Elegant Themes recently announced the release of the latest version of their popular email opt-in plugin, Bloom. As well as a series of great new features, Bloom 1.2 now includes email functionality with new mail service providers, including ConvertKit.

ConvertKit is one of our favorite email providers, so after hearing the news of its new integration with Bloom, we wanted to write an article that would help newbie web users set up both pieces of software on their Divi websites.

If you’re looking to kick-start a mail campaign, grow a client list, or, are curious about the possibilities of including email marketing into your online marketing mix, have a read through of the following article.

If you have any questions or suggestions, be sure to post them in the comments section below!

What is The Bloom Plugin for WordPress?

Bloom is the Elegant Themes signature email plugin for WordPress. Bloom is designed to help web users attract the attention of site visitors and encourage them to sign up to email lists, through the use of beautifully designed and highly functional opt-in forms.

With Bloom, opt-in forms can be used site-wide, in any quantity, and can be specially targeted toward growing different lists and achieving different objectives. With a number of different opt-in form display options, Bloom offers its users the freedom to decide the aesthetic function that’ll best suit their website, their content and their users.

Bloom offers forms that either pop-up or fly-in based on user triggered interactions, forms that can be placed in and around content or in widget areas (i.e. footer or sidebar), as well as forms that require user interaction (i.e. a sign-up or subscription) to unlock exclusive content.

Once a user downloads, installs and activates the Bloom plugin on their WordPress site, they’ll be presented with a plethora of email service providers of which to choose from. In this blog post, we cover using ConvertKit as the service provider.

If you have an Elegant Themes membership (either yearly or lifetime), you’ll have access to the Bloom plugin for the full term of your membership. If not, click here to join Elegant Themes and gain access to both the full portfolio of WordPress plugins and themes.

What Is ConvertKit?

ConvertKit is a powerful, no-nonsense mail service provider that is both easy to use and cost effective. Offering the power of automation, ConvertKit helps its users to streamline their marketing efforts to allow them to focus on what really matters: content.

Unlike other email service providers that cater to a broad range of businesses, ConvertKit refines their offering and focusses specifically on satisfying the needs of bloggers. While this may be their focus, it certainly doesn’t limit their customer scope.

Quite the contrary, if your brand, business or website includes a strong content focus (which is likely), then ConvertKit may just be the solution for you as it values simple interfaces with straight-to-the-point offerings.

As well as Bloom, ConvertKit also offers a number of integrations with other third-party software service providers, including WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, Restrict Content Pro, Webinar Jam, and much, much more.

If you don’t already have a ConvertKit account, we recommend heading over to their website and visiting the Request a Demo page. Here, you can sign up for a free trial to test drive the software.

The following article section will take you through the process of setting up both pieces of software on your WordPress website.

Step 1: First things first, as a precaution, make sure that your WordPress website is backed up.

Those who are more seasoned users, who have a strong grasp on the technical side of things may choose to perform a cPanel backup of site files and the relating database, but for new users, we recommend using a plugin such as All in One WP Migration or UpdraftPlus.

Step 2: Next, if you haven’t already downloaded the latest version of the Bloom plugin, head over to the Elegant Themes website, log in to your account, navigate to the Download tab in your Member’s Area and download Bloom.

If you don’t already have an Elegant Themes membership, click here to join.

Step 3: Once your download is complete, navigate to the Plugins > Add New console of your WordPress dashboard and locate the .zip file located in your Downloads folder. Once the plugin has been successfully installed, click Activate and you’ll see a new Bloom tab resting in the menu of your WordPress dashboard.

Step 4: Once you’re inside the Bloom dashboard, you’ll be met with the option to create a new opt-in form. Before getting into the full swing of designing forms and embedding shortcodes, head over to the Email Accounts tab and click New Accounts.

Step 5: Within the New Account Setup page, select your email provider – ConvertKit –
from the drop-down list.

Step 6: Once you’ve selected ConvertKit, you’ll be prompted for additional details, including your Account Name, API Key, and API Secret.

The Account Name can be just about anything – any name, phrase or term that you desire. This section is merely a label of reference to help you remember and manage the account itself.
The API Key and Secret API are special codes issued by ConvertKit. These codes allow you to authenticate ownership over your account.

Step 7: To locate both of these codes, log in to your ConvertKit account and click on the Account Info tab of your Dashboard. To reveal both codes, click the “Show” button.

Step 8: Copy both over to the Bloom Dashboard and paste the codes into the relevant areas. Once you have entered an account name and have entered in both API codes, click Authorize.

Step 9: Now that you have installed Bloom on your WordPress website and have linked your ConvertKit account, you can begin to create attractive opt-in forms for your WordPress website. To start, navigate to the Bloom > Opt-in Forms console and click New Opt-in.

Are you as excited as we are about the new Bloom and ConvertKit integration? If you haven’t already started harnessing the power of email marketing, we hope that this short introduction will encourage you to take the first step!

If you have any questions or queries, please feel free to share them below. We love receiving your feedback!

Thanks for reading!