The Contact Form 7 AutoResponder Addon plugin allows you to automatically add people to your MailChimp list after they’ve sent you a message using your CF7 form.
This useful little plugin currently supports addition of subscribers to MailChimp lists.
In upcoming versions, there will be other AutoResponders added to the functionality subject to feedback and demand.
The plugin is easy to use and it uses the submitted email and name fields from the basic CF7 form to insert these details into your MailChimp list.
This plugin works for the default CF7 form which has the following fields:
The plugin will read the submitted values for the “Your Name” and “Your Email” fields in the above default CF7 form. Note that these fields have the “name” parameter set to:
“your-name”
“your-email“.
If you wanted to use a slightly more customized form whereby instead of using just a single name field you wanted to use “first name” and “last name” in addition to the email field, then this plugin will also read these fields as long as you use the following “name” settings for these fields:
“your-first-name”
“your-last-name”
“your-email”
You can also add a checkbox to your CF7 form with the “name” parameter set to “mc-subscribe” with a label saying something like “Subscribe Me To Your List”.
This will then give your visitors the option of whether they want to subscribe to your list or newsletter or whatever, after submitting the CF7 form.
If this checkbox is present and it is enabled and provided the “Enable Mailchimp List Insertion” is also enabled, the plugin will allow the subscription to occur, otherwise it will not.
If by default you do not have the “mc-subscribe” checkbox in your form and the “Enable Mailchimp List Insertion” is also enabled, then subscription will occur by default.
Download the CF7 AutoResponder Addon Plugin for FREE:
Get Our PREMIUM Version To Add CF7 visitors to Your AWeber or GetResponse Lists
Price: $14.97
Installing the CF7 AutoResponder Addon Plugin
- FTP the
cf7-autoresponder-addonfolder to the/wp-content/plugins/directory, OR, alternatively, upload thecf7-autoresponder-addon.zipfile from thePlugins->Add Newpage in the WordPress administration panel. - Activate the cf7-autoresponder-addon plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in the WordPress administration panel.
Using The CF7 AutoResponder Addon Plugin
Pre-requisites:
- You must have Contact Form 7 plugin installed and activated
- The forms which you want to use to add people to your MC list have been configured via the Contact Form 7 plugin.
- Your CF7 forms have been configured with the correct naming conventions for the name field, eg:
“your-name” (if you’re using a single name field)
“your-first-name” (if you’re using a first name field)
“your-last-name” (if you’re using a last name field)
“mc-subscribe” (if you want to give your visitors the option to choose to subscribe to your list using a checkbox)
1. CF7 AutoResponder Addon Config Page
After you’ve installed and activated the CF7 AutoResponder Addon plugin, go to the Settings menu and choose CF7 AutoResp Addon as shown below:
2. Configuration Settings
Configure the plugin by entering the following settings (see screenshot below):
- Enable the check-box called ”Enable Mailchimp List Insertion”. This will activate the automatic insertion of people to your MailChimp list when they send you a message via the Contact Form 7.
(Note: if you would like to temporarily disable the adding of people to your list, simply uncheck the flag) - Enter your MailChimp API key
Note: Your MailChimp API Key can be obtained when you log into your MailChimp account. It can be found under the “Account” tab. By default the API Key is not active so make sure you activate it. - Enter your MailChimp list name.
Note: You would have specified this in your MailChimp account when you created the list. Ensure that you enter the correct name because if you mispell the name or provide an incorrect list name, the CF7 AutoResp Addon plugin will not be able to add your client to your list.
And that’s it! Now whenever anyone leaves a message on your site using the Contact Form 7, they will automatically be added to your MailChimp list, OR, you can give your visitors the choice to subscribe by using the checkbox described in the pre-requisites section.
Please be aware that in order for someone to be added to your list, they will firstly need to confirm the subscription by clicking on the appropriate link in the “confirmation” email which is sent by MailChimp.
