Ready, Set, Launch: The Most Important Aspects When Creating A WordPress Form Plugin

Creating a new WordPress form builder plugin can be challenging in such a market. You need to brainstorm with the team, debate and make the best decisions.

In these situations, the team members involved in the process have lots of ideas. And then, there comes an avalanche of questions: what name to choose for the plugin, what’s the right strategy, what are the differentiators? Product development and launch can be quite risky, so here are some tips and ideas on how to do that successfully.

Alexandra Draghici, CaptainForm Product Owner will tell us more about this process and also give some tips for those interested in creating a WP form plugin. Let’s find out!

1. Why did you start to develop a WordPress form plugin dedicated for online forms and surveys? What were the reasons?

Web forms is what we have been doing successfully for 7 years. The accelerated growth of our company (123ContactForm) has allowed us to launch derived products for specific markets, and building a product for the WordPress community was an obvious and exciting vertical to take on.

The WordPress market is a fascinating one, not only in terms of volume (a quarter of all websites run on WordPress), but mostly in what the community is concerned. We feel the interaction with users is truly meaningful and insightful, which is beneficial to both us and them. They help us build a solid product and we help them achieve their goals.

2. Tell us a few words about how you started: how did you choose the name, how did you develop the strategy, what decisions did you make throughout this process?

We had been discussing launching a separate product for WordPress for quite a while, but the tight schedule didn’t allow us to focus on this. When the time came (with the right amount of human and financial resources), we started the project. We knew we already had a big part of the code needed for this, but there was still a lot of development, design and marketing work to be done before actually launching the product.

About the name, well, it took a while to find it. We brainstormed heavily for weeks, maybe months, but all of the names that we liked were not available or not suitable in one way or another. And, one day, when we were out of any new and witty ideas, somebody casually mentioned – during a kitchen conversation – the name of “CaptainForm”. And we were like wait, what? Really? Where were you until now? Retrospectively, it was one of those simple and good ideas that come to you when you stop trying too hard.

In terms of branding strategy, CaptainForm aims to be the poised superhero that any WordPress user can employ to build all types of forms. We avoided putting a face to the name, so users can identify themselves with the protagonist and be superheroes themselves. We want to empower users and to remove all barriers in terms of form building on WordPress. CaptainForm users must know that anything is possible. And, if it isn’t already available and it makes sense, it will become available, as CaptainForm loves to listen and help.

3. Which was the most difficult part of all this process in your opinion? Which were the most difficult challenges that you have faced?

I wouldn’t say that something was especially difficult. We had the usual difficulties that product teams face, from prioritization to unexpected issues and deadlines. The good part is that anything that seems difficult is a learning experience.

Something that I would define not as difficult, but rather as challenging is the fact that we had to adapt to the new market. Many of us had already worked a lot with WordPress. But, as members of a product team that was used to building features for the general market, it was an interesting experience to change our way of viewing things. Many of the things we knew about users’ needs were irrelevant for our new purposes. So we adapted and it has been quite an awesome ride so far.

4. The WordPress market is very dynamic at this time. How do you plan to position yourself in comparison to your competitors? What are your differentiators?

Our main differentiators are: native functionality, our arsenal of top-notch features and the stellar support we provide. By native functionality, I’m referring to the fact that every single feature that we offer is available straight from the core product. With other form building plugins, our main competitors included, you have to install other plugins (also known as add-ons) to gain access to a specific feature. That’s not the case with CaptainForm. Everything is available right away, including the integration with other services (like email marketing apps or payment processors). This streamlines the experience and saves a lot of time and effort.

Among the top-notch features, I would mention our highly flexible publishing options (in pages and posts, in widgets and popups, in theme files), the various options related to form submissions (take for example the request for approval or the option to save a message for later), conditional logic, quiz functionality, multipage and multilanguage forms, the form templates that you can start off with, SSL encryption, integration with 32 other services, a great variety of form fields. You can view our Features Matrix to get a better idea. All of the features that are available on the platform that we’ve been developing for 7 years are also available in CaptainForm, plus other WordPress-specific features.

About the stellar support, we provide unlimited support to all users, free plan included, and we do it by live chat and email. Our company’s Support team comprises 8 awesome guys and gals, always ready to help. Other plugins tell users to search for help on forums or have different models of using support as an incentive for upgrade. We’re not willing to do that and we believe that support should always be an unlimited and free service. On top of that, we are always eager to hear what feature requests and suggestions users have, as this is the only certain way of designing new features that attend to their needs.

5. Is the plugin built only for web developers or do you target other audiences, too?

The plugin is built for any and all WordPress users, from designers and developers to small business owners and people who are working on any type of WordPress project. The interface is very intuitive and there are no coding skills required. For those who do have code knowledge, features like CSS customization are also available.

Moreover, the pricing model also addresses all types of needs. We have the Regular service plan, which is forever free. Apprentice, Master and Hero are paid service plans, for users with more advanced needs. The Hero plan is the most expensive one ($195) and is designed especially for multisite WordPress instances.

6. What advice would you give to someone who plans to develop a WordPress plugin?

To research their market niche thoroughly and to focus first on the value they bring to users and secondly on the revenue. As I was implying before, the WordPress community is very smart and well-informed. And there is an abundance of plugins that already seem to do everything. But, if you listen closely, there are still very many needs that aren’t satisfied correctly. There are plugins that get installed and uninstalled in a matter of minutes. Once you identify the specific need that hasn’t been met yet or that you can meet better than your competitors, you’re on the right track.

I would also recommend starting small. This wasn’t the case for us, because of our preexisting platform. But, if you start from scratch, it’s best to address things one at a time. What is the basic functionality that you want to offer? Release it. Then be agile and build on that. Release frequently, release updates that you trust in, gather feedback and keep your product together.

7. Is there anything else special about your product that you’d like people to know?

Apart from what I have already told you, I would like to refer to the awesome team behind CaptainForm. We are nice and hardworking people who are building something, just like our users, and we are very open to constructive exchanges of thoughts. Everybody who is involved in this project, from Development to Marketing, Design, Support and Sales, is very enthusiastic about the product. We want to see it grow and the success of our users is what determines our growth. So come on board and be a part of CaptainForm’s crew