Email marketing should be one of the key components of your customer retention strategy. Engaging in regular communication will keep subscribers informed about your latest news and promotions. So it’s vitally important that your website focuses on enticing people to opt into your mailing list.
WordPress is an ideal platform for collecting data. There are many plugins available that allow you to connect with your favorite email marketing service. You can even run your own service directly through your website.
Whatever your ideal setup, we’ve collected 10 of the best plugins for managing your email marketing through WordPress.
MailPoet
MailPoet started out as a free/premium plugin that turns your WordPress install into a mailing list service. Their new version continues this (free up to 2,000 subscribers), but also offers to deliver email for you.
This solves one of the challenging issues with running your own lists – ensuring messages don’t get caught in spam filters. For that matter, your host server could get blacklisted as well. So sending through your own server in the free version is best left to smaller lists that don’t send very often.
MailChimp for WordPress
The nice aspect of MailChimp for WordPress is that you have the option of creating signup forms directly through the plugin or integrating with other plugins (Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, BuddyPress, WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads – to name a few).
Advanced WooCommerce integration is one of the features of the premium edition.
Constant Contact Forms
Using Constant Contact Forms, you can enable visitors to easily subscribe to your email list. The plugin also lets you create custom fields so that you can collect additional data.
You can even use the plugin without having a Constant Contact account – but obviously, the features are geared towards those who do use the service.
Hustle
Hustle provides a means to not only connect with popular services such as MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, GetResponse, and Mad Mimi, but it also lets you target users through slide-ins, popups, widgets, and shortcodes.
So it’s more of a complete marketing suite that you can use to encourage subscriptions, along with other functionality. It also provides nifty features like social sharing and statistical data regarding opt-ins.
MailMunch
It’s fair to say that MailMunch and Hustle are somewhat similar in scope. Where they differ is that MailMunch really is solely focused on email marketing. You can create a variety of different opt-ins ranging from popups, embedded forms, top bar, scroll box, and sidebar.
The plugin is compatible with many third-party services (AWeber, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, GetResponse, InfusionSoft, and MailChimp). You can also take advantage of A/B testing and analytics.
Email Subscribers & Newsletters
With Email Subscribers & Newsletters, you can take a more holistic approach to email marketing. You’ll be able to collect user information and send out HTML newsletters through your WordPress website.
But you can also set up automatic email notifications when new posts are added to your site. That provides an effortless way to keep users engaged with your content.
Contact Form 7 Campaign Monitor Extension
Beyond your standalone opt-in form, it’s a great idea to integrate subscription options into other existing forms on your site. Contact Form 7 Campaign Monitor Extension is one of many available plugins that will do this for you.
Compatible with the ever-popular Contact Form 7, users who are filling out a form on your site are just a click away from also subscribing to your Campaign Monitor list.
The very same plugin author has similar offerings for AWeber, GetResponse, iContact and MailChimp.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit is a bit of a unique service, as it is geared towards bloggers. It offers some automation features that will help keep your readers in the loop.
Their WordPress plugin allows you to connect to your ConvertKit account via API and easily add opt-in forms either globally or on a post-by-post basis.
Overall, it’s a nice option for content creators.
Newsletter Glue
A relative newcomer, Newsletter Glue enables WordPress site owners to create email newsletters directly within the CMS. The unique selling point is that the plugin connects to an outside email service provider via an API.
You write the newsletter in WordPress and send it through the provider. The result is a familiar content creation UI and a more reliable way to actually deliver those newsletters.
The free version connects to your MailChimp account. The pro version has more sending options, along with the ability to embed social media and WordPress posts.
MailOptin
MailOptin aims to be a complete solution for email marketing via WordPress. It connects with a wide variety of third-party providers (MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc.). But it also enables you to create list signup forms that can be implemented in several ways and even let you send mail to your lists from within WordPress.
You can run your entire email marketing operation without leaving your website. A premium version adds automation capabilities, like sending out new post notifications, enables mail scheduling and more.
WordPress as a Marketing Hub
The plugins profiled above provide some flexibility with how you collect and distribute information through email marketing channels. Some even allow you to create a channel that’s all your own. This wide array of options allows you to tailor things to match your needs and philosophy.
What’s really great is that you can reach people on any part of your site. Whether through a traditional sidebar widget or an option on your checkout form, you can encourage visitors to build a relationship.
If you’re just getting started with email marketing, think about the various ways you can implement it into what you’re already doing. For example, if people are already interacting with a specific feature (like a contact form), then it makes perfect sense to add an opt-in. But you may also want to approach them at other times, like at the bottom of a blog post or through a popup window.
Wherever and however you want to reach out, there are WordPress plugins out there to help make it happen.
