7 WordPress list building plugins to Grow Your Email List in 2020

Building and growing an email list as part of your digital marketing efforts don’t have to be complicated. Done right, you can automate list building to convert more of your site visitors into subscribers and, ultimately, paying customers. A WordPress lead generation plugin can help you grow your email list faster, capture user information, and generate useful insights.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the best WordPress list building plugins and highlight their standout features.

#1: Thrive Leads

Thrive Leads is a powerful lead generation and list building plugin built by Thrive Themes. It helps you create a wide variety of opt-in forms including popups, screen-filling forms, 2-step opt-in links or buttons, and ribbon-style forms that are displayed on the top or bottom of the screen. You can also use the Scroll Mat form to insert opt-in forms anywhere in your content including below posts and in widgetized sections.

You can choose from any type of form and use the drag-and-drop editor to create and embed conversion-optimized forms anywhere on your website. Thrive Leads helps you easily add opt-in forms on your landing page which are great for increasing sign-ups and subscriptions from site visitors.

Key features:

• You’ll be able to test different opt-in forms, form types, and offers using A/B testing.
• It comes with many pre-designed templates and a powerful drag-and-drop template builder.
• You can use the backup and export feature for your subscriber list.
• It lets you hide subscription forms for site visitors who’ve already subscribed to your list and show different content to existing subscribers.
• It offers many animations and lets you set triggers such as timed triggers, scroll triggers, click triggers, SmartExit, and exit intent.

#2: Mailchimp for WordPress

Mailchimp is one of the most popular email list building tools and Mailchimp for WordPress makes integration with the powerful email marketing service easier. This plugin lets you connect your WordPress site with Mailchimp for email marketing and lead generation.

It helps you grow your Mailchimp subscribers and create better newsletters in various ways. Mailchimp for WordPress enables you to create beautiful opt-in forms or integrate it with an existing form on your website. For example, this can be a comment, checkout, or contact form. It also lets you create segmented lists that are important for maximizing your email marketing engagement.

Key features:

• It offers an easy way to create customizable opt-in forms for your website.
• It gives you full control over form fields and lets you select color schemes to match your site’s branding.
• You’ll be able to integrate your WordPress website with your Mailchimp account.
• You can add a click to subscribe checkbox to your forms, including comments and registration forms.
• Mailchimp for WordPress offers seamless integration with popular plugins such as WooCommerce, Gravity Forms, BuddyPress, Contact Form 7, WP Forms, and MemberPress.

#3: LeadPages

LeadPages is a high performing list building plugin that helps you collect quality leads and grow your email list. You’ll be able to create high-converting landing pages using conversion-optimized templates to run marketing campaigns.

It helps you boost user engagement by displaying alert bars on your web pages with unique offers to capture visitors’ attention. LeadPages supports integration with popular online marketing apps including AWeber, ActiveCampaign, Gmail, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, and Drip.

Key features:

• LeadPages updates your analytics in real-time which helps you quickly figure out which pages are performing well.
• Its LeadMeter tool offers conversion-optimized tips to help you create high-performing landing pages.
• It helps you easily connect with your existing subscribers by including one-click trigger links within your emails which sign users up to specified subscriber lists or events.
• You’ll be able to use SMS text messaging to get your site visitors to opt-in and subscribe to your email list.

#4: MailOptin

MailOptin is another WordPress plugin that helps you grow your email list by adding opt-in forms, call to actions, newsletter, and pop-ups to your site.

You’ll be able to customize the design, text, animations, and rules of your opt-in forms and add lightboxes, notification bars, and slide-in boxes to capture audience attention. This plugin lets you add opt-in forms anywhere on your site including widgets and sidebar sections.

MailOptin lets you send automated and event-triggered emails and newsletters to your subscribers and easily segment your email list to send out targeted emails. Its autoresponder feature allows you to send one-time follow-up emails to new leads, contacts, or subscribers whenever they sign up to your email list.

Key features:

• It lets you perform A/B testing on opt-in forms to find the one that performs best.
• You’ll be able to set different email triggers based on time on site, scroll, page views, exit, click launch, and device targeting.
• Its conversion actions allow you to redirect site visitors to a specific URL.
• MailOptin offers various useful features including newsletter management, ad-blocker detection, and spam protection.
• It seamlessly integrates with popular email marketing services including AWeber, ActiveCampaign, Campaign Monitor, Mailchimp, and GetResponse.

#5: OptimizePress

OptimizePress is a WordPress list building plugin that helps you create landing pages, sales, and marketing funnels on your site. It gives you the tools you need for building pages that grow your subscriber list and help you boost sales and deliver content.

Using OptimizePress, you can create pages for almost any type of campaign or product including online courses, event pages, services and consulting, and digital products. This plugin lets you connect with a number of email marketing services including GetResponse, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, Zapier, and Keap by Infusionsoft.

It gives you access to powerful, conversion-optimized funnels that increase your sales and leads. You can also build a membership portal using pre-designed templates and use a plugin to easily secure your content.

Key features:

• OptimizePress lets you quickly build opt-in forms for collecting the information you want from your site’s visitors.
• You’ll be able to customize the text, images, and colors on your pages to match your messaging and branding.
• Its OnePage membership design helps you enhance the perceived value of your online courses.
• You can choose from a number of pre-made funnel designs and customize it after your funnel is built.

#6: Sumo

Sumo is a WordPress list building tool that is packed with several apps. It gives you access to the Sumo Store from where you can install any app you need. This helps you prevent plugin bloat on your website.

Its List Builder is a lightbox pop-up with an email sign-up form that integrates with popular email marketing services. You can use its Scroll Box to prompt visitors to submit their email address once they’ve browsed through a certain percentage of your site. This allows you to quickly retain readers who have already expressed interest in your site content.

Sumo’s Smart Bar app displays a bar at the top (or bottom) of the screen to collect visitors’ email addresses. Its Welcome Mat lets you display a full-screen pop-up to people along with a call to action.

Using Sumo’s Content Analytics feature, you can determine how far visitors scroll down pages and posts and use this information to find the ideal spot for email sign-ups, offers, and call to actions. You’ll be able to track visitors’ reading habits, understand how they interact with your site, and view heat maps to know where readers are clicking.

It also lets your site visitors share your content on social sites such as Twitter and Facebook through its Image sharer and Highlighter features.

Key features:

• You can easily create and customize pop-up forms and floatable bar forms.
• Its A/B testing feature helps you test different opt-in forms and identify the one that works best.
• Sumo’s smart display mode lets you figure out the best time to display forms to site visitors.

#7: Passster

Passster is a powerful WordPress content restriction plugin that lets you prevent unauthorized access to premium content. This way, you’re able to lock away your exclusive content and only allow access to visitors who sign up to your subscriber list.

Passster integrates with popular WordPress page builders and offers tons of content restriction options including password protection, unlock via an encrypted link, and by user role. In addition to this, the plugin makes it easy to offer free trials or free samples to subscribers or members using a shortcode.

Key features:

• You’ll be able to restrict access to your content with passwords and CAPTCHAs by surrounding content with a simple shortcode.
• You can set up and assign multiple passwords to protect premium content.
• It supports integration with various page builders including Elementor, WP Bakery Pagebuilder, and Beaver Builder.

Conclusion for list building

By using the right WordPress lead building plugin for your site, you can build email lists and convert more of your site’s visitors into paying customers. We stepped through some of the best lead generation plugins for WordPress to build and grow your email list. Hopefully, you’re in a good position now to take the next steps.