Integrating Salesforce and WordPress: 4 Options to Consider

If you have a WordPress website and you also use Salesforce as your CRM, you can integrate both platforms to improve your lead generation.

When people visit your website and enter information, perhaps to sign up to your newsletter or register for an event, you can then send that information directly into your CRM. You need to collect your data in one place, and using a direct integration between your website and Salesforce makes it easy to collect and organise that data.

In addition, with some of the solutions outlined below, you can display data directly from Salesforce to provide a more personalised browsing experience – which helps to boost engagement.

There are various ways that you can integrate Salesforce and WordPress so that you can capture the data provided by your website users and customers as well as improving the experience for them. These range from simple apps to full custom integrations, so let’s explore the options so you can decide which is the right solution for your business.

1. Web to Lead Forms & Form Builders

When visitors land on your website and fill out a subscription form or contact you, you can integrate these emails with Salesforce to turn emails into leads.

This is a function that is included in Salesforce, and it has a setup wizard you can use. You can use it to create HTML code, which you can then embed on your website. This is a good option because it’s free, so there are no licensing costs, and it’s also very simple to implement. The downside is that the HTML may need some extra styling to match your theme.

You might want to do the same thing but by using a third-party app. The Brilliant Web-to-Lead for Salesforce plugin is probably the best option. Using this, you can create a form in WordPress and integrate it with Salesforce. The form will match your theme, and you just set the form up and then use shortcode to place the form on your website.

You can also use CMS form builders, and these provide you with a lot of flexibility. The great thing about these is that they are so easy to use. The simple user interfaces are designed for drag-and-drop, making it quick and easy to build forms.

Examples include Ninja Forms with the Salesforce extension, Gravity Forms and WPForms. These are all good low-cost solutions (but an annual licensing fee usually applies).

With these, you will then need an extra add-on to connect WordPress and Salesforce. The best option is Zapier, and you can find a good guide to how to use Zapier to connect your form to Salesforce here.

2. Integrate Using Apps

Using third-party apps is another great option for integrating WordPress and Salesforce. These apps are mainly used for very specific functions. For example, let’s say that you are running an email campaign. In this case, you may want to link up your emails with Salesforce, and one of the best apps for this is MailChimp.

This is one of the most popular email marketing tools that you can use to create sign-up forms for your WordPress site to capture details of subscribers and then send out autoresponders and broadcast emails.

It also provides you with an option to integrate with Salesforce, so you can import your Salesforce contacts to your list and see your email data within Salesforce, saving time and keeping everything together in one place.

You could do the same thing for other functions like processing payments. A payment processing app like Stripe, for example, can easily be integrated with Salesforce.

These third-party apps cost money, but perhaps not as much as you think. MailChimp, especially, is very affordable.

But while these apps are simple to use and good at what they do, they are still quite limited and they usually need some custom styling, so that’s worth keeping in mind.

3. Powerful Form Builders

Moving on from the basic form builders mentioned earlier, there are more advanced form building tools available. These have many more features, and you can do a lot more with them. Unsurprisingly, these come at a cost.

You can use them to map form fields both to and from Salesforce (so you can send data from WordPress to Salesforce and vice versa). They can be useful for more complex tasks like pre-filling form fields. They can also be complex to use, and in some cases, coding skills may be needed as well as more advanced Salesforce skills.

One option that does not require coding is FormStack, and you can use this to create forms and surveys that are mobile-friendly. It uses a native form builder for Salesforce to set up forms in minutes using a drag-and-drop design, making it a good option if you are looking for a simple but powerful solution.

4. Advanced Custom Integrations

This is the most complex solution. Custom-built forms are only really necessary if you have more complex requirements. Perhaps you want to allow customers to update their payment details, for example, or you want to create searchable databases.

They are, unsurprisingly, more expensive to implement and you will need development skills and Salesforce APIs knowledge. That might involve hiring an expert, and as a result, the costs can go up. It also involves a lot more effort to implement.

On the plus side, there won’t be any annual licensing costs and you also get complete control over the presentation and styling of the forms.

Choose the Right Integration for Your Organisation

Integrating WordPress and Salesforce is a good way to your lead generation more efficient. How you choose to go about it depends on your needs and your budget. It might be worth starting with a simple form builder and see how that works for you. If you find that it is not flexible enough, you could move to a more advanced form builder or even consider a custom integration.

So explore your options, and get more from both your WordPress website and Salesforce.

If you would like support in maintaining or integrating your WordPress website then why not take a look at our website maintenance services.