Guides & Tutorials

Smaily Connect for WordPress and WooCommerce

Smaily Connect plugin allows you to connect your WordPress website, WooCommerce store, Contact Form 7 and Elementor with Smaily email marketing platform. Note! This plugin requires paid plan in Smaily.

Smaily Connect plugin allows you to:

  • collect newsletter subscribers on your webpage and store;
  • synchronize newsletter subscribers, all customers or guests to your Smaily account;
  • send automated messages like abandoned cart reminders, welcome messages etc;
  • send transactional messages;
  • use RSS feed for faster product import;
  • and connect Smaily Intelligence for more in depth marketing.

For more in depth documentation, see here.

Installing and configuring the plugin

How to Connect:

  1. To install Smaily Connect plugin, go to “Plugins” ➝  “Add Plugin” and then type in the search box “Smaily”.
  2. Choose “Smaily Connect” plugin and click on the button “Install now”.
  3. Once installation has finished click on “Activate” and find the activated Smaily plugin in “Plugins” page list or on the sidebar menu as “Smaily Connect”.

Navigate to Smaily Connect plugin. In the initial setup, you need to create a connection to your Smaily account.

  1. To make a connection, open your Smaily account and navigate to account preferences, then integrations tab.
  2. Click on “Create a new user” button, to create API username and API password.
  3. Copy subdomain, API username and API password to Smaily Connect plugin’s fields and click on “Test connection”.
  4. If connection is created then “Connected to Smaily” message is shown and you can now continue to next step.

Note! For the main connection you can connect your marketing Smaily account. The plugin allows you to connect your transactional account as well, if you wish to send transactional automated messages.

Contact Synchronization

Contact Synchronization allows you to synchronize contacts directly from your store to Smaily. You can choose which datafields and which contacts to synchronize daily to your Smaily account. 

To activate contact synchronization:

  1. Enable “Sync contacts to Smaily” .
  2. Choose which fields you want to be synced, select or deselect preferred fields.
  3. Select which contacts to synchronize – subscribers, all customers or opted-in customers.

In this setup step you can also enable subscription checkboxes for account registration and checkout.

You can also trigger initial contact import, which imports contacts based on contact synchronization selection to your Smaily account. Note that after initial import, normal contact synchronization will sync contacts going forward.

Automated letters

Send marketing and transactional emails via Smaily automation workflows. Connect your Smaily automation workflows with Smaily Connect plugin triggers to send automated letters.

Note! When your page is in a single language, you can connect one workflow. Multi language sites allow connecting multiple workflows or even accounts. Newsletter subscription welcome emails can be configured under subscription forms settings.

Read how to create automation workflows here or choose a “welcome email” automation template in Smaily.

Send a welcome letter to new accounts created in your store (checkout or My Account registrations — not for accounts added in WordPress admin or created by another plugin).

  1. Enable welcome email,
  2. Select pre-built automation workflow from your Smaily account.

Send a letter to customer who purchase for the first time in your store.

  1. Enable first-order email,
  2. Select pre-built automation workflow from your Smaily account.

Send an abandoned cart reminder letter to customers who have abandoned their cart for set amount of time.

  1. Enable abandoned cart email,
  2. Select pre-built automation workflow from your Smaily account.

Note! Abandoned cart emails are sent only to those customers, who have logged in and abandoned their cart. Abandoned cart check runs every 15 minutes, so the delay for the message send can be longer that the cutoff time itself.

Send an order confirmation letter to customers who placed an order.

  1. Enable order confirmation email,
  2. Select pre-built automation workflow from your transactional Smaily account.

Send an shipping confirmation letter to customers when the order has been completed and is ready to be sent.

  1. Enable order confirmation email,
  2. Select which order status counts as shipped for your store (completed checked by default),
  3. Select pre-built automation workflow from your transactional Smaily account.

Campaign Intelligence

Turn the emails you already send into more relevant, personalized customer experiences.

Note! Campaign Intelligence is an extra paid feature. Skip this page to continue setting up Smaily Connect plugin.

Smaily Campaign Intelligence analyzes your WooCommerce store’s products, orders and customer behaviour to create personalized product recommendations for every contact. Recommendations improve continuously based on what customers open, click and purchase.

