How to Add Email Subscriptions to Your WordPress Blog

Are people visiting your WordPress blog but not coming back? I’ve been there. When I first started blogging, I was happy to see traffic coming in, but it felt discouraging when most visitors never returned.

What made the biggest difference for me was building an email list.

Once I set up a simple subscription form and started sending updates, people came back to read more of my content. They replied to emails, shared my posts, and actually followed what I was doing. It felt like I was building a real connection instead of just hoping for clicks.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to add an email subscription form to your WordPress blog.

Whether you’re starting fresh or want a better email marketing setup, I’ll walk you through the steps in a way that’s easy to follow.

Why Should I Build an Email List for My WordPress Blog?

Building an email list gives you full control over how you reach your audience. While you’ll use an email marketing service to manage it, you’re not stuck relying on algorithms or a single platform.

This is especially helpful if you’re growing your audience through your WordPress blog. Email helps turn one-time visitors into returning readers because you can stay in touch directly.

An email list is just what it sounds like: a collection of email addresses that users give you when they sign up for updates.

At WPBeginner, we’ve seen the impact firsthand. Our email list has grown to over 1 million subscribers, and it’s one of our most important ways of helping people.

Every week, we send out tutorials, plugin tips, and WordPress news that readers might have missed otherwise. It’s how we stay connected with beginners all over the world, even long after they’ve left our site.

Unlike social media accounts or search rankings, your email list is something you actually own. You can reach out to your readers any time, whether you’re announcing a new post, sharing tips, or promoting a product.

Other platforms, like social media, can be helpful—but they come with limits. Algorithms change, accounts can be suspended, and your content might never reach the people who followed you.

That’s why it’s risky to rely only on outside platforms.

If you’d like more details, check out our guide on why you should start building your email list.

Of course, with that control comes responsibility.

If you’re collecting names and email addresses—especially from users in the EU—you’ll need to follow privacy laws like the GDPR. That means being clear about how you’ll use personal data and getting permission before you send emails.

If this sounds technical, don’t worry. I’ll walk you through everything step by step. Here’s what this guide will cover:

• How to Add Email Subscriptions to Your WordPress Site
• Step 1: Set Up Your Email Subscription List
• Step 2: Create an Email Subscription Form in WordPress
• Step 3: Connect WPForms to Constant Contact
• Step 4: Add the Subscription Form to Your Website
• Step 5: Display Your Email Subscribe Form in a Popup (Optional)
• Step 6: Write and Send Emails to Your Blog Subscribers
• FAQs: How to Add Email Subscriptions to Your WordPress Blog
• Keep Going: More Email Marketing Guides for WordPress Bloggers

Let’s get started!

How to Add Email Subscriptions to Your WordPress Site

Email marketing might seem overwhelming at first, but it’s easier than it looks. With the right tools, you can add email subscriptions to your WordPress blog without any technical hassle.

The first thing you’ll need is an email marketing service. This will help you collect subscribers, send out newsletters, and track how your emails are performing over time.

I recommend using Constant Contact because it’s one of the most beginner-friendly platforms for small businesses. It comes with helpful features like open and click tracking, so you can understand what’s working and improve your email strategy as you go.

Plus, their Standard plan includes features like:

• Marketing automations to speed up your workflows
• Subscriber list segmentation so you can send specific emails to specific users
• Surveys and polls
• Targeted landing pages
• A/B subject line testing to get the best results
• SMS marketing

Another benefit? Constant Contact integrates seamlessly with the best WordPress form plugins, which I’ll show you how to use later in this guide.

Step 1: Set Up Your Email Subscription List

The first thing you need to do is sign up for an account with Constant Contact.

Simply go to their home page, click on the ‘Sign up free’ button, and fill out your information.

Once you’ve created your account, it’s time to set up your email list.

First, you need to click on the ‘Contacts’ button at the top of your Constant Contact dashboard.

This will take you to the contacts page. From there, you need to head to the ‘Lists’ tab and click on the blue ‘Create List’ button.

A popup window will now open.

You’ll be asked to provide a name for your email list. It can be whatever you want, but I’ll call it ‘My Newsletter’ for this example.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button when you’re done. Now you have a new list people can subscribe to.

The next step is to add an email subscription form to your WordPress website, where your visitors can sign up and join the list you just made.

Step 2: Create an Email Subscription Form in WordPress

While Constant Contact includes its own signup form builder, the easier way to create forms in WordPress is by using the WPForms plugin, which is the best contact form builder on the market.

