Sometimes you come across a Wordpress plug-in that is so powerful and useful that it could re-define your business. That’s how I felt when it finally clicked for me how I would use WP Fusion.

It’s a funny thing, really, because I had actually known about WP Fusion for over a year. I even recently worked with a coaching client that decided to go that route for his site. Even then, while I was aware of WP Fusion, I didn’t really… get it.

When the whole COVID-19 thing began, a lot of business owners were looking at how to “pivot”. It became a buzzword, but essentially we were all looking at ways to adjust our businesses in a way which would have us be better positioned for what’s to come.

For me, I decided to use this opportunity to handle some pesky technical constraints and to re-build the business (from a technical standpoint) to make it easier to manage and concentrate on really growing my membership site.

It began with… getting myself out of MemberMouse which was really feeling like a dead end. So, I went looking around for different options.

I ended up landing on WP Fusion yet again. Only this time…

The time was right. My head was in the right place to really evaluate this thing.

The light bulbs went off. I got freakin’ excited about the possibilities of what I could do with this tool.

For the right kind of online business, I think WP Fusion could be perhaps one of the most useful plug-ins you ever get.

What Does WP Fusion Actually Do?

WP Fusion Logo

Here’s the short version…

WP Fusion will tightly integrate your Wordpress site with your CRM, thereby allowing you to control numerous aspects of your site via tags. It essentially integrates everything in WordPress with your CMS.

Think of it like this…

By adding or removing tags on the profile of any of your subscribers in your CRM, you can change what they see on your website. Automatically.

This is an extremely tight integration. This is a totally different ballgame than some list-building plug-in that can make pretty opt-in forms and drop new subscribers into your CRM. WP Fusion is not a list building tool.

WP Fusion literally FUSES your blog with your CRM, making your WordPress site a direct extension of your CRM and marketing automation platform.

Using this integration, WP Fusion can dynamically change your site based on your subscriber’s tags. It can also secure content (hello membership site owners!). The integration between your site and your CRM is two-way, as you’ll see in a moment.

Not only that, but WP Fusion works with a TON of other plug-ins, making your entire site capable of tight integration with your CRM. Want to add a tag to anybody who fills out a form built with Gravity Forms? No problem. Want to secure an online course built with LearnDash based on a tag? No problem.

This is truly one of the most useful plug-ins I’ve ever used.

What Are Some Of The Things You Can Do With WP Fusion?

The true measure of any piece of software is what it will DO for you. I’m not even (yet) using all of what WP Fusion would enable for my business, but let me give you an idea what you can do with it…

#1 – Turn Your Site Into A Membership Site

You can lock down any Wordpress content based on tags, thereby allowing you to build a full membership site and control the whole thing right out of your CRM.

WP Fusion Review - Content Protection By Tags

This is the “Plan B” discussed in this rundown: Membership Site Setup: The 4 Main Components Of The Membership Site Tech Stack (And What I’m Now Using). This is a much more robust approach to membership site setup than the traditional levels-based approach, in my opinion.

For any content on your site, you can:

  • Lock it down based on any tag in your CRM, including the ability to require multiple tags or require they don’t have certain tags.
  • Control what they see if they don’t have access, therefore giving you the ability to route them to a custom error page or (better yet) a sales page to upgrade and gain access.
  • Add or remove tags when they VIEW the content. (more on that in a minute, because this has a lot of potential uses)

If you are using a supported course management plug-in such as LearnDash, WP Fusion can even tag people when they mark a course as completed. You could use this simply to send them a congratulatory email… or even upsell them on their next step.

Plus, it is such a simple thing, but WP Fusion makes it REALLY easy to bulk protect a ton of content at once. You can do this via the Bulk Edit on the post list, or apply to all children when editing a page. Might seem normal, but after spending 5 years with MemberMouse that had no capability at all in this department, this simple time-saver was a breath of fresh air for me.

#2 – Follow Up With People In An Extremely Personal Way

When you use a real marketing automation platform as your CRM, you can trigger any number of things based on a tag.

When you combine this with WP Fusion’s ability to add a tag on any number of different events across your entire site, the possibilities really become endless. As one example…

A subscriber visits your sales page, but they do not buy. Using WP Fusion, you can drop a tag when they visit that page. You can then set up an automation in your CRM so that you can automatically email them when that tag is applied.

