Push Notifications vs Email: Which Is Better? (Pros and Cons)

Are you comparing push notifications vs email to figure out which is better?

Push notifications and email marketing are two of the most effective marketing tools to increase conversions and sales. But how are they different and which one should you focus on?

In this article, we will compare push notifications vs email marketing with pros and cons to find out which one is better.

Push Notifications vs Email: Which One is Better?

Push notifications and email marketing are two different marketing channels that each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Both can help you achieve similar goals like increasing conversions, recovering cart abandonment, boosting sales, and getting more user engagement.

When used properly, they can help you significantly grow your online business.

Due to the difference in the delivery platform, one method could be better suited over the other. For instance, in some places email will be less effective than a push notification and vice versa.

That being said, let’s take a look at push notifications and email and see what are their pros and cons and when one of them is more effective than the other.

Email Marketing – Pros and Cons Explained

Email marketing is the most effective marketing tool available on the market. However, what most people are unclear about is what makes email so effective and when they are using it wrong.

Pros of Email Marketing

Following are some of the advantages of using email marketing in your business strategy.

1. High ROI with Low Costs

As a business, one factor in your decision-making is the costs and what kind of return you should expect.

For every $1 spent on email marketing, $44 is made in return. That’s an ROI of 4400% (source). 

Email marketing has a very high ROI due to low-cost email marketing platforms. These services allow you to send thousands of emails to your customers for a very low cost.

2. Wider Availability to All Customers

Most internet users today have 24/7 access to their email inbox via a variety of devices laptops, mobile, and even smartwatches.

An average internet user checks their email several times a day and due to cheaper unlimited storage, many people don’t bother deleting emails.

This increases the chances of your subject line and a snippet been seen by users even if they don’t open the email.

3. Perfect for Longer Content

Emails can be as long as you need, so you have plenty of room to create an effective copy for your email.

We generally do recommend keeping it short and sweet. However, sometimes you may need to add more information to your email.

You can place multiple calls to action if needed, add several products, provide users instructions on how to do something on the website, and more.

4. Emails Are More Customizable

Emails can be in plain text, or you can use HTML and CSS to create beautiful newsletter templates. You can also add images, link to YouTube videos, create buttons, and more.

Most email service providers allow you to use smart tags to personalize your emails. Plus, you can segment your email list into different user groups.

For instance, you can segment your email list into users who have already made at least one purchase and users who have never bought from you.

You can also set up automated drip notifications that send a sequence of emails with a set frequency to users.

All of this allows you to make your emails look more personalized, professional, and persuasive.

5. Email Isn’t Time Limited

Unlike push notifications, which demand the user’s urgent attention, emails are more relaxed and users can decide to read them later.

Once the email arrives in a user’s inbox, it will sit there until the user takes an action.

Most users check email several times a day, so even if they don’t open it right away, they will scan through your subject line multiple times.

Cons of Email Marketing

Email is cheap and highly effective. There is no doubt that it will remain one of the most efficient marketing tools for businesses in the future.

However, there are certain areas where email puts you at a slight disadvantage.

1. Too Frequent Blog Post Emails

Sending users an email for every blog post doesn’t work very well. Specially if you publish daily or several times a day.

That’s why you see a ton of blogs (including WPBeginner) sending weekly emails with a recap of all the blog posts they published this week.

2. Competition in Your Customer’s Inbox

An average internet user gets a lot of marketing emails each day. Each one of them tries to come up with a creative subject line to get their attention.

You are competing with many other businesses for users’ attention, and this affects your open rates. You have to learn how to write better emails that users actually open and take action.

3. Email Apps like Gmail Assigning Low Priority Labels

Due to huge volume of marketing emails, popular email clients like Gmail may not display any notification for new emails to your users.

Your email may be labeled low priority promotional email among hundreds of other marketing emails. This may reduce the visibility, open rates, and CTR for your email campaigns.

Push Notifications – Pros and Cons Explained

Push notifications are a highly effective marketing tool with higher click-through and open rates. Let’s compare how they stack up against email marketing.

Pros of using Push Notifications

Following are some of the advantages of using push notifications over emails in your marketing strategy.

1. Easy to Subscribe

Push notifications are very easy to subscribe to. Users simply need to click a button to subscribe for notifications.

Whereas in a traditional email sign-up forms, users will have to first go through popups and opt-in forms to fill in their email address, submit the form, and then confirm their subscription via double opt-in.

This easy subscription option in push notification works very well for users as it instantly gets out of their way once they click subscribe. Most push notification software offer 1-click subscription options.

2. Messages Are Delivered to Users Instantly

Push notifications appear on users’ screens as soon as they receive them. Unlike emails, they don’t need to open them separately.

They work on all platforms and are particularly more effective on mobile phones. Basically, users will get the message instantly as a notification regardless of which device they are using.

This increases the visibility of push notifications and makes them much more effective than email marketing.

3. Push Notifications Add Urgency and FOMO

Push notifications appear as mobile notifications, which adds urgency to them.

Users feel that they will not see the notification if they dismiss it, so they don’t want to miss out on anything important.

4. Users Cannot Provide Fake Signup

Push notifications work on users’ browsers, so users cannot provide fake sign-up information.

This is far more effective when comparing to email sign-ups. Many users now enter disposable email addresses that they have made particularly for subscriptions.

Users may also provide wrong email addresses or makeup fake ones to signup. As marketers, this affects the open and CTR rates of your email campaigns.

