Whether you’re a small business owner or an enterprise-level marketing manager, lead generation should be a crucial part of your operations. However, deciding on the best way to unlock the lead-generating potential of your WordPress site can be tricky. This is largely due to the huge variety of resources and guides competing for your attention.
Fortunately, there are tools available that make lead generation simple and straightforward. One such tool is Salesforce, an online Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform that tracks and segments user data. This can help you better pinpoint conversion opportunities, manage potential lead information, and improve your networking strategy.
In this guide, we’ll introduce WordPress Salesforce integration. We’ll also explore the various tools you can use to simplify the integration process. Let’s get started!
WordPress and Salesforce Integration
As one of the leading CRMs on the market, Salesforce lets you identify potential customers, personalize your marketing techniques to address them, and field their enquiries all from a single platform. WordPress Salesforce integration is possible via plugins and tools (such as Zapier).
With so many integration options available, you’ll need to ask yourself a few questions before making your decision:
- How much information is required from my site’s lead forms?
- How are leads handled after collection?
- How many customized elements do my forms need to have?
Once you’ve answered these, you’ll be in a better position to pick the best plugin or tool for your needs.
Salesforce and WordPress Plugins and More
Let’s take a closer look at some of the plugins and applications that make WordPress and Salesforce integration possible.
Brilliant Web-to-Lead for Salesforce
This plugin is ideal for streamlined integration, letting potential leads fill in information via a dedicated WordPress form, which is then sent directly to your Salesforce account. Leads are saved automatically, and you have the option to either add your form to specific pages and posts, or as a widget.
Price: It’s completely free!
Pros: A beginner-friendly interface, and shortcodes for easy integration.
Cons: Limited functionality.
The lead-generation types this basic plugin is useful for include:
- Email marketing
- Referrals
As such, it’s best suited to the following:
- Small-to-medium sized consultation businesses
- Small-to-medium sized web service businesses
If you feel this Salesforce integration plugin is for you, this step-by-step guide will get you started.
WordPress Leads for Salesforce
WordPress Leads is a standalone CRM plugin that lets you easily capture, segment, and analyze user activity. If you’re already using Salesforce as your main CRM, integrating WordPress Leads lets you benefit from the functionality of both platforms.
Price: The plugin is free from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory.
Pros: WordPress Leads lets you see where referral traffic is coming from for your site, and develop lead strategies to cater to the topical interests of visitors.
Cons: Not as intuitive as other options in this list.
The plugin is useful for gathering leads via the following methods:
- Social media data gathering
- Email marketing
- Referrals
- Comment tracking
As such, it’s well suited for the following:
- eCommerce businesses.
- Affiliate marketing businesses.
- Large-scale enterprises looking to improve lead generation via customer analysis.
To integrate WordPress Leads with Salesforce, you’ll need to use Zapier. With a free account, you can create ‘zaps’ that will connect your WordPress Leads forms to the Salesforce CRM. Subsequently, any information you collect via WordPress Leads will be sent to your Salesforce account.
Let’s take a closer look at the tool next.
Zapier
Zapier is an application-integration tool that lets you connect apps to automate repetitive tasks. Using it, you can connect a variety of plugins (Gravity Forms, WP Forms, etc.) with Salesforce to enhance its lead generating capabilities.
Price: Though there is a basic free plan, feature-heavy premium plans start at $20 per month.
Pros: You can use the tool to integrate dozens of applications to your WordPress site.
Cons: The free plan limits you to creating two-step workflows only.
Zapier supports many Salesforce triggers and actions, making it ideal for numerous lead generation tasks, including:
- Email marketing
- Paid search strategies
The businesses that are most likely to benefit from Zapier are:
- Large-scale companies with tiered offerings.
- Business-to-Business (B2B) businesses.
- Online advertising companies.
You can get started with a free Zapier account to learn more about its features and benefits.
Gravity Forms for Salesforce
Gravity Forms is a favorite forms plugin among WordPress users. Its visual form builder is extremely intuitive, and its conditional logic lets you display and hide selected fields. It also integrates effortlessly with Salesforce, enabling you to add form-collected leads to your email marketing and social media campaigns.
Price: The plugin has plans starting at $59 per year.
Pros: Multiple Salesforce integration options, and a powerful visual form builder.
Cons: Not all plugin add-ons are included in the basic license.
You can use Gravity Forms (and its Salesforce integration) for numerous lead generation tasks, including:
- Checklist campaigns
- Email marketing and subscriptions
- Newsletter campaigns
This makes the tool well suited to various sectors, including:
- eCommerce
- Affiliate marketing
- B2C
You can integrate Gravity Forms via Zapier. However, you can also use a third-party plugin, such as Gravity Forms – Salesforce CRM Integration. Instruction for setting up the plugin are easily found on the web.
WP Forms for Salesforce
WP Forms is a drag-and-drop form builder that can be set up for a variety of lead generation tasks. It integrates with Salesforce, ensuring all form-collected data is sent right to your Salesforce account. This data can then be used to track user behavior (via Sales Analytics) and add leads to your email marketing campaigns and promotions.
Price: Though there is a free lite version, premium plans start at $49 per year.
Pros: It’s extremely user-friendly interface makes it easy to create surveys, polls, campaign monitor forms, and more.
Cons: If email integration is important to you, you’ll have to upgrade to the $99 per year plan.
As with Gravity Forms, you can use WP Forms for numerous lead generation tasks. These include:
- User behavior data collection
- Email marketing
- Surveys
- Promotions
This makes the plugin ideal for a range of sectors, including:
- eCommerce
- Finance
- Health and wellness
- Online publications
Best of all, you can integrate WP Forms with Salesforce in just a few steps.
Choosing the Right Salesforce Integration for Your Site
‘A’-Grade
Both WordPress Leads and Zapier take the cake. WordPress Leads in particular is well suited for user segmentation. On the other hand, Zapier offers app-connection capabilities that can further enhance Salesforce. Both are best used on large enterprise-level websites.
‘B’-Grade
Gravity Forms and WP Forms have earned a place on the honorable mentions list. They both offer advanced field options and conditional logic, but aren’t quite as powerful when combined with Salesforce as the ‘A’-Grade options. These plugins are best suited to marketing-oriented eCommerce businesses that make use of online surveys and polls.
‘C’-Grade
Brilliant Web-to-Lead for Salesforce is the most basic option offered. It offers lightweight functionality, and is best used for minimal data collection (i.e. gathering names and email addresses).
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