Holler Box: A Smart Notification Plugin for WordPress Websites

Scott Bolinger, co-founder of AppPresser, has launched a new sales and conversion tool for WordPress websites called Holler Box. The plugin offers a lightweight, elegant popup message for capturing email addresses, displaying a (fake) live chat, or announcing a sale or event.

Bolinger designed it to be non-intrusive – it’s not the kind of modal dialog that obscures content with an animated box in the middle of the page. Holler Box appears at the bottom right-hand of the page by default.

After finding other WordPress popup plugins to be too complex for his needs, Bolinger decided to create his own solution for displaying a quick notification on his websites.

“I’m a developer, and even adding a simple banner or popup to my site is not easy,” Bolinger said. I have to write the code, test locally, push to staging, test there, then push to production and do a final test. When I want to remove the message, I have to reverse the process. I’m busy, and that takes time.”

Bolinger made it so that creating a new Holler Box is as easy as writing a new blog post. The content editing screen includes a meta box with options for customizing the display.

The “Advanced Settings” meta box allows users to set pages where the notification should be displayed, limit to logged-in only or logged-out visitors, set the display for new or returning visitors, and customize the delay based on time or scrolling. It also gives options for when the Holler Box should disappear and how often it should be shown to each visitor.

Holler Box is capable of a wide range of uses. A few examples include the following:

(Fake) Live Chat with Opt-in
Show a live chat box to collect customer questions and emails, without having to actually deal with the hassle of live chat. As soon as your visitor types a question, an email opt-in pops up so you can follow up with them at a convenient time.

Polls and Forms
Embed anything into your Holler Box, including a feedback form or poll.

Interactivity
Add a link, video, contact form, or simple opt-in form that integrates with major email providers like MailChimp and Convertkit.

Below is an example of how the MailChimp email opt-in form works:

Holler Box also tracks impressions and conversions (link clicks and message opens) so that users can see how well their notifications are performing and optimize them as needed.

The free version on WordPress.org has an impressive number of customization options, but Bolinger also plans to release a Pro version that will include additional features, such as an option for a header banner, more advanced display filters, automatic message deactivation, advanced email opt-in features, more conversion data, and support.

“Holler Box aims to be more stylish and easier to use than existing options,” Bolinger said. “I use it when I need to make an announcement without spending a lot of time in a complex tool.” He said he could see the plugin working well side-by-side with well-established popup plugin competitors like OptinMonster.

Bolinger said Holler Box is not affiliated with AppPresser, but he plans to use it as a sales tool on all of his sites. The plugin’s unique feature set is something he found missing in WordPress’ marketplace for sales/conversion tools.

“I think Holler Box will increase sales and conversions without being as disruptive as other popups,” Bolinger said. “The sale notification popup and faux live chat feature are really unique. It’s how I want to communicate with my audience – hopefully other people feel the same.”