5. Highly Effective Personalization

Push notifications can be customized for individual users and triggered based on user activity.

You can do this with emails too. However, it becomes more effective when combined with the urgency and FOMO effects of push notifications.

For instance, a user added a product to the cart, you can use push notifications to nudge them into completing the purchase.

You can also add drip push notifications which work very well for blog post alerts and many publishers / bloggers send targeted push notifications based on user’s interest.

Cons of Using Push Notifications

Push notifications work great for most websites. However, to avoid misusing them, you need to keep in mind the following disadvantages.

1. No Lengthy Content

Push notifications have a character limit which varies on different platforms and browsers.

For instance, you can use 30-70 characters for titles and 65 to 200 characters for descriptions.

You’ll have to keep your messages short and persuasive with in these limits.

2. Limited Media Options

Platforms like PushEngage allow you to create rich push notifications with hero images, Gifs, videos, and emojis.

There is still a limit on what you can use to make your notifications more interactive.

3. Can Easily Get Excessive

Push notifications have a much higher CTR, which may compel some website owners to use them more frequently.

This could ruin user experience as they may start getting more than usual notifications.

On the other hand, if the user has signed up for too many notifications, their notification panels may get too many messages from different websites which may affect how they feel about web push notifications.

Which is Better, Push Notifications vs Email?

Push notifications are better than email due to the higher click-through rates, urgency, personalization, and easy subscription options.

However, email is still highly effective for transactional emails, upsells, newsletters, and other campaigns.

We believe that they are two separate tools. While one of them can be more efficient in particular scenarios, the other one may excel in other areas.

Combining email and push notifications is ultimately the best win-win strategy for most businesses.

This is why we use both push notifications and email marketing in our business to get maximum results.

How to Get Started with Push Notifications

To send push notifications, you’ll need to sign up for a push notification service.

We recommend PushEngage because it is the best push notification service on the market.

PushEngage comes with powerful customization options, triggered notifications, automatic drip campaigns, A/B testing, and more features to grow your business.

Plus, it is extremely beginner friendly and much easier to set up without any special technical skills.

For more details, see our tutorial on adding web push notifications to your WordPress site.

How to Get Started with Email Marketing

You’ll need to sign up for an email marketing service to get started.

We recommend using Constant Contact, which is the best email marketing service for small businesses and bloggers.

Constant Contact comes with easier setup, beautiful email templates for every type of campaign, engagement reporting, and dynamic personalization.

For more detailed instructions, see our article on how to start an email newsletter in WordPress.

We hope this article helpes you compare push noticiations vs email and which one is better for your business. You may also want to see our practical tips to grow your email list quickly or see our complete conversion tracking guide.

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 Push Notifications vs Email: Which Is Better? (Pros and Cons) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Upsell Products in WooCommerce (5 Easy Ways)

Are you looking for ways to upsell products on your WooCommerce store?

Upselling is a great way to boost your sales and earn more money. You can encourage customers to purchase a more expensive version of your product.

In this article, we’ll show you how to upsell products in WooCommerce.

Why Upsell Products in WooCommerce?

Upselling is a sales technique that you can use to encourage shoppers to purchase a higher-priced product instead of the one they already have in their shopping cart.

These products provide more value to your customers because they have higher quality, include more features, and are more lucrative for your business.

For example, let’s say a customer adds a hiking shoe to their cart. You can offer them higher-quality hiking shoes that are more comfortable, durable, and versatile. Similarly, if you’re selling software or plugins on your WooCommerce store, then you can offer upgrades and addons to customers.

Since upselling persuades customers to buy a higher-priced product, you get to increase your average order value and boost the revenue of your online store. It also helps to increase the visibility of products that aren’t purchased frequently.

That said, let’s see how you can upsell products in WooCommerce. We’ll cover multiple methods, so you can click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:

Adding Upsell Products in WooCommerce

In WooCommerce, you can link different products and show them as upsell on the product page.

To start, you’ll need to go to Products » Add New from the WordPress dashboard. You can also edit an existing product.

Next, you can scroll down to the Product Data section and click on the ‘Linked Products’ tab.

Here, you’ll be able to add different products under the ‘Upsell’ section. Simply enter a name and search for the product your want to upsell.

Go ahead and update your product page.

You can now visit your WooCommerce store and see the upsell products under the ‘You may also like’ section.

Creating a WooCommerce Popup to Upsell Products

A great way to upsell your products is by displaying a lightbox popup on your WooCommerce store. It can instantly grab your users’ attention and help boost sales.

You can offer discounts or limited-time offers on high-value goods. Plus, you can show it on specific pages, when a user spends a particular time on a page or is about exit your store.

The best way to create a WooCommerce upsell popup is using OptinMonster. It is the best WordPress popup plugin and lead generation software in the market.

You can choose from multiple pre-built popup templates and campaign types.

Plus, you can use the drag-and-drop campaign builder to customize your upsell popup.

You can edit different blocks, including the existing ones in the template.

After customizing your popup, you can head to the display rules tab and configure when you’d like to show it to your customers.

OptinMonster offers powerful options, including the Exit Intent technology. This allows you to show your campaign just as the user is about to leave your website. Plus, there are many eCommerce-related display options.

For example, you can display your campaign when a visitor views a particular product on your WooCommerce store or adds a certain number of items to a cart.

For more details, you can see our guide on how to create a WooCommerce popup to increase sales.

Offer One-Click Upsells on Checkout Page

Another way to upsell in WooCommerce is by showcasing your products at different points in the customer journey.

