How to Add a Constant Contact Form to WordPress (Made Easy!)

There are really only 2 ways to build a Constant Contact WordPress form, and which one to use comes down to a single question: do you just need a basic signup box, or do you want control over how the form looks and what it collects? This post walks through both so you can pick in about a minute.

Approximate read time: 5 minutes

Method 1: Use the official Constant Contact plugin

If you look at Constant Contact's documentation, there are 3 ways to add a form to your site with their plugin. We'll walk through each one.

Before you start, build your form inside the Constant Contact plugin and give it a name. Once the form exists, you can drop it onto your site 3 different ways.

Use the Constant Contact block

In your WordPress dashboard, open the post or page where you want the form to show. Add a new block and search for Constant Contact.

Select the form you want to display and add it to your post or page. The form renders right where you placed the block.

Use the Constant Contact shortcode

Under your Contact Forms in the dashboard, copy the shortcode next to the form you want to show.

Go to the post or page where you want the form, add a Shortcode block, and paste the code inside the text box. Once you update the post, your form appears where you pasted the shortcode.

Add the form to a footer or sidebar

Go to the Appearance section of your WordPress dashboard, where you can pick an area to show your Constant Contact form.

Select where you'd like the form to appear, then add the Constant Contact form to that area. When you save the page, the form shows in the selected area.

That covers the native plugin. It's a fine choice if you simply want a signup form and nothing more. But if you want more control over how your forms look and what data they collect, there's a better way.

Method 2: Connect Constant Contact with Formidable Forms

The official Constant Contact plugin works, but it doesn't offer many extra features. If you want to create forms with a visual editor, style every part of your form, or collect custom fields for your subscriber data, you'll want a more capable form builder.

That's where Formidable Forms comes in, with a form builder that more than 300,000 sites already run. Our Constant Contact add-on connects your forms directly to your account, and getting set up takes only 2 steps. Connecting your account also starts importing your contacts.

What you'll need

• Formidable Forms Pro on the Business license or higher, which includes the Constant Contact add-on
• A Constant Contact account with at least one list set up

Step 1: Connect Constant Contact to Formidable Forms

After you've installed Formidable Forms, you need to authorize the connection, which only takes a few clicks.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Formidable → Global Settings and click the Constant Contact tab.

Click Get Authorization Code. This redirects you to Constant Contact, where you log in to your account and approve the connection.

After you log in, Constant Contact sends you back to the Formidable Forms settings page, where you'll see your authorization code. Click Update to confirm. Your Constant Contact account is now connected, and you only have to do this once per site.

Step 2: Set up the Constant Contact form action

Create a new form, or open one you've already built.

Inside the form builder, go to Settings → Actions and Notifications and click Constant Contact. This adds a new Constant Contact action to your form.

Now pick the Constant Contact list you want new subscribers added to, then choose the fields in your form to map across. Save the form, and submissions flow straight into your Constant Contact list.

Do more with your Constant Contact forms

The 2-step setup gets you a working signup form. The reason to build it in Formidable Forms rather than the native plugin is everything you can do next.

Add custom fields

Constant Contact lets you collect more than just an email address. If you want custom fields for your subscriber data, add the matching fields to your form and map them in the Constant Contact action.

If a custom field doesn't exist in Constant Contact yet, go to Constant Contact → Contacts → Manage Custom Fields to create it first. It then shows up in the field mapping back in Formidable Forms.

Style the form to match your site

The native Constant Contact form looks like a Constant Contact form. With Formidable Forms' visual styler, you can change submit buttons, borders, text, and form fields, so the form looks like part of your site. If you can click on it, you can customize it.

Trigger a Constant Contact popup

Want your signup form to appear as a popup instead of sitting in a sidebar? Build the form in Formidable Forms and trigger it with a popup plugin of your choice. Same data flow into Constant Contact, different presentation.

Connected in a few clicks

That's how you connect Constant Contact to a WordPress form. The native plugin works for a simple signup box, and Formidable Forms is the way to go when you want custom fields, styling control, or a form that does more than collect an email and a name.

Once your form is collecting subscribers, you can layer on confirmation messages and admin alerts by setting up your WordPress form emails, so every submission triggers the right notification on top of the Constant Contact sync.

When you're ready, get Formidable Forms and connect your Constant Contact list today.

Do I need both the Constant Contact plugin and Formidable Forms?

No. If you're using Formidable Forms with the Constant Contact add-on, you don't need the native Constant Contact plugin. The authorization in Formidable Forms connects directly to your Constant Contact account.

Which Formidable Forms license includes the Constant Contact add-on?

The Constant Contact add-on is available on the Business license and above. Formidable Forms Lite on WordPress.org doesn't include it, but Lite is a fine way to test out the form builder before upgrading.

Can I add subscribers to multiple Constant Contact lists from one form?

Yes. Add a Constant Contact action for each list inside the form's Settings → Actions and Notifications tab. Use conditional logic on each action if you want different submissions routed to different lists.

What happens if Constant Contact is down when someone submits the form?

The form submission still gets stored in Formidable Forms' entries database, so you have a record of every entry either way. You won't lose subscriber data because of a Constant Contact outage.

Can I sync existing form entries to Constant Contact?

The Constant Contact action sends new submissions to Constant Contact at the moment they're submitted. For older entries collected before you connected the integration, export them from Formidable Forms as a CSV (a spreadsheet format) and import that file into Constant Contact directly.