How to use Mailchimp with WordPress: An Ultimate Guide

Searching for an ultimate guide on how to use Mailchimp with WordPress? 

In this digital era, email marketing is a cornerstone of engaging with your audience, promoting products or services, and enhancing your website’s performance. 

WordPress, a prominent content management system, offers a flexible platform for managing your online presence. 

When you combine WordPress with the robust email marketing capabilities of Mailchimp, you unlock a powerful tool to bolster your online efforts. 

Isn’t it exciting? 

Let’s get started on this journey of email marketing excellence with Mailchimp and WordPress.

What is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp was initially founded in 2001 as an email marketing service but has since evolved into a comprehensive marketing automation platform.

Now, Mailchimp is an all-in-one marketing platform that provides a wide range of tools and features for businesses and individuals to create, manage, and analyze their email marketing campaigns. 

Mailchimp is known for its user-friendly interface and a range of features that make it easy to create and send email campaigns, build and manage mailing lists, and track the performance of email marketing efforts.

Key features and services offered by Mailchimp:

• Email marketing: Create and send customized email campaigns
• Marketing automation: Set up automated email sequences
• Landing pages: Easily design pages to promote products or capture leads
• Audience management: Organize and target subscriber lists
• Reporting and analytics: Access detailed performance insights
• Integrations: Connect with other business tools
• Social media advertising: Manage social media ad campaigns

Why should you integrate Mailchimp with WordPress?

Integrating Mailchimp with WordPress streamlines email list management and enhances marketing capabilities. It makes it easier to engage with and grow your website’s audience.

Moreover, this integration helps to boost user interaction and promote content effectively, all within your website’s ecosystem.

Key reasons for integrating Mailchimp with WordPress:

• Email lists: Seamlessly capture and grow your email lists through WordPress integration, enhancing your marketing reach and customer engagement.
• Automated marketing: Effortlessly engage with your website visitors through automated email campaigns, boosting efficiency and nurturing customer relationships.
• Targeted campaigns: Segment your email list and deliver personalized, highly relevant content to specific subscriber groups, driving higher engagement and conversions.
• Content promotion: Automatically share newly published content with your subscribers, ensuring your audience is consistently informed and engaged.
• Boost engagement: Foster ongoing engagement with your audience, encouraging repeat visits to your WordPress website and boosting customer retention.
• Analytics: Gain valuable insights into the performance of your email campaigns, with detailed tracking of open rates, click-throughs, and conversions.
• User-friendly experience: Deliver a seamless user experience by offering easy subscription management directly from your website, enhancing visitor satisfaction.
• Third-party integrations: Leverage the power of third-party integrations to connect Mailchimp with other WordPress plugins, expanding your website’s functionality.
• Improved ROI: Drive website traffic and conversions, resulting in a more favorable return on investment for your digital marketing efforts.

How to integrate Mailchimp with WordPress?

Integrating Mailchimp with WordPress is a strategic move for those seeking to enhance their email marketing and audience engagement. 

This integration streamlines the process of collecting, managing, and targeting subscribers, enabling more effective email campaigns. 

By seamlessly connecting these two platforms, you can create a cohesive online marketing strategy that nurtures relationships and promotes your products or services.

Let’s learn how to integrate them: 

Step 1: Setup Mailchimp Account

Setting up a Mailchimp account is the essential starting point for unlocking the power of email marketing. 

A Mailchimp account is the foundation upon which you can build and nurture meaningful connections with your audience while promoting your products or services.

Follow the following steps and set up your Mailchimp account: 

1. Navigate to the Mailchimp website
2. Click on “Signup for Free” to begin the registration process
3. Provide your email address, username, and a strong password
4. Click “Get Started” to proceed
5. Enter your business information and Agree to the terms of services
6. Verify your email address
7. Complete your profile by entering your name, business name, and address details.

Mailchimp offers different plans, including a free plan and paid options. Select the plan that fits according to your needs.

Step 2: Create an Email list in Mailchimp

Creating an email list in Mailchimp is a foundational step in effective email marketing. It involves compiling a list of subscribers who have opted to receive your emails. 

This process ensures that you can engage with your audience efficiently, target specific segments, and send them tailored content. 

Here’s a brief introduction to guide you through the process of building and managing your email list in Mailchimp: 

• Login to Mailchimp: Go to the Mailchimp website and log in to your account using your username and password.
• Access the audience dashboard: Once logged in, locate the “Audience” option in the top navigation menu and click on it.
• Create a new audience: Within the Audience dashboard, click on the “Create Audience” button.

4. Provide audience details: You will be prompted to enter specific details about your audience.

Like: Including the audience name, default “From” email address, default “From” name, and a reminder for identifying the purpose of the audience.

Fill in all these details.

5. Save audience: After completing the details, click “Save” to create the audience.

6. Import subscribers: After creating the audience, you can import subscribers. This can be done by uploading a CSV file, copying and pasting, or using integrations with other platforms.

Follow the on-screen instructions to import your subscriber list.

7. Manually add subscribers: Alternatively, you can manually add subscribers by selecting “Add Contacts” and providing their information individually.

8. Segment your list (optional): If desired, create segments within your audience to send targeted emails based on criteria such as location or engagement.

9. Set up signup forms: Customize your signup forms to gather email addresses and additional information from website visitors or followers on social media.