For instance, you can display high-priced products on the checkout page and allow users to instantly add them to the cart before placing an order. This helps you optimize your sales funnel, boost sales, and earn more revenue.

The easiest way to upsell products during checkout is by using FunnelKit, formerly known as WooFunnels. It is the best WordPress sales funnel and automation plugin, and it offers a one-click upsell option that you can add to your checkout page.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Funnel Builder Pro plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll see the FunnelKit setup wizard. You can start by entering the license key and following the onscreen instructions to configure the plugin.

Once the plugin is set up, you can go to FunnelKit » Funnels from your WordPress dashboard.

After that, simply click the ‘Add new funnel’ button.

FunnelKit offers different funnel templates for your WooCommerce store, including store checkout, sales funnel, and lead generation funnel.

Go ahead and select a template for your online store. We’ll use the ‘Optic’ store checkout template for this tutorial.

Next, you can preview the template and choose whether you’d like a one-step, two-step, or three-step funnel. The difference between these is that you can show different checkout steps on other pages.

For example, in one-step checkout, all the information is displayed on a single page. On the other hand, a three-step checkout would show basic information, shipping details, and payment on multiple pages.

After that, click the ‘Import This Funnel’ button at the top.

Next, a popup window will open where you’ll need to enter a name for your funnel.

Go ahead and click the ‘Add’ button.

FunnelKit will now import the template.

On the next screen, you’ll see different pages in the funnel. You can edit each of these pages and add additional steps.

To add a one-click upsell option, simply click the ‘Add Order Bump’ button under the Checkout step.

After that, a popup window will open.

Go ahead and enter a name for your Order Bump and click the ‘Add’ button.

You should now see your Order Bump as a sub-step under the Checkout page.

To add products for upselling, you can edit the order bump page.

Next, you’ll need to add products you’d like to show on checkout.

Simply click the ‘Add Product’ button to continue.

After that, a popup window will open to add your products.

You can search for the products and then click the ‘Add Product’ button.

Next, you will see the products you just added. FunnelKit lets you rearrange its order if there are multiple items.

You can also change the behavior and display position of the goods you’d like to upsell on the checkout page. For example, the plugin lets you show upsell products below the payment gateways, above or below the order summary, inside the mini cart, or above the checkout form.

FunnelKit also offers options to change the design of your order bump.

Simply switch to the ‘Design’ tab to edit the title, description, and style. There are different skins to choose from and additional options to further customize each skin.

Once you’re done, go back to the Store Checkout dashboard in FunnelKit.

Next, click on the dropdown menu next to the title of your store checkout and change the status to Publish.

Your one-click upsell will now be active on your WooCommerce store. You can now visit your online store to see it in action.

For instance, our upsell offer appears after the payment gateway on the checkout page. Customers can add the item to their order with a single click.

Upsell Products on a Custom WooCommerce Thank You Page

In addition to showing products during checkout, you can create a custom thank you page and upsell products on your WooCommerce store.

Many WordPress website owners might think of a thank you page as a small part of their eCommerce store, but it can have a huge impact on your sales. It gives you the opportunity to recommend more valuable items, offer a discount coupon, and increase your sales.

With SeedProd, you can easily create a custom WooCommere thank you page. It is the best website builder and landing page plugin for WordPress.

The plugin offers different pre-built page templates and lots of customization options.

You can use the drag-and-drop page builder to customize your thank you page.

For example, there are blocks for adding text, images, buttons, contact forms, countdown timers, social profiles, and more. Plus, you can control and edit each element on your template.

The best part is that SeedProd offers WooCommerce blocks as well.

You can add a product grid or simply add your best-selling, recent, featured, or top-rated products to the thank you page.

For step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to create a custom WooCommerce thank you page.

Automatically Add Products to Cart Using a Coupon

Did you know that you can upsell products by automatically adding them to the customer’s cart? For example, when a customer purchases over $200 worth of goods, you can give them a free gift bag.

With the help of the Advanced Coupons plugin, you can set up personalized coupons in WooCommerce and automatically add products to the cart when a coupon is applied.

You’ll need at least the Advanced Coupon Growth plan to add products via coupons. Once you’ve set up the plugin, go to Coupons » Add New from your WordPress dashboard.

Next, you can enter a coupon code at the top or click the ‘Generate coupon code’ button to automatically create a random code.

After that, scroll down to the Coupon data section and switch to the ‘Add Products’ tab.

From here, you can search for the product you’d like to automatically add to your cart when the coupon code is applied.

There are also options to set the order quantity and add a price or discount for the selected product.

Once you’ve selected a product, click the ‘Add’ button.

You should see your product under the Add Products section. Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Add Products Data’ button.

Besides that, Advanced Coupon also lets you set up cart conditions.

This way, you can set up rules for applying your coupon code. For example, the coupon code will only work if the cart quantity or subtotal is more than a certain amount, or a customer adds products from a specific category.

After setting up these conditions, you can publish your coupon code.

Now, your product will automatically add to the cart whenever a customer enters the discount coupon on checkout.

For more details, please see our guide on how to auto-apply coupons in WooCommerce.

We hope this article helped you learn how to upsell products in WooCommerce. You can also see our guide on the best WooCommerce plugins and how to speed up your WooCommerce 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 Upsell Products in WooCommerce (5 Easy Ways) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Create a Contract Agreement Form with Digital Signatures in WordPress

Do you want to add a contract agreement form to your WordPress website that people can e-sign?

