Hey there, folks! Today, we\u2019re going to talk about lead generation. More specifically, we\u2019re going to talk about one of the most powerful lead generation tools currently available.<\/p>\n
No, I\u2019m not referring to Hubspot, nor am I talking about Marketo.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s WordPress. See, there\u2019s a reason it\u2019s currently the world\u2019s most popular CMS – it\u2019s versatile enough to handle just about anything you can throw at it. Naturally, that includes lead-oriented marketing.<\/p>\n
The thing that makes WordPress such a great lead generation tool is tied directly to what makes it such a powerful platform in general – the development community. More specifically, the plugins. Using these modular add-ons, a user can extend the platform\u2019s functionality to do pretty much anything they require.<\/p>\n
Of course, that answer\u2019s a bit of a cop-out, isn\u2019t it? Everyone knows WordPress has a bunch of awesome plugins, and there can be no doubt that there are plenty of top-notch inbound marketing tools out there specifically designed for the CMS (we\u2019ll go over a few of those later in this piece). That\u2019s hardly news.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s talk about this in a bit more depth.<\/p>\n
Plugins aside, two of WordPress\u2019s most formidable features – as noted by Vapor Partners\u2019 Sam Brennand<\/a> – are social media integration and themes. It\u2019s not hard to see why the former\u2019s so important, truth be told. Brennand himself probably puts it best, labeling \u201ctightly-integrated networks of content, SEO, and social media\u201d as vital to any successful inbound lead generation strategy.<\/p>\n As for the reason themes are so important? That\u2019s a touch more subtle. Again, we\u2019re going to turn to Brennand for this one, as he probably puts it better than I could.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you\u2019ve created the right types of content for your audience, it needs a great home to play its part in the lead generation process,\u201d explains Brennand. What he means by that is that your site needs to look professional. It needs to be easy to navigate, and pleasing to the eye. An ugly site makes a poor first impression, and a poor first impression makes for a pretty awful lead generation campaign.<\/p>\n The right theme allows you to design a site that meets pretty much all of those criteria – without breaking the bank, at that. By loading up a theme from iThemes, Themeforest, StudioPress, ThemeJam (or one of the countless other websites out there), you can create a site that presents your visitors with the best first impression possible.<\/p>\n This one\u2019s pretty self-explanatory. It\u2019s extremely simple to integrate a company newsletter into your WordPress site – and only marginally more difficult to optimize your site for search. Given that email marketing and SEO are both important cogs in any successful inbound marketing strategy, that\u2019s pretty good news, no?<\/p>\n Alright, that\u2019s enough gushing about how awesome WordPress is. It\u2019s time for something a little more practical. Let\u2019s talk a little bit about how you can use WordPress to generate leads for your site.<\/p>\n I want you all to ask yourselves something. After reading a particularly interesting piece or watching a particularly entertaining video, what\u2019s one of the first things you do – aside from sharing it with friends? If you\u2019re like most, you\u2019ve one answer: you check out the comments.<\/p>\n For this reason, the comments section on your blog can actually be an awesome way to bring in a few extra leads from the people who are already the most active participants in your brand\u2019s community.<\/p>\n As a general rule, there are two ways you can tap into your commenters to generate more leads.<\/a> The first is to simply add a small checkbox at the end of your comments form that allows readers to opt-in to email updates. You can do this through a variety of plugins such as Aweber<\/a>, Subscribers Magnet, or Newsletter Signup<\/a>.<\/p>\n The second is through redirection. After someone\u2019s submitted their first comment, thank them for their participation and provide them with the opportunity to register with your company. Make sure you do something to sweeten the deal – access to an Ebook perhaps, or a white paper; maybe a coupon or a free product from your brand.<\/p>\n Just as you can add signup requests to your comments form, you can add it to pretty much any other form on your website, from captcha to registration forms. The easiest method here would probably be to use a third-party plugin like Gravity Forms (probably one of the best on the market, to be honest). You can check out this guide on WPBeginner<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n As noted by Jennifer Bourn<\/a> of Bourn Creative, many WordPress sites tend to be horrendously cluttered. After all, WordPress gives you all these awesome gadgets, tools, and toys to add to your site – you should use them, right? Not…exactly.<\/p>\n \u201cMost WordPress website owners don\u2019t have a clear website strategy in place, so they just add stuff willy-nilly to their site because a friend added it to their site, or because they think it\u2019s cool \u2026 not because it\u2019s going to help them convert website visitors into clients and customers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat they don\u2019t realize,\u201d she continues, \u201cis that all that clutter they\u2019re cramming into their website sidebars and footers is actually hurting their website conversions and sending visitors away!\u201d<\/p>\n Basically, says Bourn, you need to keep your website clean, give users multiple ways to access the content they\u2019re looking for, and – most importantly – understand what people want out of your brand and its content.<\/p>\n We\u2019re starting to run things a bit long, so I\u2019d say it\u2019s high time we wrap this up. We\u2019ll conclude everything with a few plugin recommendations. These are some of the best inbound marketing tools WordPress\u2019s development community has to offer:<\/p>\nEasy Newsletter & SEO Integration<\/b><\/h3>\n
How Can You Generate Leads Through WordPress?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Tap Into The Comments Section<\/b><\/h3>\n
Use Contact Forms<\/b><\/h3>\n
Keep Things Super Simple (And Know Why You\u2019re Doing All This)<\/b><\/h3>\n
Bonus: Eight Plugins You Can Use For Better Lead Generation<\/b><\/h2>\n
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