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WordPress plugin - Installation and setup

Download the WordPress plugin

The Sendinblue plugin for WordPress allows you to build subscription forms to grow your contact lists, manage the sending of your transactional emails, track your page visits, and more!

In this article, we will explain how to:

Before you start

Gather the following information prior to installation:

  • Your Brevo account credentials
  • Your API v3 key
  • Your WordPress website admin access

Install the WordPress plugin

Download the plugin

  1. Log into your WordPress dashboard as an administrator.
  2. In the sidebar menu, go to Plugins > Add New.
  3. add_new_plugin.png
  4. Search “Sendinblue” to find the Newsletter, SMTP, Email marketing and Subscribe forms by Sendinblue plugin.
  5. Click Install Now, then Activate.
    activate_plugin.png

Connect your website to Brevo

Now that the plugin is installed, connect your website to Brevo:

  1. In the sidebar menu, go to Sendinblue > Home.
  2. In the Access Key field, enter your API v3 key. Follow these instructions to find your API key in your Brevo account.
  3. Click Login.
    connect_website.png

Congratulations! You have connected Brevo to your WordPress account 🎉

Synchronize your existing WordPress contacts

💡 Good to know
The synchronization of existing WordPress contacts is not automatic. You must follow this process to sync WordPress contacts you had before installing the plugin.

The synchronization of existing WordPress contacts to your Brevo account has to be done manually:

  1. In the sidebar menu, go to Sendinblue > Home.
  2. Click Sync my users.
    sync_users.png
  3. From here, you can select:
    • The type of users (roles) you would like synced,
    • Which Brevo list(s) you would like the contacts to be added to,
    • Which attributes you would like synced.
      sync_users_settings.png
  4. If you want to sync different roles to different lists, follow this process again and set up sync rules for each list.

That's it! Your existing contacts have been synchronized to your Brevo account.

Synchronize your new contacts

There are two ways your new contacts can be synchronized to your Brevo account:

Sync new contacts who are identified by the Brevo tracker

Once you have activated Marketing Automation through Brevo, the Brevo tracker will collect all email addresses that are left on your website. There are several ways the Brevo tracker can collect an email address:

  • After a contact creates an account on your website,
  • After a contact purchases a product in guest mode,
  • After a contact submits a contact form,
  • Etc.

All contacts who are identified by the Brevo tracker are then added to your “identified_contacts” list as non opt-in contacts.

For example, if John Smith creates an account on my website, the Brevo tracker will retrieve his email address, and he will be added to my “identified_contacts” list:

identified_contacts.jpg

Sync contacts who subscribe to your newsletter

Once you have added a subscription form on your website, we will automatically synchronize all contacts who subscribe to your newsletter. We will synchronize their data to the list you chose during the setup of your form.

For example, if I have a subscription form on my website and Jane Doe subscribes to my newsletter, she will automatically be added to the list I chose. All the information she provided in the form will then be automatically synchronized in my Brevo account:

newsletter_subscribers.jpg

Add a subscription form to your website

We offer two methods to create a subscription form to add on your website so that visitors can subscribe to your mailings and be synchronized to your Brevo account:

💡 Good to know
Copy-pasting the code of your Brevo form into the WordPress form builder (and vice versa) will result in your subscription form not working properly. You must create a new form in WordPress (or in Brevo) instead of copy-pasting the code from one form to another.

Embed a Brevo subscription form on your website (Recommended)

To eliminate any conflict with other WordPress themes or plugins, we recommend you embed your subscription form created in Brevo on your website. Moreover, our form builder is easier to use and more powerful than the one you will find on WordPress.

embed_subscription_form.png

To learn how to create and embed a Brevo subscription form on your website, check out our Create a subscription form dedicated series of articles. You can then embed your Brevo form in an Iframe on your website.

Create a subscription form on WordPress

You can also create a subscription form directly on WordPress using the Forms feature.

Step 1: Add a new subscription form

To start creating a new subscription form on WordPress: 

  1. In the sidebar menu, go to Sendinblue > Forms.
  2. Click Add New Form.
    add_form.png

Step 2: Design your subscription form

design_form.png

Our form editor has a dual interface and also allows you to preview your subscription form:

  1. HTML editor
  2. Simplified interface for adding fields to your form, among other options.
    To collect more information from subscribers, select the field you want to add from the dropdown list. The options shown depend on the contact attributes you have set up in your Brevo account. Once you’ve filled out the information for your new field, click Add to form, and it will appear in the preview.
  3. Preview window
    You can view any changes you make by refreshing the preview window.

Further down, you will find more customization options:

mceclip2.png
  • Multi-list subscription for subscribers to give their preferences and be added to a corresponding list
  • Captcha to protect your form from spambots
  • A compliance note and checkbox to agree to terms and conditions
  • Custom form style to change the default theme of your subscription form using CSS

Step 3: Set up the sign-up process

sign_up_process.png

  1. Select which list subscribers are added to when they fill out your form.
  2. Send a confirmation email to let them know they will start receiving your newsletter.
  3. Set up a double opt-in process so they have to click a link in your confirmation email to validate their subscription.
  4. Redirect them to a specific URL after subscription.

Step 4: Edit your confirmation message

Edit the text for success and error messages that appear on your subscription form after submissions.

confirmation_messages.png

Step 5: Add the subscription form to your website

Add your form on individual pages of your website

💡 Good to know
You can create specific subscription forms for different parts of your website. For example, for a themed portal you could have a themed form with specific questions and a separate list for these subscribers, which would enable you to better manage future mailings.