Typically to get contracts signed, you either have to manually print/scan the signature, or pay for an expensive third-party e-sign service. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get users to sign forms with a digital signature in WordPress without the high costs?

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create a contract agreement form with digital signatures in WordPress.

Why Create an Online Contract Agreement Form?

An online contract agreement form is easy to fill out and submit. Normally, you’ll send the agreement as PDF, which the other party will have to print, fill in, scan, and send back.

That’s a lot of work.

By creating an online contract agreement form on your WordPress website, users can fill it out right away and sign it digitally with an e-signature.

It does not require any overly priced SaaS software and works very well for many different kinds of legal documents.

For instance, you can use it to create a code of conduct form, employment forms, non-profit or volunteer application forms, and more.

Are Digital Signatures Legal?

Yes, digital signatures and digitally signed documents are legally enforceable. If both parties agree to digital signatures, and the software used keeps a record of digital signatures, then they are legally binding.

However, they cannot be used for all kinds of legal documents. For example, legal documents or forms that require to be notarized, need court stamps, or witnesses.

With that said, this article is not legal advice. Please consider a lawyer for practical legal advice and guidance.

Preparing Your Contract Agreement Form

If you don’t already have a contract drawn up, it’s a very good idea to consult a lawyer. You want to be sure that your contract is legal and that it won’t cause you any possible problems in the future.

Apart from the contract terms themselves, your contract form will probably need space for:

The name of the person signing.The address of the person signing.The date the contract is signed.Space for your client (or new employee) to actually sign the contract.

That being said, let’s create a contract agreement form with a digital signature field.

You can click the link below to jump ahead to your preferred method:

Method 1: Create a Digitally Signed Contract Form Using WPForms

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

WPForms is a premium plugin, and you’ll need at least their Pro plan to access the Signatures addon.

Upon activation, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the WPForms website.

Next, you need to visit the WPForms » Addons page and go to the Signature addon.

Simply click the ‘Install Addon’ button, and the addon will install and activate.

You are now ready to create your contract agreement form with the digital signature feature.

Simply go to the WPForms » Add New page to create your form. This will launch the WPForms form builder interface, where you need to provide a title for your form and then choose a template.

We’re going to use the ‘Blank Form’ template for this example, but you can choose a different one if you prefer. Just click on the template to load it.

You’ll probably want to include the text of your contract itself on the page above the form. This could consist of your signature as an image.

In the form itself, you just need to add the fields that need to be filled in.

To add a new field, click on a field from the left column and drag it onto the template. You can rearrange fields by moving them up and down in the preview column.

If you want to send a copy of the signed form to the user as well, then don’t forget to add an email field where users can provide their email addresses.

Once you’re happy with the fields you’ve added, it’s time to add the most important form field: the signature field.

Scroll down to the ‘Fancy Fields’ section and click to add the Signature field to your form.

That’s it. You’ve created your form. Next, we need to make sure the settings are correct.

Configuring Your Contract Agreement Form’s Settings

Simply click on the ‘Settings’ tab to view your form’s settings. The default settings will work in most cases, but you may want to make some changes.

In particular, you’ll want to check that the ‘Notifications’ are correct.

By default, the signed contract agreement form will be sent to the administrator’s email address. This is normally the email address of whoever set up your WordPress site. If that’s not you, then enter your email address here instead.

You may also want to send a copy of the form to the user as well. To do that, go to the Settings » Notifications tab and click on the Add New Notification button.

A popup window will now open, where you’ll need to add a name for your new notification. Let’s name it Send to User.

After entering a name, click the ‘Ok’ button.

You should now see your new notification.

In the ‘Send to Email Address’ section, click on the Smart Tags link and select the Email field.

Review all other settings and adjust them to your requirements. WPForms will now send the form confirmation email to the user as well.

Next, switch to the ‘Confirmation’ tab. You can edit the confirmation message that the client (or employee or volunteer) signing the form will see.

Once you’re happy with the settings, click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen. You can now close and exit the form builder.

Add Your Contract Agreement Form to Your Site

Finally, you need to put your contract agreement form on your website.

You can create a new page or edit an existing one. First, you’ll need to add the text of your contract terms before including the form itself.

After that, simply add the WPForms block to your content area.

Select your contract agreement form from the drop-down box, and WPForms will automatically load a preview of the form in the content editor.

You can now save or publish your page to make your form publicly available.

After that, visit the page to see your contract agreement form in action. Don’t forget to test out the contract agreement form. You should be able to enter your signature using your mouse, trackpad, or touchscreen.

Ensure you see the confirmation message and receive an email after submitting the form.

If you don’t get an email, don’t worry. It’s quite a common problem, and we’ve got instructions on how to fix WordPress not sending emails.

Method 2: Digitally Sign Contract Forms Using signNow

If you already have forms or agreements created in PDF or Microsoft Word format and want to invite others to sign the contract, then you can use signNow.

You can use it to set up electronic signatures, generate agreements, negotiate contracts, collaborate with others, and more. The best part is that it offers a free trial.

To start, you can visit the signNow website and click the ‘Free Trial’ button at the top. There is also an option to enter your email address and click the ‘Try for free’ button.

On the next screen, you’ll need to enter a password for your account.

signNow also lets you sign up using Facebook, Microsoft, or Google accounts to create an account.

After that, you’ll see a welcome screen where you can enter your name to create a digital signature.

Once that’s done, click the ‘Next’ button.

