You use the Sendinblue online marketing toolkit and want to link it to your WordPress website? Nothing could be easier! We’ll show you how to connect the popular newsletter solution to WordPress in no time to add a newsletter sign-up form to your website.
What is Sendinblue?
Just like its American competitor MailChimp, Sendinblue presents itself as an awesome solution in the field of email marketing tools.
In addition to email marketing, the marketing automation software also offers SMS marketing and a chat function.
You can personalise newsletters according to your wishes – choose from ready-made templates or create your own newsletters. You can also run A/B tests to optimize your performance, get real-time statistics, connect Sendinblue to systems like WooCommerce and Shopify, and much more. As you can see, the newsletter tool makes the heart of every online marketer beat faster.
Connect Sendinblue with WordPress
To link Sendinblue with WordPress, you can use the specially developed WordPress newsletter plugin Newsletter, SMTP, Email marketing and Subscribe forms by Sendinblue. Setting up the plugin is very easy – devowl.io – word of honour 😉
Before you set up the Sendinblue plugin, you should already have created a contact list with your recipients. However, it is important to make sure that all recipients have agreed to receive it via the double opt-in procedure.
- Open your WordPress backend.
- Go to Plugins >Install. Install and activate the Sendinblue plugin.
- The plugin is now clearly visible on the left as a new menu item. If you don’t have a Sendinblue account yet, now is the time to create one.
- After you have created your account, you need to enter the API key in the field below to link it to the Sendinblue plugin. The plugin will also tell you where to find your API key. To do this, click on Get your API key from your account.
- Done, now you have successfully set up the Sendinblue plugin in WordPress and linked it to your account!
And this is how you create an application form:
- Click on Forms > Add New Form.
- Here you can add the components you want to your newsletter subscription form. If you already know our article about integrating MailChimp into WordPress, then the following principle will already be familiar to you. Additionally, you can add features like a Captcha.
- You can embed the created form into a page by copying and pasting its shortcode.
When creating your form, it is important that you use the double opt-in procedure for the sign-up process. In addition, you should include a checkbox in your form to ensure that the recipient reads and accepts your privacy policy before signing up.
Sendinblue and the GDPR
Unlike MailChimp, Sendinblue is an EU-based company. Sendinblue is a German limited liability company whose headquarters are in no less a place than the city of love (Paris). This means that the problematic issue of data transfer to the USA does not arise.
However, you still have to consider a few things in order to combine Sendinblue and data protection within the EU.
🤝 Order processing contract
As Sendinblue is an external company that you commission with the processing of personal data, you will need a processing contract. This is based on Article 28 of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Fortunately, Sendinblue will help you with an already prepared AV contract. All you have to do is countersign it!
📝 Privacy Policy
Be sure to include Sendinblue in your privacy policy so that recipients can read, among other things, the purpose for which the newsletter service collects data and where it is stored.
✅ Double Opt-in Consent
Another precaution to use Sendinblue in compliance with the GDPR is the double opt-in procedure. The double opt-in procedure is the easiest way to comply with your obligation to provide proof in accordance with Article 7 of the GDPR. This way, you can ensure that the owner of the email address really wanted to register for the newsletter.
✔️ Checkbox
You must also set up a checkbox in the newsletter registration form, by means of which a newsletter-interested person confirms that he has read and accepts the data protection declaration in order to send a newsletter registration. This is the only way to ensure that he is sufficiently informed about the data processing by Sendinblue.
🔒 Encryption
Finally, you should set up encryption for your clients’ data.
In our opinion, you do not need consent in your cookie banner to use the Seninblue plugin. Why? Sendinblue does not send any data to the Sendinblue server when loading the newsletter form. The plugin is installed locally in your WordPress. However, you should only allow the subscription of your newsletter after accepting your privacy policy, because then the subscriber’s registration data is transferred to the Sendinblue servers.
If you embed Sendinblue in your WordPress website in another way (e.g. via the old Newsletter2Go plugin), it may be that you need consent. In this case, we recommend you take a look at the WordPress cookie plugin Real Cookie Banner.