Email Marketing for WordPress: Forms, Lists and Your Store

WordPress runs a large share of the websites that small businesses, bloggers and creators use, and it is a natural home for an email list. Your site already gets the visitors; email marketing gives you a way to keep in touch after they leave. This guide covers the main ways to add email marketing to WordPress, a step-by-step for connecting MailerLite, where to put sign-up forms, and two things people often get wrong: sending email from the web server and handling consent.

Your options at a glance

There are four common approaches. They are not mutually exclusive; many sites combine a platform plugin with WooCommerce sync, for example.

• Email platform plugin

  An official plugin from your email service connects WordPress to your account, so forms on your site add subscribers directly to your list.

• Embedded form code

  Copy a form snippet from your email platform and paste it into a page, widget area or theme. No extra plugin needed.

• WooCommerce sync

  A store integration that adds buyers who opt in to your list and passes purchase data for e-commerce automations.

• WordPress-native newsletter plugin

  Plugins that manage subscribers and write newsletters inside the WordPress dashboard.

Platform plugin (for example, MailerLite’s official plugin)

With this approach, your list, campaigns and automations live in the email platform, and WordPress is where people sign up. MailerLite publishes “MailerLite – Signup forms (official)” on wordpress.org. According to the listing, it connects your WordPress forms to your MailerLite account, lets you use forms you have built in MailerLite or create new ones, and lets you place them with a widget or shortcode.

This route suits most sites: the plugin is light, and the heavy work (sending, deliverability, automation) is handled by the email service.

Embedded form code

Most email platforms let you copy a form as code and paste it anywhere that accepts HTML. In WordPress, that usually means a Custom HTML block in the block editor or a code area in your theme. MailerLite offers a JavaScript option (a site-wide snippet in the page head plus a small snippet where the form should appear) and a plain HTML option.

Embedding is handy when you cannot or do not want to install plugins, or when you only need a form on one landing page.

WooCommerce sync

If you sell with WooCommerce, a store integration does more than collect emails. It can add a marketing checkbox at checkout, sync purchase data, and power automations such as abandoned cart and post-purchase emails. MailerLite has a separate official plugin for this, “MailerLite – WooCommerce integration,” covered below. Our e-commerce email marketing guide explains which store flows to set up.

WordPress-native newsletter plugins

Some plugins run your whole newsletter from inside WordPress. MailPoet is a well-known example: its wordpress.org listing describes creating and sending campaigns from the WordPress dashboard, with a free version for smaller lists and an optional sending service.

The appeal is keeping everything in one dashboard. The trade-off is that your site, database and plugin updates become part of your email setup. If you are weighing a dedicated platform against a plugin, our guide on how to choose email marketing software has a checklist.

How to connect MailerLite to WordPress

These are the general steps from MailerLite’s help center. Menu names in both WordPress and MailerLite can change, so follow the current help article if something looks different.

1. Create a MailerLite account and a form. If you are new, our getting started with MailerLite guide walks through account setup and domain authentication. Build an embedded form (and, if you like, a pop-up) in MailerLite and make sure it is active.
2. Generate an API token in MailerLite. You do this from the Integrations area of your MailerLite account. Treat the token like a password.
3. Install the official plugin in WordPress. Search the plugin directory from your WordPress dashboard for the official MailerLite sign-up forms plugin, then install and activate it.
4. Paste your API key into the plugin settings and save. The plugin can now see the forms in your account.
5. Place your forms using a shortcode in a page or post, or the MailerLite widget in a sidebar or footer area.
6. Check pop-ups. Active pop-up and promotion forms from MailerLite appear automatically once connected, following the display rules you set in MailerLite.
7. Test. Sign up with your own address, confirm you land in the right group, and check that any double opt-in or welcome email arrives.

Adding WooCommerce

If you run a WooCommerce store, install MailerLite’s separate WooCommerce plugin as well. The general flow is the same: install and activate the plugin, generate an API token in MailerLite, paste it into the plugin’s settings within WooCommerce, choose the subscriber group buyers should join, and start the import.

Where to place forms on a WordPress site

A form only works if people see it at the right moment. Good spots on most WordPress sites:

• End of blog posts. Readers who reach the bottom are the most interested. Match the offer to the content where you can.
• Footer. A small, always-present form for people looking for a way to stay in touch.
• Sidebar. Useful on blogs; less visible on mobile, where sidebars usually drop below the content.
• A dedicated sign-up page. Something to link from social profiles, your email signature and your navigation.
• Pop-ups or slide-ins. Effective when timed well (after some scrolling or time on page) and easy to close. Avoid showing them the instant a page loads, especially on mobile.
• Checkout. For WooCommerce stores, an opt-in checkbox reaches people at a point of high intent.

Whatever you place, give people a clear reason to subscribe: what they will get and how often. Our guide on how to build an email list covers lead magnets and form copy.

Forms

Built in your email platform and set to active

Connection

Official plugin or embed code installed and tested

Placement

End of posts, footer and one dedicated sign-up page

Consent

Clear opt-in wording; double opt-in where it makes sense

Sending

Through your email platform, not your web host

Domain

SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up for your sending domain

Deliverability: do not send bulk email from your web host

WordPress has a built-in mail function (wp_mail) that, by default, sends through your web server. That is fine for the odd password reset, but it is not built for newsletters. Shared hosting servers are often not authenticated for your domain, may have sending limits, and share an IP reputation with other sites on the same server. Bulk email sent this way is more likely to land in spam or not arrive at all.

Keep marketing email in a dedicated email platform, which handles authentication, bounces, unsubscribes and complaint feedback. Even WordPress-native newsletter plugins generally recommend a proper sending service rather than your host. For the sign-up form itself, this is not an issue when you use MailerLite’s plugin or embed code: the confirmation and welcome emails come from MailerLite, not your server.

It is also worth routing your site’s transactional emails (contact form notifications, WooCommerce receipts) through an SMTP or transactional email service, so those arrive reliably too. Our email deliverability checklist covers domain authentication step by step.

Consent and GDPR: add a clear checkbox

If you have subscribers in the EU or UK, GDPR applies, and many other countries have similar rules. In practice:

• Ask for active consent. A separate, unticked checkbox for marketing emails where active consent is required. Do not bundle it with accepting your terms.
• Say what people are signing up for, and link to your privacy policy.
• Keep records of when and how each person subscribed. Your email platform typically stores this for subscribers who sign up through its forms.
• Consider double opt-in. It confirms the address is real and the person intended to subscribe. MailerLite lets you enable it in form settings, and the plugin has a setting for forms created inside WordPress.
• Watch WooCommerce defaults. MailerLite’s WooCommerce plugin can pre-select or hide the checkout checkbox. A hidden or pre-ticked box is unlikely to count as valid consent under GDPR, so think carefully before using those options.

Our GDPR and email marketing guide explains the rules in more detail. It is general information, not legal advice.

Connect a form to your WordPress site

MailerLite's free plan includes forms and pop-ups, and its official plugin connects them to WordPress with an API key.

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