Next, signNow will show you a signature style and your initials.

If you want, you can change the style of your signature and then click the ‘Next’ button.

In the next step, you’ll need to select what interests you about signNow.

Simply select one or more options and click the ‘Next’ button.

After that, you can invite others to collaborate on a document in signNow.

Simply enter the email addresses and click the ‘Invite’ button. You can also skip this step for now and invite people later.

You are now ready to use SignNow to add electronic signatures to your documents.

Simply click the ‘Upload Your First Document’ to get started.

After that, upload a contract agreement document from your laptop or computer.

signNow will now load your contract in its document viewer.

From the menu on your left, you can select who will be filling the document. For instance, select the ‘Me (Fill Out Now)’ option and then add your signature anywhere on the contract.

After that, you can change to ‘Recipient 1’ under the Select who will be filling out section. From here, add a ‘Signature’ element where you want others to sign on the contract.

Next, go ahead and click the ‘Continue’ button at the top.

You can now enter the recipient’s email address and click the ‘Send Invite’ button.

That’s it! Your recipients will receive an email invite to sign the document. Once they send the signed contract back to you, signNow will keep a record of the signatures.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a contract agreement form with digital signatures in WordPress. You may also be interested in our articles on the best WordPress plugins and the best business phone services for small businesses.

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

The post How to Create a Contract Agreement Form with Digital Signatures in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Convert a WordPress Widget into a Block (Step by Step)

Are you looking to use a legacy widget in your WordPress sidebar or post content?

In version 5.8, WordPress added a new block-based widget editor. Blocks are more flexible and make it easier to add rich content to your site. Luckily, you can still use classic widgets on your site as well.

In this article, we’ll show you how to convert a WordPress widget to a block.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this tutorial:

What Is the Difference Between a WordPress Widget and Block?

Widgets are used to add blocks of content to the sidebar, footer, or other areas of your WordPress website. They’re an easy way to add image galleries, social media feeds, quotes, calendars, popular posts, and other dynamic elements to your site.

In version 5.8, WordPress introduced a new block-based widget editor that allows you to use blocks to create more engaging widget areas. For instance, you can add buttons, choose colors, group different blocks, and more.

But what if you still rely on a legacy widget that has not been upgraded to a WordPress block? Luckily, you can still use it.

We’ll show you how to easily add legacy widgets to your sidebar and other widget-ready areas. The method you use depends on whether you are using a classic theme or a block theme. On top of that, we will also show you how to add a widget to your posts and pages.

But first, let’s take a brief look at the difference between widgets and blocks from a developer’s point of view.

Can a WordPress Widget Be Simply Converted to a Block?

If you’re a developer who created a legacy widget for WordPress, then you may be wondering whether you can convert it into a new block widget.

While widgets and blocks look similar, they are actually quite different. For example, they are coded using completely different programming languages. Widgets are written in PHP and blocks are written in JavaScript.

This means that there is no simple way to convert a widget into a block.

But that’s not a problem. Your existing widget will continue to work with new versions of WordPress. If you don’t plan to update your widget code, then you can leave it as it is.

However, if you want to continue adding new features to your widget, then it’s best to create a new block to replace the legacy widget. You can follow our guide on how to create a custom WordPress block.

Adding Widgets to Your Classic Theme’s Sidebar in WordPress

If you are using a classic theme, then you can add classic widgets to your sidebar or other widget-ready areas of your site by using the Legacy Widget.

First, you need to navigate to Appearance » Widgets in your WordPress admin area.

Next, you should click the ‘+ Add Block’ button. From the popup, you need to click the ‘Legacy Widget’ icon.

Note: If you see Appearance » Edit instead of Appearance » Widgets, then you are using a block theme. You’ll need to follow the next method below.

Now you can select the widget you wish to use from the drop down menu.

The widget will be added to your sidebar. Make sure you click the ‘Update’ button at the top of the screen to save the new widget.

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

Adding Widgets to Your Block Theme’s Sidebar in WordPress

Block themes, such as the default Twenty Twenty-Two theme, let you use the Full Site Editor in WordPress. Full site editing offers custom blocks for styling your website’s theme, but doesn’t include the Legacy Widget by default.

That means you won’t be able to access legacy widgets from the Full Site Editor, and when you switch from a classic theme to a block theme, any legacy widgets you were using are not migrated over.

Luckily, you can add legacy widget support using a plugin. Simply install and activate the X3P0 Legacy Widget plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will add the Legacy Widget to the Full Site Editor. This will allow you to use legacy widgets with newer themes.

Adding Widgets to Your Post Content in WordPress

First, you will need to edit an existing WordPress post/page or add a new one. Once you’re in the WordPress content editor, go ahead and click the ‘+ Toggle block inserter’ button at the top of the screen.

Next, scroll down to the ‘Widgets’ section and find the widget that you want to add to the content. You can then drag the widget onto your post.

You can customize the widget by using the Settings panel on the right of the screen.

Once you’re done, go ahead and publish your blog post or page.

To learn more, see our guide on how to add WordPress widgets in post and page content.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to use legacy widgets in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to track website visitors, or check out our list of the best contact form plugins for WordPress.

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 Convert a WordPress Widget into a Block (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Allow Users to Choose a Payment Method on WordPress Forms

Do you want to allow users to choose between different payment methods on your WordPress website or online store?

When you allow your customers to choose their preferred payment method, you’ll build trust and increase conversions on your website.

