BD Shield Forms

Newsletter Management & Settings

Updated March 9, 2026 6 min read

Subscriber Management

Navigate to Forms → Subscribers in the WordPress admin menu to manage your newsletter subscriber list. The page shows two statistics at the top:

  • Total Subscribers: All subscribers including unsubscribed ones.
  • Active: Currently active subscribers.

Below the stats, subscribers are displayed in a responsive card grid (up to 100 entries, newest first). Each subscriber card shows their email address, the date they subscribed, and a “Remove” link.

Subscriber Statuses

Each subscriber has one of two statuses:

  • Active: The subscriber is currently opted in. Their email address will be included in CSV exports.
  • Unsubscribed: The subscriber has been removed or opted out. If they subscribe again using the same email, their status is reactivated with a “Welcome back!” message rather than creating a duplicate entry.

Removing a Subscriber

Click the Remove link on any subscriber card. You will be asked to confirm before the subscriber is permanently deleted from the database. This is a permanent deletion, not a status change to “unsubscribed.”

Note: Removing a subscriber deletes their record entirely. If they subscribe again, they will be added as a new subscriber with a new signup date. If you want to preserve the record but mark them as opted out, consider updating their status directly in the database to “unsubscribed” instead.

Subscriber Data Fields

Each subscriber record stores:

  • Email: The subscriber’s email address (unique — no duplicates allowed).
  • Name: The subscriber’s name, if provided via the form’s name field.
  • Status: Active or unsubscribed.
  • Source: Where the subscription came from (currently always “website”).
  • IP Address: The IP address at the time of subscription.
  • Created At: The date and time of subscription.

Exporting Subscribers

Click the Export CSV button at the top right of the Subscribers page to download all active subscribers as a CSV file. The export includes three columns:

  • Email
  • Name
  • Date Subscribed

Only active subscribers are included in the export. Unsubscribed records are excluded. The file is named subscribers-YYYY-MM-DD.csv with the current date.

Tip: Export your subscriber list regularly and import it into your email marketing platform (Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Sendinblue, etc.) to send newsletters. BD Shield Forms focuses on collecting and managing subscribers — for sending mass emails, use a dedicated email marketing service.

Email Settings

Navigate to Forms → Settings to configure email behavior. The settings page is divided into two columns: settings on the left and a quick start guide on the right.

Email Configuration

The Email Settings card controls outgoing email:

  • From Email: The email address that appears as the sender for all emails sent by the plugin (admin notifications and auto-replies). Default: your WordPress admin email. This setting uses the wp_mail_from filter.
  • From Name: The sender name that appears in the “From” field. Default: your site name (from Settings → General). This uses the wp_mail_from_name filter.
  • Notification Email: The email address that receives admin notification emails when someone submits a contact form. Default: your WordPress admin email. This can be different from the “From Email.”
  • Admin Notifications: Toggle (default: enabled). When enabled, an email is sent to the Notification Email address every time someone submits a contact form. The email includes the sender’s name, email, phone, company, the full message, and a link to view the submission in the dashboard.

Auto-Reply Configuration

The Auto-Reply card controls the automatic confirmation email sent to form submitters:

  • Enable Auto-Reply: Toggle (default: enabled). When enabled, every contact form submission triggers an automatic reply to the submitter’s email address.
  • Auto-Reply Subject: The subject line for the auto-reply email. Default: Thanks for reaching out!
  • Auto-Reply Message: The body text of the auto-reply email. Default:

    Hi {name},



    Thank you for contacting us! We've received your message and will respond within 24 hours.



    Best regards,

    [Your Site Name]

The {name} placeholder is automatically replaced with the sender’s name from the form submission. This is the only available placeholder.

Tip: Customize the auto-reply message to set expectations. Include your typical response time, business hours, or links to your FAQ or documentation. A prompt auto-reply reassures visitors that their message was received.

Saving Settings

Click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the left column to save all email and auto-reply settings. A green confirmation message appears when settings are saved successfully. License key settings are managed separately on the License page and are preserved when saving email settings.

