The Follow Project widget allows site visitors to provide their email and opt into your mailing list. Unlike the Signup Banner widget, this widget encourages a lighter form of registration; users can provide their email and receive updates without the complete registration process.
When a user subscribes to a project, you can use the authenticated email address to send newsletters you write to keep your community informed.
Please note that project followers will not receive automatic updates. You can use the Newsletter function to draft and send them to all who've participated or subscribed to the project.
Add Follow Projects
To add the widget:
Select Add Widgets on your project page.
Choose Follow Project from the Select Widgets menu. The Follow Project widget does not require configuration steps and will automatically save and publish on your project.
The widget will match your brand colors, but you cannot change its content. You can use the drop-down menu in the widgets area to Show or Hide it and use the bin icon to delete it.
The widget is only active on published projects; a preview will show on a draft project, and the widget becomes unavailable when you archive it.
The widget will also show how many community members are following the project. Admins can use this as a guide, but remember that unregistered users must verify their email before being added to the mailing list, so this number may differ from the number of newsletter recipients. Additionally, when drafting a newsletter, the list of recipients may also include participants who have participated in a tool.
How to Subscribe
The widget also differs slightly depending on the users subscribing:
Logged-in participants: once registered and logged in, participants (and admins) only need to select Subscribe.
They will see a confirmation message on the widget and be added to the mailing list for this project.
Unregistered participants: users must provide an email address and select Subscribe. They will see a confirmation message and receive a verification email. They can either activate the subscription with the provided link or register, and they will be added to the mailing list for this project.
How to Unsubscribe
If a registered participant is subscribed to a project, the Follow Project widget will show an Unsubscribe link, which they can select to remove themselves from the mailing list.
Unregistered participants will not see this link but can select Unsubscribe in the footer of any newsletters you send to them.
