Freelancers breaking into the digital marketing world know how difficult it is to run their business, especially without the proper tools.
Thankfully, for those digital marketing freelancers using WordPress to run their online content and websites, there are lots of WordPress plugins for freelancers that can help them organize their business, simplify different processes within their business, and improve the content on their website all at once.
These plug-ins are crucial for anyone that is serious about tackling digital marketing and improving interactions between clients.
Below are a variety of different WordPress plugins for freelancers that can help.
1. UpDraft Plus
One of the most difficult parts of being a freelancer is developing a website that is engaging and interactive. This can take anywhere between four to six months, or even longer if you’re new and no nothing about website design.
Unfortunately, your website can be prone to:
- Server errors
- Hacking
- Crashes
- Broken Codes
- Other types of malicious attacks
All of these issues can lead to the destruction of your website.
If your website server goes does, UpDraft can help restore your website to its original form with a single click.
Best of all, you can restore your website automatically by setting a timer. The free version of UpDraft allows freelances to backup their website to:
- Dropbox
- Google Drive
- Amazon S3 or a compatible program
- UpdraftVault
- Rackspace Cloud
- FTP
- DreamObjects
- Openstack Swift
Its many backup options make Updraft WordPress’s most trusted plugin with a whopping 3 million users to date.
2. Yoast SEO
Optimizing your content online can help make it easier for customers and potential clients to find you online.
To do so, you must use search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that can help integrate keywords, add meta tags and meta descriptions, and help you improve your visibility online.
Yoast SEO does all of this, with features including:
- Audits to optimize posts and keywords and phrases.
- Linking tools to help you setup backlinks, which are critical for improving SEO and visibility through Google’s algorithm.
- Adding structured data to your site to help it be easily recognizable to Google.
- Integrate with Semrush, Wincher, and other digital marketing tools.
- 24/7 customer support.
Best of all, there are a plethora of videos online to help you understand how to use Yoast SEO for beginnings. It is also free to install.
3. Sprout Invoices
A whopping $825 billion is owed to businesses through unpaid invoices.
Invoices might go unpaid if a customer believes the invoice itself is difficult to understand, does not accurately reflect charges, or simply does not want to pay for services due to poor quality.
Nevertheless, it’s important for freelancers to create an invoice that:
- Is easy to read.
- Reflects all charges through itemized fashion.
- Is aesthetically pleasing.
- Is available in different languages.
- Can help accept payments if sent online.
Sprout Invoices is one of the best, simple-to-use WordPress plugins for freelancers that can help contractors create invoices and get paid faster.
Sprout invoices also has powerful add-ons that can help freelancers do just about anything, including:
- Accepting deposits and partial payments.
- Time tracking for work.
- Print to PDF.
- Connect to Google Commerce.
- Legally binding document signatures.
4. WordPress Project Manager
For freelancers that need help balancing different projects, meeting deadlines, and syncing with teams, WordPress Project Manager is the perfect solution.
This is one of the best WordPress plugins for freelancers that can help them:
- Stay organized and complete the planning stage of a project.
- Use Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and other organizational tools to prepare timelines for different projects.
- View progress reports.
- Conduct file sharing and team communication.
- Limit access to sensitive files and maintain the integrity of the project.
Sadly, around 42% of companies still don’t understand just how critical project management is for their business.
Using a tool like WordPress Project Manager makes it easy to take control of your projects with advanced organizational tools that can help streamline efficiency.
5. Real Testimonials
Part of the buyer’s journey involves researching companies that have stellar testimonials and customer reviews.
In fact, around 88% of customers say that online reviews impact their buying decision. What good is having a great product if you don’t have an area on your web page dedicated to showcasing these testimonials?
Real Testimonials is a plugin that is incredibly easy to install and can help improve the look of your page.
This plugin not only looks aesthetically pleasing and comes in a wide range of options, such as a slider or grid view, but it can help you showcase the best testimonials from your clients.
Integrate star reviews, pictures, company or client names, and snippets of their reviews to share with future customers using Real Testimonials.
6. Survey Funnel
Survey Funnel is one of the best tools that can help you install a survey feature onto your website.
This survey feature can help you improve customer interaction with your website, as well as help improve your website design and content through customer feedback.
You can ask questions about your products and services, or your customers and their needs.
This can help you create buyer personas that are geared toward helping you understand what your customers are looking for, the results they are getting from your products, or their biggest challenges. This is a process known as segmenting.
This plugin is incredibly easy to install, and it can be one of the best tools to help segment your leads as well as send this valuable information to your favorite CRM.
CRM is another word for customer relation management, an important component in helping retain your customers and improve your customer experience.
7. Mailchimp
Email has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to help turn leads into sales, as well as help retain customers through the use of newsletters, special offers, blogs, and more.
By installing Mailchimp as a WordPress plugin, you can help automate emails and transfer all of your marketing tools through the appropriate channels.
Mailchimp also has award-winning 24/7 support should you face any issues with installation, lost emails, and more.
In addition, Mailchimp also offers A/B testing. This helps you test out your emails to a smaller number of clients and keep track of any significant changes that arise from simple changes in your email.
Mailchimp is an overall excellent plugin to help you market your business as well as keep in touch with leads and current clients.
8. Hubspot
Hubspot is a CRM platform that focuses on improving customer experience in order to grow a business.
Its mission is to help grow your business, and they have done so by creating a WordPress plugin that is scalable and covers various aspects of your business.
Hubspot can help provide various services including:
- Marketing, so you can run tailored ad campaigns to help reach more customers.
- Sales, which can help create a personalized experience for your customers and help them trust your company and continue to purchase services and products from you.
- Service, which is designed to help support your customers and help them find solutions.
Hubspot also offers 24/7 support for users, allows users to integrate it seamlessly with over 1090 apps, and can also help measure key performance indicators (KPIs) by providing analytics that measure which strategies are the most successful.
9. Portfolio Designer
The Portfolio Designer plugin is one of the easiest to use on this list.
It is designed to help beginners, as well as experienced website designers, improve the look of their website and display images, products, past projects, and more.
There is a grid layout and masonry layout to choose from with the Portfolio Designer plugin. Users also have access to features including:
- Square or circular share buttons for social media.
- 18 different hover effects.
- Different thumbnail settings for size selection.
- Custom CSS Support.
Studies have shown that users can gather all the information and first impression from a website in around 3.42 seconds.
This makes it crucial to develop a website that can help make a good first impression through aesthetics and a great user interface. Portfolio Designer can help you do just that.
10. Editorial Calendar
Editorial Calendar is a highly rated WordPress plugin, with a current 4.9 out of 5-star rating, and for good reason.
As a freelancer, there’s nothing more important than meeting the deadline for your clients to help make a good impression, keep them coming back, and also grow your customer base through word of mouth.
Editorial Calendar is an easy-to-use plugin that is designed to help users keep track of all their projects through a simple-to-read calendar with customizable deadlines.
Drag and drop different projects, such as blog posts, or delete them completely and do a revamp of your deadlines for your blog or your client’s blogs.
This is the perfect plugin for website administrators, authors, and contributors alike.
It is available in a variety of different languages as well, including Brazilian Portuguese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, and Spanish just to name a few.
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Use the WordPress plugins for freelancers listed in this post to help you organize your business, complete projects in a flash, and improve your customer experience.
Once you’re done choosing your plugins and creating the perfect website to manage your projects and grow your customer base, check out these freelance websites to help launch your freelancing career even more!
