How to Connect WPForms and Mailchimp- Collect Emails With This Integration

WPForms and Mailchimp Integration- Grow your Email List

When we talk about sources of traffic search engines like Google and Bing and social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest tops the list.

Social media helps you with that quick initial traffic while SEO takes some time to show results.

It is important to know that the online world is constantly changing and so are the algorithms behind the sources.

This means if today you are ranking for some keyword on search or a post of yours is trending on social media then there are chances that after an update you might lose that position or that post might stop sending you that traffic.

And this can lead to reduced traffic and ultimately loss of income.

Keep in mind updates have both positive and negative impacts. But we should always prepare for the rainy days and that should be the strategy when running an online business.

To help you with this you need a source that you can depend on and that is email marketing.

Email Marketing is a highly effective digital marketing tactic using which you can send emails to your target audience or user base and generate both traffic and income.

In case you are thinking about how to build a user base then let me tell you while browsing the internet you may have come across sites that offer free tips, free services, coupons, discounts, ebooks, courses and more and in turn they ask you for a valid email address.

Here the products that you get gives the site owner an idea about your interests and then they send you relevant emails containing useful information, products and more to the email address you have used to subscribe.

Having said that,

It is important to know that on several occasions we have seen bloggers just depending on search engines and social media platforms for traffic and not focusing on email marketing at all.

And this is one of the biggest and most common mistake bloggers make.

We recommend focusing on building an email list from the day you launch your blog as this is something that is built and improved over time.

In case you have been running a website for a while now and haven’t yet started building a list then we will suggest you start today.

With that said, in this tutorial we will be covering how can you easily connect WPForms with Mailchimp using the WPForms Mailchimp addon.

If you carefully follow this tutorial till the end then we assure you that you will be able to easily create and embed forms and collect emails using WPForms and Mailchimp.

Why use WPForms and Mailchimp

Now that you are familiar with how can email marketing help you build a user base and generate both traffic and income, its time we discuss why choose WPForms and Mailchimp for it.

If you have been using WordPress for a while then I’m sure you are already aware of the fact that it is a very powerful and user-friendly CMS.

However, when it comes to creating forms most users face problems as it does not come with a built-in form builder functionality.

This means to create a form in WordPress you will have to either use a plugin or build it using code.

There are plenty of form builder plugins available in WordPress that can help you do this in just a few clicks and that is why we do not suggest using code for this.

Also, if you are starting out and have no experience in coding the creating forms using code can be a bit lengthy and complicated process.

And to make this process much easier we recommend you use WPForms.

WPForms is the most popular form builder plugin that lets you create forms easily in WordPress without having to worry about code.

This plugin comes with a drag and drop feature where you can create a form by dragging and dropping the fields on the canvas and the rest is taken care of by the plugin.

WPForms is a very highly rated plugin with over 8.3k Five Start reviews on WordPress.org

On top of that this plugin has 4 million + active installations which is huge.

As far as the features are concerned, WPForms lets you do almost anything as it you can connect it with various third party services and CRMs with just a few clicks.

Below are some of the features of this plugin.

and more. See all the features here.

Now that you are familiar with the form builder, next in this section we will talk about the email marketing tool that we will integrate with WPForms and that is Mailchimp.

First things first, more than marketing, email marketing is a channel using which you can communicate easily and effectively with client, customers, readers and other.

And this is what Mailchimp does.

Mailchimp is a powerful all in one email marketing tool that was created in the year 2001 by Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius to ema power people to grow their small businesses easily and effectively.

It is important to know Mailchimp was recently name one of the best Global Software Companies of 2021 by G2

Apart from this Mailchimp is one of the few tools in the email marketing industry that gives you access to features like

And more to help you get started in the right direction without feeling stuck.

Keeping this in mind, in this tutorial we will be using the free plan as it comes with all the features listed above for upto 2000 subscribers.

Now that you are familiar with both the tools, its time we dive deep into the tutorial and the first step in the process is to

Install WPForms

As mentioned before, WPForms is a very popular page builder plugin that lets you create forms in WordPress easily. This plugin has 2 version

• Free
• Paid

The free version is known as WPForms Lite or Contact form by WPForms and it lets you create contact forms.

On the other hand, the premium version is know as “WPForms” and it lets you do a lot more than just create contact forms such as

• Collect Payments
• Build email lists
• Receive orders
• Accept entries for contest
• Run survey and polls

And more.

As you will be collecting emails using WPForms and Mailchimp you will have to go for the paid version of WPForms.

To buy WPForms plugin, the first thing you have to do is visit WPForms using our SPECIAL LINK and doing this will get you an exclusive 50% discount.

