Maximizing Your Marketing: A Must-Read OptimizePress Review

If you already have a website, you might think getting a landing page builder is redundant. However, landing pages encourage visitors to buy. Meanwhile, full websites are better for offering more complex services. Through OptimizePress, you can take the “why not both” approach.

OptimizePress is a tool for marketing funnels, checkouts, landing pages, and taking online payments. What makes it unique is that it works solely as a WordPress plugin, meaning they don’t handle any of the hosting for you. Instead, you need an existing WordPress.org (or .com) account. 

WordPress is easily the most prominent website builder but is often too technical for those seeking landing page builders over full website builders. So, does OptimizePress manage to bridge the gap and make it easier to build a website, or is it shackled to an overly complex platform? Find out in our OptimizePress review. 

What is OptimizePress?

OptimizePress is a WordPress plugin and a company that has been around since 2010. It doesn’t have the same clout as HubSpot or Keap. The company also doesn’t like to talk about itself, as no “about us” section gives us any history about the platform. 

OptimizePress is a way to add marketing-focused funnels and squeeze pages to your WordPress site. As a plugin, you can use it to build all of your pages. It doesn’t replace the standard WP system, but you can use the building software for your main pages if you wish.

Optimize Press went through a relatively recent update: OptimizePress 3. With the update, page load speed was made into a bigger deal. Whether that update results in a quality product is up to this review. 

Who is OptimizePress best for?

OptimizePress is best for small businesses, solopreneurs, and freelancers with a current WordPress website. If you don’t have a current WP site, you can’t use it. 

OptimizePress also isn’t ideal for larger companies because of its lack of automation and email marketing features. It doesn’t offer web hosting. Instead, it focuses on being a page builder instead of a web host, which can be much cheaper than alternatives. 

OptimizePress Pros and Cons

OptimizePress pricing – how much does it cost?

Because OptimizePress is built on WordPress, they can afford to be much cheaper. Their available subscriptions break down into three general options:

• Essential
• Suite
• Agency Standard

The one drawback to these plans is that there is no free trial. Instead, if you don’t like the product, you can take advantage of their 30-day money-back guarantee. 

There are also no monthly plans, meaning you must pay for the entire year upfront. It is a pretty low one-off price, however, making it more reasonable when looking at other options.

The Essential Plan 

 The essential plan starts at $99 per year but is said to increase to $149 per year. Below is a roundup of features you get:

• Support for one site
• Unlimited leads, traffic, and pages.
• Access to the page builder (OptimizeBuilder)
• 400+ templates
• 34+ integrations
• Email support 

Having unlimited leads, traffic, and pages might sound impressive. However, because you store those pages on your WordPress site, the limit depends on your hosting provider. The more pages you build, the more data you use in your WP plan. 

The Suite Plan

The Suite Plan starts at $199 per year (but is advertised to normally be $299 per year). Below is a breakdown of features you get with an extra $100 per year:

• Support for up to 20 sites 
• Access to a sales funnel builder (OptimizeFunnels) with many prebuilt funnels. 
• Access to a payment portal that lets you take payments on your website (OptimizeCheckouts)
• A hosted opt-in form software to gather information from visitors (OptimizeLeads)
• A/B split testing 
• A metrics dashboard 
• A scarcity reminder for visitors of your website (OptimizeUrgency) 
• More premium design templates 

The Agency Standard Plan

 The agency standard plan is explicitly for resellers, costing $399 per year (advertised to be $499 per year usually). What makes the Agency Plan unique comes from its extension to client sites. 

You still have the same limited number of sites (20), but you can create those sites for clients. This means you can share your OptimizePress data with them, possibly creating a new revenue stream. 

If you need more sites, you can pay for a further Agency Pro Plan, which gives you up to 40 client sites for $599 annually. So, for digital marketers who sell funnels or landing pages, you’ve got a few options. 

Adding OptimizePress to your WordPress website 

After signing up and paying for your first year, you’ll be directed to a series of videos that will teach you how to set it up on your WordPress site. But if you want to skip the video, all you need to do is download it to get started. Below are the steps you can follow to install OptimizePress:

1. Log in to your WordPress admin page (through whatever host you have) and find your plugins list. Click “plugins” on the left-hand navigation bar and “add new” below.
2. After clicking “add new,” click “upload plugin” on your new screen. Next, click the “choose file” button and select the file you downloaded from OptimizePress.
3. Click “install now” and wait a few moments for the next screen to pop up and ask you to activate it. You’ll need to provide your username and password.
4. Once you provide your username and password, click the “authorize now” button, and you should see this screen below.

