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Can I Use MailChimp GDPR Features with Ninja Forms? Yes!

A few months back, MailChimp rolled out GDPR marketing permissions checkboxes with their stock signup forms. These MailChimp GDPR features are incredibly handy as a first step towards compliance in your email marketing. Found yourself wondering how to use them with the MailChimp add-on for WordPress?

While they’re not present in the exact same state, they’re incredibly easy (and fast) to duplicate. It’s literally just two fields. Even better, you can build it out just once, save it, and then add it to any WordPress signup form that you want down the road with just a couple of clicks. Here’s how!

How to duplicate the stock MailChimp GDPR features by adding just two fields to your signup form

The MailChimp GDPR features can be duplicated by adding a single checkbox list field and an HTML field. Here they are in MailChimp:

And here they are in Ninja Forms (using the Twenty Sixteen theme):

mailchimp gdpr features duplicated in ninja forms

Here’s how it’s done.

First, add a Checkbox List field for the Permissions options

The Marketing Permissions line, the text that follows, and the checklist section are all a simple radio list. Add the Checkbox List field, change the label to “Marketing Permissions”, and adjust the labels for the list options. Like so:

For the text beneath the label, you want to expand the Display settings under the list options. In the Description rich text editor, simply enter your text. “Please select all the ways you would like to hear from us:” works fine, as would any similar rewording that you prefer.

If the space between your description text and list options is a little crowded, there’s a quick fix. Click the < > icon in the rich text editor, and one line below below your text enter: &nbsp;

You’re set here. Now we’ll add the legal text below the field.

Next, add an HTML field for the legal text

The only tricky part here is duplicating the size of the text. To shrink it down to match the original, there’s been a bit of HTML added to wrap the lines. All you need to do is click the < > icon of the text editor and copy paste from the snippet below:

Click the < > icon again to exit the code editor view, and add your links via the text editor. The link in the first paragraph is intended to go to your privacy policy, and the second link goes to MailChimp’s legal page.

Be sure to position the HTML field immediately after the Checkbox List field you made. Preview your form, and you should be good to go!

Save your fields so that adding them to any future WordPress signup form is just a click away!

Don’t want to do this for every last signup form on your site? You don’t have to. Click on each field, and in the upper left of the field settings you’ll see a star. Click it!

That will save your field for future use. Your saved fields will appear at the top of the field list on any form. They’re now a click away to add to any other form!

Update: Quick note about integrating this with MailChimp

We’ve had a number of readers confused about how to use the newly created consent field with MailChimp. i.e., how to get the consent information into their MailChimp account. Apologies for not clarifying above. MailChimp will let you create a custom field within your account. Just name it something along the lines of GDPR consent or what have you, and map your form’s consent field to that the same as you’d map any other form field to a MailChimp field. 

Voilà! You have a record of consent for each user in your MailChimp account 🙂

Following these simple steps, duplicating the MailChimp GDPR features on any form is now only a click away!

With a short one-time setup, the MailChimp GDPR features are simple to replicate and even easier to place on any form. With the fields duplicated and saved as described above, placing them on any WordPress signup form is reduced to a matter of seconds.

Looking for more general information on the GDPR compliance and WordPress forms? Ways to make GDPR compliance easier with your WordPress forms? We’ve got you covered!

Comments are below! Are there other MailChimp features you’d like to see in the MailChimp add-on?