AIT Subscribe Form

Your mailing list is also a list of permissions

A subscriber writes to you, annoyed: they insist they never asked for your messages. You open your Mailchimp account and find their address, but what you have to answer goes beyond that. When did they accept? Is there a record on your own site?

Almost all the effort behind a subscribe form goes into getting more addresses. Yet every address that comes in is also a permission you may have to explain someday.

AIT Subscribe Form handles both parts. It adds a subscribe element to your site connected to your Mailchimp database, and keeps detailed records of consent to collect and process personal data in the plugin's database.

A subscribe element for your site's builder

• Form element: collects email addresses from your visitors.
• Mailchimp connection: links automatically through its API.
• Free placement: goes anywhere on the site with the Page Builder, like any other sortable element.
• Adjustable appearance: colors are changed in the element's settings.
• Your own text: you write it and translate it into the languages of your site.
• Consent log: in chronological order and visible only to whoever administers the site.

The log lives in your WordPress, and that has consequences

Records are in chronological order, so you can follow acceptances by date. Only the site admin can see them, so your team will not have them at hand unless they log in with that level of access.

There is one effect worth accepting from the start: since this information is kept in the plugin's database, it is part of your site and not of your Mailchimp account. From there, three precautions make sense:

• Backups: check that your backups include the full database.
• Migrations: if you change servers or rebuild the site, verify that the records are still there after the move.
• Uninstalling: before removing the plugin, find out what happens to that history and save it if you need it.

You write the sentence your subscriber accepts

The plugin collects the addresses and keeps the record. The words are yours, and that is where much of the work lies. A vague text leaves a record of accepting something vague.

Since the text accepts simple HTML tags, you can add a link and check how it looks. On a site in several languages, translate that sentence as carefully as the headline.

Mailchimp and the Page Builder, the two pieces you must have

You need a Mailchimp account, because it is the service it connects to. Sending and campaigns happen there: the plugin collects subscribers. Popups, display rules and newsletters of its own are not among its features.

It is placed through the Page Builder and is an AitThemes plugin, so first confirm that your site works with that builder. These are the steps:

1. Install and activate the plugin in WordPress.
2. Connect it to your Mailchimp account.
3. Open the chosen page in the Page Builder and add the element.
4. Write the subscribe text and adjust the colors.
5. Translate it if your site has several languages.
6. Subscribe with an address of your own and confirm it appears in Mailchimp and in the log.

When you need to collect addresses another way

If your site does not use that builder, or you want to decide when and how often to ask for the email, WP Subscribe Pro brings together capture points and display controls, and sends subscribers to the service you already use.

To stay with Mailchimp outside this environment there is MC4WP.

Questions about the form and its log

Where are the consents stored?

In the plugin's database, in chronological order.

Can I change how the form looks?

Yes. Colors are changed in the element's settings, and the text is yours.

Does it work for a site in several languages?

Yes. You can translate your text into the languages of your site.

Does it send the newsletters?

It collects addresses and connects them to Mailchimp, and your campaigns are managed there.