The image you see above will be the regular dashboard. Meanwhile, the first page we showed gives you access to training through OptimizePress University. To access the various page builders, you’ll want to scroll down and click “install” under each builder you plan to use. 

OptimizePress features 

 Our features review will take a closer look at the Suite subscription. This will give you a good overview of everything this building software offers.

Using the OptimizeBuilder – page building software 

Much like other page-building software, you start with various landing page templates to choose from. You can sort your template options by different collections or go through the entire template library. If you find templates you like, you can save them under “my templates..”

If you pay for the entry-level plan, you might have a smaller number of templates. After all, you get an additional premium template collection for getting the Suite Plan. To start with the builder, click on your favorite page, name it, and click the “create” button.

Using the Lightning Builder

The OptimizePress 3.0-Page Builder, known as the Lightning Builder, is what you get with the entry-level package. The editor is similar to other page-building software but unique in its own ways.

First, clicking on any of the page elements will pull up a helpful popup menu for editing. A popup will allow you to edit various “elements,” which is the word they use for different web content like forms, icons, text, or videos. 

The drag-and-drop elements of the editor involve clicking the move icons (the four arrows) in the middle of these popups. You can drag those between different sections, which are broken down into columns and rows. 

You’ll notice that the top bar changes as you click between different page elements. This bar allows you to see a breakdown of how elements lay. You can use this to get a basic understanding of how the editor works. 

Visual editing of your page isn’t overly complicated. However, it is not as easy as other page builders to use. You’ll find yourself struggling more than with other page builders, putting it at a similar level as Clickfunnels but with fewer onscreen elements. 

Navigating the page builder

When you click off of any sections or elements on the page (or when you first log in), you’ll get the basic navigation. Here’s a breakdown of those sections:

• Elements – Allows you to add different content types like opt-in forms, videos, login forms, audio players, or comments.
• Globals – A reference for your favorite styles that you can save between pages (this is useful for establishing consistent, design-based branding).
• Sections – A collection of different elements with prebuilt designs. Automatically breaks down those elements into different rows and columns. 
• Settings – Allows you to set up various page optimizations (for faster page speed loading), custom CSS, page backgrounds, version histories, and page backgrounds. You can also use this to save your current template, change the template, or export your template. 
• Typography – This lets you adjust fonts, sizes, colors, and other font controls for various page elements like headers and body text. 
• Pop Overlay – Allow you to create a popup that asks users to opt into something. 

The upper-right corner provides you with a preview button, the ability to switch to a mobile devices view, and an undo/redo option. You can also check a tablet view, allowing you to do business across devices. 

The settings tab is a bit overwhelming but is broken down in a way that is easy to understand. Spend a bit of time reviewing each section to ensure you have a good understanding. 

The one inherent weakness of this navigation comes down to how it changes each time you click on another page section or element. Anytime you click, the top navigation bar changes to bring up tools for editing those sections or elements. The only way to undo this (in my case) was to click on a small bar that only appears when you scroll to the top. 

Reviewing the different content types

OptimizePress has a tremendous amount of content types with its default plan. All of these elements do not require you to have coding skills. However, those with base coding skills can insert custom HTML. Below is a breakdown of what you can put on your page:

• Layout Elements – Different sections, rows, and columns that hold these website contents
• Essential Elements – Standard elements like contact forms, buttons, images, and text.
• General Elements – A catch-all for requesting credit card information, inserting Google Maps data (for your physical location), adding an audio player, adding an FAQ, and adding content for your membership site.
• Countdowns & Timers – A way to advertise your limited-time deals with countdown timers
• Social Elements – The ability to add social icons, Facebook buttons, comments, or “click to Tweet” buttons. 

Using the funnel builder (OptimizeFunnels)

Beyond the actual editing process, you can build funnels to get people to sign up for newsletters or buy things. Whenever you add a new feature, you’ll see it on the left-hand navigation bar alongside your other WordPress plugins.

You get four options for funnel creation:

• Application Funnels (for an event of a private group)
• Lead Magnet Funnels (providing a digital asset, like an eBook, to build your subscriber list)
• Newsletter Funnels (Grow your newsletter subscribers)
• Waitlist Funnels  (Creating a waitlist for a new product launch)

When you decide on the type of funnel you want to build, you are brought to the funnel visualizer, which allows you to see how your funnel works in steps:

With this testing platform comes the ability to run A/B testing, which allows you to see what version of these funnels results in a higher conversion rate. All you have to do is hover over the step and click “edit” to see your options.

