Campaign Builder (Sky Campaigns) helps site owners collect subscribers and manage basic email campaign activity directly from the WordPress dashboard.
The plugin adds a Campaigns admin menu where you can create subscription campaigns, choose popup templates, customize form text and colors, review subscribers, export subscriber lists, send newsletter broadcasts, and create delayed auto responder emails for each campaign.
Sky Campaigns stores campaign and subscriber data in your own WordPress database. Email is sent through WordPress using wp_mail(), so delivery depends on your site’s mail configuration. For reliable delivery, use a properly configured SMTP or transactional email plugin.
Main Features
- Create multiple subscription campaigns.
- Show active campaigns as front-end popups.
- Embed an inline subscription form with the
[skyca_form]shortcode. - Choose from six popup templates.
- Customize campaign headline, sub-headline, button text, colors, optional image URL, and optional first name field.
- Use time delay, scroll depth, exit intent, or immediate popup triggers.
- Store subscribers by campaign.
- Search, filter, and export subscribers as CSV.
- Send a configurable confirmation email to new subscribers.
- Create campaign-specific auto responders with day/hour delays and send order.
- Process auto responder queues with WordPress cron.
- Create newsletter drafts and send newsletters immediately to all active subscribers or selected campaigns.
- Use merge tags in confirmation emails, auto responders, and newsletters.
- Include unsubscribe links in newsletter emails.
- Access community support, developer support, and review links from the Support screen.
Campaigns and Popup Forms
Each campaign includes a name, description, active/inactive status, popup template, display trigger, and popup settings. Active popup campaigns render on the front end and follow their saved trigger settings.
Available popup templates:
- Classic Clean
- Bold Announcement
- Minimal Slide-in
- Dark Luxury
- Gradient Burst
- Split Panel
Available trigger types:
- Time delay in seconds.
- Scroll depth percentage.
- Exit intent.
- Immediate display.
Popup display is campaign-based. Active popup campaigns are available globally on the front end; the plugin does not currently include per-page targeting controls in the admin interface.
Inline Form Shortcode
Use this shortcode to embed a campaign subscription form in posts, pages, widgets, or builder areas that support WordPress shortcodes:
[skyca_form campaign_id="1"]
Replace 1 with the ID of an active campaign. The shortcode returns no form if the campaign does not exist or is inactive.
Subscriber Management
Subscribers are stored in the WordPress database and linked to the campaign they joined. The Subscribers screen lets you:
- View subscriber email addresses, first names, last names, campaign names, status, and subscription dates.
- Filter subscribers by campaign.
- Search by email, first name, or last name.
- See total and active subscriber counts.
- Export subscribers to CSV.
The public forms collect email address and, when enabled, first name. The database also includes a last name field for compatibility with merge tags and future/custom integrations.
Confirmation Emails
When a new subscriber joins a campaign, Sky Campaigns sends a confirmation email using your configured sender details.
From Campaigns > Settings, you can set:
- From name.
- From email.
- Confirmation email subject.
- Confirmation email body.
Confirmation emails are sent through wp_mail() and use the same HTML email wrapper as newsletter and auto responder messages.
Auto Responders
Auto responders are campaign-specific follow-up emails. Each auto responder includes:
- Campaign selection.
- Internal name.
- Email subject.
- HTML body.
- Delay in days.
- Delay in hours.
- Send order.
- Active or inactive status.
When a new subscriber joins a campaign, active auto responders for that campaign are added to the email queue. The queue is processed hourly with WordPress cron, up to 50 pending auto responder emails per run.
Newsletters
Newsletters are broadcast emails you can create from the Newsletters screen. Each newsletter includes:
- Internal name.
- Subject.
- HTML body.
- Optional campaign targeting.
- Draft or sent status.
- Sent count and sent date after delivery.
Leave campaign targeting empty to send to all active subscribers, or select one or more campaigns to limit delivery. Newsletters are sent when you choose Send Now or Save & Send Now. The plugin can save a scheduled date field, but it does not currently include an automated newsletter scheduler.
Merge Tags
Use the merge tag picker beside supported subject fields or in the WordPress editor toolbar to insert available tags.
Supported merge tags:
{{first_name}}{{last_name}}{{email}}{{blog_name}}{{blog_url}}{{date}}
If a subscriber record does not contain a value, the related merge tag is replaced with an empty value.
Unsubscribe Handling
Newsletter emails include an unsubscribe link. When a subscriber uses that link, the plugin marks matching active subscriber records for that email address as unsubscribed and stores an unsubscribe date.
Privacy and Data
The plugin does not send subscriber data to an external email marketing service by itself. Messages are sent through WordPress’s mail handling. Your hosting provider, SMTP plugin, or transactional mail provider may process outgoing email according to its own terms and privacy policy.
