# Collect newsletter sign-ups Use the Newsletter sign-up form to grow your list, with a record of each person's agreement and the option to confirm sign-ups by email. Marketing email only goes to people who've agreed to it. The **Newsletter sign-up** form gives people a way to agree, and keeps a record of each one, so you can always show how someone came to be on your list. ## Before you start

Owners, admins and managers can change forms. See Who can see a form.
Your organisation needs a privacy policy link. An owner or admin adds it under Organisation settings, Branding, Details, in Privacy policy.
Opting people in is done by the form's automation. This one automation runs on every plan, Launch included.

## The form you start with Every organisation is given a draft form called **Newsletter sign-up**. You'll find it under **Marketing**, **Forms**.

It asks for Email, which is required, and First name, which isn't, side by side with the Sign up button: it's an inline form, which suits your website's footer. See Inline forms.
It asks the visitor to agree to your privacy policy before they can send.
It has an automation, New subscriber, that adds whoever signs up to your contacts and opts them in to marketing.

If your organisation was given the form before inline forms existed, it's a **Single step** form. To put it on one row, open it and choose **Inline** at the top of the **Build** tab. It doesn't count towards the forms your plan includes, though its sign-ups count towards your plan's monthly responses. Change its fields, wording and look like any other form. See [Build a form](../marketing/build-a-form.md). After signing up, people see "Thanks for joining our newsletter!". Change it in the form's **Settings**, under **After sending**. Your organisation keeps this form and its automation: neither can be deleted. To stop taking sign-ups, close the form. To stop opting people in, switch the automation off. ## Make it live

Under Marketing, choose Forms, then Newsletter sign-up.
Check the fields and the message people see after signing up.
Change the status from Draft to Live.
Choose Share to copy its link or embed it on your website. See Share or embed a form.

A form that opts people in can only be live while both of these are true:

Ask visitors to agree to our privacy policy is on in the form's Settings.
Your organisation has a privacy policy link.

If either is missing, you're told which when you try to make the form live. The same goes the other way: you can't switch the agreement off on a live form that opts people in, and you can't remove your privacy policy link while such a form is live. Close the form first, or switch off **Opt them in to marketing** in its automation. ## Ask people to confirm their email address Confirming by email, often called double opt-in, means nobody joins your list by a typing mistake or someone else entering their address.

Open the form and choose Settings.
Under Confirm sign-ups by email, turn on Ask new subscribers to confirm their email address.
Choose Save settings.

From then on, someone who signs up is sent an email with a **Confirm subscription** button. They show as **Awaiting confirmation** until they press it, and aren't sent any marketing email before then.

The email comes from your own domain once it's verified, and from 53° until then.
Someone who signs up again while they're waiting is sent the email again, at most once an hour.
Someone already on your list who signs up again stays on it, and isn't asked to confirm.
If they never confirm, they're never added.

The setting only shows on a form whose automation opts people in. ## Sign-ups stay out of your inbox Each sign-up is a new subscriber rather than a message to answer, so the form's responses are hidden from the inbox, and nobody is notified of them. They're still kept, and the automation still adds each person to your contacts. To see them in the inbox, open the form, choose **Settings**, turn off **Hide responses from the inbox** and choose **Save settings**. ## What's kept for each sign-up Each sign-up is recorded against the person: when they signed up, the form response, the sentence they agreed to, the privacy policy it linked to, and their IP address and browser. See [Unsubscribes and consent](../marketing/unsubscribes-and-consent.md). ## Good to know

Someone who doesn't agree to the privacy policy can't send the form, so they're never opted in.
Signing up never opts anyone out, and never changes the details of a contact you already have.
A response posted from your own website's markup doesn't opt anyone in, because your page, not the form, asked the question. See Post to a form from your own website.
An address that's blocked can't be opted in. See Why a contact can't be emailed.
You can add the opt-in to any form: in its automation, turn on Opt them in to marketing on the Create person step. See Automate a form.