Hi there,
I followed the instructions but after I try and test the newsletter sign-up I check the Mail Chimp list and still says no subscribers.
The API key is enabled and I have put the list name exactly as it appears. I only have one field for the list which is email.
Hi Demetrios,
If you find nothing is being added to your MC list then one place to look for a clue is to check to see if there are any logs produced – if so there will be a file called “cf7_autoresp.log” in the plugin’s directory.
Thanks,
peter
Really nice plugin, thank you very much!
Just added title (female/male) support for even better mail personalization.
You just need to extend List Fields and *|MERGE|* Tags in Mailchimp for title field, I took dropdown field and labeled it TITLE.
Then open cf7_autoresponder_addon.php and change this line (should be around 189)
$mergeVars = array(
‘FNAME’=>$firstname,
‘LNAME’=>$lastname,
);
to this
if (array_key_exists(‘your-title’, $cf7->posted_data))
$title = $cf7->posted_data["your-title"]; //in case someone creates this field
else
$title = ”;
$mergeVars = array(
‘FNAME’=>$firstname,
‘LNAME’=>$lastname,
‘TITLE’=>$title,
);
thats it. This way you can add even more fields if you need or want to ;-)
Enjoy.
Cheers, Can
Hi Can,
Yes thanks for that and it will definitely work.
I have been meaning to add some more functionality for future versions where it can be easier for people to add more custom fields via configuration settings where they can specify the field names and the plugin will automatically include them…..I just haven’t had time to that currently but stay tuned.
cheers,
peter
So, just so I understand – does the subscriber still get an “opt-in” email from MailChimp? I can turn that functionality off in MailChimp (although it flags your account immediately to be monitored I’ve been told…especially for their forever free accounts).
This looks like a great plugin to use on landing / squeeze pages if they are using MailChimp (or Aweber / Get Response if you buy the premium version).
Hi Rob,
You don’t even have to go to Mailchimp to turn the optin email off because this plugin has a feature which will suppress the double optin email. Just go to the settings and check the “Disable Double Opt-in Email” check box.
cheers,
peter
Hi!
I tried to include the following code on our contact form
[checkbox mc-subscribe default:1 "I want to receive the newsletter"]
but it seems like it’s not working. I’ve activated the plugin in the settings and enable Mailchimp list insertion.
After sending a few tests via the form with different email addresses, none of them was added to our Mailchimp list.
Any suggestions?
Cheers,
Philipp
Hi Philipp,
Firstly check that you have specified the correct list name.
Then check to see if there are any logs produced – if so there will be a file called “cf7_autoresp.log” in the plugin’s directory.
If there are logs please let me know what they are and then we take it from there.
thanks,
peter
Hi Peter,
Any update on the Aweber/GR vervsions?
best regards,
Dan
Hi Dan,
I’ve just officially released the premium version. You can check it out here.
Any progress on the aweber integration?
Pingback: SEOen3
Hi all,
The pluguin functioning properly.
Are ready to add other fields to the Mailchimp list? eg “your-phone”
Hi Roger,
There are no plans at this stage to add extra fields.
I could do a paid custom job for you if you wish.
Hi Peter -
I was just wondering if there was a way to match a contact form with a specific Mailchimp list. For example, I have one contact form where people can subscribe to a mailing list, but I have a second contact form, which I would like to be able to use to subscribe people to a second Mailchimp list.
Is there a way to do this that I’m just not seeing?
Thanks!
Sarah
Hi Sarah,
At this stage no there isn’t. The mailchimp list which you configure in the plugin settings will be used globally.
Thanks,
Peter
hello and happy holidays. just wondering something… my form has additional fields outside of the default fields your plugin is set up for, will the data still post to mailchimp provided that the default form fields are present?
Hi Jack,
Happy holidays.
Yes the plugin will post the data for email and name fields as usual to your MC list even if you have other fields in the contact form too.
thanks,
peter
When could we expect the aweber integration? I’d gladly give you $15 for that!
