WordPress Announcement Bar Examples & Templates

Do you want to make an announcement to everyone visiting your WordPress website?

Perhaps you’re dealing with a backlog on orders that’s causing shipping times to be delayed. Or have a flash sale to point people towards. You might even want to simply nudge people to a specific page or section of your site.

A WordPress announcement bar allows you to make that announcement across several pages on your site—without ruining your existing website design.

In this post, we'll cover how to create a WordPress announcement bar as well as what to actually include in it. Plus, we've got plenty of real life examples for inspiration, and some ready-to-use templates you can launch with right now.

What is a WordPress announcement bar?

A WordPress announcement bar is a horizontal message bar that appears on your WordPress website. They usually stick to either the top or bottom of the screen as someone scrolls (you might also see them called “sticky bars” for this reason), which makes them a great place to display a short, important, clear message to visitors:

You'll usually be able to control which pages of your site the announcement bar shows on, and possibly even target specific visitors using a variety of conditions. However, this is dependent on the platform or tool you use to create the bar.

PRO TIP:

With ConvertFlow, you're able to target single or multi-step sticky bars using a variety of advanced conditions. E.g. by page URL, geo-location, device type, data in your CRM, and more:

Learn more about targeting in ConvertFlow

What to put in your WordPress announcement bar

It’s all well and good to have an announcement bar on your WordPress website. But what exactly should you use yours for? 

Here are some examples:

• Share time-limited deals like a flash sale
• Give shoppers a discount code 
• Explain free shipping requirements
• Promote site-wide free shipping
• Announce a new product or feature
• Nudge to a particular section or page of your site
• Promote a lead magnet or webinar to capture leads

Regardless of what you’re announcing, your website’s announcement bar is usually one of the first things that catches a visitor's eye when they land on your site. So, use it to your advantage!

We already know that a sticky bar can have many uses. So to get some ideas flowing for yours, here are six different announcement bars used on real WordPress sites:

1. S’well’s shipping delays announcement bar

Given the fact that COVID means we’re not in a “business as usual” time, you might be dealing with late shipping or manufacturing times. So an announcement bar is the perfect way to communicate this with website visitors.

This sticky bar from S’well, for example, explains the delay on their orders. There’s also a link to a separate page explaining why it’s happening and what to expect:

See full example

The best part about this announcement bar is that customers know about delays before ordering. It stops S'well's customer service department from being flooded with “where is my order?” questions because they know about shipping delays before buying.

2. Dineamic’s free delivery announcement bar

Talking of shipping, a sticky bar is the ideal way to promote your free shipping deals. This example from Dineamic does exactly that, clearly explaining that all customers get free shipping on orders over a certain amount:

See full example

Not only does this promote free shipping, but it could also have a knock-on effect on Dineamic's average order value.

Some 58% of customers will add extra items to their cart to qualify for free shipping. So a sticky bar nudge like this could be the push shoppers need to make a $99+ order.

3. Striiiipes’ discount code announcement bar

Here’s another example of using a WordPress announcement bar to talk about free shipping. Only this time, Striiiipes gives website visitors a special discount code to add at checkout, which will give them free shipping:

See full example

This works incredibly well on product and category pages.

People browsing those URLs are likely further along in their buying decision process. A coupon code—which eight in 10 people look for when shopping online—could be what tips them over the edge.

There's also a psychological factor in play here.

The physical act of entering a coupon to then see shipping removed in the cart could be more powerful than simply offering free shipping as standard. It's definitely worth testing out how each of these tactics affects conversions for your particular site.

4. Peak Freelance’s price increase announcement bar

Urgency is a psychological conversion tactic that gets people to act now, rather than later (when they might forget). According to SmartInsights, “the threat of having to pay more tomorrow, prompts people to buy today.” 

So, a great way to use your WordPress announcement bar is to explain any upcoming price changes.

This sticky bar from Peak Freelance, for example, shows that the price for their membership will be increasing:

See full example

It gives them a deadline to sign up by, and a prompt to lock-in the low price today—an excellent use of urgency to drive more sales.

5. FitBark’s flash sale announcement bar

As we mentioned earlier, the announcement bar is one of the first things a person sees when they land on your website. So, why not use that as a pointer towards your flash sale?

Here's a great example of this in action on FitBark’s website:

See full example

The vast majority (90%) of people use coupons when they’re shopping. By pointing towards sales and coupons in your announcement bar, you might convince them to purchase—even if they didn’t intend on doing so.

6. WPExplorer’s 'learn more' announcement bar

It’s not just B2C websites that can use WordPress announcement bars. This B2B example from WPExplorer shows how they use a sticky bar to direct blog readers toward their WordPress Themes:

See full example

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As you can see, a WordPress announcement bar is the perfect way to communicate with website visitors without ruining your theme or design.

Here’s where things get even better: you don’t need to be a design pro to make your own.

We’ve got a bunch of sticky bar templates for you to customize—like this one, which greets website visitors and gives them a clear call-to-action:

There are also templates to pin towards the bottom of your screen:

Regardless of the template you use, each is completely customizable. You can add your own offer, change the colors, text, top or bottom of screen and make a custom call-to-action—you could even embed a multi-step lead capture form in there, too!

Just use our WordPress integration to add the WordPress announcement bar to your site, and you’re good to go!

Here's a few more template options to choose from: