Once you have set up your website the next crucial step is to start collecting email address from visitors to boost your marketing efforts. In this guide I’ll share how I added email sign up to my WordPress website to help you get started with your email marketing.
1. Why Collect Emails on Your WordPress Website?
By having people subscribed to your mailing list you give yourself the opportunity to make a direct connection with potential customers. You have the ability to put your products and services in front of potential buyers without you having to wait for them to find you. Or, like me, you can increase traffic back to your website.
2. How to Add Email Sign Up to Your WordPress Website
First thing you’ll need is an email marketing platform. These are a third party software that integrates with your WordPress site, stores all the email address you collect and lets you create sign up boxes and automated emails.
I use MailerLite because it’s free for 1000 subscribers and, although products like Mailchimp have loads more functionality, I found it much easier to use and the drag and drop builders makes creating email campaigns simple.
2.1 Sign Up With MailerLite
2.2 Create a Group
The first thing you’ll need to do is create a group. It’s a ‘bucket’ where you hold email addresses. It’s useful if you want to carve up your email subscribers so you can send different email campaigns. For the purposes of this guide we’ll only set up one group, so choose Subscribers >> Group >> Create Group
You’ll need to choose a name for your group. I keep it simple and put everyone that signs up on my website into a single group called ‘website sign ups’.
2.3 Create a Form
Once you’ve verified your email address, your account will be ready to use. To create your email sign up form, choose ‘Forms’ in the main menu at the top and then press the orange button ‘Create Embedded Form’:
You’ll be asked to give your form a name, so you know which one it is. For ease, I tend to call my sign up forms after where I intend to put them for example ‘footer’ or ‘blog post’. Just choose what’s right for you, it’s only for the MailerLite system.
Once you’ve chosen a name you’ll need to tick which group you want to add your email subscribers to, so tick the box that’s right for you.
Now you can get creative! Change fonts, colours and text so it matches your branding. Don’t forget to add something catchy to entice people to join your email list too! I use the sign up incentive of a free sole trader tax tool kit to help them with self assessment.
2.4 Embed Your Form
Once you’ve designed your sign up form, the next thing to do is to add it to your website. There are two options – you can either add the Mailerlite plugin to your WordPress site or use the HTML code.
2.4.1 How to Add the MailerLite Plugin
You can add the MailerLite plugin by going to your WordPress dashboard, search for the plugin and install it.
Once installed, you’ll be able to connect the plugin to your MailerLite account so you can access your sign up forms. You’ll then be able to add your sign up forms directly to posts by using the Mailerlite shortcut which will appear in your WordPress widgets.
2.4.2 How to Add the HTML Code
I avoid installing plugins wherever possible, so I prefer to add the HTML code. You’ll find the option to get the embed code if you go back to the forms section of your Mailerlite account.
You’ll need to copy the code, which is easy with the ‘Copy to Clipboard’ button in the bottom right hand side of the code.
You can then go back to your WordPress site and choose the option to add HTML code then paste the code into the box. You can do this in blog posts, pages, sidebars and footers. That way you can display your Mailerlite sign up form in the places they’ll most get noticed!
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