How to Email Authors When Articles Are Published in WordPress

At WPBeginner, we have found that one often overlooked aspect of running a multi-author WordPress blog is keeping authors in the loop, especially when their articles go live.

Timely communication ensures that authors know when their work is published, helping them feel more connected to the process.

That’s why we recommend setting up automatic email notifications to inform authors when their posts are live. This simple step not only keeps authors informed but can also improve site engagement.

Authors can quickly share their published content across their networks and actively participate in any discussions or comments, boosting the overall visibility and reach of the post.

In this article, we will show you how to email authors when their articles are published in WordPress.

Why Email Authors When Their Articles Are Published in WordPress?

By notifying authors when their posts are published on your WordPress blog, you allow them to immediately promote their work on social media platforms and communicate with readers in the comments section.

Additionally, notifications keep authors updated about the publication statuses for different posts. This helps build trust among your team by showing that you value the writer’s contributions to your multi-author blog.

By alerting authors immediately upon post publication, you also give them the opportunity to view their content and correct any typos or errors before visitors have a chance to read it.

Having said that, let’s see how to easily email authors when their articles are published in WordPress. You can use the links below to jump to the method of your choice:

Method 1: Email Authors When Their Article Is Published in WordPress Using a Plugin

If you prefer to use a plugin to notify authors when their WordPress posts are published, then this method is for you.

First, you need to install and activate the PublishPress Planner plugin. For detailed instructions, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, visit the Planner » Settings page from the WordPress admin sidebar and switch to the ‘Notifications’ tab.

Once you are there, type in the admin email address that will be used to send emails to your authors next to the ‘Email from’ option.

After that, check the ‘Always notify the author of the content’ option to email authors every time their posts are published on your website.

If you also want to notify the WordPress users who edited the post, check the ‘Always notify users who have edited the content’ option.

Once you are done, click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your changes.

Now, when you publish an author’s article, they will receive a post notification on their email that looks like this:

Method 2: Email Authors When Their Article Is Published in WordPress Using Code

If you don’t want to use a plugin, then you can also automatically send emails to the author of the post by adding code to your theme’s functions.php file.

However, the smallest error when adding code can break your website and make it inaccessible.

That is why we recommend always using WPCode. It is the best WordPress code snippets plugin on the market, making it super safe and easy to add custom code to your website.

First, you need to install and activate the WPCode plugin. For details, you can see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, visit the Code Snippets » + Add Snippet page from the WordPress dashboard.

Then, click the ‘Use Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.

This will open a popup window where you need to choose a code type. For this tutorial, select ‘PHP Snippet’ from the options.

You’ll then be taken to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, where you can start by adding a title for the code snippet.

Now copy and paste the following custom code into the ‘Code Preview’ box:

function notifyauthor($post_id) {
 
$post = get_post($post_id);
$author = get_userdata($post->post_author);
$subject = "Post Published: ".$post->post_title."";
 
$message = "
      Hi ".$author->display_name.",
       
      Your post, \"".$post->post_title."\" has just been published.
       
      View post: ".get_permalink( $post_id )."
       
      Thanks"
      ;
       
   wp_mail($author->user_email, $subject, $message);
}
add_action('publish_post', 'notifyauthor');

This code runs when a new post is published in WordPress. It sends an email notification to the author using the subject and message defined in the code. Feel free to change the subject and message fields to meet your needs.

Once you have done that, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section and choose the ‘Auto Insert’ mode. Upon activation, the code will be automatically executed on your website.

Finally, scroll back to the top and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’.

After that, click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to store your settings.

Now, when you publish a post on your WordPress website, the author will automatically receive an email notification.

It will look like this:

Bonus: Use WP Mail SMTP to Send Your Emails

When you send emails to your authors about their published posts, you are using the default WordPress email settings, which are not always reliable.

This means that your email may not reach the author or might even end up in their spam folder.

To fix this issue, you can use WP Mail SMTP, which is the best WordPress SMTP plugin on the market.

It uses the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) method for mail transmission and eliminates your email delivery problems.

You can easily connect WP Mail SMTP with popular email marketing services and ensure your emails reach the user’s inbox immediately.

You can also avoid the spam folder, track your email logs, use backup connections and failure alerts, and send emails to your users using premade templates.

For detailed instructions, see our beginner’s guide on how to properly configure your WordPress email settings.

We hope this article helped you learn how to email authors when their articles are published in WordPress. You may also want to see our tutorial on how to highlight author comments in WordPress and our expert picks for the best free author bio box plugins for your WordPress site.

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