Sign-up forms – Postalion

People join your list through a form on a page, a popup, or a checkbox in a form your site already has. Whichever way, they confirm by email first.

The block

In the block editor add Postalion sign-up form. Its settings are the title, the description, the button text, whether to ask for a name, and the list to join. The preview in the editor is the real form.

The shortcode

Anywhere the block does not reach (widgets, page builders, theme files) use the shortcode. Without attributes it shows the standard form and signs people up to your default list.

[postalion_form]
[postalion_form title="The Friday letter" button_text="Count me in" show_name="false" list="friday"]

title, description, button_text: the texts of the form.
show_name="false": email only.
placeholder_email, placeholder_name: the hints in the fields.
success_message: shown after signing up; redirect_url sends the person to a thank-you page instead.
list="slug": the list to join; the slug is shown on the Lists screen.
class, id: for your own CSS.

Two companions: [postalion_subscriber_count] prints how many people are on the list (attributes list, format="number|text|both", text, before, after), and [postalion_unsubscribe] is the unsubscribe form, placed for you on a page at activation.

The popup

Settings → Sign-up popup turns on a small box that asks once. You set the title, the description, the button, the list, how many seconds after arrival it appears (0 to 120) and for how many days it stays away after being closed (1 to 365). It is not shown to people who can edit the site, nor on the unsubscribe page, and the browser remembers the choice, so nobody is nagged. Developers can hide it on particular pages with the postalion_show_popup filter.

Checkboxes in forms you already have

Settings → Sign-up checkboxes adds an unticked box, with a label you write, to any of these:

Registration: a new user who leaves the box unticked is left out of the newsletter; users are recipients by default otherwise.
Comments: the commenter's address is signed up when the box is ticked and the comment is not spam.
WooCommerce checkout: both the block checkout and the classic one; the buyer's billing address is used.
Contact Form 7: add [checkbox postalion_optin "Subscribe to the newsletter"] to the form; Postalion picks the email and the name out of the submission.

A ticked box behaves exactly like the form: double opt-in applies, and the person joins the list you chose for the checkboxes.

Double opt-in

With double opt-in on (the default) a new subscriber gets an email with a confirmation link and joins the list only after clicking it. Typos and fake addresses never make it onto the list, and you have proof of consent. People who do not confirm are removed after 30 days. You can turn it off under Settings → Subscribing, but keep it on if you can.

Every form carries a hidden field that bots fill and people do not, which stops most junk sign-ups without a captcha.

Next: Lists