How I use ConvertKit’s WordPress plugin with my website
If you use (or you’re thinking about using) ConvertKit as your preferred email marketing platform and you have (or plan to have) a WordPress website, then this one is for you.
As an aside, if you have a WordPress website that someone else manages on your behalf, then this article is still relevant as you can share the functionality with them and get them to install it for you.
ConvertKit’s WordPress plugin
The ConvertKit WordPress plugin is free to install and use and brings several features that transforms how you provide for subscribers and clients.
Firstly, to access the features, you need to download and install the WordPress plugin. Head to your WordPress plugin page and search for ‘ConvertKit’ – the one below is the one you’re looking for;
There are 4 main functions that I use the plugin for, which I’ll cover in detail in this article – these are;
- Subscriber tagging
- Creating blog posts from emails
- Creating member-only content
- Personalising web pages with custom content
Subscriber ‘Tagging’
Okay, so if you’re anything like me – the first question that you’ll have in your head is “How can I track who is visiting my website without them logging in?” – good question!
Here’s how it works…
The ‘tracking’ capability is only available when an email subscriber clicks on a link in one of your emails. When they click on a link, ConvertKit will pass a unique subscriber ID number to the web page, meaning you can then track who visits which pages.
Let’s imagine this scenario…
You send an email to your list of subscribers, and in the email there’s a link to your website.
They click the link, and navigate to your group training page, so you know they’re interested in it – at least interested enough to click on the page.
This is when the ConvertKit plugin adds a ‘tag’ to the subscriber’s ConvertKit profile.
Adding the ‘tag’ can be the trigger to start drip-feeding (via email) more information about your training program – making it more likely (and convenient) for them to buy from you.
Here’s how you set the tag to be applied to the subscriber’s profile;
In this example (above), the ConvertKit tag ‘Viewed CWC Group Training Program Page‘ is applied to the subscriber’s profile (there’s a drop-down list to choose from, showing all available ‘tags’ in your ConvertKit config).
Creating blog posts from broadcast emails
I created a separate article that goes into detail about how to create blog posts using the ConvertKit plugin – it’s a great time-saver and can be configured to send either automatically for you, or if you prefer (as I do), create a draft version that I can then edit (if I want to) before publishing.
How to create your blog posts using ConvertKit.
Read this article if you want to find out how to create your blog posts by repurposing your broadcast emails.
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Creating member-only content
If you have some content that you want to limit access to, for whatever reason, you can do that using ConvertKit’s WordPress plugin to control that access for you.
The type of ‘member-only’ content you can create can be split into two main categories;
The ‘Download‘ option allows you to create a single web page that can only be accessed when you have purchased a particular ‘Product‘ from your ConvertKit portfolio of products and services.
The ‘Course‘ option is self-explanatory, where it allows you to create a digital course that people can buy from you. Each ‘lesson‘ or ‘module‘ (you can choose what works best for you) would spawn a new web page, with the main ‘parent’ page being the entry point for all subscribers.
I wrote a separate article explaining how to use this feature, you can click below to read it.
How I create member-only content on my website with ConvertKit.
Read this article if you want to find out how to create member-only content on your website.
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Personalising web pages with custom content
In today’s information-overloaded world, being relevant and grabbing attention has never been more important. This is typically more challenging to do with our website content than our emails.
With ConvertKit’s WordPress plugin, we can now dynamically build a web page that has the most relevant content for the visitor.
Let’s take a simple example to explain the feature…
These are two of the topics of interest I cover on my website;
- Email marketing
- ConvertKit
When I send out an email to my subscriber list (or subset of my list), and share a link to my website, I can dynamically change what they see on the web page, making it as relevant as I can for each subscriber.
Let’s imagine I send it to just 2 subscribers, Susan and Alex. Because I collect zero party data in post-subscription surveys, I understand their main interests with my content.
- Subscriber #1: Susan wants help with learning how to use ConvertKit.
- Subscriber #2: Alex wants to learn about email marketing strategies.
When Susan clicks on the link, she’ll be taken to the same URL as everyone else (this does NOT change with personalised web content), but because I can apply a ‘preference’ to the content, she sees a recommendation for an article relating to ConvertKit.
Contrast that experience with Alex’s, who’ll see a recommendation for an article about email marketing strategies.
Here’s how it looks on a web page…
The image above would be served up to subscriber ‘Susan’ who has expressed an interest in ConvertKit, i.e. 3 articles that are about features of ConvertKit.
And this image above would be served to subscriber ‘Alex’ who has a preference for content about email marketing, which, of course, is not necessarily always about ConvertKit.
Hopefully, having seen this simple example, you can come up with ideas of how best to serve your subscribers with the content you’ll share.
How to implement custom content WordPress
Inside the WordPress editor, add a ‘Text Editor’ element to your web page as this is what you’ll need to add the custom content.
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With the ConvertKit plugin installed, you can add a ‘ConvertKit Custom Content‘ element to your page. |
You’ll be prompted to nominate which ConvertKit ‘tag’ you wish to use to either display or hide the content enclosed within the element.
Below is an example of an element being used and the ‘tag’ unique ID inserted by the plugin; (this example is to display articles on ConvertKit if the subscriber has that tag associated with their profile);
The tag’s unique ID in this example (above) is ‘3474631‘ which relates to the tag in the profile of subscribers interested in ConvertKit.
⚡️What to do now…
Have a think about what content you can dynamically change for your subscribers when they visit your website. The more personal you can make it, the more dwell time you’ll see on your web visits (it makes sense when you think about it, right?).
Create a new WordPress page and have a play about with this function – once you get to grips with it, it can really transform your website experiences for your subscribers.
If you have any problems, let me know and I’ll help you out. 👍