Hi McLean,
I will release the AWeber integration very soon – within a week or so.
I’m just applying the finishing touches to it.
Thanks,
Peter
Hi, this is a great plugin and makes very short work of integrating MailChimp.
However, I am not able to set up the subscribe checkbox to prevent people from getting the opt-in e-mail.
This is what I have for the subscribe checkbox:
[checkbox* mc-subscribe exclusive default:1 class:subscribe-checkbox "Subscribe Me"]
Also, I have a ‘Form Used’ column in my MailChimp that I want to use to track which form people use most. What name would I have to give that field in the form so it imports into the list along with the name and e-mail?
Thanks for any help/insights you can provide!
Hi Robert,
I think you may have misunderstood some of the functionality of this plugin. The plugin currently does not suppress the “opt-in” email which is sent from MailChimp. (I might add this feature in future release!)
Functionality was added to the plugin to cater for a checkbox in the CF7 form in order to give people the option of choosing to be added to a mailing list or not.
I’ve looked at the way you have your checkbox set and it appears that you are making it mandatory for people to have this field checked, ie, the “*” sets the element as mandatory. This sort of defeats the purpose of having a checkbox at all.
Regarding your extra MailChimp ‘Form Used’ column – currently the plugin only caters for the insertion of name (or firstname, lastname if applicable) and email. Other custom fields are currently not supported but I will consider adding this capability in future.
thanks,
peter
I understand most users wants to create a list wityh this addon.
Can I still use this plugin to simply send autoresponse?
I mean when someone sends me an email , they get autoresponse from me?
I have not looked at this addon yet but just wanted to know before downloading.
thanks
Art
Hi Art,
By “auto-response” do you mean something like when somebody has just submitted the CF7 form they get an email from your WP system saying something like “thanks for your comment and we will get back to you within 48 hours”?
This type of functionality sounds quite useful and is probably something you can ask the designer of CF7 about because it might be something he would do. My addon simply deals with the email autoresponder systems such as MailChimp.
thanks,
peter
Hi Peter,
Thanks for this plugin, it works great. Just a small thing:
I wonder whether it is possible to give subscribers feedback in case they already subscribed to the mailinglist earlier? This is what happens:
- I fill in a contact form and opt in for the newsletter with mc-subscribe
- I send out the form and get feedback that the form was send (so far so good).
- Now, when I fill in the form again, and again opt in for the newsletter (maybe I forgot that I was already on the mailinglist), and send it, I do not get any feedback whatshoever. It seems like the form is not working. The form is nevertheless sent.
Thanks,
Marieke
Hi Marieke,
Currently the plugin doesn’t display any message informing the user if they are already subscribed.
Maybe in an upcoming release I might add the code to display a message for already subscribed people.
Thanks,
Peter
Hi again Marieke,
I have now just realized exactly what you mean.
Yes you are absolutely right – the form looks like it is perpetually trying to submit when a user is already in the mailing list.
I have identified the cause of the issue and will release a new version with a fix very soon.
Thanks for the feedback,
peter
First off GREAT plugin, but I have a question. What if the mailchimp list name has spaces in it? Should I use underscores or dashes? Can I use the list id? I would prefer not to hack the original plugin.
No need to hack the plugin or use underscores or dashes – it should work if your list name has spaces. Have you at least tried it? I just performed a test on my site and it works!
Hello Peter, really brilliant, easy-to-use plugin. Thanks for that! I have one (minor) issue though. I am using this code: [checkbox mc-subscribe default:1 "Aanmelden nieuwsbrief"]
However, the check does not work for me. I am getting a subscription confirmation email in both cases: checked and not-checked.
Hi guys,
I will make some time in the next few days or early next week to investigate the checkbox issue.
Please check back here in a few days.
Thanks,
Peter
Hi again,
Can you guys try downloading the latest version of this plugin by using the “download” button on this page and let me know if it works now?
thanks,
Peter
Works like a charm now!
