

    Event registration form preview

    Communicating With Your Students in a Virtual Classroom

    Whatever type of online class you’re running, you’ll need a way to communicate with your students.

    Even if you’re just running a one-off class, you’ll still want to be able to remind students that it’s happening. You’ll also want a way to follow up, so you can let them know if you create another class.

    There are lots of possible ways you could communicate with your students. For instance, you can send them messages on Facebook or WhatsApp. However, we strongly recommend using email.

    That’s because virtually everyone has email. Most people are used to giving out their email addresses when signing up for things online. Asking them for their mobile number or Facebook details will put many students off from registering.

    It’s important to use a reputable email marketing service to communicate with your students. That way, you can be confident that your messages will get through to them. Also, you won’t fall foul of any anti-spam laws.

    We recommend using Constant Contact. They offer a free trial and excellent support.

    The Constant Contact email provider

    If you’re creating a membership site, we recommend using either ConvertKit or Drip for your email service. These tools have advanced marketing automation features that you will likely find helpful.

    If you’re on a very tight budget and need a free email marketing service, that’s possible too. We recommend looking at SendinBlue or MailerLite.

    All of these options are good, reliable solutions for sending bulk personalized emails to your students.

    If you’re using WPForms to take class sign-ups, then you can even integrate your form with your email marketing service. This means that students will be automatically added to your chosen email list when they sign up.

    Connect constant contact with WPForms

    WPForms Lite works with Constant Contact, and if you pay for WPForms Pro, then you can choose from many other email marketing integrations as well.

    For more details. please see our guide on how to create an email newsletter the right way.

    Student Collaboration and Group Interactions in Virtual Classroom

    Do you want your students to be able to interact with one another? If so, you’ll need to provide a straightforward and accessible way for them to do so.

    There are lots of possible options here. If most or all of your students are on Facebook, then a private Facebook group could be a good option. Alternatively, you might want to create a forum on your website. We recommend using the bbPress plugin for this.

    bbPress

    Another option is to create a private Slack channel for your students.

    If you’d like students to be able to interact with one another live, then you’ll want to look at how you deliver your classes. Zoom, which we’ll cover in a moment, is a great tool for interactive live video classes.

    Important: If you’re running a class aimed at children, it’s definitely not a good idea to allow them to contact one another. This could create serious legal issues. You could, however, provide a space where parents of your students can interact.

    Offering Pre-Recorded Content for Online Classrooms

    One way to run an online class is to record content ahead of time and add it to your site. This is a good option if you’re feeling nervous or unsure about the technology involved.

    Plus, pre-recorded content is a great option for a class that you want to run over and over again. You can create it once and sell it an unlimited number of times. Students can easily take the course at their own pace.

    For example, OptinMonster University offers customers access to courses that can help them make the most of the software and boost conversions. There are pre-recorded videos that users can view at their own convenience.

    OptinMonster university

    To get started, you’ll need a webcam if you’re recording a video of yourself. You’ll also need a microphone. You can find our microphone recommendations in our article about how to start a podcast.

    If you’re on a really tight budget, you could use your computer’s built-in microphone and webcam. However, higher-quality equipment will definitely help you produce a more professional class recording.

    You may also want to record your screen, perhaps to show PowerPoint slides. You can do this using specialist screen recorder software, or you could run a Zoom call and record it. We’ll cover more on Zoom in a moment.

    Don’t Host Videos on Your Website

    When you put your content on your website, it’s very important not to host your videos yourself. If hundreds of students want to watch it at once, then this might slow down or even crash your website.

    Plus, video files are incredibly large, and they will fill up your hosting service‘s available storage in no time.

    Instead, you should use one of our recommended free video hosting sites. That way, you can simply embed the video on your site, so students can watch it there without taking up your site’s valuable resources.

    You can also create a subdomain and use that as a home for your videos. For example, on WPBeginner, we have a video subdomain.

    Video subdomain preview

    If you want to password-protect your content or restrict it to members only, then we recommend creating a membership site. This also lets you charge different amounts for different levels of access.

    If you’re interested in going that route, we recommend using MemberPress.

    Offering Live Content in Online Classrooms

    You may want to teach your class live. This could work really well for a class that you used to teach in person and are now taking online.

    For live classes, we strongly recommend Zoom. It’s a tool that lets you host video calls with as many people as you want. The free plan gives you access to loads of features, with the one key restriction that your calls can’t be longer than 40 minutes.