At WPBeginner, we use WPForms for all our forms – from our contact form to our annual reader survey. It’s our top recommendation for beginners and small business owners alike, and you can learn more about it in our extensive WPForms review.

First, let’s create a WPForms account.

You can head over to the WPForms website and click the ‘Get WPForms Now’ button. After that, you can just choose the plan that best fits your needs and complete the registration process.

Upon registration, you can install and activate the WPForms plugin from your WordPress admin area. If you need help, then follow our guide on how to install a plugin for detailed instructions.

Once you have activated the plugin, head over to WPForms » Settings and enter your license key.

You can find this in your WPForms account area.

Once your license is verified, scroll down to the ‘GDPR’ section.

Then, go ahead and check the box next to ‘Enable GDPR Enhancements.’

This will unlock two additional privacy options:

• Disable User Cookies – Stops WPForms from setting cookies for things like form abandonment, geolocation, and related entries.
• Disable User Details – Prevents WPForms from storing IP addresses and browser info from form submissions.

These settings are optional. You can enable them based on how much visitor data you want (or need) to collect. And when you’re done, don’t forget to click ‘Save Settings.’

Now, you can go to WPForms » Add New page from your WordPress admin area to start creating your email subscription form.

This will open the WPForms ‘Setup’ page.

From here, you can start by entering a name for your form. This is just for your reference, but using a clear, descriptive name can help you stay organized.

Next, you’ll choose how you want to build your email subscription form. WPForms gives you three options: start from scratch, use a pre-made template, or try the AI form builder.

If you want to save time, then you can opt for the WPForms AI builder. All you have to do is add a simple prompt, like “newsletter signup form with name and email,” and the AI will generate a complete form for you in seconds.

For this tutorial, though, I’m going to use a pre-made template.

If you scroll down the ‘Setup’ page, you’ll see 2,000+ form templates to choose from, including email subscription forms, contact forms, and more. You can also use the search bar to quickly find the template that best fits your needs.

Let’s go ahead and select the Newsletter Signup Form template.

WPForms will now load a sample newsletter sign-up form in the form builder interface.

It will include fields like first and last name and email address by default.

You can customize these fields as needed. For example, you can switch to a single “Full Name” field, rename the field labels, or drag and drop them to change the order.

Next, let’s take some simple steps to help your form follow the GDPR best practices.

You can drag the ‘GDPR Agreement’ field from the left-hand panel and drop it into your form.

By adding this field, you’re not just following privacy laws. You’re also building trust with your audience. It helps make sure you’re only emailing people who clearly said they want to hear from you, which leads to a more engaged and better-quality email list.

Once added, it will appear at the bottom of your form.

Feel free to click on the field to edit it. You can change the field label, customize the agreement text, and even add a link to your privacy policy or terms and conditions in the description box.

📝 Note: If you add the GDPR Agreement field to your form, users will be required to check it before submitting. This field cannot be pre-checked, in accordance with GDPR requirements.

For details, you can check out our guide on how to create GDPR-compliant forms in WordPress.

Next, let’s head over to the ‘Notifications’ tab in the form settings. This is where you can control who gets notified when someone submits your form.

By default, WPForms will send the notification to the admin email address set in your WordPress settings. But you can change that to any email address you prefer – or even send the notification to multiple email addresses by separating them with commas.

You’ll also see a default subject line based on your form’s name. Feel free to customize this subject line to make your email notifications easier to recognize.

After that, you can switch to the ‘Confirmations’ tab to set up your confirmation message. This is what your users will see when they submit the form.

By default, WPForms will show a confirmation message, which you can change to anything you want.

You can also change the confirmation type and redirect users to any page or URL.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your changes.

Step 3: Connect WPForms to Constant Contact

Now that your newsletter sign-up form is ready, you’re ready to connect it to Constant Contact.

From the builder interface, let’s switch to the ‘Marketing’ tab and select ‘Constant Contact’.

After that, you can click on the ‘Add New Connection’ button, and you’ll see a popup that asks you to name your connection.

I called mine ‘My Newsletter Form’, but you can name it whatever you want. After entering a connection nickname, simply click the ‘Ok’ button.

On the next screen, you’ll need to connect your Constant Contact account with WPForms.

To do that, click on the ‘Click here to register with Constant Contact’ link.

A popup will then appear asking for permission to connect WPForms with your Constant Contact account.

