By following a few simple steps, you can easily add an opt-in checkbox to any form and hook it directly into your MailBuild list. For the advanced users out there that this is a no-brainer for, I'd recommend using the API. For the rest of us who don't do a lot of server-side work, there's another approach we can take using some simple redirects.
For this example, let's say you have a contact form on your client's site, like the following:
Now, let's jazz it up with an unchecked opt-in to join this client's monthly email newsletter list.
Now that the form has an opt-in option available, we need make a few changes to what happens after the form is submitted.
Get the address you should be redirecting to
Head into the subscriber list you'd like to integrate into this form in your account and click on "Add a subscribe form to my site". In the supplied HTML code, you'll notice a URL for the action= address like
http://clientname.createsend(dotcom)/t/1/s/d/. Copy that address.Modify your existing form code
Normally when you process a form, you'll redirect the user to a confirmation or thank-you page after all the processing is done (like generating an email for our example). Add a check to make sure someone has checked your list opt-in checkbox. If they have, we want to redirect them to the address specified above instead of the usual thank-you page.
Add the new subscriber's email address and name (optional) to the address of the page we're redirecting to
The first thing we need to do is grab the corresponding element name from our form for email address. So, if our email input is
<input type="text" name="mb-d-d" id="mb-d-d" />, it's themb-d-dthat we're after.Next, we add these values to the redirect URL by adding a question mark (?) followed by
mb-d-d=their email address&mb-name=their name.The full address should look something like:
http://clientname.createsend(dotcom)/t/1/s/d/?mb-d-d=name@domain.com&mb-name=Ben+RichardsonSet a subscribe confirmation page in your MailBuild account
We can now redirect them back to the same old thank-you page that we always use, so just copy and paste that address into the "Subscribe Confirmation Page" for that list in the "Add a subscribe form to my site" we copied the address from. This will ensure they'll be silently redirected back to your own confirmation page after the subscriber is added to this client's list.
One last important thing to note is that these redirects will happen extremely fast and be transparent to your subscribers.
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Great use of color brings this design from nGen Works to life. The brown tones and pink highlights support the copy without overwhelming it, and the photo heading the featured item completes the look.
For the newsletter writers at Rosie True, this simple template gives them the flexibility to use various types of content while maintaining the brand feel.
Designer: Varick Rosete | See the complete design]]>
We instantly fell in love with this slick email newsletter from UK based Code.
The table of contents placement is fantastic design wise and to give their recipients a good idea what to expect from preview panes. The fantastic illustrations really add a fun feel to the design which is clean, easy to read and very consistent with their recently updated web site.
We've been seeing more and more clever uses of the template tag structure, and this is a great example of a simple but flexible repeater layout that looks great with a little or a lot of content.
Designer: Jono Brain | See the complete design]]>
Today we're highlighting a fantastic MailBuild template for Womenspecific.com, a women’s gear and camp review site designed by Wyoming based Open End Studios.
I loved the idea of using floating blocks of content for each repeater item in the template. This creates a great visual separation between each story and also makes the email very easy for their recipients to scan. The template also makes good use of the Table of Contents, Forward to a Friend and web version tags.
This template is also another great example of a CSS based design that looks great in modern email clients and degrades gracefully in older email environments or those with less CSS support.
Designer: Clay Preheim | See the complete design]]>
Today we're featuring another great template design from Livingston and Partners for Florida based Riverside Presbyterian Day School.
The template design makes great use of the range of tags available in MailBuild. The design is also completely CSS based and looks great in all email environments, even those such as Gmail where it elegantly degrades into a much simpler design.
With this awesome design and the already featured River City Church template, Livingston and Partners really are setting the standards high for what you can do with MailBuild.
Designer: Jon Livingston | See the complete design]]>
Today we're featuring a great looking MailBuild template put together by Eye Design Studio for the Russian River Valley based Ottimino winery.
The newsletter makes great use of the repeater tag (although this particular issue only has one main story) and the subtle decorative elements throughout really finish it off.
This is also a great example of good use of the Forward to a Friend tag in the footer of the email to encourage recipients to pass the newsletter on to their own friends/colleagues.
Designer: Shona Friedman | See the complete design]]>
We loved the clean design of this sweet looking MailBuild template by UK based new media Agency Code.
The great use of whitespace and large text makes the email extremely easy to scan, but we think it's also the subtle decorative elements that really finish it off.
The team at Code tell us there are plenty more great templates on their way, so we're really looking forward to seeing what they come up with next.
Designer: Jono Brain | See the complete design]]>