In this article, we’ll show you how to allow your users to choose a payment method in your WordPress forms.

Why Offer Multiple Payment Methods in WordPress?

PayPal and credit cards are two popular ways to pay for online purchases. Each has its pros and cons, and your visitors are likely to already have a preference for one or the other.

So, if you’re selling products or services on your WordPress website, or asking for donations, then it is important to allow your visitors to use their preferred payment method.

You may already have a complete online store with a shopping cart, but you don’t need to set one up to accept online payments. All you need is a simple online order form with a choice of payment options.

This makes sense if you’re selling a single product, accepting payments for services, or raising money for a cause or charity.

Before you can accept payments on your website, you’ll need to enable HTTPS/SSL on your website so that you can accept payments securely. For more details, you can follow our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate for your WordPress site.

That being said, let’s look at how you can offer multiple payment options on your website. We’ll cover three methods so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.

Method 1 is the simplest and doesn’t require a full shopping cart. You should use Method 2 if you have a WooCommerce store. And Method 3 is best if you don’t have an online store and want to use PayPal or create more flexible forms.

Method 1: Offering Multiple Payment Methods Using WP Simple PayMethod 2: Offering Multiple Payment Methods in WooCommerceMethod 3: Offering Multiple Payment Methods Using WPForms

Method 1: Offering Multiple Payment Methods Using WP Simple Pay

WP Simple Pay is an easy way to offer multiple payment methods on your site. It’s a leading WordPress payments plugin that lets you receive payments without setting up a full-featured eCommerce store or membership site.

It uses Stripe, a popular payment gateway, to accept payments from credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH bank debit, SEPA direct debit, Alipay, Giropay, iDEAL, and more.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Simple Pay plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

While there is a free version of the plugin, you need the Pro plugin to create on-site payment forms, accept Apple Pay, and more.

Upon activation, the WP Simple Pay setup wizard will start automatically. You simply need to click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button to continue.

First, you’ll be asked to enter your license key. You can find this information from your account on the WP Simple Pay website.

After that, you need to click the ‘Activate and Continue’ button to move on.

Next, you’ll need to connect WP Simple Pay to Stripe.

Start by clicking the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button. From there, you can log in to your Stripe account or create a new one. Anyone with a legitimate business can create a Stripe account and accept payments online.

As we mentioned earlier, Stripe will require your site to be using SSL/HTTPS encryption. If you don’t already have an SSL certificate for your website, then please see our step by step guide on how to add SSL in WordPress.

Once you’ve connected to Stripe, you’ll be asked to configure your WP Simple Pay emails.

The options for payment and invoice emails to your customers have already been enabled for you. So has the option for sending payment notification emails. You just need to enter the email address where the notifications should be sent.

Once you’ve done that, you need to click the ‘Save and Continue’ button. This completes your setup of WP Simple Pay.

There’s one more setting you may need to configure before we move on. Some payment options will only work for specific currencies, so if you are not using USD, then you will need to change the default currency.

Simply visit WP Simple Pay » Settings then click on ‘General’ and then ‘Currency’, then select the correct currency from the drop down menu.

Creating a Payment Form in WordPress

Now it’s time to create your payment form. WP Simple Pay offers plenty of ways to customize the form, but if you need more complete control over the way your form looks, then check out WPForms in Method 3.

If you didn’t need to change your currency and can still see the last page of the setup wizard, simply click the ‘Create a Payment Form’ button. Otherwise, you should navigate to the WP Simple Pay » Add New page.

You’ll be shown a list of payment form templates. You could start with a generic template such as ‘Payment Form’ and then add payment methods. Alternatively, you can look for a more specific template, such as ‘Afterpay/Clearpay’ or ‘Apple Pay / Google Pay‘.

For this tutorial, we’ll choose the ‘Payment Form’ template. Simply hover over the template you wish to use and click the ‘Use Template’ button when it appears.

This will take you to the payment form editor.

You should start by giving the payment form a name and description. After that, you can select the ‘Stripe Checkout’ option under Form Type.

Next, you need to click on the ‘Payment’ tab. Here you can set the payment mode to either live or testing. Test mode will let you make payments that are not actually charged so you can make sure your form is working properly and emails are being sent.

Don’t forget to change this to ‘Live’ when you’ve finished testing and are ready to start receiving payments from your customers.

You can also add the products or services that you offer, along with their prices and whether they are a one-time payment or a subscription.

Simply click the ‘Add Price’ button until you have added as many prices as you need. Then for each one, you will need to add a label and price. You can also select other options, such as if the price is a subscription, or the user can determine the price, as in a donation.

You can show or hide a price by clicking the small arrow on the right.

Next, we’ll move on to the ‘Form Fields’ tab. The essential fields have already been added to the form, and you can add more if necessary.

Using the ‘Form Fields’ drop down, you can choose additional fields and add them by clicking the ‘Add Field’ button. Options include name, phone number, address, and much more.

The default text on the button is ‘Pay with Card’. Since you’ll be accepting multiple payment types, you can change the text to something more generic, such as simply ‘Pay Now’. Then your customers won’t assume that credit cards are the only payment option.

Finally, you should click the ‘Stripe Checkout’ tab and select the payment methods you wish to offer. For this tutorial, we’ll just leave the default settings.

Additional payment methods, such as Apple Pay, will be automatically offered on compatible devices. To learn more, see our guide on how to accept Apple Pay in WordPress.

