Build a Global Newsletter Sign-Up Form for Authors

Introduction

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to build a global newsletter sign-up form that seamlessly integrates with MailerLite. By implementing a flexible, reusable form and mapping fields to your email marketing service, you’ll streamline the subscriber process and improve conversions. This approach helps authors grow their mailing list faster, nurture reader relationships, and ultimately boost their long-term engagement.

Build the Global Newsletter Sign Up Form

We are only use the newsletter sign up form once in this website build so we don’t need to use a global block but it’s a good idea to do it anyway to make it easier to set up variations of your sign up page to test for Conversion Rate Optimization improvements.

The Form we are going to build supports Dirk’s free-first-in-series strategy where he gives away the first book in the Dylan Danger series.

Create a new Global Block

• From the WordPress admin dashboard
• Go to Breakdance > Global Blocks
• Add a new global block
• Let’s call it AD Giveaway Form
• Click Add Global Block

Edit the Global Block in Breakdance

• Hover over the new global block
• Click on Edit in Breakdance

• Open the structure panel
• Add a Div element
• I’ll call it Form Div
• Style the form div with a vertical column and gap of 3 rem
• Add a form builder element
• Rename the form to AD Giveaway Form
• Delete the message field – we don’t need it
• Change the label on the NAME field to ‘Your first name’
• Click on Advanced
• Change the field ID to first_name
• Make the field required
• Change the label on the EMAIL field to ‘Your best email’
• Click on Advanced
• Make the field required
• Change the submit text to ‘Send My Free eBook!’
• Activate ‘Redirect on submit’
• Click the link icon in the URL input field
• Search for the Newsletter Thank You page
• Select that page and click on Add link

Configure Form Actions

We only want this form to do one thing – Add new subscribers to MailerLite.

• Click on the Actions menu item
• Remove the two default ‘Actions after submission’ items
• Select MailerLite from the Actions after Submissions’ drop down
• Click on the MailerLite configuration icon
• Select the group you want the new subscriber to be added to
• Click on the field mapping drop down
• Click Add Item Under CUSTOM FIELDS
• I’ll map the name and email fields from MailerLite to the fields I set up on the form

Advanced Form Functions

Breakdance includes advanced form functions including assigning a unique HTML ID to your form identification within scripts and recaptchas to prevent bot submissions of your forms. I’m not going to cover those in this course.

We can use one of the Advanced Form Functions to quickly add a layer of security to our forms.

• Enable Add Honeypot Field

A honeypot field is a hidden, blank, field. Human visitors can’t see it but bots can. If a bot fills out this field the form submission will fail. However, as bots improve Honeypots aren’t as powerful as they used to be.

For complete spam protection I use Cleantalk on all my websites. It takes less than a minute to install and only costs $12 a year to keep the spam away from your mailing list.

Style the Form

• Go the Design tab of the Form Element
• Use the Standard Form Preset

Add a Consent statement

I am not a GDPR expert and a deep dive into privacy legislation is beyond the scope of this course. The text I use in this example is a variation of what I have used for many years. If you are unsure about what you need a great place to start is this article from MailerLite. 

With that said lets add a consent statement to our form.

• Add a text element
• Change the text in the element to
  • As well as the eBook you’ll also get a short weekly newsletter and occasional marketing from Dirk Volcano. You can unsubscribe at any time.
• Change the Font Size to 1.6 rem. We don’t want the consent statement taking away from the form but we don’t want to make it too small to read.
• Click Save.
• Exit to WordPress

Summary

You’ve now created a global newsletter sign-up form designed to capture new subscribers, connect with MailerLite, and ensure a consistent user experience. By incorporating a consent statement, customizing field mapping, and applying a standard form preset, you’ve optimized for both compliance and conversions. This solid foundation allows you to refine your author platform, build stronger reader relationships, and drive sustained audience growth.

Next Lesson

In the next lesson we’ll add it to the sign up page and test it works.