Hi, it seems the new updates from Contact Form 7 broke again this, and
regardless of the selection of the mc-subscribe checkbox the mailchimp opt-in confirmation message is still being sent out to the submitting user.
Hey this is great! Many thanks.
Just trying to mod it slightly so I can give the form filler the option of choosing a group to join. Group in MC is called ‘Work Categories’ and has sub categories’ a’, ‘ b’ and ‘c’.
I’ve tried tweaking your code using the “‘GROUPINGS’=>array” code but with no luck.
Have you implemented this before?
Many thanks
Hi,
Sorry for my late reply….
No I haven’t implemented the MC groups option in this plugin.
I might try and do this sometime soon because it sounds like a useful option.
thanks,
peter
i’ve followed the directions, and can’t get this to work. could use your help.
added this line to Contact Form 7:
[checkbox mc-subscribe default:1 "Subscribe Me"]
In the CF7 AutoResp Addon settings i’ve checked the box “Enable Mailchimp List Insertion” and added my List ID and API code.
here is the complete Contact Form 7 that i’m using:
Your Name (required)
Your Email (required)
[email* your-email]
Subject
Your Message
[textarea your-message]
Join our mailing list?
[checkbox mc-subscribe default:1 "Subscribe Me"]
[submit "Send"]
What is not working for you?
I just went to your site and tried your contact form and it seems to work fine. I filled in the details and submitted the form and got an email with a subject line “POD Studio News: Please Confirm Subscription”.
I however did notice that your server appeared to be quite slow in submitting the form (took about 10 sec or so).
*correction* Name is intermittently not being gathered by mailchimp…. 1in 20 is being registered, email address always works.
Cheers
Ben
Hi Ben,
Sorry for the late-ish response…..
I’ve just done more testing and it appears to be working fine for me.
One thing to beware of is that in your mailchimp account, make sure that in your signup form settings you have set the “Field Tag” value to “FNAME” for your first name field and “LNAME” for the last name field (if applicable).
Let me know how it goes,
Peter
Hi,
Great plugin.
Issue:
For some reason the name field is not being picked up by mailchimp. I am using [your-name] as the name hook.
Feature Request:
I would like to subscribe people to different lists depending on the section of the site users are submitting contact forms from. In may case these are Taxonomy Archives.
I can dynamically add a different shortcode to the form depending on the taxonomy, so the ability to select a list with a hidden field could work.
Let me know if you need further fidelity.
Cheers
Ben
Hi. I have the form correctly implemented and Mailchimp is registering that the API was called successfully. However no email confirmations are sent and the email isn’t added to the list. Any ideas?
Hi Steve,
Check that the email address you are testing with is not already in the Mailchimp list.
Another thing to check is that you have specified the correct list name, ie, check spelling etc.
thanks for the script will be tinkering with it
Just after asking the question, I found the answer: http://kb.mailchimp.com/article/how-do-i-customize-each-part-of-the-confirmation-process/. Thanks
Hi, Great plugin. I thought I would be spending hours configuring a solution for this, so you have saved me a lot of time. I was just wondering if anyone knew how to style and edit the confirmation emails sent from MailChimp. That would be the icing on the cake.
I just wanted to say THANKS. This works perfectly. Here’s the form I use to let the customer select opt in or not.
Your Name (required)
Your Email (required)
[email* your-email]
Subject
Your Message
[textarea your-message]
Subscribe To Our Newsletter?
[checkbox mc-subscribe exclusive default:2 "Subscribe Me" "Please Don't"]
[submit "Send"]
My pleasure Jeff.
This is a great plugin, however the mc-subscribe (opt-in) function doesn’t seem to be working correctly for me.
Regardless of the selection of the mc-subscribe checkbox the mailchimp opt-in confirmation message is still being sent out to the submitting user. Using the example by Jeff, above, triggers mailchimp to send out the opt-in confirmation if either of the options are active or none of the options are active. Even though the email are not added to the list until the user confirms, it would seem to me that the purpose of the mc-subscribe “opt-in” is to skip the push to mailchimp and not send the confirmation message to users who don’t want to subscribe. Am I missing something?
