Do you want to create a custom iContact signup form in WordPress? iContact is an email marketing service that allows you to manage and build your email list without much hassle.
With the help of the WPForms plugin, you can easily create an iContact signup form on your WordPress site. You can use its drag and drop interface to build the form as per your imagination.
In this article, we’ll show you how to create a custom iContact signup form for your WordPress site.
Step 1: Get Started
The first thing you need to do is create a signup form on your website.
To do that, you need to install and activate the WPForms plugin. You may read the step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for detailed instructions.
Upon activation, head over to WPForms » Add New from the left sidebar of your WordPress admin panel.
Next, you need to select the Newsletter Signup Form template on the Setup page. This will create a simple form with two fields: name and email.
You may also add extra fields to this form by simply dragging and dropping them. And to customize the fields, you need to click on the fields to make changes to them.
Once done, you can change the notification and confirmation settings of your custom iContact signup form.
Finally, you need to save the changes by clicking on the Save button, present at the top-right corner of your screen. You may check out the newsletter form demo here.
Step 2: Add Test Entry to Your Form
The next step is to add at least one entry to the form for testing purpose. We’ll need it later to test the connection between WPForms and iContact.
Let’s use the preview option of the form to create the test entry instead of embedding the form to a page.
To do that, you need to head over to WPForms » All Forms page.
Next, hover the mouse cursor over the title of the newsletter signup form. Once you see the Preview option, you need to click on it to open the form in a new tab of your web browser.
Now fill in the form and click on the Submit button to create an entry for testing purpose.
Step 3: Install Zapier Addon
Once you’ve created the form and added the test entry, you need to install the Zapier addon on your website.
Why do we need this addon? Zapier is an automation service that allows you to connect two or more apps to do a continuous task. And we’ll be using it to connect WPForms and iContact so that you can easily build your email list.
To install the Zapier addon, you need to go to WPForms » Addons page. Now search for the Zapier addon and install it once you find it.
Next, head over to WPForms » Settings page and then click on the Integrations tab. After that, you need to click on the Zapier logo to see the API key for your website.
You’ll need this key later to connect WPForms to Zapier, so keep this page open and proceed to the next step.
Step 4: Create a New Zap
It’s time to create a new Zap and connect WPForms to iContact.
In case you don’t know, a Zap is a process of connecting two or more apps in Zapier. And it requires a trigger to perform a specific action.
To create a new Zap, you need to go to the Zapier website and sign in to your account. You can create an account for free if you don’t have it.
Next, go ahead and click on the Make a Zap! button, present at the top-right corner of your screen. This will start the configuration wizard on a new page.
The process of creating a Zap is divided into two parts.
First, you’ll have to configure WPForms as the trigger app and then, you’ll have to set up iContact as the action app.
Let’s proceed to the next step to start the process.
Step 5: Configure a Trigger App
In this step, we’ll setup WPForms as the trigger app.
So search for WPForms using the “Choose a Trigger App” search box and then click on it to proceed.
Next, you’ll have to select New Form Entry as the trigger option and then click on the Save + Continue button.
Now you need to connect your WPForms account to Zapier so that the forms of your website can be fetched by Zapier. To do that, you’ll have to click on the Connect an Account button.
This will open a popup window where you need to enter your website URL and the Zapier API key. You may go back to Step 3 to learn how to get the API key.
Once done, click on the Yes, Continue button to connect WPForms to Zapier. You’ll now see your WPForms account added to the “Select WPForms Account” page.
Next, go ahead and click on the Test button to check the connection between Zapier and WPForms. If you get a success message, then everything is properly working, so click on the Save + Continue button to go to the next step.
Now Zapier will retrieve all the forms from your website.
So click on the down arrow icon to the select the newsletter signup form from the dropdown list and then click on the Continue button.
Next, Zapier will fetch the entries of your form and will ask you to select any one of them for testing purposes. This is why we created a test form entry in Step 2.
Once you’ve selected an entry, you need to click on the Continue button to complete the trigger setup process.
Step 6: Configure an Action App
Now its time to configure iContact as an action app. So click on the “Your Zap currently lacks an Action step. Add one now!” link to start the process.
The first thing you need to do is search for iContact using the “Choose an Action App” search box and then select it to proceed to the next step.
Zapier will now ask you to choose an iContact action that’ll happen when someone submits your custom iContact signup form.
Since we want to create new contacts in the iContact account, select the Create Contact option and then click on the Save + Continue button.
Next, you’ll have to connect your iContact account to Zapier by clicking on the Connect an Account button.
This will open a popup window where you need to enter the application ID, API password, and the email address of your iContact account.
To get these details, you need to go to the iContact website and then log in to your account.
On the iContact account dashboard, you’ll see your name at the top-right corner of the page. Clicking on it will open a menu where you need to select the Settings and Billing option.
This will take you to the Settings and Billing page where you’ll see a lot of options. You need to find the iContact Integrations option and then click on it to go to the Integrations page.
Now you’ll see the “Zapier Integrations” option on the Integrations page. To get the application ID and other details, you’ll have to click on the Enable button.
This will open a new page where you’ll find the application ID, API password, and the email address of your iContact account.
Simply copy and paste these details to the respective fields in the Zapier popup window. Once you’ve filled in the details, go ahead and click on the Yes, Continue button to give permission to Zapier to access your iContact account.
This will add your iContact account to the “Select iContact Account” page. You may click on the Test button to check the connection between Zapier and iContact.
Once you receive a success message, you can click on the Save + Continue button to proceed to the next step.
Step 7: Setup iContact Template
Now you’ll have to set up the contact template which will be used to create a new contact in your iContact account, every time someone submits your custom signup form.
Before we start, you should note that some of the fields on this page will fetch the details from your iContact account, while the rest will be retrieved from your newsletter sign up form.
Let’s start the process by configuring the Email Address field. To do that, you need to click on the Insert a Field icon and then select Email from the dropdown box.
Next, you should click on the List dropdown menu and select the iContact list where you want to add the new contact details.
The rest of the fields in this template are optional. However, you can configure the First Name and Last Name fields as it’ll help you to personalize your emails.
Once you’re done, scroll down to the bottom of the page and then click on the Continue button.
Next, you can test the connection between WPForms and iContact by clicking on the Send Test to iContact button.
This will create a new contact with the test form entry in your iContact account. You can confirm that by going to the iContact website.
If everything worked as desired, then you should return to the Zapier wizard and click on the Finish button to complete the action setup process.
Finally, you need to click on the toggle box to turn it to ON to make sure that a new contact will be added to your iContact account whenever someone submits your form. You can also give a name to your zap for future reference.
Step 8: Add the Signup Form to Your Website
It’s time to embed the custom iContact signup form to our WordPress site. You can do that to a page, post, or the sidebar of your website.
Let’s take a look at how to add the signup form to a WordPress page.
The first thing you need to do is go to Pages » Add New from the left sidebar of your admin panel.
Now you need to click on the Add block (+) icon to insert the WPForms block. Once you find it, click on it to add the WPForms block to the page editor.
Next, you’ll have to select the Newsletter Signup Form from the “Select a Form” dropdown box. This will add your form to the content editor.
Finally, you can publish the page after making the necessary changes.
Congratulations! You have successfully created a custom iContact signup form and embedded it to your website. Whenever someone submits this form, a new contact will be added to your iContact account.
If you liked this tutorial, then you may want to check these posts out:
- Why you should start building an email list right away
- 8 insanely easy ways to grow your email list
- How to create a custom Airtable form for WordPress
Not using WPForms yet? Get started with the best drag and drop form builder plugin today and build different types of forms on your website.
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