Hey there, WordPress user! If you‘re looking to grow your audience, engage your readers, and drive more traffic and revenue, there‘s one powerful tool you absolutely need in your arsenal:
Email marketing.
And when it comes to email marketing for WordPress, one of the top services to consider is AWeber.
In this ultimate guide, we‘re going to dive deep into why AWeber is a fantastic choice for WordPress sites, how to connect AWeber to WordPress step-by-step, and pro tips and best practices to help you make the most of this dynamic duo.
By the end of this post, you‘ll have everything you need to start building and engaging your email list like a pro. Let‘s get into it!
Why Email Marketing is Essential for WordPress Sites
First things first, let‘s talk about why email marketing is so crucial for WordPress websites.
Consider these eye-opening statistics:
- 📧 There are over 4 billion daily email users, and that number is expected to climb to 4.6 billion by 2025 (Statista)
- 💰 The average ROI for email marketing is $42 for every $1 spent (Litmus)
- 🚀 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI (Emma)
- 🔍 33% of marketers send weekly emails and 26% send emails multiple times per month (Databox)
Bottom line: If you‘re not building an email list and regularly engaging your subscribers, you‘re leaving a ton of opportunity on the table.
Unlike social media followings or search engine traffic, your email list is an asset that you own and control. It gives you the ability to reach your audience directly, build personal relationships, and drive traffic and sales on demand.
What is AWeber?
AWeber is one of the leading email marketing services, trusted by over 1 million small businesses and entrepreneurs around the world.
With AWeber, you can:
- 🪄 Build your email list with customizable signup forms and landing pages
- 📮 Quickly create and send professional email newsletters and automated campaigns
- 🎯 Segment your subscribers based on behavior and preferences to send targeted messages
- 📊 Track your results with detailed analytics and reporting
- 🤝 Get expert support and guidance from AWeber‘s award-winning customer solutions team
One of the biggest advantages of AWeber is its extensive integration options. It plays nicely with tons of other platforms, including WordPress, Shopify, PayPal, Facebook, Etsy, and more.
AWeber Pricing
AWeber keeps its pricing simple with two plans to choose from:
- Free – Up to 500 subscribers, 3,000 email sends per month, 1 list profile
- Pro – Starting at $16.15/month for 500 subscribers, unlimited emails and list profiles, advanced features like split testing, behavioral automation, and access to a dedicated account manager
The great thing is you can start for free to test out AWeber‘s core features without entering a credit card. Then you can upgrade to a paid plan as your list grows over time.
Connecting AWeber to Your WordPress Site (Step-by-Step)
Alright, now that you know why AWeber is an excellent choice for WordPress email marketing, let‘s walk through exactly how to connect the two, step-by-step.
For this tutorial, we‘ll be using the free AWeber for WordPress plugin. This lets you quickly integrate signup forms and sync your WordPress users with AWeber.
Step 1: Install the AWeber for WordPress Plugin
First, log in to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New.
Search for "AWeber" in the plugin directory, and look for the plugin called "AWeber for WordPress":
Click "Install Now" and then "Activate".
Step 2: Connect Your AWeber Account
After activating the plugin, click on the new "AWeber" tab in your WordPress menu.
You‘ll see a notice at the top asking you to connect your AWeber account:
Enter the username (account ID) and password for your AWeber account and click "Allow Access".
If you don‘t have an AWeber account yet, you can click the link to sign up for a 30-day free trial.
Step 3: Choose an AWeber List
Once you‘ve connected your AWeber account, the next screen will ask you to choose an email list to sync with WordPress.
If you already have an email list in AWeber, select it from the dropdown menu. If you haven‘t created a list yet, click the Create a New List button:
If you‘re creating a new list, you‘ll need to enter a few details:
- List Name: Internal name to help you identify the list in AWeber
- List Description: Brief description to remind you of the list‘s purpose
- From Name: The name that will appear in the "From" field of your emails
- Address: Your or your company‘s mailing address (required for CAN-SPAM compliance)
Once you‘ve selected or created your list, click the "Connect to List" button.