And for good measure, let’s say you want to avoid emailing people like that if they clicked on your sales page by accident. No problem! Because WP Fusion can even be set up to wait a certain number of seconds before it applies/removes tag(s). So, perhaps have it wait 10 seconds or so before it applies that tag, giving non-serious people who clicked by accident time to hit that back button without you following up with them.

#3 – Sync Any Wordpress Field To Your CRM

It sucks when your website and your CRM are not really in sync. You might have data in one platform or the other and they’re not matched. And it can lead to some embarrassing emails when you say stuff that isn’t really accurate.

One of the core functions of WP Fusion is to sync fields in Wordpress to fields in your CRM. And we’re talking full, tight, and two-way integration. You will never have a sync issue again. You will never sit there and get into a brain-bending session trying to send data back and forth between your site and CRM. WP Fusion just… does it.

WP Fusion Review - Field Mapping

Just check off the fields you want to sync and match it with a field in your CRM. WP Fusion does the rest.

It also works with all kinds of third-party plugins. Want to sync custom fields from MemberMouse to your CRM? WP Fusion does that. Have custom fields set up with Advanced Custom Fields or Pods and want to sync them with your CRM? Sure, WP Fusion can do that.

WP Fusion Review - Custom Field Mapping

WPFusion detects other plug-ins it works with and shows their fields, allowing you to sync those  with your CRM, too.

Here’s a very simple use case…

Let’s say a member changes their name on your membership site. You want emails you send from your CRM to address them properly, right? So, WP Fusion will automatically keep those fields in sync. If the name changes on your site, the CRM is updated. If the name changes in the CRM, your site is updated. Nothing is ever outdated.

#4 – Automatically Create WordPress Profiles For All New Subscribers

One of the big things I have done with my own company is opened up a free membership. Which means that there are many instances now where a simple opt-in to my email list will not get a user profile.

Well, there’s pretty much no fancy programming needed to register that new membership. I simply add the person to my CRM like I normally would. Then, as part of the marketing automation, I can simply send a webhook to have WP Fusion create the profile.

Of course, the webhook method is when you are using a third-party CRM. Here’s how I did it when I was using Drip as my CRM:

WP Fusion Review: Using webhooks to create a user profile in WordPress

This is part of my workflow in my CRM for free member registration. Notice the webhook that will create their member profile.

As long as I send that webhook, WP Fusion does the rest automatically. And the new user profile will remain perfectly synced with their contact record in the CRM.

Now that I am using FluentCRM as my CRM, this integration is much tighter. Everything is in WordPress now so I no longer need to send off remote webhooks. Creation of a user profile is now done within my automations in FluentCRM.

#5 – Give Auto-Login Capability To Email Subscribers

It would be annoying to email your subscribers about something in your membership site, but force them to login to see it. What if they forgot their login info, for instance?

With WP Fusion, you can auto-login them by simply passing the contact ID from your CRM into the link. WP Fusion will recognize them and automatically log them in.

There are some technical limitations to this for security reasons, of course. But, using it to automatically grant them access to protected member content if they are a member is very easy and you don’t have to force your member to jump through a login form.

#6 – Track Logins And Act Accordingly… Like A Ninja

WP Fusion has some add-ons that do a number of things. One of them is the Logins add-on. This thing is freakin’ AWESOME for a membership site.

WP Fusion Review: Logins Addon makes login redirects super easy

It will track user logins, at the simple level.

Want to apply a tag when they first login? No problem. Use this in an automation to (for instance) automatically follow up with a new member if they haven’t logged in within the first 24 hours.

Want to automatically reach out to people who have not logged into your site in a certain time period? No problem. You can have WP Fusion auto-tag people who haven’t logged in in a certain length of time. And once they have logged in, remove that tag.

It gets cooler…

WP Fusion Review: Redirect to custom URLs based on tag

What if you could tag them a certain way and then automatically redirect them to a certain page when they login? You can do that. Perhaps, at a certain point in their member life cyle, you want them to see a special upgrade offer. Just add the tag and next time they log in, they will be directed to a page on your site accordingly.

