Beacon

Do you want to grow your email list?

At WPBeginner, we’ve tried countless tools and strategies to grow our mailing list. In fact, we recently grew our list by 600%, so we like to think we know what works and what doesn’t.

We’ve had big success with lead magnets, but creating engaging content isn’t always easy. With that said, in this Beacon review we’re going to look at a popular lead magnet and opt-in platform. We’ll be exploring its features, pricing, and support to see whether it can help you create beautiful lead magnets and opt-ins that’ll have no problems turning visitors into subscribers.

Wondering whether Beacon is the right opt-in and lead magnet builder for you? Let’s find out, in this Beacon review.

Beacon Review: Why Use It in WordPress?

Beacon is a lead magnet tool that can help you create high-converting ebooks, checklists, workbooks, video lookbooks, and other resources.

It comes with professionally-designed templates and a user-friendly editor, so you can create lead magnets without having to hire a developer or designer.

In addition to lead magnets, Beacon can help you create a wide-range of different opt-ins, including popups, inline forms, and locked links. This means you can collect leads, grow your email list, and design beautiful lead magnets using the same tool.

Beacon also provides a central location where you can monitor the success of your campaigns and track all your leads.

If you’re just getting started or have a limited budget, then you can register with Beacon for free. You can then create 1 new lead magnet per month and unlimited opt-ins. However, if you want to create multiple lead magnets per month, then you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan.

These plans also unlock additional features, including the option to send lead magnets from your own email address or publish them as smart PDFs that visitors can access in their web browser.

Beacon Review: Is It the Right Lead Magnet Tool for You?

An engaged, active email list is the ultimate asset for any website, blog, or online store.

It can help you build long-term relationships with your audience, convert subscribers into customers and brand advocates, boost conversions, and keep people coming back to your WordPress website. With that said, it’s important to give visitors a reason to subscribe, and that’s where Beacon comes in.

Can Beacon help you build engaging, multimedia lead magnets and user-friendly opt-ins? Let’s find out, in this Beacon review.

1. Ready-Made Lead Magnet Templates

Designing professional-looking lead magnets can take a lot of time and effort.

Instead of doing the hard work yourself or hiring a developer, Beacon provides a wide range of lead magnet templates.

All these templates are fully-customizable so you can fine-tune them to perfectly suit your WordPress theme or branding. This includes adding your own color scheme, web logo, images, and messaging.

Each template comes with multiple ready-made pages, but you can also add more pages and Beacon will apply the same styling automatically. In this way, you can create perfectly-designed lead magnets that are exactly the length you need.

2. Drag and Drop Editor

After choosing a template, you can customize it using Beacon’s intuitive editor.

Most templates come with placeholder content cards and dummy content. To edit any of these default content cards, simply give it a click. Beacon will then show all the settings you can use to edit that section.

You can also add more content cards to a template.

These cards are similar to the blocks you find in the WordPress content editor. For example, you can drag a Headline, Button, or Social Sharing card onto your Beacon template.

Some cards can also help you design a nice layout, such as Divider and Spacer cards.

No matter what card you add, you can select it in the live preview and then make changes in the left-hand menu.

Do you want to create a multi-page lead magnet?

To see all the pages that make up your template, simply select the ‘Pages’ tab.

You can then add more pages with just a few clicks.

Beacon even has a range of page templates, so you can get a head start on your new page.

Sometimes, you may need to change an entire lead magnet’s design.

In that case, you can select ‘Document Settings’ and then edit the color scheme, select a custom font, or remove the header and footer. Beacon will then apply this change across the entire lead magnet, saving you a ton of time.

By using the ready-made cards and exploring the various tabs, you can create all kinds of high-converting lead magnets, without having to write a single line of custom code or hire a designer.

3. Turn Existing Blogs into Lead Magnets

Do you want to create a library of lead magnets, fast? If you already have a blog, then Beacon can import all this content into your dashboard and turn it into beautiful lead magnets with just a few clicks.

You can even import multiple blog posts into a single lead magnet, which is perfect for creating long-form content such as ebooks.

Simply type in the URL of each blog post you want to use, select a template, and Beacon will handle the rest.

Alternatively, you can import blog posts into an existing lead magnet, as a new page. This is useful when you want to add more content to a lead magnet, without investing a lot of additional time and effort.

4. Dedicated Beacon WordPress Plugin

Do you run a WordPress blog? Then Beacon has a dedicated WordPress plugin that makes it easier to import your blogs into Beacon.

After installing and activating the plugin, it’ll show a list of all the posts across your website.

You can also search for posts, or filter your content based on post type, plus categories and tags.

With that done, simply select the content you want to import into Beacon and click ‘Create.’ This will open Beacon in a new tab, ready for you to create a lead magnet using the selected content.

5. Integrates with HubSpot

Is your blog powered by HubSpot?