The system receives your product catalogue, customer name and email address, and order and purchase data. Consent-based browsing data can also be included. Phone numbers and postal addresses are not transferred.

  • Personalised product recommendations in Smaily emails
  • Recommendations available in regular campaigns and automations
  • Signals for repeat purchases, reactivation and other automated campaigns
  • Less manual segmentation and product selection
  • Reporting on recommendation-driven engagement and revenue

€250 per month, added to your regular Smaily monthly payment.

How to activate it

  1. Contact Smaily to activate this feature and get the setup URL.
  2. Insert the URL in Campaign Intelligence tab field in Smaily Connect plugin and click “Connect”.
  3. Once the connection has been made you can continue to set up Campaign Intelligence.

Campaign Intelligence settings

You can “Test Engine Connection” to see if Campaign Intelligence Connection is working.

Data synchronization is enabled by creating the connection and runs automatically in the background.

You can choose which existing data you wish to import to Campaign Intelligence engine – products, customers and orders. This import allows the engine to learn previous data.

Browsing telemetry 

This option allows you yo track browsing behaviour of your customers and tracks product / category views to power ‘similar products’ recommendations. This feature requires marketing consent.

Campaign Intelligence automation workflows

  1. Return to the third step of Smaily Connect setup.
  2. Insert the URL in Campaign Intelligence tab field in Smaily Connect plugin and click “Connect”.
  3. Once the connection has been made you can continue to set up Campaign Intelligence.

Replenishment due automated letters are triggered by Campaign Intelligence tool, when predicted moment is due (a replenishment running out, a customer at risk of churning, etc.), based on customer’s previous purchase history and behaviour.

  1. Return to the third step of Smaily Connect setup.
  2. Enable Replenishment due setup and choose the  pre-created Smaily automation workflow.
  3. Select Cooldown and test, before activating for real.

Win-back (sign of life) automated letters are triggered by Campaign Intelligence tool, when when a dormant/lapsed customer clicks an email — the strike-while-hot moment with personal picks and an optional discount.

  1. Return to the third step of Smaily Connect setup.
  2. Enable Win-back (sign of life) setup and choose the  pre-created Smaily automation workflow.
  3. Select Cooldown and test, before activating for real.

Post-purchase cross-sell automated letters are triggered by Campaign Intelligence tool on the nightly run after a purchase — “goes well with your order” complementary picks. Note: if the store plugin already sends a “first purchase” automation, keep the two distinct (this is a recommendations email, not a thank-you).

  1. Return to the third step of Smaily Connect setup.
  2. Enable Post-purchase cross-sell setup and choose the  pre-created Smaily automation workflow.
  3. Select Cooldown and test, before activating for real.

Back in stock automated letters are triggered by Campaign Intelligence tool when a product that was out of stock gets restocked (a 30-minute debounce first, to filter out stock-status flicker). Notifies past purchasers of the product and customers who browsed it while it was out of stock.

  1. Return to the third step of Smaily Connect setup.
  2. Enable Back in stock setup and choose the pre-created Smaily automation workflow.
  3. Select Cooldown and test, before activating for real.

Forms

Add a newsletter subscription form to any page, to collect new subscribers directly to your Smaily account. Choose the suitable form option for your page and follow the instructions to add the form.

Note! Welcome email can be set up under each form option settings.

  1. Navigate to any page or post and start editing.
  2. Choose the + sign to add a block, then search for the “shortcode” block.
  3. Copy Smaily subscription form shortcode and save by clicking “Publish”

[smaily_connect_newsletter_form]

Other attributes examples:

  • Adding success url: [smaily_connect_newsletter_form success_url="http://www.example.com/?page_id=2"] (Note! Default return path is the site’s home url.)
  • Failure url: [smaily_connect_newsletter_form failure_url="http://www.example.com/?page_id=2"] (Note! Default return path is the site’s home url.)
  • Name: [smaily_connect_newsletter_form show_name="true"]
  • Connecting automation workflow: [smaily_connect_newsletter_form autoresponder_id="123"]

Note! You can combine multiple options.