Hi Darren (and all of others who have had the same problem),
Thanks for letting me know and yes you’re absolutely right. It seems that with the latest version of Contact Form 7 my addon has been broken.
I will make some time this week to investigate and provide a fix.
Stay tuned,
Peter
Have you managed to fix this? I can’t seam to make it work either?
Hi Alex,
What exactly is not working for you?
Are you using a single name field or “first name” and “last name”.
If you are using a single name field then please ensure that in your mailchimp account signup form settings you have set the “Field Tag” value to “FNAME”.
If you are using both first name and last name fields then you will need to have “FNAME” and “LNAME” respectively.
thanks,
Peter
I like the potential of this plugin but not sure I want to blindly subscribe everyone to my mailchimp list. Is it possible to have the plugin look at an opt-in checkbox? If the field exists, the plugin would check to see if the person unchecked it. As long as it is still checked, THEN add them to my mailchimp list?
John and Shawn,
As soon as I get time I will look into adding the capability for a “subscribe me” checkbox.
Thanks,
Peter
It would be great if there was a checkbox that allowed people to opt into the newsletter rather than just automatically receiving it when they send an email.
“check this box to subscribe to our newsletter”
Hi John, Shawn and everyone else who asked about this feature,
I added the checkbox feature a short while ago.
Just download the latest plugin version from the wordpress.org site:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/contact-form-7-autoresponder-addon-plugin/
this is a nice plugin peter. but does it make all of my contact form 7′s subscribe my senders to mailchimp? that would suck, because i’ve more than a dozen forms. i just need one of them to go mailchimp. i am actually thinking of ditching cf7 in favor of gravityforms.
Hi Zaki,
There is a very easy way to prevent certain forms from not subscribing people to your mailing list.
Currently this plugin listens for a CF7 submission and then reads what is in the following fields:
[your-email] (from the standard form)
[your-name] (from the standard form)
[your-first-name] (if you wanted to create a customized form with first name)
[your-last-name] (if you wanted to create a customized form with last name)
So to achieve what you’re looking for you can simply make sure that when you create any CF7 form where you DO NOT want to subscribe to mailchimp then simply name your fields differently to above.
This way the plugin will not be able to read the fields and hence subscription will not occur.
Ideally in a future update I can add another check for the form title or id and then give the user the option of specifying if they want this form to be able to submit to mailchimp.
thanks,
peter
awesome peter. that works! this is pretty cool btw.
Apologies, it worked! I expected to see my list grow by one inside mailchimp but forgot that i had to confirm subscription via email. Nice!
I installed as described, but it doesn’t seem to be adding names. Ive used correct API key and list name. The form i currently had set up ( sign up link on home page ) asks for fistt-name, last-name, and email address. My comment form via CF7 only have one field for name. Could that be the problem? Do i need 2 lists? This is exactly what my client wants so I’m happy to have found this. Will be super happy when it works…
thanks
Hi there,
thanks for the very good plug-in.
But unfortunately I can’t get it to work, I’m using my other email address and nothing happened, no confermation email from mailchimp.
Any advice?
Hi Toni,
The most common reasons why it would appear that people aren’t being added to a list are:
- your list name and/or API key were entered incorrectly. Double check your MailChimp account details.
- your Contact Form 7 email field “name” property is something other than “your-email”.
In addition, you should also use either “your-name” or “your-first-name” or “your-last-name” for the name fields.
If you like, you can send me a link to your page containing the CF7 form and I can take a quick look.
Thanks,
peter
Is there a way to use 2 contact forms and feed 2 separate MailChimp lists?
Hi Jose,
Currently this plugin supports only one MailChimp list at a time.
I think your suggestion might be a good feature to add in a future release so stay tuned! :)
Thanks,
Peter