Simply sign in, then click the ‘Allow’ button to authorize the connection and continue.

You’ll then receive an authorization code.

You can go ahead and copy it to your clipboard.

Next, you can paste the authorization code into the WPForms settings and provide an account nickname. The ‘Account nickname’ could be anything you want.

Finally, click on the ‘Connect’ button to continue.

On the next screen, you’ll be able to select the fields you want to pass through from your form to Constant Contact.

I selected ‘email’ and ‘full name’, but you can select as many as you want. Just be sure that those two fields are included in your newsletter sign-up form fields.

When you’re done, don’t forget to save your changes.

Step 4: Add the Subscription Form to Your Website

Now that you have the form set up, the next step is to add the form to your WordPress website. Luckily, WPForms makes it easy to add your form anywhere on your site, whether that’s on a page, post, or widget area.

To add your form to your site, just click the ‘Embed’ button next to ‘Save.’

In the popup that appears, you can choose whether to insert it into an existing page or create a new one.

For this tutorial, I’m going to select an existing page.

In the next popup, you’ll see a dropdown field where you can select a page.

Just click to expand the list and choose the page where you want to add your form.

Once you do that, you can just click ‘Let’s Go!’ and you’ll be redirected to the WordPress content editor.

To insert your form, click the ‘+’ icon to add a new block, then search for and select the WPForms block.

This will add the block to the preview.

From here, you can click ‘Select a Form’ and choose your newsletter signup form from the dropdown menu.

WPForms will then load it on the preview.

If you want, in the form settings on the right-hand panel, you can choose to show the form title by enabling the ‘Show form title’ toggle.

You can also customize the form style under the ‘Themes’ section.

When you’re happy with how your form looks, go ahead and update your page.

And here’s what it looks like on our demo site:

Want to display your form in a widget-ready area?

Simply go to Appearance » Widgets and click the ‘+’ button to add the WPForms block to your sidebar or any other widget area.

Next, you will need to select your newsletter form.

Simply click the dropdown menu in the WPForms block and choose your form.

Once you select the form, you can see the preview in the widgets area.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button when you’re done.

You can now visit your website to see your email subscription form in action.

Whenever someone fills out their name and email and checks the GDPR Agreement box, they’ll get subscribed to your newsletter.

Now that everything is set up, let’s take a look at how to send emails to your subscribers.

Step 5: Display Your Email Subscribe Form in a Popup (Optional)

Adding a single sign-up form in your sidebar often isn’t enough. To grow your email list faster, it’s better to give visitors multiple opportunities to subscribe, no matter where they are on your site.

This is where OptinMonster comes in. It’s the best conversion optimization and lead generation software, and it can help you convert more website visitors into subscribers.

At WPBeginner, we use OptinMonster for promoting special offers and deals in popups, slide-ins, and header banners. Here’s our complete OptinMonster review for more details.

To get started, you can go to the OptinMonster website and click the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button. You’ll then be prompted to choose a plan and create your account.

Upon signup, you can install the free OptinMonster plugin from your WordPress admin area. If you need help, check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once the plugin is activated, you’ll see the setup wizard.

Go ahead and click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.

A popup will appear asking you to confirm the connection.

Just click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button to continue.

After your account is connected, you’re ready to build your first opt-in form.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to OptinMonster » Campaigns, then click ‘Create Your First Campaign’.

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to choose a campaign type.

With OptinMonster, you can create all kinds of opt-in forms, like floating header and footer bars, slide-in boxes, welcome mats, inline forms, and lightbox popups.

We’ll use the Popup campaign type for this tutorial because it has enough space for both your subscribe form and message.

Next, scroll down to browse the available templates.

OptinMonster offers over 75 professionally designed popup templates that are built to convert. You can choose any design that fits your brand or campaign goals.

Once you’ve picked a template, go ahead and name your campaign.

Then, click the ‘Start Building’ button.

Now you’ll enter the drag-and-drop builder, where you can customize the layout and design of your popup. Just click on any of the pre-made content elements to edit them and match your branding and message.

On the left-hand side, you’ll see a menu of content blocks. Let’s find the ‘WPForms’ block, then drag and drop it onto the template.

To add the subscription form, you can click the ‘Form Selection’ dropdown from the WPForms block settings in the left-hand menu.

After that, you can just choose the form you want to embed.

You can then go to the ‘Display Rules’ tab at the top, and here’s where OptinMonster shines

In this tab, you can control exactly when and where your campaigns appear. For example, you can show a popup right as someone’s about to leave your site, by using the exit intent technology.