You can also use Smaily Opt-In Form block to add the newsletter subscription form to any page or post.

  1. Choose the page or post you want to add the Smaily Opt-In Form block to.
  2. Search “Smaily” in the blocks menu.
  3. Click on the Smaily Opt-In Form block or drag it to the preferred section.
  4. Customize the Smaily Opt-In Form block in the block menu.
  5. You can choose to display name field and modify the field texts, success messages, button visuals etc.
  6. Under Hidden Fields you can add a custom success url and failure url, which are displayed after form submission. You can also connect a welcome automation workflow created in your Smaily account and add custom hidden fields to the form.
  7. To add custom hidden fields to your form, click on “Add field” and define the name and value of the field. Hidden fields are added automatically with the contact to your Smaily account and allow later segmentation.
  8. If everything is set up, click on “Save” to save changes.

You can use the built-in Smaily Opt-In Form widget to generate and style a subscription form in Elementor page builder.

  1. Choose the page or post you want to add the newsletter subscription form to.
  2. Choose the section you want to add the widget to and search “Smaily” in the widgets menu.
  3. Click on the Smaily widget or drag it to the preferred section.
  4. Customize the newsletter subscription form in the form menu. You can modify both the texts and styles of the form.
  5. Under Hidden Fields you can add a custom success url and failure url, which are displayed after form submission. You can also connect a welcome automation workflow created in your Smaily account and add custom hidden fields to the form.
  6. To add custom hidden fields to your form, click on “Add item” and define the name and value of the field. Hidden fields are added automatically with the contact to your Smaily account and allow later segmentation.
  7. If everything is set up, click on “Publish” to save changes.

If you are using WordPress native webpage builder you can add the Smaily newsletter subscription form using Smaily Classic Subscription Widget.

  1. Follow the link in “Getting started” tab or find the widget under “Appearance” → “Widgets” menu.
  2. Choose the widget area, where you wish to add the newsletter subscription form and click on “+” icon to choose from available blocks.
  3. Type “Smaily” in the search field and select “Smaily Classic Subscription Widget”
  4. Add a title to your form, fill out the other fields and choose an automation workflow (autoresponder)  to send welcome messages.
  5. If everything is ready to go, click on “Update” to save settings.

You can also use Contact Form 7 form builder to create custom forms and connect them to your Smaily account. Navigate to “Contact” menu to access Contact Form 7 forms.

  1. Choose or create a new newsletter subscription form.
  2. Navigate to “Smaily for Contact Form 7” tab.
  3. Click on “Enable Smaily for this form” to activate the connection.
  4. If you want to send welcome messages, choose the correct autoresponder.
  5. Click on “Save”.

Note! Make sure you have CAPTCHA activated.

If you are using block builder editor in WordPress, an alternative method to add custom forms to your page is by using Smaily Landing Page block. This allows you to add a landing paged created in Smaily, as an iframe to any part of your page.

  1. Choose the page or post you want to add the landing page form to.
  2. Search “Smaily” in the blocks menu.
  3. Click on the Smaily Landing page block or drag it to the preferred section.
  4. Customize the landing page block in the block menu.
  5. Add your Smaily landing page url and then change the landing page height and width.
  6. If everything is set up, click on “Save” to save changes.

3. Custom HTML form

You can also create your own unique subscription form by using our example code. Create a custom HTML form for maximum flexibility and advanced functionality. While this requires more technical knowledge, it gives you complete control over the form’s appearance and behavior. Copy the modified code to an HTML block on any page or post.

You can view the example form here.

Product RSS feed

On the fifth page of Smaily Connect setup you can generate the product RSS feed URL. Smaily RSS feed allows you to effortlessly import up to 250 latest products to Smaily template. You can customize generated RSS feed based on product categories and limit generated RSS feed products amount with preferred value.

To create the feed, choose which product categories and limitations apply. Then copy the feed URL into Smaily template editor’s RSS block. Read more about Smaily RSS feed element.

Overview and settings

On the last page of Smaily Connect setup you can review your initial setup, where you can see which connections are made up until now.

Click on “Finish” to complete the initial setup and to navigate to Connect settings. Under Connect settings, you can now visit each setup step separately and review everything.