The fact that WordPress is the easiest to use and the best website management platform out there is not that surprising in 2013. But the fact that it can also help grow your email list and even improve its profit potential is somewhat a new thing.
Email marketing is an important part of affiliate site promotion, but your success will be highly dependent upon two things: the quality of your newsletters themselves, and the quality and attractiveness of your opt-in process. The latter is exactly what we’re focusing on today by discussing the following WordPress plugins.
1. Welcome Gate
Link: http://www.welcomegateapp.com/
Welcome Gate is a product built by LeadBrite – a company well-known for creations like LeadPlayer and LeadPages.
The idea behind this plugin is to make opt-in boxes as visible as possible. This goal is achieved by displaying an additional “welcome page” to people who try to access your homepage for the first time.
This is a promotion method that’s even heavier than pop-ups, so you should proceed with caution. Even though the plugin claims to be able to triple your opt-in rate, it can also make a big part of your visitors frustrated causing them to leave the site.
2. Hello Bar
Link: http://www.hellobar.com/ and http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-hello-bar/
Hello Bar – the main service – is a small tool that displays an eye-grabbing bar at the top of your website. The bar is highly customizable (design, content, copy, links, buttons) so you can actually use it for any purpose you’d like. But the most popular application is to link it to your opt-in page or some other lead generation mechanism.
The Hello Bar plugin is there to help you integrate the bar with your WordPress site, so you can set everything up in a matter of minutes.
3. Optin Revolution: WordPress Popup
Link: http://wordpress.org/plugins/optin-revolution/
This plugin is a very straightforward one when it comes to its functionality. What it does is it allows you to create fully customizable and unblockable (so they say) pop-ups, which you can then use to grow your email list.
The pop-ups themselves can be integrated with all major email newsletter providers like AWeber, MailChimp and others. They can also use different images, forms, links, buttons, etc.
4. Pippity
Link: http://pippity.com/
This is yet another opt-in form pop-up plugin. But this one promises its pop-ups to be user-friendly and sensible in the way they interact with the visitors on your site.
The plugin allows you to configure your pop-ups using the provided visual configuration panel, integrate them with any popular email delivery service and have it displayed on your site in minutes.
5. Hybrid Connect
Link: http://hybrid-connect.com/
Hybrid Connect is a really serious plugin (functionality-wise). It provides a load of features and customization possibilities. First of all, it allows you to create and manage: opt-in boxes, opt-in widgets, slide-in opt-in forms, unblockable opt-in lightboxes, and mobile-friendly opt-in forms. More than that, you can even create separate squeeze pages and video squeeze pages.
The plugin integrates with every email delivery service on the market, and features a built-in split testing functionality. In other words, it will take care of displaying your opt-in forms, and (on its own) picking the best performing variations.
Of course, there’s also an opt-in form creator that’s very easy to use. In a word, a great all arounder.
6. WP-Leads
Link: http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-leads-mailchimp-constant-contact-and-salesforcecom-integration/
WP-Leads implements a quite innovative method in email marketing. It displays a small checkbox in your comment form that asks people if they want to subscribe to your list on the occasion of submitting a comment.
The plugin works well with MailChimp, Constant Contact, and SalesForce.com. You can even set the box to be checked by default (not that you should).
If you’re using AWeber, you can look into the AWeber Comment Optin plugin, which basically does the same thing for AWeber.
7. Subscribe to Unlock
Link: http://codecanyon.net/item/subscribe-to-unlock/3654430
The concept of this plugin is very simple. Whoever wants to visit a specific piece of content on your site, has to subscribe to your email list first.
The plugin works with MailChimp and Unisender, but you can also export your subscriber data as text or CSV. There’s also a full subscriber management panel in the plugins’ WP Admin section.
8. Subscribe & Download
Link: http://codecanyon.net/item/subscribe-download/2687305
The idea of this plugin is very similar to that of the previous one. Only this time the plugin forces your visitors to submit their contact details whenever they’re trying to download something that you’re offering on your site.
The plugin supports MailChimp, iContact, GetResponse, and Campaign Monitor. You can also export your subscriber data as CSV if you’re using a different email delivery service.
Finally, the actual opt-in forms are customizable inside the plugin and the designs are responsive and mobile-friendly.
9. Subscribe2
Link: http://wordpress.org/plugins/subscribe2/
Subscribe2 is a complete email subscription management system for your WordPress blog. This means that you don’t need any external email delivery service to get your newsletters in your subscribers’ inboxes. The plugin handles everything.
It allows you to set your emails to be sent automatically whenever there’s a new post published, or periodically in a Digest email. You can choose categories to include and exclude from the newsletter, or use the WordPress’ custom field functionality instead.
The plugin delivers an opt-in form and also allows your visitors to subscribe through the standard WordPress user registration form.
10. WP Email Capture
Link: http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-email-capture/
It’s a simple opt-in form plugin, suitable for those of us who are just looking for the most basic functionality which we can then build upon.
The plugin exports data to CSV files, so you can import it to any email delivery service out there (AWeber, MailChimp, Constant Contact, and so on).
This closes our list of 10 WordPress plugins to grow your email list. Although it’s not advisable to use the whole package at the same time, some combination of these plugins can make your email marketing much easier, and much more effective.