    You can schedule meetings in advance and send out an invite to your students. They can click a special link to sign in on their computer, or they can use the Zoom app on their phone.

    Copy meeting invitation

    Zoom has lots of useful options. For instance, you can use it to share your screen with students. This means you can show PowerPoint slides or demonstrate part of the lesson in real time.

    Zoom lets you see your students, too. They can dial in with their cameras on if you want. They can also talk to you live, though you can mute them. We recommend that you mute everyone by default while you’re teaching your class. You can let students ask questions at the end.

    There’s also a text chat feature in Zoom, which students can use to interact with one another while you’re teaching. You can even poll your students to find out what key topics they most want you to cover.

    There’s also a ‘record Zoom call’ option, which lets you run a live class plus record it so students who can’t attend can watch it later.

    Automatically Register Students for Zoom Webinars and Meetings

    The paid version of Zoom lets you run webinars. However, manually sending out invites to webinars and class meetings can be time-consuming. A simple way to speed up the process is by automating it.

    You can integrate your WPForms registration form with Zoom using Uncanny Automator. It is the best WordPress automation plugin that helps set up automated workflows.

    Uncanny Automator website

    You can think of Uncanny Automator as Zapier for WordPress websites. It lets different tools, apps, and plugins talk to each other.

    The plugin lets you automatically sign people up for the webinar when they register for your class using WPForms. For more details, please see our guide on how to easily integrate Zoom meetings and webinars in WordPress.

    Using an LMS or Membership Site Plugin

    Do you want to turn your website into a virtual classroom? Or perhaps you want to lock content to make sure that only paid-up members can access it?

    You’ll need to pay for this functionality, but it could well be worth it if you’re running a series of classes. Using your site as a learning platform works well for courses that last more than a few weeks.

    For instance, you might be running a 12-week class. Students need an easy way to refer back to the earlier weeks’ material, and that will be tricky if you simply send out all the content by email.

    Using LMS Plugins to Create Online Courses

    With an LMS (Learning Management System) solution, you can even offer quizzes and grade students’ performance. You’ll need an LMS plugin for WordPress.

    Our top recommendation here is LearnDash. It lets you create as many different courses as you like, with lessons, topics, quizzes, and categories. You can schedule lessons to be released over time if you want.

    The LearnDash LMS WordPress plugin

    With LearnDash, you can also offer quizzes and tests for your students. You can even set assignments that you can approve and comment on. It also lets you create course-specific forums where your students can interact.

    For more details, see our guide on how to create an online course with WordPress.

    Restrict Access to Classes and Online Resources

    What if you don’t want a whole learning environment, but instead you want to lock content on your site? You can do that with a membership site plugin.

    We recommend using MemberPress as your membership site plugin. It’s easy to set up and has powerful access controls. You can restrict access not only to posts and pages but also to specific categories, tags, files, and more.

    MemberPress

    You can use MemberPress to ‘drip’ content to your students. This means they only get access to certain content after they’ve been a member for a specified period of time. You can even integrate it with LearnDash if you want.

    For more details, see our ultimate guide on how to create a membership site.

    We know there’s a lot to consider when setting up a virtual class. You can set up a simple class for free on your WordPress site.

    You’ll only need to pay for your website domain name and web hosting, which doesn’t need to cost much. Besides that, you can use free WordPress plugins, software, and email marketing tools to connect with students, record lectures, and more.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to run a virtual classroom with WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on the must-have WordPress plugins for all websites and the ultimate guide to boosting WordPress speed & performance.

    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 Run a Virtual Classroom Online with WordPress (Tools) first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Send Automated Coupons in WordPress to Bring Back Customers

    Do you want to send automated coupons in WordPress to bring back customers?

    By sending the right coupon to the right person at the right time, you can re-engage customers who are losing interest. This can get you more sales, create brand loyalty, and help you keep your best customers.

    In this guide, we’ll show you a few different ways to send automated coupons in WordPress, and bring back customers.

    How to send automated coupons in WordPress to bring back customers

    Why Send Automated Coupons to Bring Back Customers?

    You may have heard the saying that it costs five times more to get a new customer than keep an old one.

    While lead generation will help grow your business, you also need to keep your existing customers happy. Over time, people may lose interest in your website, forget about your products, or start shopping with a competitor.

    That’s where automated coupons come in.