This approach is actually great for capturing abandoning visitors. At WPBeginner, we combined this exit-intent technology with a lead magnet, and we saw a 600% increase in subscribers.

Go ahead and click on it to set up the rules.

On the next screen, you’ll set up how sensitive the exit-intent trigger is.

By default, it’s set to Medium, but you can adjust it to Low or High depending on how early you want the popup to appear.

When you’re happy with everything, you can switch to the ‘Publish’ tab at the top.

Then, go ahead and change the ‘Publish Status’ from ‘Draft’ to ‘Publish.’

There you have it!

Now, if you visit your website, you can see the popup in action.

Step 6: Write and Send Emails to Your Blog Subscribers

There are a few ways you can notify readers when you publish a new blog post. These include sending regular email newsletters or by using an RSS-to-email service.

The RSS method automatically emails users whenever you publish a new post in WordPress. While convenient, these automated emails often have lower open rates because they can feel less personal.

That’s why I recommend writing your emails manually. This allows you to create a more personal, conversational connection with your readers, highlight your best content, and choose a consistent schedule that works for you.

Most popular bloggers send an email newsletter once a week. But you can set your own frequency and schedule the emails ahead of time, so your audience hears from you consistently.

To write and send your first email, you can start by navigating to the ‘Campaigns’ page in your Constant Contact account dashboard. Then, go ahead and click the ‘Create’ button.

A popup will appear with several campaign types.

Simply choose ‘Email’ under the ‘Choose a campaign’ section.

After that, Constant Contact will show multiple email templates.

You can go ahead and select a template for your email newsletter.

Next, you’ll need to name your newsletter. This is just for your reference, and you can always change it later if needed.

Once that’s done, you’ll be taken to the email builder, where you can customize your template. From here, just drag and drop the elements you want to add, edit, or remove.

At the top of the builder, you’ll see the subject line and preheader text (the short summary that appears next to the subject line in an inbox).

To update them, click that area and type in whatever you’d like your subscribers to see.

On the left side, you’ll see a handful of options you can drag directly into your newsletter template. You can add images, buttons, texts, and more.

For example, I’m going to add a link to some text in my newsletter. To do this, you can start by highlighting the text you want to turn into a link.

Then, click the chain-link icon and choose ‘Web Page’ from the dropdown options.

From here, you can paste the link to your blog post.

With that done, you can click the ‘Insert’ button, and you’re ready to go.

Now, for the last step, let’s click ‘Continue’ in the upper right corner.

On the next screen, you’ll need to select an email list before sending your newsletter. You can choose specific lists or all of your contacts, which is often called an email blast.

Make sure you check the box next to your list and then hit the ‘Send Now’ button at the top.

And that’s how you send your very first email manually. If you want to schedule it for later, then you can choose that option and set a date for it to send.

You can repeat this process at any time you want to notify your subscribers about anything new on your WordPress blog.

FAQs: How to Add Email Subscriptions to Your WordPress Blog

How much does it cost to start an email list?

The cost for starting an email list can vary. Constant Contact offers a 60-day free trial (or 30 days in the UK), which is great for getting started. After that, their plans start at a very affordable monthly rate.

WPForms also has a free Lite version that you can use to connect to Constant Contact.

How often should I email my subscribers?

I find that a weekly newsletter works best for most bloggers. It’s frequent enough to stay top-of-mind but not so frequent that it becomes annoying. The most important thing is to be consistent, whether you choose to send emails weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

Can I add subscribers automatically from my blog comments?

Yes, you can add subscribers automatically from your blog comments. For example, the Thrive Comments plugin allows you to create post-comment actions, like redirecting first-time commenters to a user registration form.

Alternatively, you can use WPForms to add a subscription checkbox to other forms on your site, like your main contact form. This allows users to subscribe to your newsletter when they get in touch with you.

Keep Going: More Email Marketing Guides for WordPress Bloggers

I hope this article shows you how to add email subscriptions to your WordPress blog. If you found this helpful, you may also want to check out our guides on:

• How to Export Email Addresses from WordPress Comments
• How to Create a Free Business Email Address
• How to Create a Paid Newsletter in WordPress
• How to Create a Giveaway to Grow Your Email List
• How to Prevent Newsletter Signup Spam in WordPress
• Best SMTP WordPress Plugins to Improve Email Deliverability

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