Creating a good WordPress plugin is half the battle, and well, marketing is the other half.
There are many ways to promote your WordPress plugin, but email marketing is one of the most effective. People are three times more likely to buy from email marketing than from social media.
And if you want to step this number up, combining email with SMS marketing is the way to go. An impressive 91% of marketers and business owners say that they have higher conversions with marketing strategies that include SMS.
So, if you’re looking to promote your WordPress plugin with email and SMS marketing, we’ve put together a guide to help you get started.
How to Promote WordPress Plugins with Email and SMS Marketing
Numbers don’t lie. And these numbers show that to stand out among the best WordPress plugins and drive sales, you need to implement an email and SMS marketing campaign.
But the question is, how?
We’ve got you. Take these four steps to get started:
1. Design a Landing Page or Pop-Up Form
Before you can send email and SMS campaigns to a group of people, they need to give you their emails and phone numbers.
This is where a landing page or pop-up form comes in.
Email and SMS marketing platforms like Omnisend come with landing page and pop-up form builders. If you don’t have a website, building a landing page is best. Here are some key elements to include in your landing page:
- A main title: This is a one-liner that highlights the pain point your plugin solves or its unique offering. For example, the Rank Math plugin uses “WordPress SEO Made Easy” as its title.
- Feature list: Showcase your plugin’s key features and use cases with text, images, and videos. You can also add other details like pricing, FAQs, and customer support options.
- Testimonials: If you’ve already got some users who love your plugin, gather their testimonials and display it on your landing page.
- Signup form: Give users an idea of what they’ll get by joining your mailing list (product tips, feature updates, etc.) and ask their details — email address and phone number — to receive them.
- Call-to-action (CTA): This is a button with action-based phrases like “Sign up” or “Download for free” that encourages people to start using your plugin. Before giving them access, you can prompt them to fill in a signup form first.
But if you already have a website with all these landing page elements, you might want to build a pop-up form instead. It’s basically a sign-up form that pops up when visitors land on your website.
2. Drive Traffic to Your Landing Page
To get visitors to your landing page, you need to actively share it with interested users. Thankfully, there are many ways to drive traffic to your landing page — for free! And if you’ve got some money on hand, you can invest in a few paid channels too.
Here are some options to consider:
- Plugin directories: Submit your plugin to top directories such as the WordPress.org plugin repository and link to your website or landing page in the description section.
- Website content: If you’ve got a website, publish articles that answer questions your target user has. For example, Top X Plugins for [Use Case] and How to Improve [Issue] on Your WordPress Website. This brings in free traffic from search engines like Google and Bing.
- Guest posts: If you don’t have a website, you can pitch article ideas to WordPress blogs that accept guest posts. Most of them will allow you to link to your landing page in the content or in your author bio.
- Social media: Share product tutorials, feature updates, and other helpful content on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. If users like your content, they’ll be more likely to visit your landing page.
- Forums: Participate in relevant discussions on forums such as Quora and Reddit. Be helpful and only mention your plugin when it’s relevant.
- Influencers: Partner with industry experts who are open to reviewing and recommending your plugin to their followers. This will cost some money but it’s worth it if done right.
- Paid ads: This is another paid channel where you use Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other ad platforms to target potential users.
3. Build an Email and SMS Content Plan
While this is the third step on the list, it should probably be the first thing you do before designing a landing page. Because if users sign up to your mailing list and all they hear is crickets, they’ll quickly forget about you and move on with their lives.
So before they come in, you should be prepared with a few content pieces to share with them. The easiest way to do this is to start with a welcome message that thanks them for subscribing. You can follow this up with email messages that share product tips, feature releases, and product surveys. And for shorter, time-sensitive messages like discounts and site announcements, you can share them via SMS.
4. Track the Performance of Your Campaigns
Regularly test different aspects of your campaigns, such as subject lines, message content, and send times. You can also experiment with content topics to see which performs best on what platforms. Or maybe, if you get higher conversions by repurposing email content for SMS, and vice versa.
Analyze the performance data to understand what works best for your audience and refine your strategies accordingly.
Conclusion
Unless your WordPress plugin is a passion project, you need to promote it to boost its visibility, downloads, and purchases. And as we’ve seen, email and SMS marketing are powerful channels that’ll help you achieve this goal. We’ve given you the scoop on what you need to get started. So now, it’s over to you. All the best…and happy marketing!
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