    The best WordPress automation tools and plugins can watch your customers for signs they’re becoming disengaged. For example, a customer may not place an order for 2 months or stop opening your emails.

    One way to bring those customers back is to automatically send them a coupon code via email. By creating this automated workflow in WordPress, you can retain customers without having to do all the hard work yourself.

    Pro Tip: If you send coupons via email, then you’ll need to make sure those messages land in the customer’s inbox and not in the spam folder. Here, a good SMTP service provider is essential for improving your email deliverability. We also recommend using WP Mail SMTP as it allows you to easily send WordPress emails using any SMTP service provider.

    With that being said, let’s see how you can send automated coupons in WordPress and bring back customers. Simply use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use.

    Method 1. Using FunnelKit (Best for WooCommerce Users)

    One way to send automated coupons in WordPress, is by using FunnelKit Automations.

    FunnelKit is a WordPress sales funnel builder and optimization plugin that allows you to create powerful customer winback campaigns. It also lets you create unique, personalized coupons, which can really catch the shopper’s attention.

    FunnelKit integrates with WooCommerce and has lots of features that are designed to grow your online store. With that in mind, FunnelKit is a great choice if you already use WooCommerce to sell products and services online.

    How to Set up the FunnelKit WordPress Plugin

    First, you’ll need to install and activate the free version of FunnelKit Automations, as it provides the base for the premium plugin’s features. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    After that, you’ll need to install and activate the FunnelKit Automations Pro plugin.

    After activating both plugins, go to FunnelKit Automation » Settings. You can now go ahead and add the license key to the ‘License’ field.

    Adding a license to the FunnelKit Automations WordPress plugin

    You’ll find this information in your account on the FunnelKit website. After adding this information, click on the ‘Activate’ button.

    How to Create an Automated Coupon Workflow for WordPress

    Now, we’re going to create a workflow that will generate a personalized coupon and send it to the customer via email. This workflow will run once 30 days have passed since the customer’s last order.

    To create the workflow, go to FunnelKit Automations » Automations (Next Gen) in the WordPress dashboard. Then, click on the ‘Add New Automation’ button.

    Creating a new WordPress automation with FunnelKit

    You’ll now see all the different automation templates that you can use.

    Since we want to create our own workflow, select ‘Start from Scratch.’

    Creating a custom automated workflow in WordPress

    In the popup that appears, type in a name for the automation. This is just for your reference, so you can use anything you want.

    With that done, click on ‘Create.’

    Add a name to your FunnelKit automation workflow

    Now, we need to choose the action that will kickstart the workflow, so click on ‘Select Trigger.’

    In the left-hand menu, choose ‘WooCommerce’ and then click to select ‘Customer Win Back.’

    Adding a 'customer winback' trigger to an automation workflow

    With that done, click on ‘Done’ to add the trigger to your automation workflow.

    Back in the main editor, click on the ‘Customer Win Back’ trigger.

    Adding a trigger to the FunnelKit automation editor

    In the ‘Customer Last Ordered Period’ section, you can type in how long FunnelKit will wait before running the workflow.

    For example, in the following image the workflow will run when 30 days have passed since the customer’s last order.

    FunnelKit will repeat this automation once every 24 hours, so it’s important to only run it for a short period of time. For this reason, we’ve set the workflow to stop when 35 days have passed since the customer’s last order.

    Adding an order period to the automation recipe

    In this way, you won’t annoy customers by sending them dozens of emails.

    Next, you can set the time when the automation will run, using the ‘Schedule this….’ fields. FunnelKit will use your store’s timezone, so you may want to change your online store settings if you want to use a different timezone instead.

    Scheduling an automated coupon code

    With that done, click on ‘Save.’

    Back in the main workflow editor, click on ‘+’ and then select ‘Action.’

    Adding actions to an automated workflow in WordPress

    In the popup that appears, select ‘WooCommerce’ and then click on ‘Create Coupon.’

    Simply click on ‘Done’ to add this action to the workflow.

    How to create an automated coupon using FunnelKit

    Back in the main FunnelKit editor, click on the action you just added. This opens a popup where you can customize the ‘Create Coupon’ action.

    To start, type a name for the coupon into the ‘Coupon Title’ field. This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

    Creating a winback customer automation workflow in WordPress

    After that, choose the type of coupon that you want to create, using the ‘Discount Type’ dropdown menu.

