How to Capture Emails From Your Videos
An email capture layer in WP Media Player is a form that appears over the video at a timestamp you choose. Viewers enter their email to keep watching, and every submission is stored in your own WordPress database before being forwarded to your email provider.
Add an Email Capture Layer
Open the video you want to add the form to in the media editor. Click the Layers section, then Add Layer. The layer type picker shows five options. Choose Email Capture — it is the only free layer type. The rest — Call to Action, Hotspot, Ad, and Shortcode — are Pro.
The layer opens with a Start Time field. Set it to the moment in the video where the form should appear. Toggle Allow Skip on if you want viewers to be able to dismiss the form and keep watching without submitting.
Configure the Form Content and Style
Every field in the email capture form has a label and a default value you can override:
- Headline: The text at the top of the form. Defaults to “Sign up to continue watching.”
- Email Placeholder: The hint inside the email input. Defaults to “Email Address.”
- Button Text: The submit button label. Defaults to “Subscribe.”
- Bottom Text: Small text below the button, usually a privacy note. Defaults to “We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at any time.”
- Confirmation Message: Shown after a successful submission. Leave empty to use the default.
- Auto-dismiss After: Seconds before the confirmation fades out. Defaults to 10.
- Dismiss Button Text: Label on the button that closes the confirmation early.
Three color pickers control the form appearance: Button Background Color (default black), Button Color (default white), and Layer Background Color (default white). Border Radius rounds the form corners from 0 to 20 pixels.
Connect an Email Provider
The layer forwards submissions to whatever email provider you have enabled. Go to WP Media Player > Settings > Email Providers to configure one.
The free tier uses WP Email — WordPress’s built-in mail function or your own SMTP server, no API key needed. Mailchimp, Brevo, ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, GetResponse, and Omnisend are Pro integrations, each requiring its own API key. A Webhook destination is also Pro.
Select the provider for this layer from the Email Providers field inside the layer form. You can enable more than one provider and let the viewer pick.
What to Check
- The form appears at the timestamp you set and accepts an email address
- After submitting, the confirmation message appears and the submission is stored in your database
Next Steps
The email capture layer stores every submission in your WordPress database. To view, export, and manage the collected emails, see how to manage collected emails — available with Pro. To send submissions to a marketing platform automatically, see how to connect a marketing platform.