Clicking the link will take you to the home page of the website where you need to either click Pricing on the navigation or Get WPForms button in the middle of the screen.

Doing this will take you to the pricing page of WPForms where you will see all the plans offered.

WPForms offers 4 plans

• Basic for $39.50 (Single site)
• Plus for $99.50 (3 sites)
• Pro for $199.50 (5 sites)
• Elite for $299.50 (5 sites)

It is important to know that WPForms Plus, Pro and Elite plans offer Mailchimp Integration while Basic does not.

And that is why you will have to go with either one of them depending on your requirements.

Personally speaking we use the Pro Plan as it offers the best value and almost all the features.

To select a plan, you need to click Get Started and it will take you to the checkout page where the first thing you will see is the

• Plan selected
• Original price
• Discount applied
• Total

After this you will come across the Account Information section where you are required to provide some basic details and select a password for your account.

Once you are done till here, the last section lets you select a payment method to complete the purchase.

WPForms lets you pay via 2 modes

• Credit Cards
• PayPal

Here you need to select a mode, enter the required details and then click Complete Checkout.

When you click Complete Checkout, WPForms will process the payment and will send you a confirmation email with a link to download the plugin.

On clicking that link, it will take you back to WPForms where you will have to click Login in the main navigation.

Doing this will show you to the WPForms Login page where you will have to use the credentials you have selected to enter your account.

On a successful login, WPForms will show you an onboarding sequence where you will have to answer a few basic questions to complete the account set up process.

Once done it will take you to your WPForms account where under the Overview tab you will see all the relevant details.

After you are done till here, the next step is to download the WPForms plugin and for that you need to head over to the Downloads tab and then click the Download WPForms button.

When you click Download WPForms, it will automatically download the WPForms zip file.

To install WPForms and activate license you will have to login to your WordPress admin and then go to Plugins and click Add New.

On doing this, it will take you to the plugin repository inside your WordPress dashboard and here you will have to click the Upload Plugin button on top.

When you click this button, it will show you an option to upload the plugin zip file you have just downloaded.

And once you are done uploading click Install Now and then Activate.

When you activate the WPForms plugin it will show you the welcome screen just like below.

And in the next step you need to verify the license.

To activate and verify the WPForms license, the first thing you have to do is navigate to Settings in WPForms and under the General tab, the first option lets you verify the WPForms license key.

In case you are wondering where will you find this key then let me tell you for this you will have to go to the Downloads tab in your WPForms Account for that.

Once you have located the key you need to copy and then paste it in the box and click Verify.

This process might take a few seconds and after a successful verification, it will show you the level of license under the box.

Now that you have successfully installed the plugin, the next step is to

Install WPForms Mailchimp Addon

WPForms allow you to connect any third party marketing tool or service using Addons and this means for WPForms and Mailchimp integration you will have to install the Mailchimp Addon.

To install WPForms Mailchimp Addon , the first step is to head over to WPForms in your WordPress admin and then click Addons

On clicking Addons, it will show you all the available Addons that you can install in WPForms. Here you need to search for Mailchimp using the search box

And once found you need to click Install Addon and it will install the WPForms Mailchimp Addon. This process will only take a few seconds to complete.

On a successful installation you will see the status change to Active.

An active status on WPForms Addon show that you can now connect the plugin with the service which in this case is Mailchimp.

See- How to install addon in WPForms

Once you are done till here, the next step is to

Create an account on Mailchimp

As mentioned before, Mailchimp is an all-in-one email marketing tool that can get you started easily.

And for this tutorial we will be using a free account.

To create an account on Mailchimp, the first thing you have to do is visit Mailchimp.com and click Sign Up Free on the main navigation.

Doing this will take you to the Mailchimp’s registration page where you will have to provide a valid email address and select a username and password.

On completing this, it will send you a confirmation message and after a successful verification it will start the Account Setup process.

In the first step it will show you all the plans including the free one.

Here you will have to select Free and click Next.

When you click Next it will ask you to add some basic information about yourself such as

• First Name
• Last Name
• Business Name
• Website URL
• Phone Number

Once you have filled out all the information, click Continue. In the next step, it will ask you to provide a valid address.

After providing the details here you need to click Continue and it will ask “If you have an existing list”.

If you are starting out then select No and in case you have an existing email list then you need to click Yes.

It is important to know, if you select Yes then it will show you an addition question where you will have to select the size of your list.

After selecting a relevant option here click Continue.

On doing this, it will ask you about what do you plan to offer using your email marketing campaign. You will get 5 options to choose from.