    FunnelKit supports percentage discount, fixed cart discount, and fixed product discount. Most of the time, you’ll want to select ‘Percentage Discount’ to make sure all customers get a similar benefit, no matter how much they spend or what products they buy.

    After that, type an amount into the ‘Amount’ field. For example, you might offer customers 20% off, or a $5 discount on all purchases.

    How to create an automated percentage discount coupon

    FunnelKit automatically creates a unique coupon code for each contact. However, you can add a prefix to the start of the coupon, which can either be plain text or dynamic tags. FunnelKit will replace these tags with real text every time it creates a code, so this is a great way to create personalized coupons.

    Since we want to bring shoppers back in, you may decide to include the customer’s name in the coupon. This can catch their attention, and also makes your code easier to remember.

    To add plain text as a prefix, simply type into the ‘Coupon Code Prefix’ field.

    Adding a prefix to the automated coupon code

    To add one or more tags, click on the ‘Merge tags’ icon.

    This is the button that has curly braces.

    Adding dynamic text to the automated coupon code

    Now, you’ll see all the tags that you can use in the automated coupon.

    We’re going to use the {{contact_first_name}} tag, but you can use any tags you want.

    How to create a personalized coupon code with merge tags

    Simply copy each tag and then paste it into the ‘Coupon Code Prefix’ field.

    As you can see in the following image, you can use a mix of plain text and tags.

    How to create a personalized and dynamic coupon code

    By default, the coupon will never expire. A sense of urgency and FOMO can push customers to use a coupon, so you may want to select the radio button next to ‘Expire after Specific Days’ or ‘Expire on Specific Date.’

    You can then use the controls to specify when the coupon will expire.

    Adding a coupon expiration date to your WordPress coupon

    Finally, you can choose whether the coupon gives customers a free shipping discount.

    Shoppers love free shipping, so you may want to consider adding this to your coupon by selecting the ‘Yes’ radio button under ‘Allow Free Shipping.’

    How to create a free shipping discount for your online store

    When you’re happy with how the coupon is set up, make sure you copy the small pieces of code under the ‘Coupon Title.’

    You’ll need this coupon code for the email we’ll be creating in the next step, so store it somewhere safe.

    Creating an automated coupon to win back customers

    With that done, click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.

    Now we have a coupon, it’s time to create the email that FunnelKit will send to your customers. To add an email action, click on the ‘+’ button and then select ‘Action.’

    Add an email action to win back customers

    If it isn’t already selected, then click on ‘Messaging’ in the left-hand menu.

    Then, select ‘Send Email’ and click on ‘Done.’

    Choosing an action in the FunnelKit automation plugin

    You can now create an email by typing in a subject and preview, and adding body text.

    Similar to creating a coupon, it’s best to use a mix of plain text and tags. To add dynamic tags, click on the ‘Merge Tags’ icons that appear next to the To, Subject, and Preview Text fields.

    How to create a personalized email to win back customers

    If you want to add tags to the email body, then you can click on the ‘Merge Tags’ button.

    To add your coupon code, simply paste or type in the {{wc_dynamic_coupon id= code we copied in the previous step.

    Create a personalized email to bring back customers

    When you’re happy with how the email looks, click on ‘Save & Close.’

    That’s it. When you’re ready to make the automation live, click on the ‘Inactive’ slider so it turns to ‘Active.’

    Making your workflow automation live

    Now, FunnelKit will automatically send the coupon to any customer who hasn’t purchased from you in the past 30 days.

    Method 2. Using Uncanny Automator (Over 100 Integrations)

    Another way to send automated coupons in WordPress, is by using Uncanny Automator. It is one of the best WordPress automation plugins on the market and lets you create powerful workflows to save time and help you respond to customers more quickly.

    Uncanny Automator works seamlessly with WooCommerce, plus all of the must have WordPress plugins and third-party tools. If you’re already using lots of different software on your online store, then Uncanny Automator may be a good choice for you.

    There is a free Uncanny Automator plugin that lets you automate many common tasks. However, we’ll be using Uncanny Automator pro because it works with WooCommerce.

    To start, you’ll need to install Uncanny Automator pro, plus the free plugin as it provides the base for the premium version. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Upon activation, go to Automator » Settings and enter your license key into the ‘Uncanny Automator Pro license key’ field.

    Adding an Uncanny Automator license to your WordPress website

    You’ll find this information under your account on the Uncanny Automator website.

