You won’t get anywhere by spamming the entire WordPress community to promote your plugin, he tweeted to me.
I stared at my screen, my heart stuck in my throat, my face bright red.
Brand new to the WordPress community, brand new to marketing, and brand new to joining a startup, I was sure I had messed up beyond what I could repair. This angry tweet was going to be my fatal end. I could hear the bells ringing at the midnight hour. There was not going to be a happily-ever-after for me. My tweeting mistake was going to ruin my entire future. I could sense that my time was up. I would not survive. I prepared to die.
You laugh. It’s funny now and I’m a survivor, whaddya know. Here’s the thing, this is just one of many faux pas I made in my genuine, sincere desire to help the Ukuu team and do my job well. It’s the story of a real, raw journey of a group of humans who were launching new software.
The Ukuu team put their heart and passion into this project from day one.
I joined the Wanna Pixel team a little over two years ago when UkuuPeople CRM was still just a concept in development. At that time, the creators had named it Ukuu CRM by Ukuu Logic. Ukuu is a Swahili word that translates to “greatness.” Ukuu CRM had a cool landing page and a cool logo and cool swag. Ukuu CRM had everything it needed to be a smashing success.
Tragically, humans did not connect with Ukuu CRM. Maybe it was the U shape that no one recognized as a U. Maybe it was the lack of clarity in too-clever marketing. We’ll never really know. We loved it, so we thought everyone else would too. But, as we learned, this is not the only way success happens.
By listening to feedback from WordPress peeps at #WCOrlando, the Ukuu Team completely changed the way they’d been thinking about their CRM.
The name changed.
The logo changed.
The swag changed.
The website changed.
Everything changed.
I even got crafty and created handmade, painted, leather masks as fun props for the new brand.
Then we were off on flights to the Nonprofit Technology Conference and the year of WordPress Wordcamps. We went to so many Wordcamps.
We made new friends, and the Ukuu team grew.
We did not encounter wild success by seeing tens of thousands of plugin downloads and add-on purchases in that first year.
UkuuPeople’s growth has been like the little engine that could because even though the sun was setting and the toys weren’t getting to the children, we never lost our passion and heart for our CRM.
The little engine that could has found itself in excellent company in the online WordPress community.
Here are a few kind mentions:
#1 on WPBeginner’s List of Top CRMs
We got a shoutout in April from the awesome folks at Awesome Motive who write for WPBeginner. The great thing about this is that they did an independent review of the top CRMs for WordPress. In their completely objective, unbiased opinion, we were chosen as the #1 CRM for WordPress! What an honor.
#1 on WordPress CRM Plugins to Amplify Your Business by Devrix
“UkuuPeople is the most effective yet easy WordPress CRM system that you can integrate into your site. This plugin helps you manage the contacts of your crucial leads in a master list.
You can then segment your lead contacts into different groups and tribes (groups) and begin interactions with them using touchpoints. Apart from this, you can also add team members, hand over them tasks, and schedule meetings right from your WordPress website dashboard, isn’t that too simple?”
#1 of 7 Best WordPress CRM Plugins by MultisiteWP
Meet UkuuPeople.
#1 of 7 Best WordPress CRM Plugins by WordPress SEO
WordPress SEO asked, “Why do you need a CRM for your WordPress website?”
“There are many third-party platforms that can be used as a CRM for your site. However, wouldn’t it be great if you could integrate a CRM right into your WordPress site?”
The answer is, yes!
We agree, WordPress SEO!
#3 of Best WordPress CRM Plugins for Your Business by WPOVEN
Vikrant Datta explains the meaning of CRM and talks about why a CRM is important for your business. “WordPress is one of the faster growing platforms on the web today. A large number of businesses have set up their sites with WordPress CRM plugins to optimize their growth and management.”
#4 of WPMUDEV’s 23 Best CRM Tools for WordPress
Brenda Barron wrote, “If you’re looking for a strictly contact management tool that can be integrated into WordPress, the UkuuPeople plugin does just that. You can manage your contact list, track all interactions, create email lists, and communicate with other team members all from within the plugin.”
Kari Leigh Marucchi gave us a shout out during her awesome #100DayWordCampTeeForQuiltSeries project! Love it!
Awesome humans published thoughtful reviews:
Steve, Founder of OSTraining, was the first one to give a review of UkuuPeople.
He concluded, “If you look at the UkuuPeople listing on WordPress.org, they describe themselves accurately as a ‘Simple WordPress CRM’ and ‘the easiest CRM tool for WordPress.’ They are aiming at a target audience that is intimidated by Saleforce and CiviCRM.
This plugin is new, so expect a lot of development in the near future. Also, bear in mind that UkuuPeople is backed by a team with deep CRM experience. I expect a review of UkuuPeople will look very different, even in a few months’ time.”
A Review on Heros.Do
“So what is so special about UkuuPeople? The core benefit UkuuPeople has over other CRM providers is that it is completely integrated with WordPress. This means that automating your data collection and data maintenance is fully within your reach.”
Reviews of UkuuPeople CRM in the WordPress Repo
This is our way of saying, “Thank you.”
We really appreciate you. If we missed mentioning you, please contact us and let us know.
The simple UkuuPeople CRM for WordPress has now reached
- over 4,000 downloads
- 500+ active installs
Humans are awesome.
Humans matter.
We believe that contact management is vital to an organization’s well-being. We believe one day we will help every WordPress website owner to GO GET THEIR PEOPLE!
Download UkuuPeople CRM from the WordPress Repo for free!
Having been on this journey and continuing to be on this journey, this piece holds special significance to me. I find it very poignant and because of the struggle, every individual person and organization that has spoken in support of UkuuPeople holds a special place in my heart.
I also think it bears mentioning that a lot of people have put their heart and soul into this project that, for various reasons, have moved on to other things. Some of them are pictured here. Thank you for believing in UkuuPeople. You, my friends, are awesome humans and you make me proud to be one too.