Select the options that best fit your plans and click Continue. Alternatively, you can skip this step as well.

The last step in the process is to select if you want to receive communication from Mailchimp.

And that’s it you have successfully created an account on Mailchimp.

Generate Mailchimp API key

Now that you have created an account on Mailchimp, the next step is to generate an API Key to connect WPForms and Mailchimp.

To generate Mailchimp API key you need to navigate to the profile picture in the bottom of the screen and then click Account.

When you click Account, it will show you all the information about your Mailchimp account. Here you need to click Extras and then select API keys in the drop down menu.

Doing this will take you to the Mailchimp’s API key page and here you will have to scroll down a bit until you locate the option to Create A Key.

Once found you need to click Create A Key and in a few seconds it will generate one for you.

Add Mailchimp API key in WordPress

Now that you have create a Mailchimp API key, the next step is to add it in WPForms to complete the integration process.

For this you need to go back to WPForms Settings in your WordPress admin and click the Integrations tab.

Here you will see the option to connect Mailchimp and WPForms. You need to click this and it will show you an option to Add New Account.

Click Add New Account and it will show you the option to add the Mailchimp API you have just generated.

You need to copy the key from your Mailchimp dashboard and paste it in the space provided.

Once done click Connect to Mailchimp and you will see the status of the integration change to Connected.

And that’s it you have successfully connected Mailchimp to WPForms.

How to add Mailchimp integration to forms

You can add Mailchimp to both new and existing forms in WordPress.

In this tutorial we will be creating a new form for it. In case you want to add Mailchimp to an existing form then you will have to edit an existing one and rest of the process will be the same.

Keeping this in mind, to create a new form using WPForms, the first step is to navigate to WPForms in your WordPress admin and then click Add New.

When you click Add New it will take you to the WPForms form builder where you will have to select a template.

As you are looking to collect emails for an email marketing campaign, here you will have to select Newsletter sign up form.

Once the template has fully loaded you need to add Mailchimp to it and for that you need to head over to Marketing in the form builder main menu and click Mailchimp.

When you click Mailchimp, it will ask you to add a new connection.

On clicking Add New Connection a popup will appear asking you to Enter a connection Nickname.

This nickname is used on the backend in case you wish to connect this form to a multiple mailing lists.

The nickname is not visible to the users hence you can select something memorable.

Once you are done adding the nickname click OK.

On clicking this, it will give you an option to select the account and you can do it using the drop down.

After you select an account, it will show you 2 new options which are Select Audience and Action to Perform.

In Select Audience you need to select the audience list in your Mailchimp account and in Action to perform you need to pick Subscribe.

On configuring these settings it will show you additional settings.

• Subscriber email- Here you will have to select the WPForms field where the users will be adding their email addresses.
• Tags to add- You can add any tags from your Mailchimp account if you have created any.
• New tags to add- Using this field you can create a new tag and it will be automatically added to all the subscribers generated through this form.
• Notes- This option adds a note to the subscriber profile in Mailchimp.
• Enable double optin- When you select this option, the subscribers won’t be directly added to the list. Instead they receive a confirmation email to confirm the subscription. This is a very useful setting as it prevent spam subscriptions.
• Mark subscriber as VIP- On selecting this option, it will mark all the subscribers received through this form as VIP.
• Update profile if this contact already in audience- When you select this option, it will automatically update the user’s profile in Mailchimp is they are already subscribed.
• Notify users that they are already subscribed- Selecting this option will let the existing subscribers know that they are already subscribed.

In case your form contains custom fields and you want to store the data in Mailchimp then you can configure the Custom Field Name and Form field value option.

Once you are done configuring make sure to save the changes you have made.

Testing the Mailchimp and WPForms integration

When it comes to testing if the form is working as expected or not, the first thing you have to do is embed the form in a page or a post.

For this you need to either create a new post or edit an existing one and then add WPForms block on it.

This block will give you an option to select the form you have just created using the drop down.

Once you have selected the form Update the page then visit it and add the required credentials for subscription which are name and email address.

If everything is working as expected you will find the email address in Audience in your Mailchimp dashboard.

And that’s it you have successfully connected Mailchimp and WPForms and can now easily collect emails.

Before we move forward, it is important to know that forms in WordPress are often subjected to a lot of spam submissions and you can prevent it by activating CAPTCHA

For doing that you can follow our tutorial on How to activate hCaptcha in WPForms

Having said that,

I hope you will find this tutorial helpful and are easily able to connect WPForms with Mailchimp.

In case you have any queries then feel free to reach out via the comment section. Also, don’t forget to share this article on social media.

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