    Uncanny Automator is a powerful and flexible plugin, so there’s lots of different ways that you can bring customers back to your site. Let’s take a look at a few options.

    Automatically Send Coupons to Logged-Out Customers

    It’s smart to let customers create an account with your online store, as it encourages brand loyalty and makes it easier for shoppers to buy from you in the future.

    User registration can also help with lead generation. If you get the shopper’s email address, then you can target them with email marketing, personalized ads, an email newsletter, and much more.

    If you’re using WooCommerce, then this plugin automatically creates all the pages customers need to create and manage an account. WooCommerce also adds a new Customer role, which it automatically assigns to any shoppers who register with your store.

    Are you using a different eCommerce solution that doesn’t support customer registration? Then see our guide on how to allow user registration on your WordPress site.

    After that, you can simply create a new role for your customers. For detailed instructions, please see our beginner’s guide to WordPress user roles and permissions.

    If you allow user registration, then you can track when a shopper logs out of their account, as this suggests they’re losing interest in your store. You can then send a coupon to encourage them to log back in.

    To create this recipe, simply go to Automator » Add new in the WordPress dashboard.

    Uncanny Automator will now ask whether you want to create a recipe for logged-in users, or everyone. Go ahead and select ‘Logged-in users,’ then click on the ‘Confirm’ button.

    Creating a logged-in automation recipe with Uncanny Automator

    Next, you can give the recipe a name by typing into the ‘Title’ field. This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

    Once you’ve done that, click on ‘WordPress’ in the ‘Select an integration’ area.

    Select WooCommerce as an integration

    You can now choose a trigger, which is anything that kickstarts the recipe.

    In the dropdown menu, start typing the following ‘A user logs out of a site’ and then select the right option when it appears.

    Choosing a trigger for the automated coupon recipe

    We only want to run the workflow when someone with the ‘Customer’ user role logs out of their account.

    With that in mind, click on the ‘Add filter’ button.

    How to create an automation workflow for your WooCommerce customers

    In the popup that appears, click on ‘WordPress.’

    Next, find ‘The user has a specific role’ in the dropdown menu.

    Filtering your users based on WordPress role

    Open the ‘Role’ dropdown and select the role you’re using for your customers.

    After that, go ahead and click on ‘Save filter.’

    Sending an automated coupon to your WooCommerce customers

    Now it’s time to specify the action that Uncanny Automator will perform every time this workflow runs.

    We’re going to send the customer an email containing a coupon, so go ahead and click on ‘Add action.’

    Adding actions to an automated recipe

    Since we want to send an email, select ‘Emails’ as the integration.

    In the dropdown that appears, click on ‘Send an email.’

    Send automated coupons in WordPress to bring back customers

    This adds all the fields that you can use to create the email.

    To start, we need to make sure the message goes to the right user, by clicking on the asterisk next to the ‘To’ field. Then, select ‘Common’ and ‘User email.’

    Getting the customer's email address

    You can now create the email by adding a subject line and body text.

    Here, you can use a mix of plain text and tokens, which are placeholders that Uncanny Automator replaces with real values automatically. For example, if you want to use the customer’s name, then you can click on the asterix and select ‘Common.’

    Simply select the ‘User first name’ token to create the personalized greeting.

    Adding a dynamic user name token to the coupon workflow

    You’ll also need to create a coupon and add it to the email.

    The easiest way is by using the Advanced Coupons plugin, which is the best WordPress coupon code plugin on the market. It lets you create lots of different advanced coupons to get more sales and grow your business.

    For a step-by-step guide, please see our post on how to create smart coupons.

    After creating a coupon, you can simply add it to the email.

    Sending an automated coupon email in WordPress to bring back customers

    When you’re happy with how the email looks, click on ‘Save.’

    After that, it’s time to set a delay. This is how long Uncanny Automator will wait after the customer logs out, before sending them the coupon.

    To add a delay, hover your mouse over the ‘Email’ action. When it appears, click on ‘Delay.’

    How to add a delay to an automation workflow

    You can then add your delay in the popup that appears.

    Once you’ve done that, go ahead and select ‘Set delay.’

    Adding a time delay to the automated coupon recipe

    When you’re happy with how the recipe is set up, it’s time to make it active.

    In the ‘Recipe’ box, click the ‘Draft’ switch so that it shows ‘Live’ instead.

    Publishing the automated coupon recipe

    That’s it. Now, when a customer logs out of their account, Uncanny Automator will wait for the specified amount of time before sending them a coupon code.