In that case, Beacon has a HubSpot integration that makes it easier to import your blog content into Beacon. Simply connect Beacon to your HubSpot account and Beacon will display all the different posts you can import.

6. Create Downloadable eBooks

eBooks are a great way to share in-depth information on a specific topic in a nicely-organized format. For example, if you run a financial website then you might create an ebook that shares money-saving tips.

With that said, you’ll be happy to learn that Beacon lets you create ebooks, and even has a ton of ready-made ebook templates.

You can also add an unlimited number of pages to your Beacon lead magnets, and create ebooks that span many different sections and chapters.

7. Build Resource Guides

A resource guide is a collection of recommended items, such as books, digital downloads, apps, or even physical products.

Many businesses use resource guides to share information in a straightforward, easy-to-understand way. For example, if you sell online courses then you might create a resource guide covering 10 must-have books, articles, or podcasts that potential students may want to check out.

With Beacon, you can easily create these materials using the built-in resource guide templates.

8. Offer Downloadable Checklists

Checklists are a great way to share a series of actionable tasks.

With Beacon, it’s easy to create checklists and then use them as lead magnets. For example, if you’re a WordPress expert then you might create an SEO audit checklist or an eCommerce launch checklist for your WooCommerce users.

9. Design Actionable Workbooks

Do you want to create a lead magnet that helps the reader work through a particular activity?

Beacon has a range of workbook templates that contain a series of tasks or questions, and space where the reader can add their answers. This makes workbooks more interactive than a typical lead magnet, so they’re a powerful way to engage with potential leads. For example, if you’re a life coach then you might create a workbook for meal planning, exercise routines, or managing your stress levels.

10. Create an Email Template Library

Want to teach your audience how to communicate more effectively? For example, if you run a marketing blog then you might create sample email templates that your readers can use in their own campaigns.

With Beacon, you can add all your sample email templates to a lead magnet. Your readers can then download this resource and use the templates as a starting point for their own campaigns.

11. Create a Video Lookbook

Want to share videos with your visitors? Beacon has a selection of video lookbook templates so you can share these videos in a nice layout.

Beacon also has areas where you can add your own cover content, introduction, and customer feedback, so you can present these videos in a structured way.

12. Upload Your Own Files

Beacon makes it easy to create beautiful lead magnets. However, sometimes you may want to use a resource that already exists, or a magnet you create using a different piece of design software such as Canva.

In that case, you can upload your own files to Beacon and then create an opt-in for that resource.

13. Arrange Content into Containers and Columns

To help you create a nice layout, Beacon provides containers that you can drag and drop onto your lead magnets. You can then place your cards inside these containers, so they’re an easy way to arrange your content cards, including organizing them into multiple columns.

Beacon will also apply the same styling to all the elements inside a container, so it’s another way to style your content.

14. Generate Text Using AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way we write content, and lead magnets are no different.

Beacon’s AI Content card can automatically generate text based on any prompt. Simply type in a question, some instructions, or any other prompt, and Beacon will use powerful AI tools to generate some text for you.

You can also select a different tone, and Beacon will rewrite the generated text automatically. In this way, you can quickly and easily draft your lead magnets using AI.

15. Social Sharing Buttons

Want to encourage subscribers to share your content across social media? Beacon has a ready-made Social Sharing card that you can use.

This makes it easy for people to share your resource across LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. In this way, you can generate a buzz across all the major social media platforms, connect with a new audience, and potentially collect some extra leads.

16. Add a Table Of Contents

To help readers navigate longer documents, you may want to create a table of contents. To do this, simply add Beacon’s Table Of Contents card to your lead magnet and Beacon will generate a ToC automatically.

By default, Beacon will include every page in the document. However, you can remove pages by unchecking them in the left-hand menu.

17. Duplicate Content Cards With Ease

Sometimes, you may want to reuse the exact same content card in multiple locations. To save time, you can simply select the card in question and then click the ‘Duplicate’ button.

This creates an exact copy and places it directly below the original card. You can then make any changes to the style and contents.

18. Add Unlimited Pages

Do you want to create a longer lead magnet? With Beacon, you can add extra pages with just a few clicks.

Going further, each page has its own settings so you can change the margins, colors, background image, and more. Alternatively, you can duplicate any existing page, which will help to create a more consistent design.

No matter how you create additional pages, you can rearrange them using simple drag and drop.

19. Create Continuous Pages

In Beacon, most pages have a fixed height. When you reach the end of a page, you can’t add anymore content and will need to create a new page instead.

This can become annoying if you’re pasting lots of content into a lead magnet. In that case, you may prefer to use Beacon’s Continuous Page template instead.

When you select this template, Beacon will create a new page automatically when you reach the end of the current page. In particular, this can make it easier to create long, multi-page documents such as downloadable ebooks and resource guides.

