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Updated
November 13, 2023

The Newsletter plugin allows you to create subscription forms and send newsletters to your subscribers. We’ll show you how to use the Newsletter plugin with WPML to create language-based subscription forms, lists, and newsletters.

On This Page:

Getting Started

Start by installing and activating the following:

If you’re new to WPML, check out our Getting Started Guide. It quickly walks you through different translation options you can use.

Translating the Newsletter Page

When you install and activate the Newsletter plugin, the wizard automatically creates a Newsletter page on your site.  

Before you begin building subscription forms and creating subscriber lists, you first need to translate the Newsletter page into all your site’s languages. If you do not translate this page, your site’s visitors will not be able to complete the subscription process in your site’s secondary languages.

You can translate the Newsletter page in the same way you would translate any other types of pages.

Translating the Newsletter page

Creating and Translating Subscribers Lists

With WPML, you can create a subscription list for each language. These lists will then be pre-assigned to your subscribers based on their language. In the example below, we’ll create multilingual lists for subscribers on a website that uses English as the default language and Spanish as the secondary language.

  1. In the WordPress backend, use the switcher in the top admin bar to switch to All Languages.
  2. Go to NewsletterList Building. From the top bar, expand the List Building tab and click on Lists.
  3. In the Name section, assign per language names to your list and then check the box next to the corresponding language in the Enforced by language section.
  4. Save your Lists.
Creating multilingual Lists for subscribers

Translating Subscription Form Fields

To translate the subscription form fields:

  1. Go to NewsletterList Building. Expand the List Building option on the top of the page and click on Subscription Form Fields, Buttons, Labels.
  2. Use the language switcher in the top admin bar to switch to the secondary language of your choice.
  3. In the Main profile fields tab, input the translations for all the subscription form fields and click Save when you’re done.
Adding the translations for the subscription form fields

Translating the Subscription Form Page

You can use the [newsletter] shortcode to add your subscription form to a page.

To translate your page with the shortcode:

  1. Edit the page you’d like to translate. In the Language box, click the plus icon next to the language you’d like to translate your page into.
  2. You’ll be taken to the Advanced Translation Editor, where you can translate the title and any additional content you have on your page. Note that you won’t see your shortcode available for translation in the editor. WPML will automatically load the translated version of the form on the front-end.
Using the Advanced Translation Editor to translate a page with the subscription form

You can now view the translated subscription form page on the front-end:

Viewing the translated subscription form page on the front-end

Adding the Subscription Form as a Widget

You can add the subscription form as a widget to your sidebar or footer:

  1. Go to Appearance → Widgets and add the Newsletter widget to your preferred widget area.
  2. Set Display on language to All Languages and Save.

WPML automatically loads the translated newsletter widget texts on all the language versions of your website. This is what the newsletter widget looks on the front-end:

The Newsletter widget in the default language
The Newsletter widget in the secondary language

Please note that at the moment, the Subscribe button from the Newsletter Minimal widget is not translatable. We have contacted the plugin author and are working on a fix for this issue.

To learn more about translating the newsletter widget title and other widget texts, check out our documentation page about translating widgets.

Users Subscribing to Secondary Language Versions of the Form

When a user subscribes to the newsletter through your English form, their contact information will be added to the English list you created earlier. The same applies to users subscribing to other language versions of the form.

You can ensure that each user is pre-assigned to the correct language list by following the steps below:

  1. Navigate to NewslettersSubscribers.
  2. Click on the pencil icon next to one of your users to edit them. Here, we’ll edit our English user.
Clicking on the edit icon next to our English user
  1. Click on the Lists tab to see which language is assigned to your user. If you make any changes, remember to Save them.
Viewing the pre-assigned language of Lists

Translating Messages and Emails (Welcome, Activation, Cancellation)

The Newsletter plugin displays and sends different messages to your users, depending on their actions. This includes welcome, activation, and cancellation messages and emails. You can use the plugin’s custom messages or create your own.

In the example below, we’ll show you how to translate the Welcome message:

  1. Go to NewsletterList Building and click on the Welcome tab.
  2. Use the language switcher in the top admin bar to switch to the secondary language of your choice.
  3. Input your translations and Save them.
Adding the translations for the Welcome message

This is how the translated Welcome message is displayed on the front-end:

The translated Welcome message on the front-end

You can follow the same steps to translate the Activation message and Cancellation message.

Translating the Subscriber Profile Page

Users can update their subscription information through the subscriber profile page. You can add the {profile_url} tag to any of the emails you send to your subscribers. This tag adds a link that drives the subscriber to a profile editing page.

To translate the subscriber profile page, use the language switcher in the top admin bar to choose the language you want to translate your subscriber profile page into. Then, add the translations to the text and Save your changes.

Make sure not to delete the {profile_from} tag when you are translating the Profile page text.

Adding the translations to the subscriber profile page

Sending Language-Based Newsletters

To send newsletters to clients based on the language they used the subscription form in, you need to create a new newsletter for each language and assign it to the corresponding language list. In the example below, we’ll show you how to prepare and send a newsletter to your English subscribers:

  1. Navigate to NewsletterNewsletters and click on the New newsletter button.
  1. Select a pre-made template or use the Blocks in the right sidebar to create your own. For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll choose the Simple Call To Action pre-made template.
Creating a new newsletter

Note that if you choose to use the Last news from your blog template, you need to choose the language you want to retrieve the blog posts from.

  1. Once you have finished composing your newsletter and added a Subject to it, click on the Next button. In the Sending Options tab, add the corresponding language to the Lists section and choose the correct Language. In our case, it is English.
Setting the newsletter Sending Options
  1. Set the remaining sending options to your liking. When you are ready to send your newsletter, you can choose between the Send now or Schedule options.

Repeat the steps above to create the secondary language versions of the newsletter. Make sure that you select the correct List and assign the corresponding Language.

Translating Other Texts from the Newsletter Plugin

In addition to content coming from the posts and pages on your site, there are usually some texts that come from other places. These texts usually come from themes and plugins.

To learn how to translate these texts, read our documentation page about String Translation.

Known Issues

There are no unresolved compatibility issues between this plugin and WPML. Search all known issues.

Getting Help

If you need help translating your site built using Newsletter plugin and WPML, visit WPML’s support forum.

Alternative Email Marketing Plugins

WPML is compatible with various other email marketing and lead generation WordPress plugins. Visit our Best Email Marketing & Lead Generation guide to learn more about our recommended solutions.