What if after they’ve logged in a certain number of times, or every Nth login, you want to direct them to a particular page? Sure. Use case: On their 5th login, present an offer to upgrade to a lifetime membership. You can also do it by tag, so let’s say on the 5th login, you want only monthly members to get an upgrade offer for your annual plan. No problem.

#7 – Conditional Content All Throughout Your Site

When your users are logged into your site, you’ve got all kinds of options to show or hide content based on their CRM tags. This can be useful for showing relevant calls to action to people based on the funnel they’re in, or unlocking special content for members only.

This is different than protecting content per above. What I’m referring to here is being able to show or hide components of a page or your theme. It is incredibly handy.

This is enabled in one of two ways:

  • Using WP Fusion’s built-in shortcodes that allow you to show/hide anything
  • Using any of WP Fusion’s many integrations with other plugins or page builders.

By far, the easiest option is via the integrations. For instance, WP Fusion has an integration with Elementor which allows you to conditionally display (or hide) anything you build with Elementor based on tags.

WP Fusion - Elementor Integration

If you’re using the block editor, you can use the Block Visibility plugin and it’s integration with WP Fusion. WP Fusion integrates with a number of other themes and page builders, too, so there’s a pretty good chance that whatever you’re using will work. But, as a fallback, you’ve always got the built-in shortcodes.

WP Fusion Can Work With Another Membership Plugin… Or BE Your Membership Plugin

Seeing as WP Fusion can lock down content quite well, it is perfectly capable of being the hub of your membership site on it’s own.

This is what I use it for. However, it is important to note that WP Fusion is not an account management tool. It doesn’t process orders or manage accounts. WP Fusion is a bridge between Wordpress and your CRM. So, you’ll still need something to process orders, handle cancellations, and the usual account-related things typical of a membership site.

I used to use ThriveCart to process orders (read my Thrivecart review). Since ThriveCart also integrates with Drip (my CRM at the time), I had simply built automations into my CRM to handle most of the usual membership related things. By adding/removing tags in my CRM, I control their access to courses. And, of course, WP Fusion works with ThriveCart nicely and can auto-create your member profiles when they purchase.

Currently, my tech stack is all within WordPress itself. WP Fusion has perhaps the tightest integration with WooCommerce and WooCommerce Subscriptions and the combination works beautifully. You can see my blueprint for building a modern membership site here.

However, many people appreciate the convenience of a regular membership site plugin like Wishlist Member, MemberPress or the like. WP Fusion can work right alongside these kinds of plug-ins. This allows your membership plugin to process orders and manage accounts, while letting WP Fusion lock down content and keep everything in sync. Chances are WP Fusion is already built to work with whatever membership site plug-in you wish to use.

To be clear, using WP Fusion alongside a membership site plugin does present a lot of redundancy. This is why my preference would indeed be to skip the membership plugin and just use WP Fusion along with an ecommerce platform like WooCommerce.

How WP Fusion Works

WP Fusion works with the API from your CRM to fetch subscriber info, fields and tags. It matches every WordPress user by email address and then stores the contact ID from your CRM.

Now that the contact ID and the Wordpress user are matched, WP Fusion can keep things synchronized.

WP Fusion keeps a local record of a user’s tags and field data, so it isn’t constantly pinging your CRM. So, the whole thing is quite fast. You can also choose when you want it to re-sync data.

  • You can drop a shortcode on any page of your site to trigger WP Fusion to re-sync tags and/or fields.
  • You can use the webhooks from your CRM to re-sync tags and/or fields within any automation.
  • You can trigger a manual re-sync if you wish at any time.
  • It can sync automatically when the user logs in.

Generally speaking, you never need to worry about triggering a sync because it just happens automatically. But, there may be times when you need to and it is quite easy.

Who WP Fusion Is For (And Not For)

I will be the first to say that…

WP Fusion is not for everybody.

If some of the terminology I used in this post is beyond your understanding, then WP Fusion is too advanced for you right now. If you’re not sure what a CRM is, what tags in your CRM are used for, etc… then don’t get WP Fusion. You won’t know what to do with it. Even the coolest tools are useless if you have no idea how to use it.

WP Fusion Review: Supported CRM platforms

WP Fusion will be the MOST powerful if you are using a marketing automation platform. As long as your CRM has the ability to trigger automations with tags, you will have a lot of power at your fingertips when you couple that with WP Fusion.

