Are you getting email signups on a regular basis? If not, try checking your mailing list sign-up process.
For many WordPress site owners, they update one thing and something seems to go wrong. I’ve seen in the past that a site that seems to be working fine will have some unexpected issue. In many cases, these issues are traced to plugins or updates that are made that aren’t compatible.
That’s one reason why Limelight Department offers versioning to all of its website clients. Versioning is a fancy way of saying that our team of developers tests each and every plugin and site update on each and every one of our client sites to make sure that a change doesn’t impact site performance.
Aside from our versioning process, which takes place quarterly, if you offer an online mailing list signup form (or forms), test it out once in a while. I don’t think this has to be something that you do daily, but when you think about it put in a test email. If you offer multiple ways to subscribe, such as through a Facebook button or various sign-up forms on your site, test them all.
The email you use to test it should be one that you have access to, that you previously have not used to subscribe. (Or, manually remove your own email from your email server, then re-subscribe it.) Fill out the form as if you were a new subscriber. Take note of what emails you get in response or what ‘thank you’ pages you are sent to after subscribing. Do they say what you want them to say? Remember, these automatic reply messages are easily customizable, so this is a great place to give your email subscribers a bonus deal, coupon, or seasonal offer.
The other thing you should check is whether you, as the list owner, received notification of the new subscriber. If not, that’s another place to investigate anything that might be going wrong with your process. WordPress plugins are often integrated with email marketing providers such as MailChimp. If your sign-up form goes straight to your mailing list, check to make sure that the address is actually on the list.
If you encounter any issues or error messages, take screenshots or take notes. Write down what device you are on and what browser you are using. This is all helpful information for a developer to use in troubleshooting. And of course, if you encounter an issue that you don’t know how to resolve, let us know! We’re here to help you figure all of these things out.
