Please note that contacts and forms are available only on Marketing and Creator plans.
The Form Designer allows you to generate HTML that you can embed directly on your website. By using custom templates and redirects to welcome pages, you can effectively grow your contact list. This is a fundamental tool for expanding your email marketing efforts.
It's worth to mention that there are few steps you need to follow to create your subscription form:
1. Create A New List
It is recommended that you create a new static list specifically for this and name it after its purpose: "Web Form Sign Ups" or "Blog Subscribers".
2. Activation Template
Create an email template specifically for this process if you wish to customize the email. Otherwise, a default template will be used.
The Template Gallery in your account has a few free examples that are easy to customize.
The {url} merge field must be used in the template. This will generate the link which will verify the contact's address and add the contact as Engaged Status to the account.
3. Build Your Form
When creating your form, you can either start from scratch or choose from a gallery of pre-made form templates.
Our Form Designer allows you to build your form using available building blocks, similar to the drag-and-drop editor used for creating templates.
The "Form" block is a crucial component of the design, as it defines the entire form structure. Each design can contain only one Form block.
To add more inputs to the form, use the "Build" tab within the block. The "Email" input cannot be deleted and is the only required field by default.
To gather more detailed information from your contacts, consider adding pre-defined fields such as "First Name" and "Last Name", or creating new custom fields.
You can also enable reCAPTCHA in your form. It will prevent spambots from adding fake email addresses to your audience. Please note that this feature is available only on Marketing PRO plans.
The "Customize" tab allows you to modify the visual aspects of your form, such as padding, background color, text size, colors, and fonts.
In the "Audience" section, you can select the lists to which a contact should be added. You can also select "Mailing Preferences", allowing users to choose which specific list they want to subscribe to.
4. Settings & Notifications
In this section, you can manage your double opt-in confirmation. By default, it is enabled and highly recommended. This is the most effective way to ensure that your contacts have explicitly signed up for your emails and are interested in receiving communications from you.
With double opt-in, a user signs up for a newsletter by submitting their email address through the form. After submission, the user receives a separate email with a confirmation link they must click to confirm their subscription to the list.
You have the option to select a custom activation template and configure the pages displayed when the contact submits the form and after activation via email.
If no custom template is selected, a default one will be used. (IMPORTANT: The {url} merge field must be included in the template.)
If you choose to display an external website, ensure that the URL addresses begin with HTTP or HTTPS.
If you wish to be notified when a new contact is added to the list, enable the notifications in the "Notifications" section. An informational email will be sent to the specified address(es) each time a new contact is added. You can add up to 5 email addresses for these notifications.
5. Publish
Once your form is complete, you will find the form link to share on social media and the embedded HTML code. Copy and paste this code into your website's source code to display the form.
6. Grow Your Contacts
Congratulations! Your web form is now set up. How it works?
When a new user submits the subscription form by clicking "Subscribe," they are redirected to the URL defined in the form settings. This redirection also applies to existing contacts with one of the following statuses: NotConfirmed, Transactional, Stale, Unsubscribed, or Complaint.
Simultaneously, the web form initiates an API call to our system, adding the contact to your account with a NotConfirmed status in the designated list. In such cases, the subscriber must confirm their subscription by clicking the activation link sent to their email address. If the form has Double Opt-In disabled, the contact is instead added with an Active status immediately, bypassing the confirmation step.
If the contact already exists in your list under a different status, their status may be updated based on your account settings and list configuration.
This API call also triggers the dispatch of a custom activation email to the contact.
Upon clicking the activation link:
If a Confirmation URL is not set in the web form builder, the user will be redirected to a default tracking page with a generic confirmation message.
If a Confirmation URL is configured, the user will be redirected to the specified page instead.
In both scenarios, once the confirmation link is clicked, the contact’s status is updated to Engaged and they become visible in your account.
If the user is already subscribed, the web form will redirect them to the URL specified for existing contacts. Additionally, if the user was originally subscribed to a different list, they will be copied to the list assigned in the web form.
We’re always here to help. If you need any additional clarification, feel free to reach out to our Customer Support Team, available 24/7 - we’ll be happy to assist you!