20. Time-Saving Document Settings

To help you create a more consistent design, Beacon provides a central area where you can change a document’s default settings.

Beacon will then apply these settings to any cards or pages you add to the lead magnet. For example, you can change the text and headline size, and the link color.

You can also change the template colors.

When you’re editing a content card, these colors will appear at the bottom of the palette so you can access them easily.

Even better, if you change these template colors via the Document Settings tab, then Beacon will update every place where this color is used throughout the document.

21. Supports Right-To-Left Text

Beacon supports right-to-left languages. In fact, simply select the RTL option in Beacon’s settings and it will change the direction of all the text throughout the entire lead magnet.

22. Create Reusable Templates

Beacon comes with a library of professionally-designed templates, but you can also create your own. This can save you a ton of time and effort, and help you create a more consistent design across your entire lead magnet library.

In Beacon, you can convert any existing page into a reusable template.

With that done, the template will appear in the ‘Add New Page’ menu, along with Beacon’s built-in page templates.

Going further, you can convert an entire document into a reusable template. Every time you create a new lead magnet, Beacon will display this custom template along with its default templates, and you can use them in exactly the same way.

23. Share Lead Magnets as Smart PDFs

After creating a lead magnet, you can publish it as a smart PDF. Visitors can then access the smart PDF directly in their web browser via a link, rather than downloading it to their local computer. This is particularly useful for mobile users, as smart PDFs will automatically resize to suit the current screen.

They also typically load more quickly, which is perfect for visitors who are using mobile internet. If you’ve created a multimedia lead magnet, then smart PDFs will also play your videos, audio clips, or GIFs directly in the document.

In addition, smart PDFs can be indexed by the search engines, so they can boost your WordPress SEO. If you do want to increase your web traffic in this way, then Beacon has an entire area where you can add a meta title, keywords and a description to your lead magnet.

Finally, sharing your lead magnets as a smart PDF means that Beacon can track how people are interacting with it. This includes time spent reading the document and the source of any inbound links. If you want more information, then you can even add tracking scripts or code from third-party services like Facebook Pixel, or add your Google Analytics ID.

You can also control whether people can download your smart PDF, enable and disable social sharing buttons, add an optional password, stop search engines from crawling the lead magnet, and make other changes in the smart PDF settings.

24. Add a Custom Domain

When you export your lead magents as a smart PDF, the Beacon domain name will be included in the URL by default. This can confuse some visitors and make your lead magnets look unprofessional or even spammy.

If you want to use a branded URL instead, then you can use Beacon’s custom URL feature. After setting up a custom URL, Beacon will use your own domain name in your smart PDF links.

25. Deliver Lead Magnets From Your Own Address

If you’re sending lead magnets via email, then Beacon lets you send this content from your own email address by creating a sender signature. This can make your site seem more professional, while also helping to strengthen your company or personal branding.

26. View Your Leads and Conversions

After publishing some opt-ins and lead magnets, you’ll want to monitor your leads.

Beacon has a central location that displays all the people who sign up for your resources, organized by campaign. It also shows each form’s conversion rates, so you can identify your best-performing campaigns.

27. Export Your Leads

Sometimes you may want to share your leads with people who don’t have access to Beacon, such as the external marketing team that’s helping with your campaigns.

You might even need to import your contacts into another program, such as your customer relationship management (CRM) app.

No matter how you plan to use them, you can easily export your leads as a .CSV file.

28. Supports Multiple Users

Do you work collaboratively on your lead magnets? If you buy an Agency plan, then you can add up to 5 people to your Beacon account.

You can also control the actions that each user can take, such as whether they can create new lead magnets or edit an existing lead capture form.

Going further, you can grant or deny access to individual lead magnets and opt-in forms.

29. Create Unlimited Opt-in Forms

Once you’ve created a resource, it’s time to create a lead magnet form. This allows you to collect leads and build your email list, while also giving visitors an easy way to access this resource.

Beacon has an entire section where you can create opt-in forms.

To start, simply select one of your lead magnets. With that done, you can choose the kind of opt-in you want to create.

Beacon gives you several options, including a horizontal bar that’s pinned to the top or bottom of the browser window.

Alternatively, you can display the opt-in a popup, or embed it directly in your website.

These in-line forms are ideal if you don’t want to distract from the main page content.

Finally, you can share your lead magnet via a locked link.

This allows visitors to type in their information, and then access the resource via a private link.

No matter what format you choose, Beacon has a range of templates.

These templates are fully customizable so you can make any changes in a user-friendly editor.

When you’re happy with how the opt-in is set up, you can publish it.

The next steps will vary depending on the kind of opt-in you’re creating. However, as an example Beacon will often generate some code that you can paste into your WordPress blog or website.

