Email newsletters can be really swanky, especially if you get to use awesome tools to make them.

In this post, we’re going to integrate a WordPress site with MailChimp (and if you’re into Campaign Monitor, you can learn how to integrate WordPress and Campaign Monitor here).

I’d like to introduce you to our fictional test site, a simple WordPress blog hosted on Flywheel. It’s called Monday Morning Mug, and it’s a rocking publication about the latest coffee news. Our posts are fresh, just like our coffee, and we’ve been getting tons of page views. Our readers love our content, but they’re asking us to compress our information into a newsletter that they can read over a cup of joe on — wait for it — Monday mornings.

We need to listen to our readers, but trying to use WordPress to send out emails gets complicated and cumbersome quickly. Instead, we’re going to use MailChimp, a killer platform used for managing email campaigns.

Step one

Before we start, you’ll need to sign up for a MailChimp account. If you’re new to email campaigns, check out their great Getting Started Guide. Make sure you also create a default list of your subscribers. I called this one “Monday Morning Mug Readers.”

Before we can send out a newsletter, we need to collect email addresses from our readers.

Step two

We’re going to install the MailChimp for WordPress plugin.

If you’re using the plugin tab on the side of your WordPress administration panel, it will look like this:

Once we have the plugin installed and activated, we need to tie it into our MailChimp account.

If you take a peek at the MailChimp for WordPress plugin settings, you’ll see a box asking for your API key with a link to MailChimp’s API page.

Step three

Click on Get your API key here, go to MailChimp’s API page, and hit Create A Key.

Step four

Copy-paste that key back into the Plugin’s API box and the plugin should automatically connect with your MailChimp account and select your default list. If it doesn’t, make sure you check the box indicating the list you’d like to use under the Forms sub-tab below the MailChimp for WordPress tab on the left-hand side of the admin panel:

Step five

This plugin installed a widget that we can use to place a subscription form anywhere we’d like on our site. Head over to the Widgets sub-tab under the Appearance tab. On the left, you’ll see a sign-up form. Just drag it to the place you’d like it to appear on your website. In this instance, we’re putting it at the top of our sidebar so our readers can see it first thing.

Now, check out your website, and you’ll see the finished product.

Awesome! Now we’re collecting tons of email addresses, and our readers are thrilled that they can get an email from us every Monday.