One of the biggest mistakes I made in my own business was thinking I didn’t need to build a list of subscribers because I was a service provider… I’d like to have a conversation with my former self about that silliness!
But, to help save you from that same mistake – here’s a quick step by step tutorial of how to create your own opt-in form and setup an email to deliver a free gift for subscribers, using MailerLite (what I personally use and recommend – and you can get a free account up to your first 1,000 subscribers right here).
Step 1: Click “Forms” in the top menu navigation
Step 2: Click the “Create Embedded Form” button (unless you want to build a popup or landing page)
Step 3: Give your new form a name then click “Save and Continue”
Step 4: Click “Create Embed Form” (or “Create Subscribe Button”)
Step 5: Create a new group for your new subscribers to be added to with “Add new group” button
Step 6: Name your new group then click “Create”
Step 7: In the next page, find your new group and check the box beside it, then scroll all the way down and click “Save and continue”
Step 8: Create your form – choose if you’d like double opt-in on or off and customize the details shown in the red box below
Step 9: Customize the design of your form by clicking “Design” then choosing colors, etc.
Step 10: Choose what info you’d like to collect – by default it’s set to only email, but you can add name or any other details you’d like (click the orange “Save” button to move to the next step)
Step 11: Get your form’s code – you can use the javascript (or HTML) to add your form into a widget in WordPress or where ever you’d like to use it
Your code will look something like this:
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://app.mailerlite.com/data/webforms/######/s2e3v0.js?v1″></script>
And you’ll paste that where you want it to show up. If it doesn’t work, try the HTML code instead.
Step 12: If you have double opt-in set to ON then click “Confirmation Email” and customize your email asking new subscribers to confirm their email address
Step 13: Edit your “Confirmation Thank You page” or set the URL new subscribers should be sent to, then click “Save”
Step 14: Create an “Automation” to email your new subscribers a welcome and access to their freebie – click “Automation” in the top navigation, then the “Create a new workflow” button
Step 15: Name your workflow, set the Trigger to “When subscriber joins a group” then select the group you created a few steps above and click “Save”
Tip: Check the “reactivate” box so that each time someone opts-in your freebie email will be sent (sometimes we lose our freebie or forget we got it and if we subscribe again, we’re hoping to get this email, right?)
Step 16: Add an email to your workflow – click “+” then click “Email”
Step 17: On the right of your screen enter your subject, from and from email then click “Save”
Step 18: Customize your email’s content by clicking “Design email”
Step 19: Choose the template you want to use (I recommend Drag & Drop Editor)
Step 20: Build your email with the editor – click around a bit, any of the content blocks you can drag over to your email, then customize and click “Done Editing” when finished
Tip: Be sure to let subscribers know where they can download the freebie you promised them for opting-in! If it’s a PDF file or other file type, you can upload it to your website or use Google drive or dropbox, then link to it.
Step 21: Turn your new “Automation” ON by clicking “OFF” to switch it on
Tip: It will look like this when it’s active:
And you’re done! You can see your new automation will look like this in the list and the green “ON” shows you it’s active.
Now, go test your opt-in form!
And there you have it – you can now build your own list of subscribers in MailerLite.
-
22Shares
- 22
Shantanu Sinha says
Hello Michelle,
Awesome tutorial over here :)
Mailerlite looks so much promising. Indeed getting up our subscribers delivered with free gifts is something very attractive
and to make them feel that they are special to us.
This whole step by step tutorials you mentioned over here are of great help and they can make the things runs pretty smooth.
Thanks for the share.
Shantanu.
Cherry Newby says
This was so incredibly useful – I’ve spent days trying to figure this out and in just a morning I’ve got my first opt in freebie sorted and working. Thanks so much for such a detailed post!
Dave says
How can I add an embedded form at the end of every post page?
Angela Joseph says
Thank you so much for posting this, Michelle! I’ve tried to follow other tutorials but none was as clear as yours. I’m off to test my form.
Elle says
Thanks for this! Super useful… a few things have changed on mailer lite but still very very handy!