    Automatically Send Coupons for a Specific Product

    Sometimes a shopper may look at a product multiple times. This suggests they’re interested in the item, but something is stopping them from making a purchase.

    In this case, you may want to send them a coupon, which will encourage them to splash out on the product.

    To get started, create a new recipe for logged-in users following the same process described above. After that, click on ‘WooCommerce’ in the ‘Select an integration’ area.

    Adding WooCommerce as an integration in Uncanny Automator

    Next, choose a trigger by typing the following ‘A user views a product.’

    When the right trigger appears, give it a click.

    Get more sales with an automated coupon recipe

    By default, this trigger is set to ‘Any product.’

    If you want to link the recipe to a specific product, then open the ‘Product’ dropdown and choose that product from the list.

    Choose a WooCommerce product from the dropdown menu

    Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Number of times’ button.

    By default, the recipe will run every time a customer looks at a product. You should change this, so the customer has to look at the product multiple times before triggering the recipe. To do this, type a different number into the ‘Number of times’ field.

    Triggering a workflow when the customer views a product multiple times

    When that’s done, click on ‘Save’ to store your settings.

    This recipe should only run when a customer views a product, so click on ‘Add Filter.’ In the popup that appears, click on ‘WordPress’ and then choose ‘The user has a specific role.’

    Adding WooCommerce features to an automation recipe

    After that, open the ‘Role’ dropdown and select the role you’re using for your customers.

    When you’re ready, click on ‘Save filter.’

    Configuring the automated coupon rule

    Now it’s time to add the action. There are a few different ways to send automated coupons from your WordPress website.

    To email a code to your customers using Uncanny Automator and Advanced Coupons, simply follow the same process described above.

    Another option is to generate the code using WooCommerce. To do this, click on ‘Add Action’ and then select ‘WooCommerce’ as the integration.

    Selecting the WooCommerce eCommerce plugin as an integration

    In the search bar, start typing ‘Generate and email a coupon code to the user.’

    When the right option appears, give it a click.

    Generating a WooCommerce coupon

    This will add some new settings where you can create the coupon code.

    To generate a code automatically, simply leave the ‘Coupon code’ field blank.

    How to create a coupon for your WooCommerce online store

    In the ‘Discount type’ field, choose the kind of coupon that you want to create, such as a fixed cart discount or percentage discount.

    For this guide, we’ll select ‘Percentage discount’.

    How to create a percentage discount code

    After that, type the percentage discount into the ‘Coupon amount’ field.

    In the following image, we’re offering customers a 30% discount on their purchase.

    Creating a percentage coupon code

    In the next field, you can set an expiry date for the coupon, either by using the YYY-MM-DD format or typing in the number of days until the coupon expires.

    For example, in the following image the coupon will expire after 7 days.

    Adding an expiration date to an automated coupon code

    You can also set a minimum and maximum spend for the coupon. We’ll leave these fields blank so the customer can use the code with any purchase.

    You may also want to check the ‘For individual use only’ box so customers can’t use this code in combination with other coupons.

    Creating a coupon for individual use

    Next, scroll to the ‘Usage limit per coupon’ section. The shopper should only be able to use the coupon once, so type in ‘1.’

    There are lots of other settings you can change for the coupon. It’s a good idea to look through these settings to see whether you want to make any more changes.

    When you’re happy with how the coupon is set up, scroll to the ‘Email’ section. To start, find the ‘To’ field and then click on the asterisk next to it. Then, click on ‘Common’ and select ‘User email.’

    Creating an automated coupon email to bring back shoppers

    With that done, you can add a subject line and change the text in the email body.

    To create a more personalized email, it’s a good idea to use a mix of plain text and tokens, by following the same process described above.

    Adding a coupon to your WooCommerce email

    When you’re happy with the email, click on the ‘Save’ button to store the recipe.

    After that, you can make the recipe live by clicking the ‘Draft’ switch so that it shows ‘Live.’

    Making an Uncanny Automator recipe live on your WordPress website

    Now, every time someone views a product multiple times, it’ll trigger the recipe workflow.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to send automated coupons in WordPress to bring back customers. You may also want to check out our guide on how to create a WooCommerce popup to increase sales and the best WooCommerce plugins for your store.

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    The post How to Send Automated Coupons in WordPress to Bring Back Customers first appeared on WPBeginner.