Klarna and Afterpay are ‘buy now, pay later’ services and offer customers flexibility as they can purchase goods and pay in installments over a specified time period. For more information, see our guide on how to add ‘buy now pay later’ payment plans to WordPress.

When you are happy with your payment form, click the ‘Publish’ button to store your settings and push the form live.

The final step is to add the form to a post or page on your website.

Adding the Payment Form to Your Website

WP Simple Pay makes it super easy to add forms anywhere on your website.

Simply create a new post or page, or edit an existing one. Then, click on the plus (+) sign at the top and add a WP Simple Pay block in the WordPress block editor.

After that, select your order form from the dropdown menu in the WP Simple Pay block.

Once you’re finished, you can update or publish the post or page, and then click on the preview button to see your form in action.

When your users click the ‘Pay Now’ button, the Stripe checkout form will be displayed. This will offer all of the payment options you checked earlier.

On supported devices and browsers, additional payment options such as Apple Pay will also be offered automatically.

One additional payment method you can offer your customers using WP Simple Pay is recurring payments. For more information, see our guide on how to accept recurring payments in WordPress.

Method 2: Offering Multiple Payment Methods in WooCommerce

If you are running an online store using WooCommerce, then you can easily offer additional payment methods by using PayPal and the Stripe payment gateway.

For this tutorial, we’ll assume that you already have WooCommerce installed. If you need help setting it up, then see our step by step guide on WooCommerce.

Adding PayPal to Your WooCommerce Store

You may have already set up PayPal when following the WooCommerce setup wizard in that guide. If you have, then you can move on to the next section and set up Stripe.

If not, you need to head over to WooCommerce » Settings and then click the ‘Payments’ tab at the top of the screen.

After that, scroll down the page until you find PayPal and click the ‘Get started’ button.

You need to start by typing your PayPal email address and then selecting your country from the drop down menu.

After that, you should click the ‘Next’ button to continue.

If you already have a PayPal account using that email address, then you’ll be asked to provide your password and log in. Otherwise, you’ll first be asked to provide your personal details and create a new account.

Finally, you should click the ‘Agree and Consent’ button to connect your PayPal account to the online store.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to confirm your email address by going to your inbox and following the instructions in the email you were sent. You can then dismiss the popup window by scrolling to the bottom and clicking the button.

You should find yourself back on the WooCommerce payments settings page. Here you will need to check the box to enable the PayPal payment gateway on your online store.

After that, carefully scroll down the page and make sure all the settings are correct. When you’re happy, you can click the ‘Save changes’ button at the bottom of the page.

When checking out, your customers can now pay using PayPal as a payment option.

Adding Stripe to Your WooCommerce Store

The first thing you need to do is install and activate WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Some payment options are only available for certain currencies. If you are using a currency other than USD, then you should navigate to WooCommerce » Settings and make sure you are on the ‘General’ tab.

Here you can choose the currency for your online store. Make sure you click the ‘Save’ button to store the setting.

After that, you should click the ‘Payments’ tab. Once there, you should scroll down until you find ‘Stripe’ in the ‘Method’ column. Notice that there are multiple Stripe payment methods.

You need to start by clicking the ‘Set up’ button next to ‘Stripe – Credit Card’. This will launch a setup wizard that takes you through the steps of connecting WooCommerce to Stripe.

On the next screen, click on the ‘Enter account keys’ button.

WooCommerce will now ask for your Stripe account keys. To get this information, you need to log into your Stripe dashboard in a new tab.

Inside the Stripe dashboard, you should make sure you’re on the ‘Developers’ tab at the top of the screen, and then select ‘API keys’ from the left-hand menu.

You can now copy the ‘Publishable key.’

Then, switch back to your WordPress dashboard and paste this key into the ‘Live publishable key’ field.

Now you need to do the same thing with the secret key. Simply switch back to your Stripe dashboard and click on the ‘Reveal live key’ button.

This will show your secret key.

You need to copy the key and then head back to your WordPress dashboard and paste it into the ‘Live secret key’ field.

After that, just click on the ‘Test connection’ link.

After a few moments, you will see a ‘Connection successful’ message. This means that WooCommerce is now connected to your Stripe account.

You can now go ahead and click on the ‘Save live keys’ button.

This will take you to the Stripe ‘Settings’ screen.

On this screen, you need to check the ‘Enable Stripe’ box. If you like, you can also click the ‘Enable test mode’ box.

Test mode will let you make payments that are not actually charged to an account. This is useful when testing multiple payment types in your WooCommerce store. Don’t forget to come back and uncheck the setting when you are ready to start taking payments.

Now you can scroll to the very bottom of the page and click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Now that you have enabled Stripe credit card payments, you can enable any additional Stripe payment methods you would like to offer on your online store.

Head back to WooCommerce » Settings and click on the ‘Payments’ tab. Once there, you can explore the payment methods that work with your store’s currency.

For this tutorial, we’ll enable Alipay. You need to find ‘Stripe Alipay’ in the list of payment methods and then click its ‘Set up’ button.

Here you can click the ‘Enable Alipay’ button. This will display Alipay as a payment option when checking out.

Next, you need to click the ‘Save changes’ button to store your settings.

Adding Recurring Payments to WooCommerce

Another way to offer flexible payment arrangements to your WooCommerce customers is to add recurring payments so that your customers are automatically charged on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.

This automates the billing process to can save you time. You won’t have to manually send invoices and recurring payments generally lead to fewer payment delays and errors.

To learn more, see Method 4 in our guide on how to accept recurring payments in WordPress.

