Leadin For Independent Creatives and Small Businesses

While small businesses and independent Creatives can easily get behind the concept of non-intrusive and measurable marketing, having the tools for it can be challenging. So, when HubSpot chief technology officer and co-founder Dharmesh Shah announced Leadin at Inbound15, it was a truly empowering moment.

For those of you in need of an accessible lead generation tool, we give you the low down on this plugin.

What is Leadin?

It's a plugin that provides insights on your visitors when they fill out a form on your website. Not just for WordPress, it also works with most non-HubSpot content management systems (CMS) like Blogger and Tumblr.

Developed with small businesses, startups, bloggers, unsigned writers, artists and musicians in mind, this plugin is free to make inbound marketing more accessible to more people.

As Dharmesh put it, imagine if a writer was able to collect a database of contacts that she can show to the potential publisher of her next book? And for the mom ‘n’ pop shop, this could mean being able to add more context to interactions with customers via email or social media.

Photo by Isabel Sanchez

How do you use Leadin?

• Install it to your non-HubSpot CMS.
  In Wordpress, you can do this by uploading the 'leadin' folder to the '/wp-content/plugins/' directory. Once done, activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress. Then, add an email address under 'Leadin' in your settings panel.

• The plugin will track and notify you of new contacts.
  Once activated, Leadin will make a record of each anonymous visitor to your website with a cookie. When a web visitor fills out a form, it will identify that person by name and social media profiles with her email address. It will then send you an email of this new contact.

• Integrate it with form plugins.
  Leadin automatically integrates your contact and comment forms that contain the email address field. No setup required. Leadin supports form builder plugins as long as they create static HTML forms and as long as they are not contained in an iFrame.

More under the hood

Leadin is currently only available in English but is hoped to offer more translations soon. It is also available with multisite.

If you're using WooCommerce, LeadIn can only track forms built with other form builders that are on your WooCommerce product page.

As a cog in a bigger machine

Leadin definitely provides much needed support with lead generation, but it works better in combination with other plugins.

• Measure the performance of your traffic and content with Yoast by Google Analytics.
• Build authority and engage with customers via social sharing plugins.
• Build forms with Contact Form 7, Gravity forms and most custom forms.
• Nurture your LeadIn contacts with email marketing through MailChimp.

StraightArrow often services clients whose CMS is either HubSpot or WordPress. Some clients use a marketing automation software to do inbound marketing, while others rely on separate tools to do the job. Our team is also composed of entrepreneurs, web developers, writers, designers who pursue independent creative and literary projects. So, this makes Leadin a welcome addition to our utility belt.

If you’d like to find out who’s on your website and what they’re doing, you can give the plugin a try. Book a free consultation with us on using LeadIn for your non-HubSpot CMS.