Step 4: Configure Your Signup Form Settings
Next up, you‘ll see a list of settings to customize your AWeber signup form:
Here‘s a quick breakdown of each option:
- Signup Form: Choose "In-Page" to embed a signup form directly into the page or post content, or "Popup" to display the form in a lightbox overlay
- Delay: If using a popup form, enter the number of seconds to wait before displaying the form
- Signup Form Styles: Select one of the pre-designed form styles or choose "Custom" to use your own CSS
- Load Stylesheet: If you want to style your form, enable this option to load your theme‘s stylesheet
- Disable Javascript: Check this box to use a pure HTML version of the form (helpful for caching plugins)
- Double opt-in: Leave this enabled to send a confirmation email before adding new subscribers (recommended for GDPR compliance)
Once you‘ve chosen your settings, click the "Save Settings" button at the bottom.
Step 5: Add a Signup Form to Your WordPress Site
You‘re almost there! Now it‘s time to decide where you want your signup form to appear.
The AWeber plugin gives you two main options:
1. Signup Form Widget
To add a signup form to your sidebar or other widget areas:
- Go to Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard
- Look for the "AWeber Web Form" widget
- Drag it to your desired widget area (e.g. sidebar or footer)
- Enter a title for the widget, if desired
- Click "Save"
2. Shortcode
To add a signup form directly into a page or post:
- Edit the page or post where you want the form to appear
- Position your cursor where you want to insert the form
- Enter the shortcode
[aweber listid="12345"](replace 12345 with your actual list ID from step 3) - Update or publish the page/post
And that‘s it! Your AWeber signup form should now be live on your WordPress site and ready to start collecting email addresses.
AWeber WordPress Integration Best Practices & Tips
Congratulations on getting AWeber set up on your WordPress site! To help you make the most of this integration, here are some tips and best practices to keep in mind:
Put Your Signup Forms in High-Traffic Areas
The more visible your signup forms are, the faster your email list will grow. Consider adding forms to:
- Your site header or navigation menu
- Sidebar or footer widgets
- After blog posts or inline within content
- Dedicated landing pages
- Popups or slide-ins
Just be sure not to go overboard and assault visitors with signup forms at every turn. One or two strategically-placed forms is usually enough.
Offer a Lead Magnet
One of the best ways to encourage signups is to offer a valuable incentive, or "lead magnet", in exchange for an email address. This could be:
- An eBook, guide or report
- A video course or tutorial
- A free tool or template
- Discount codes or coupons
- Early access or exclusive content
Your lead magnet should be directly related to your niche and address a key pain point or desire for your target audience.
Welcome New Subscribers with an Automated Email Series
As new people join your email list, it‘s important to welcome them and deliver value right away so they don‘t forget about you.
AWeber makes it easy to set up an automated "welcome series" that triggers as soon as someone signs up.
Your welcome series could include:
- A quick hello and introduction to your brand
- Expectations for what kind of content you‘ll send
- Links to your most popular or useful blog posts
- An offer or discount code for your products/services
- A request to whitelist your email address or move you to the inbox
- An invitation to connect on social media
Think of your welcome series as a way to make a fantastic first impression and start building trust and authority with your new subscribers.
Segment Your List
As your email list grows, it‘s a good idea to start segmenting subscribers into different groups based on their interests, behaviors, or demographics.
This allows you to send more targeted, relevant emails that get higher engagement and conversions.
In AWeber, you can create segments based on:
- Signup source: Group subscribers based on where they signed up (e.g. blog, landing page, social media, webinar, etc.)
- Tags: Apply tags to subscribers based on their interests, preferences, or actions
- Subscriber fields: Create custom fields to collect additional info (e.g. location, job title, biggest challenge, etc.)
- Email engagement: Target your most active subscribers, or attempt to re-engage "cold" subscribers who haven‘t opened your emails in a while
- Purchase behavior: If you‘re selling products, group customers based on what they bought or how much they‘ve spent
The more you can personalize your email content to each subscriber‘s unique needs and situation, the more successful you‘ll be.