Adding/removing tags and synchronizing fields is great and useful, but it will truly automate your business and generate revenue when you can build marketing sequences behind those things. THAT’s when you will feel like a kid in a candy store with WP Fusion.

No doubt, WP Fusion will be the most useful to a moderate to advanced online marketer.

Some Of The Best Support I’ve Ever Seen

WP Fusion is the brainchild of Jack Arturo. And you can email into support anytime. But…

He also runs a group on Facebook called Marketing Automation + Wordpress with WP Fusion. And Jack is all over that group.

WP Fusion Homepage

On numerous occasions as I was learning the ropes, I made a post in this group and Jack personally answered me. Sometimes, he was damn near there in real-time and we were having a chat.

I have never received such personal and rapid support from the developer of a plug-in. And I can’t rain enough praise down on Jack for how responsive he is, how well he knows his stuff. I’m not sure if this Facebook group is an “unofficial” support channel, but WOW is it useful if you’re working with WP Fusion.

WP Fusion also updates weekly. So, no matter how you look at it, when you are using the paid version of WP Fusion, it is most definitely worth every penny.

Anything Bad About WP Fusion?

I’ve been heaping all kinds of praise on this thing. That’s cuz I like it. 🙂

If I had to say anything bad about it, it would only be in that it could easily get confusing. There are a lot of settings with WP Fusion. The functionality of the plug-in enables a lot of possibility. If you’re not careful, you could feel overwhelmed pretty easily.

WP Fusion is not something built for newbies.

While you don’t need to be a developer to use it at all, there’s no doubt that it does take a certain level of technical knowledge of marketing automation and WordPress to really use this. You’ll need to be able to conceptualize how these different things integrate.

In general, if you have understood everything in this post, you’re probably going to be totally fine and have a lot of fun with WP Fusion. 🙂

If this post seemed like a foreign language to you, I don’t recommend WP Fusion. Not yet anyway.

How To Get WP Fusion

WP Fusion has 2 versions: Lite (free) and paid.

I use the paid version, of course. In fact, I got the license option which gives me access to the add-ons because I REALLY wanted the Logins add-in. 🙂 Personally, I have the agency license because I use WP Fusion on client sites all the time now.

WP Fusion also has a free LITE version which may solve a need for you at no cost. The LITE version will synchronize Wordpress core profile fields with your CRM, but does not have any support for third-party plugins or the advanced tagging functions. The LITE version can lock down content, sync fields, import contacts from your CRM, etc.

Essentially, you’ll have a nice integration between WordPress and your CRM with the free version. But, the moment you want to bring in any third-party plug-in (like WooCommerce, LearnDash, Gravity Forms, Elementor, etc.), you’ll need to upgrade.

Need Some Help With WP Fusion?

As I’ve said, WP Fusion is not a tool for newbies. It isn’t that it is particularly difficult… it’s just that the very nature of what the plug-in does means it is built for a more advanced online business.

Even if you understand this stuff, it can still be a brain-bender at times getting it set up. Getting things to integrate. Things like that.

Anyhoo…

If you need some consulting or hands-on help getting WP Fusion set up for your business, I’d be happy to help. You can check out technical services, pick up some tech credits, and we can work together to get you set up.

I also use WP Fusion often on client sites when I build out membership sites. I have an agency license, of course, given what I do. So, if I end up being the guy to build out your membership for you, we can just use that.

My Final Word On WP Fusion

If you are using a marketing automation platform as your CRM and your main site is based on WordPress, WP Fusion will be your new best friend.

No longer will your email list and your website be like two little islands. Your site will be able to do much more than just add people to your list. WP Fusion FUSES your WordPress site with your CRM, enabling you to make your own website into a full extension of your CRM.

You can literally automate your own site using the same automated workflows that you already build in your CRM. It isn’t just about emails anymore… it is about what they see on your site when they get there.

Total marketing personalization. All automated. All on Wordpress.

This is, by far, the best option I have ever seen for truly turning your WordPress blog into the marketing powerhouse it can be when backed by your email list.


Got A Question? Need Some Assistance?

Have a question about this article? Need some help with this topic (or anything else)? Send it in and I’ll get back to you personally. If you’re OK with it, I might even use it as the basis of future content so I can make this site most useful.

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