30. Double Opt-In

With Beacon, you can verify your new email subscribers using a double opt-in. This can stop sign up spam, so bots don’t become full members on your mailing list and count towards your subscribers. Depending on your provider, this can help reduce your email marketing costs.

Some mail providers also require double opt-in before they’ll deliver your emails, so this feature can improve your deliverability rates.

When creating an opt-in form, you can toggle this feature on and off using a simple checkbox.

If you do enable double opt-in, then you can customize the messaging, change the subject line, and add your business email address.

Beacon will also show the confirmation status of each subscriber in your dashboard.

Pro Tip: If you do send opt-in emails, then you’ll want to make sure they arrive safely in the customer’s inbox, and not in their spam folder. With that said, we recommend using an SMTP service provider and a plugin such as WP Mail SMTP.

31. Build a Convenient Resource Library

Do you have a ton of resources that you want to share with your audience?

In that case, you can collect all these documents, videos, links, audio files, and other content into a convenient, searchable resource library. Beacon can then either publish this resource library to a subdomain or embed it directly inside your site, and visitors can access all your resources in the same location.

You can either make the resource library public, or ask visitors to complete an opt-in before downloading a resource. In this way, your library can generate additional leads for your online business. You can also protect your resource library with an optional password.

When it comes to creating your library, Beacon has a range of templates so you can give it a professional look and feel.

After choosing a template, you can add resources directly from Beacon, or import items from your Google Drive, HubSpot account, or a public URL.

You can also upload resources directly from your local computer.

When you’re happy with the content, you can customize the library by adding your own custom logo, messaging, colors, and more.

You can also choose what elements to hide or display, such as the footer, thumbnails, and resource titles.

After publishing your resource library, you can add, remove, and rearrange your resources at any point. This means your resource library can grow and develop over time, and remain relevant.

32. Smart Subscribers

If you create a resource library, then users typically won’t want to enter their contact information before downloading every single resource.

To making things easier, Beacon has a Smart Subscribers feature. When enabled, Beacon will only ask for the person’s contact information once. After that, they can just click a button to get subsequent resources.

33. Community and Professional Support

With its user-friendly editor and ready-made templates, Beacon makes it easy to create beautiful lead magnets. You can even convert your great blog posts into professionally-designed lead magnets with just a few clicks.

However, lead magnets can have a big impact on your conversion rates. With that said, you may need some extra help to create engaging, high-converting resources.

To start, Beacon has an online knowledge base that you can access 24/7. Here, you’ll find in-depth guides on all the Beacon features, alongside advice on how to use Beacon with popular email marketing services such as ActiveCampaign, AWeber, and Campaign Monitor.

There’s also the Beacon Lead Magnet Academy, which is a collection of articles, videos and webinars designed to help you master Beacon.

Even better, you can access the Academy directly in the Beacon dashboard.

If you prefer one-on-one help, then you can submit a ticket directly in the Beacon dashboard, and should get a response within a few hours.

Beacon Review: Pricing and Plans

Are you just getting started or have a limited budget? Then you can register for a free Beacon account and create 1 lead magnet per month.

You can also collect up to 100 leads and store up to 500MB of files in your free account. However, as your online business grows you may need to upgrade.

There are 3 different plans to choose from:

• DIY. For $19 per month, you can create 3 lead magnets every single month. You can also publish those resources as either a smart PDF or a downloadable PDF, and collect up to 500 leads. Going further, DIY gives you access to the entire template library, and also lets you create your own templates. That said, the DIY plan is perfect for small business websites, or anyone who is just getting started with lead generation.
• Professional. Priced at $49 per month, this plan lets you collect up to 5,000 leads and create as many lead magnets as you want. This makes Professional a great plan for anyone who wants to create and distribute a library of content, or websites that get lots of traffic and want to capture those leads, fast.
• Agency. For $99 per month, you can create unlimited lead magnets and send them from multiple different email addresses. You can also add 5 users to your Beacon account, and collect up to 10,000 leads. With that said, this plan is perfect if you run a WordPress development agency, marketing agency, or any business that manages a portfolio of clients sites.

Beacon Review: Is It the Right Lead Magnet Tool for You?

To sum up this Beacon review, we’re confident that it’s a great lead magnet and opt-in tool. It lets you create ebooks, video lookbooks, resource guides, and other lead magnets using a drag and drop editor, plus ready-made templates.

You can even convert your existing blog posts into beautiful lead magnets with just a few clicks, or use artificial intelligence to generate text directly in the Beacon editor.

With that done, you can design an opt-in for every single lead magnet, so you’ll have no problems increasing leads and growing your mailing list.

We hope this Beacon review helped you decide whether it’s the right multi-purpose theme for you. Next, you may want to see our guide on how to add web push notifications to your site, or see our expert pick of the best analytics solutions for WordPress users.

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