The funnel states on the second tab reveal the results you want. Internet marketers become far more effective with A/B testing in their back pockets, giving them the power to create and track multiple results. 

The general funnel builder is also incredibly intuitive, with powerful customization capabilities that are easily understood. 

Setting up your payment gateways using OptimizeCheckouts

A big part of your customization capabilities includes turning your website into a storefront. OptimizePress allows for a checkout option that supports you in creating products or services and integrating with third-party payment gateways. 

OptimizeCheckouts integrates with Stripe and PayPal. Allowing for a one-off payment or regular monthly payments (for membership sites). You can also test your payment gateway for functionality using a sandbox mode. 

Creating urgency boxes using OptimizeUrgency

OptimizeUrgency is a unique feature among landing page builders that notify visitors of what’s going on with your site. The idea is to create a sense of urgency, pushing visitors to subscribe or check out the latest thing on your website. 

Here are your options for urgency notifications:

• Subscriber Alert – Shows users that newly subscribe to your email list.
• OptimizeCheckouts Alerts – This shows users who purchase something on your website (if handled by OptimizeCheckouts).
• WooCommerce Alerts – This shows users who buy something on your website through WooCommerce (assuming you have it).
• Pre-Loaded Alert – Gathers alerts based on integrations with other platforms. 
• Blog Alert – This shows when you make a new blog post.
• Visitor Count – This indicates the number of visitors currently on your webpage. 

The motivation behind this is the “other people are doing this, so I should give this a shot” motivation. When boosting sales or subscriptions, this can be pretty useful. 

Launching courses and creating memberships with OptimizeMentor

For those who have a WordPress site but want a course-building tool like Kajabi, OptimizePress has a solution. OptimizeMentor allows you to create membership areas and courses exclusively for those who pay or subscribe to your website. 

Creating membership areas requires you to manage a site with logins. Meanwhile, creating course areas requires you to create videos or text-based content. Either way, you’ll need a decent server as you build your content base. After all, storing this data means needing a lot of room.

There are plenty of templates for building these courses as well. We assume these are where you find the prebuilt template options considered “premium,” as you can’t get to these without paying for the second-level plan. 

Overall, the course building and membership building software are pretty powerful. For those who run businesses built on information, OptimizePress offers some pretty compelling solutions. 

OptimizePress integrations

OptimizePress has a pretty large number of integrations. You’ll want to take advantage of these, as OptimizePress has no built-in email marketing or customer relationship management (CRM) systems. By comparison, HubSpot or Keap is better at being an all-in-one marketing tool. 

That being said, OptimizePress integrates with email marketing software like Sendinblue or Mailchimp to supplement this. You can also connect your HubSpot account, which helps mitigate these issues. 

The problem with these integrations is they aren’t sorted by function. So, unless you know about the integrations, you’ll have to dig through them a bit. Since most business owners are not online marketers, this is a bit of a drawback. 

As far as the number of integrations goes, there’s a healthy amount. Other software has more, but many of the major players you are most likely to use are found here. 

OptimizePress user reviews – what do people say about its customer service?

Based on our findings, customer reviews seem to be a mixed bag but generally positive. GetApp, where they get the most reviews, gives them a 4.5 out of 5, which is pretty nice. G2, meanwhile, gives them a four out of five. 

You’ll find that most of these review sites don’t have too many reviews. GetApp, which has the highest number, is only just above 40 reviews (at the time of writing this review) 

Much of the issue comes from customer service and a higher learning curve. People say it’s more complex than other page builders, which is generally true. The funnel builder corrects some of this, but the user interface needs improvements. 

Being at this price point also means that customer service tends to suffer. As an online marketer, you know that sales based on a lower price often mean customer service tends to suffer. After all, price tends to attract more customers (and more demanding customers).

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Wrap up – is OptimizePress a good WordPress plugin and page builder?

When it comes to OptimizePress and comparing it to other page builders, it wins big in several areas. However, its most significant win comes from its approachability for entry-level marketers. You can save a lot of money by purchasing this software if you have a limited budget.

The result is generally weaker customer support and a less robust platform for building pages. It also lacks email marketing and CRM-based tools, which does make it tricker to use. However, if you own a WordPress site, it is easily one of the better options for building marketing pages. 

If you don’t want to pay for web hosting (which is why other services are pricier), OptimizePress is a good alternative.