Clean Your Email List Regularly
It‘s a natural part of email marketing that, over time, some percentage of your list will go "cold" and stop engaging with your emails.
Maybe they changed email addresses, lost interest in your content, or just got too busy.
Whatever the reason, having a large number of inactive subscribers on your list can hurt your sender reputation and deliverability rates.
That‘s why it‘s a good practice to clean your list every 6-12 months by removing subscribers who haven‘t opened or clicked your emails in a long time.
Before you delete them completely, try sending a "last chance" re-engagement campaign to see if you can win them back. If they still don‘t respond, it‘s probably time to say goodbye.
Don‘t worry about a temporary drop in subscriber numbers. It‘s better to have a smaller, more engaged list than a huge list that doesn‘t open your emails. Quality over quantity!
AWeber + OptinMonster: A Match Made in Heaven
While the AWeber for WordPress plugin is a great starting point, there‘s one tool that can take your email signups to the next level:
OptinMonster is the #1 conversion optimization toolkit in the world. It allows you to quickly create all kinds of high-converting signup forms like popups, floating bars, slide-ins, gamified wheels, and more.
Here are a few reasons to consider combining AWeber with OptinMonster:
- OptinMonster comes with 100+ pre-built templates to get you started quickly
- It includes powerful targeting and trigger options to display the right form at the right time
- You can A/B test different designs and copy to optimize your conversion rates
- OptinMonster integrates directly with AWeber to automatically sync new subscribers
Case studies have shown OptinMonster can increase conversions by 400% or more compared to generic forms.
To see it in action, check out this quick tutorial:
How to Connect AWeber to OptinMonster
Troubleshooting Common Issues
While setting up AWeber on your WordPress site is usually a smooth process, there are a few common issues you might run into.
AWeber signup form not showing up
If your signup form isn‘t appearing on your site, try the following:
- Double-check that you saved and published any changes to pages/widgets
- Make sure you entered the correct list ID in the shortcode
- If using a page builder plugin, try a different AWeber block or element
- Check for any conflicts with your WordPress theme or other plugins
New subscribers not being added to AWeber
If people are filling out your signup form but not being added to AWeber, a few things to investigate are:
- Is the list ID you‘re using definitely correct?
- Are you using double opt-in, and subscribers aren‘t confirming?
- Is the subscriber email possibly caught in a spam filter?
- Did the subscriber enter their email address correctly?
Emails not being delivered
If your AWeber emails are being marked as spam or not reaching subscribers‘ inboxes, try these tips:
- Encourage subscribers to whitelist your "from" email address
- Avoid using spammy words like "free", "guarantee", "act now", etc. in subject lines
- Include a clear unsubscribe link in every email
- Regularly clean your list to maintain good email hygiene
- Gradually "warm up" new sending addresses before blasting your whole list
If all else fails, reach out to AWeber‘s customer support team for 1-on-1 assistance.
Grow Your Email List Faster (Free AWeber Checklist)
To help you put all these strategies into action and grow your email list even faster with AWeber + WordPress, we‘ve put together a free quickstart checklist.
Download the Free AWeber Quickstart Checklist
This handy PDF includes:
✅ Step-by-step AWeber setup instructions
✅ 10 places to put email signup forms on your site
✅ 5 high-converting lead magnet ideas
✅ Email copywriting dos and don‘ts
✅ Top metrics to track and optimize
Grab your copy now and start building your email list like a pro!
Get Started with AWeber + WordPress Today
Whew, that was a ton of information! We covered everything you need to know to set up and start growing your email list with AWeber and WordPress.
Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to engage your audience and drive more revenue for your WordPress site.
And with AWeber, you‘ve got a powerful, easy-to-use tool for building your list, sending awesome emails, and automating your marketing.
To get started, sign up for your free 30-day AWeber trial, then follow the steps in this guide to connect AWeber to your WordPress site and start collecting email addresses.
Don‘t forget to look for opportunities to promote your email list throughout your site using the tips and best practices we covered.
Have any other questions about AWeber and WordPress? Leave us a comment below!
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