Email Delivery

BD Shield Forms sends emails using WordPress’s built-in wp_mail() function. For reliable email delivery, it is strongly recommended to use an SMTP plugin such as WP Mail SMTP, FluentSMTP, or Post SMTP to route emails through a proper mail server rather than relying on your hosting provider’s default PHP mail function.

The plugin sends two types of emails:

  • Admin Notification: Sent to the Notification Email address when a contact form is submitted. Subject format: “New Contact Form: [Subject]” (or “New Contact Form: No Subject” if no subject was provided). Body includes all form fields and a dashboard link.
  • Auto-Reply: Sent to the form submitter’s email address. Uses the configured auto-reply subject and message with the {name} replacement.

Form Customization Tips

Minimal Contact Form

For a streamlined contact form with just name, email, and message:

Business Inquiry Form

For a detailed business contact form with all fields:

Newsletter Form with Custom Styling

For a newsletter signup with custom button text and color:

Multiple Forms on One Page

You can place multiple forms on the same page. Each contact form instance receives a unique ID to prevent JavaScript conflicts. However, be aware that having multiple contact forms on one page means the first form’s submit handler will be used for all contact forms. For best results, use one contact form per page and place subscription forms separately.

Spam Protection Integration

BD Shield Forms does not include built-in spam protection beyond standard WordPress nonce verification. For comprehensive spam protection on your contact and subscription forms, install the BD AntiSpam plugin alongside BD Shield Forms.

When both plugins are active, BD AntiSpam’s generic form interceptor automatically protects BD Shield Forms submissions. BD AntiSpam injects honeypot fields and JavaScript tokens into all forms on your site (including BD Shield Forms), and evaluates POST submissions that contain these fields. This provides invisible spam protection without any additional configuration.

To ensure compatibility:

  • Enable the Generic HTML Forms integration in BD AntiSpam settings.
  • BD AntiSpam’s honeypot is injected via JavaScript in the page footer, which automatically covers BD Shield Forms’ shortcode output.
  • The generic form interceptor uses a higher confidence threshold (score of 8+) to avoid false positives, so only clear spam is blocked.

Submission Statuses

Each contact form submission has one of five statuses:

  • Unread: New submissions that have not been opened. Highlighted in the dashboard and counted in the menu bubble.
  • Read: Submissions that have been viewed but not yet replied to or starred.
  • Replied: Submissions you have sent a reply to from the dashboard. Reply history is saved with each submission.
  • Starred: Submissions marked as important. Use this to flag high-priority leads or messages requiring follow-up.
  • Archived: Available as a status in the database schema but not currently used in the admin interface. Reserved for future use.

License Requirements

BD Shield Forms requires an active license for the core form submission and subscription functionality. Without an active license:

  • Contact form submissions return an error message: “Form submissions are disabled. The site administrator needs to activate a license for BD Shield Forms.”
  • Newsletter subscriptions return a similar error message.
  • The shortcodes still render the form HTML, so the forms are visible on the page, but submissions are rejected by the server.
  • The admin interface (Submissions, Subscribers, Settings) remains fully accessible so you can view existing data.

To activate your license, go to Forms → License, enter your license key, and click Activate. Licenses are available in three tiers:

  • Starter: 1 site. Contact forms and newsletter subscribers included.
  • Professional: 3 sites. All features plus priority support.
  • Agency: Unlimited sites. All features plus priority support.

Purchase a license at getbdshield.com/shop.

Data Storage

BD Shield Forms stores all data in two custom database tables within your WordPress database:

  • {prefix}_bd_shield_submissions: Contact form entries including name, email, phone, company, subject, message, status, IP address, user agent, reply history (JSON), and notes.
  • {prefix}_bd_shield_subscribers: Newsletter subscribers including email (unique), name, status, source, and IP address.

Settings are stored in the WordPress wp_options table under the key bd_shield_forms_settings as a serialized array.

Note: The plugin does not currently include an automatic data cleanup feature. Submissions and subscribers are retained indefinitely unless manually deleted. For GDPR compliance, establish a data retention policy and periodically review and delete old submission data as needed.