Now when your customers check out, they will be able to choose their preferred payment method. Here’s an example screenshot from our demo WooCommerce store.

Our customers are able to make payments using credit cards, PayPal, and Alipay.

Method 3: Offering Multiple Payment Methods Using WPForms

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

WPForms is the best drag and drop form builder plugin for WordPress. It lets you create a simple order form or donation form without the hassle of a full-fledged eCommerce platform or shopping cart plugin.

While they have a Lite version that’s free, you will need their Pro plan to access the payment addons and order form template. It supports credit cards and PayPal.

Upon activation, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information in your WPForms account area.

Connecting Payment Platforms to WPForms

Next, we’ll connect WPForms with the payment platforms you plan to use. To do this, you need to head over to WPForms » Addons and install the payment addons.

Once there, you need to scroll down to the PayPal Standard Addon and then click on its Install Addon button.

You’ll see a message saying that the addon has been installed and activated, and the text on the button will change to Deactivate.

We’ll set up your PayPal account details later in the tutorial.

You’ll also need to install an addon for accepting credit card payments. WPForms supports Stripe, Square and Authorize.net. For this tutorial, we’ll set up Stripe, but the steps for setting up the other two platforms are similar.

You’ll need to scroll to the Stripe Addon and click on the Install Addon button.

Once the addons have been installed and activated, you’ll need to connect WPForms to your Stripe account.

To do that, head over to WPForms » Settings page and click on the ‘Payments’ tab. After that, you will need to connect your Stripe account by clicking the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button.

On the next screen, you can enter your Stripe email address and click the ‘Next’ button. Once that is done, Stripe will now ask for your password so that it can log in to your account.

After logging in, you can select your Stripe account and then click the ‘Connect’ button. You’ll then be redirected back to the WPForms Payments settings tab.

To make sure that your account is successfully connected, you can go to the Connection Status settings under Stripe settings.

When you see a green tick mark, it means your Stripe account is now live with WPForms. Go ahead and click the ‘Save Settings’ button to store your settings.

WPForms is now ready to accept credit card payments.

Creating an Order Form With Multiple Payment Methods

Now we’ll create an online order form that can accept both PayPal and credit card payments.

To start, head over to the WPForms » Add New page. From here, you need to provide a title for your form and then select the ‘Billing / Order Form’ template.

WPForms will pre-load the form builder with a simple order form with commonly used fields.

You can edit any field by clicking it.

You can add new fields from the left column using drag and drop.

You’ll need to drag a Multiple Choice field onto the form to allow your customers to select from multiple payment options.

After that, you should drag the Stripe Credit Card field onto the form just underneath the Multiple Choice field.

Next, you need to click on the Multiple Choice field and change the options to match the payment methods you are offering.

Start by giving the field the label Payment Method. After that, you should name the first two choices PayPal and Credit Card.

You can simply remove the third choice by clicking the red minus ‘‘ button.

After that, you need to switch the Required option on. This will make sure that users select a payment method before they submit the order form.

Now we need to set up the Stripe Credit Card field. We want it to be hidden until a user selects it as their payment option. We’ll need to use WPForms’ conditional logic feature.

You’ll need to click on the Stripe field so that you can edit it, and then click the ‘Smart Logic’ tab. Simply enable conditional logic by clicking the toggle switch to the on position.

You will now see some additional options that allow you to set up rules for the field. You need to make sure that the first option is selected to ‘Show’ and then use the drop down menus so that the remaining fields say ‘Payment is Credit Card’.

Now the Stripe Credit Card field will only be shown after a user selects Credit Card from the Payment Method field.

Enabling Payment Methods on the Order Form

Now we’ll enable PayPal and Stripe payments for the order form.

You should first navigate to Payments » PayPal Standard in the WPForms form builder. Once there, you should check the ‘Enable PayPal Standard payments’ box in the right panel.

After that, you should fill in the rest of the fields. Type in your PayPal email address and place the account in Production mode. You also need to configure whether users need to supply a shipping address.

After that, you need to scroll down to the Enable Conditional Logic option and toggle it to the ON position. This will reveal more settings.

You should set the rule to ‘Process the charge if the Payment Method is PayPal’.

Next, you need to click on the Stripe section of the Payments tab and then check the ‘Enable Stripe payments’ box.

You can add a payments description and opt to email a receipt if you wish. After that, you need to switch the Enable Conditional Logic toggle to the on position so that you can create a rule for this payment option.

You need to configure the rule so that it reads ‘Process this charge if the Payment Method is Credit Card’.

If you’d like to accept recurring subscription payments by credit card, then you can scroll down to the Subscription section and configure it.

Once you are done, you need to click on the Save button at the top and exit the form builder.

Adding the Order Form to Your WordPress Site

Your online order form with multiple payment options is now ready, and you can add it to any WordPress page on your site.

To add your form, simply edit a post or page or create a new one. Then, click on the plus + sign on the right of the page and add a WPForms block in your WordPress editor.

After that, you need to click on the drop down menu in the WPForms block, and then select your order form. When you’ve finished, make sure you save or publish the page.

Now you can see your form in action by clicking the ‘Preview’ button at the top of the screen.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to allow users to choose a payment method on your WordPress form.

You may also want to see our expert pick of the best virtual business phone number apps for small businesses, and our step by step guide on how to choose the best business VoIP provider.

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 Allow Users to Choose a Payment Method on WordPress Forms first appeared on WPBeginner.