Mailchimp

This is an update to an older post from 2015, found here. That post has started to get a lot of questions, and I thought I’d write an update since not all those instructions are still accurate.

In the original post, I wrote that I liked Genesis E-News extended as my preferred newsletter sign up. And at the time, that was true. Since then, I have converted my opt-ins to use the Beaver Builder subscribe module. It’s my new favorite and is super easy, so if you are using Beaver Builder, I encourage you  to use that.

One of the issues I have with Genesis E-News Widget is that when you hit submit, it jumps you to another page, hosted at MailChimp, to confirm your membership. And that works, but it’s just not very sleek.

If you still want to use Genesis E-News Widget, though, here are the steps.

Note: These instructions assume you already have a MailChimp account and are using a StudioPress theme.

  1. Install the Genesis eNews Extended plugin, by going to the Dashboard, Plugins, and Add New. Just do a search, and add and install. Then activate the plugin.
  2. Go to your widgets in Appearance->Widgets and add the Genesis eNews Widget to your sidebar where ever you want it to be.
  3. Login to your MailChimp account, go the list you want your subscribers to join, open the signup forms, and choose Embedded Forms.
  4. There are two basic pieces of information you’ll need to copy from the embedded form script into your widget. First is the form action. In your MailChimp account, in the box where you see the embed code, you need to copy the Form Action line. What you see right after you see <form action=”
    copylist
    but be sure not only copy what starts with // and ends at the the first set of quotation marks… don’t get the method=”post” and the rest.
  5. You will take that line (excluding the quotation marks, but everything within, and paste it into your widget in the box for Form Action.
    subbox
  6. Next, you will choose what information you want to collect from your users. You will always want the email address, so you go to the embed code and find the name of your Email field. In MailChimp, it’s always EMAIL. So in the E-Mail Field box in your widget, type EMAIL.
    name
    emailfield
  7. If you want to collect their first name or last name, you can do that too. Just find the corresponding labels within the embed code in MailChimp. Hint: It’s FNAME for First Name and LNAME for Last Name. 
  8. Then save your widget.

If you have a confirm humanity option on your account, when it jumps to the new page, the user will have to confirm they aren’t a robot and submit again. If you have a double-top in, then the user will have to click on a link to confirm their subscription via email.

If you use Beaver Builder, the module allows you to automatically subscribe them through the MailChimp API, it gives them a confirmation message on the page, and they don’t leave the site. And, it looks great too.

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Amy Masson, Web Developer
Owner/Developer

Amy Masson

Amy is the co-owner, developer, and website strategist for Sumy Designs. She's been making websites with WordPress since 2006 and is passionate about making sure websites are as functional as they are beautiful.

8 Comments

  1. Tuija on November 12, 2020 at 9:30 am

    Hi! Thank you for this – it helped loads!! Would you have an idea what I could do to get rid of the message “There are errors below” that appears just above the form when it opens up?

    • Amy Masson on April 18, 2021 at 9:43 am

      I haven’t used this plugin in a while and this post is old, so I haven’t seen that particular error.

  2. Carleigh on July 13, 2020 at 11:20 am

    Hi Amy! This post was super helpful. Thank you so much! I’ve set it up successfully with the genesis enews widget and Mailchimp, but now I’m getting a 404 page after doing a test submission on my form. Any idea how to fix that or establish a redirect page once the form is submitted? I presume it’s something I need to setup in Mailchimp, but I’m unclear. Appreciate your advice. Thank you! -Carleigh

  3. sorellacreative on December 1, 2019 at 9:04 am

    I’m trying to build our new website myself and learning along the way, and this article helped me easily figure out something I’ve been stuck on for a while now! Thank you SO much Amy x

  4. Michelle on August 31, 2019 at 4:41 pm

    THANK YOU SO MUCH. I could not figure out how to stop the widget from sending my subscribers to another page where they have to enter their info twice. I see we need a different widget.

  5. Kaylee Butler on April 20, 2018 at 4:53 pm

    I’m trying desperately to do this, following step-by-step, and for some reason it’s not working. Is there anything you could do to help me out? Asking for a friend!

    • Amy Masson on April 22, 2018 at 9:18 am

      Hi Kaylee – I’m happy to take a look if you’d like! Shoot me an email: amy (at) sumydesigns.com

  6. janetbpearson on March 28, 2018 at 2:41 pm

    Amy,
    Thank you for this great information!

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