10. Create and send campaigns: With your email list set up, you can begin creating and sending engaging email campaigns to your subscribers.

Step 3: Install the Mailchimp WordPress plugin

You can use Mailchimp on your WordPress website without any additional tools but the Mailchimp for WordPress plugin enhances the process and makes it more efficient.

So, we suggest that installing the WordPress plugin. It simplifies the process and enhances your ability to manage your email marketing efforts directly from your WordPress website.

Also, provides a seamless experience for both you and your subscribers.

Mailchimp-supported WordPress plugins

Many websites use different form plugins. 

In these cases, you usually don’t have to remove your existing forms and replace them with Mailchimp forms. 

Most plugins now support integration with Mailchimp and other email marketing services because it’s important for businesses today. 

Here are some WordPress plugins that work well with Mailchimp:

1. Contact Form 7
2. WooCommerce
3. Gravity Forms
4. Ninja Forms
5. WPForms
6. BuddyPress
7. MemberPress
8. Events Manager
9. Formidable Forms
10. Easy Digital Downloads
11. Give
12. UltimateMember

Step 4: Integrate Mailchimp with your WordPress website using API key

Once you have installed and activated the plugin on your website, navigate to the Mailchimp Settings section in your WordPress dashboard. 

From there, you can establish a connection between your Mailchimp account and your website by entering an API key. 

This connection enables you to conveniently access your Mailchimp lists and forms directly from your site.

Steps to find and generate API key: 

• To locate your API key, visit Mailchimp for WP > Mailchimp within your WordPress dashboard.
• Beneath the API Key field, locate and click on the “Get your API key here” option.
• This action will redirect you to the Mailchimp website.
• On the Mailchimp website, select the “Create a Key” option.
• Copy the code that is generated for your API key.
• Return to your WordPress website and paste the code into the API Key field.
• Remember to save your changes.
• With your API key in place, you can access your mailing lists, previously created forms, and any integrations directly from your WordPress dashboard.

Step 5: Add Mailchimp forms to your WordPress site

Now, you have the ability to create new forms by navigating to Mailchimp.

Once these forms are created, you can easily add them to your pages, posts, or widgets using the provided shortcode.

You can add Mailchimp signup forms to your WordPress website in three ways: 

• Popup
• Inline-block
• Sidebar signup

The choice of signup form style should match your marketing and user experience goals.

If you’re not using a paid subscription, your options are limited to the Mailchimp block or custom code. You can access code snippets using HTML blocks in the visual builder. 

Another option is to create a form on Mailchimp’s website and then copy and paste the form code into your WordPress blocks for use.

Bonus step: Mailchimp signup in a popup 

From your Mailchimp dashboard, select the option Signup forms under the Audience tab.

Next, select the form type according to your needs. 

Let’s choose the “Embedded Forms” option for now!

Create the form according to your requirements on what information you want to collect from the users. 

After completing the form, Mailchimp will provide you with the “Embedded form code”. 

Just copy and paste the code into your website to display the form.

Navigate to your website, and open any page post from your WordPress dashboard. 

Next, select the HTML block and paste the embedded code there:

Now, the form will appear on the front end of your website. 

When users fill out the form all of the entries will be saved into your MailChimp account and you can access them from All contacts under the Audience tab : 

That’s all!

Tips to grow your Mailchimp email list fast

In the world of digital marketing, a rapidly growing email list is like gold dust, holding the power to elevate your outreach efforts and boost audience engagement. 

If you’re using Mailchimp to drive your email marketing campaigns, the key to success lies in the size and quality of your email list. 

To help you build a robust and responsive audience, we’ve assembled a collection of expert tips and strategies:

• Leverage content upgrades: Offer valuable content upgrades, such as e-books, guides, or exclusive content, in exchange for email subscriptions. Make these offers prominent on your website.
• Create compelling landing pages: Develop dedicated landing pages that focus on a single call to action – subscribing to your email list.
• Run contests and giveaways: Organize contests or giveaways that require participants to provide their email addresses for entry. Promote these events on social media and your website.
• Host webinars and events: Webinars and online events can attract a significant number of subscribers. Require registration to access the event, and collect email addresses in the process.
• Utilize social media: Promote your email list on your social media channels and use paid social media advertising to reach a wider audience.
• Implement referral programs: Encourage your existing subscribers to refer friends and family in exchange for incentives or discounts.
• Run email campaigns: Use Mailchimp to create and send engaging email campaigns that encourage existing subscribers to share and forward your emails.
• Customer feedback: Collect email addresses during the feedback or checkout process and ask for permission to send newsletters.
• Use pop-up forms: Implement well-timed and non-intrusive pop-up sign-up forms on your website to capture visitors’ attention.

Conclusion 

Wrapping up, With the Mailchimp-WordPress partnership, the possibilities are limitless. 

Integrating Mailchimp with WordPress is a strategic move that can significantly enhance your email marketing and audience engagement efforts. 

By seamlessly combining these two powerful platforms, you can create a cohesive online marketing strategy that nurtures relationships, promotes your products or services, and ultimately helps your online presence thrive.

Ready to grow your email list? 

Follow this detailed guide and turn your online presence into a dynamic marketing force. It will help you to gain valuable insights and will engage your audience more.