To add your form on individual pages of your website, you will need its shortcode:

  1. In the sidebar menu, go to Sendinblue > Forms. There you will see a list of all your created forms along with their shortcodes.
  2. Copy the relevant code.
    form_code.png
  3. Paste it into the WordPress editor for your chosen post or page.
    form_code_pasted.png

That's it! Your subscription form has been added to your website and visitors can start subscribing to your mailings.

wordpress_form.png

Add your form to your website’s sidebars or footer

To add your form to your website’s sidebars or footers:

  1. In the sidebar menu, go to Appearance > Widgets.
    widget_appearance.png
  2. In the Inactive widget section, click the Sendinblue Widget and drag it to your desired sidebar/footer.
    inactive_widget.png
  3. If necessary, update the widget title and choose the subscription form you want to use.
  4. Click Update.
    update_widget.jpg

That's it! Your subscription form has been added to your website and visitors can start subscribing to your mailings.

wordpress_form_embeded.png

Send transactional emails

💡 Good to know
To be able to send transactional emails, make sure your SMTP account has been activated. If it has not been activated yet, send a request to our support team.

To choose Brevo as your main SMTP provider and send your transactional emails (e.g., payment confirmations, order summaries, etc.) through Brevo:

  1. In the sidebar menu, go to Sendinblue > Home.
  2. Under Transactional emails, select Yes to activate emails through Brevo.
  3. Choose your sender or create a new sender.
  4. Enter an email address to send a test email.
  5. Click Send email to receive your test email.
    send_test_email.png

Track page visits

💡 Good to know
To be able to send emails through a workflow, make sure your SMTP account has been activated. If it has not been activated yet, send a request to our support team.

To track the pages visited by your contacts on your website, Brevo will embed a tracking script (Brevo tracker) on your website. You will be able to take advantage of Brevo's Automation feature and create automated workflows that will be triggered when a contact visits a specific page on your website.

To activate Automation on your website in just a few clicks:

  1. In the sidebar menu, go to Sendinblue > Home.
  2. Under Automation, select Yes to activate Automation through Brevo.
  3. Click Activate to start tracking your visitors actions.
    activate_automation.png

That's it! You can now create a workflow based on a page visit.

To learn more about creating a workflow when a contact visits a page in your website, check out our dedicated article Page visit: send an email to contacts who visit your website.

Track orders and abandoned carts

If you are using WooCommerce and want to track your orders and abandoned carts, you must install our WooCommerce plugin and enable both Marketing Automation and Abandoned Cart tracking from there. Learn more in our dedicated article WooCommerce plugin - Installation and setup.

Chat with your customers

Brevo Conversations allows you to connect with your leads and customers in real-time on your website but also from your other communication channels such as Facebook messenger or Instagram Direct. Conversations offers many new features such as chatbot, targeted chats, mobile apps, or saved replies that will help you sell more online. To discover the Conversations app, check our dedicated article Change the way you communicate with your customers.

conversations_example-chat_EN-US.gif

 

Monitor your statistics

From the WordPress plugin, you can check how your email and SMS campaigns have performed (opens, clicks, unsubscribes, and bounces).

To access your email and SMS campaigns statistics:

  1. In the sidebar menu, go to Brevo > Statistics.
  2. Set up a time period.
  3. Click Apply.
    statistics.png
💡 Good to know
If you have also installed the Brevo plugin for WooCommerce, you can view the statistics for each of your email templates. Learn more in our dedicated article: WooCommerce plugin - Installation and setup.

Troubleshooting issues with the WordPress plugin

🛑 My subscription form is not working

You copy-pasted your subscription form from one form builder to another

Copy-pasting the code of your Brevo form into the WordPress form builder will result in your subscription form not working properly (and vice versa). You must create a new form in WordPress (or in Brevo) instead of copy-pasting the code from a form builder to another.

🛑 My new contacts are not synchronized to my Brevo account

Your contact was identified by the Brevo tracker

If your contact was identified by the Brevo tracker, only their email address will be automatically retrieved. You can find this information in your “identified_contacts” list in Brevo.

Your contact subscribed to your newsletter

To automatically synchronize your new contacts and their information, make sure you have added a subscription form on your website. This will ensure that your new contacts are added to your Brevo account and that they have opted-in to receive your emails. 

🛑 I'm not receiving any emails from my WordPress plugin

You are using 2 SMTP relays

If you are using 2 SMTP relays in your website, there may be some conflict happening. To make sure you're not using two SMTP relays, search for any SMTP plugin in your installed plugins (e.g. “Easy WP SMTP”, “WP Mail SMTP”, “SMTP Mailer”). If you notice one, disable it and send yourself a test email. This step will confirm if there is an SMTP plugin conflict.

SMTP is not enabled on your Brevo account

To be able to send transactional emails using Brevo, make sure your Brevo SMTP account has been activated. If it has not been activated yet, send a request to our support team.

SMTP is not enabled from your WordPress plugin

To be able to send your WordPress transactional emails using Brevo, make sure you have enabled the Activate email through Brevo option in the WordPress plugin. To check if you have activated this option, please refer to the Send transactional emails section above.

⏩ What's next?

🤔 Have a question?

If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.