The Asset Delivery feature is one of the biggest new additions we've made to the Thrive Leads plugin since its release. With this feature, you can now automatically send links to your downloadable opt-in offers to new subscribers.
Watch the video for a quick overview of the feature.
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The Asset Delivery Advantage
With the Asset Delivery feature, you can associate one or more downloadable files with any opt-in form you create in Thrive Leads. This comes with two big advantages:
1) You can make highly relevant opt-in offer such as content upgrades and automatically send the right download links to new subscribers.
2) You don't have to set up a separate thank you page, separate list, separate follow-up sequence etc. for each new opt-in offer you create.
Another advantage of this feature is that it can "upgrade" a simple autoresponder system. We generally recommend ActiveCampaign for email marketing because it uses a tagging system and makes it easy for users to create audience segments and send highly relevant messages.
However, if you use a list-based autoresponder service, things are a bit different. If you have to create a separate list of subscribers for each one of your opt-in offers, you soon run into trouble (and you also pay too much, as any subscriber who signs up for more than one list will be counted more than once). Asset Delivery is the solution to these problems!
Reaching the Inbox, Every Time
With the Asset Delivery feature, you can potentially send links with download emails to every new subscriber who opts in. Since the server that hosts your website is not an email server, that could quickly lead to problems.
Basically, lots of emails being sent through your WordPress site is a recipe for getting those emails caught in spam filters.
To avoid this and ensure that all your emails reach the inbox, we've integrated with Postmark and Mandrill.
Both of these are email delivery services, built for exactly the kind of use case presented by Asset Delivery. And even better, both have very generous free tiers. With Postmark, you get 25,000 free email credits when you sign up and with Mandrill, the first 2,000 emails you send are free.
Both services are excellent for ensuring that your emails get delivered without you having to worry about the technical details.
What About Confirmed Opt-In?
When someone signs up through a Thrive Leads opt-in form that has an Asset Delivery group assigned to it, they will receive the email with your download links immediately.
You may be wondering: what if you use a confirmed opt-in process (also known as "double opt-in")?
The short answer is that using Asset Delivery changes nothing about your email autoresponder setup.
Thrive Leads will send the Asset Delivery email, as you specify and it will send the lead information on to one or more of the services we integrate with. What those services do with the new lead is outside of our control.
If you pass the new lead on to an autoresponder with a confirmed opt-in setup, then your new subscriber will receive the Asset Delivery email and the opt-in confirmation email at the same time.
My recommendation is that you use the Asset Delivery feature only with a single opt-in process. For confirmed opt-in, it makes much more sense to send the subscriber to your download page as soon as they click the confirmation link.
Custom Download Links, Download Pages & More
The typical use case for the Asset Delivery feature is that you send your new subscriber a link through which they can download something like a PDF report. However, that's not the only thing you can use the feature for.
As shown in the video, you can upload files using the WordPress media manager, but you can also use this custom URL field (also in the WordPress media manager):
By using the "Insert from URL" option, you can add a link from your Amazon S3 account, a link to a landing page (e.g. with an embedded bonus video) or any other link you want to include in the asset delivery email.
Update: New Flow in Thrive Leads (2.52 min)
Since we updated Thrive Content Builder to Thrive Architect, the Thrive Leads interface has also changed.
The video is showing the old interface, but here are the instructions for the new interface:
- Click on the form
- Click on the "Connect Form with Service" button at the top of the editor
- Connect your email marketing service through API
- Click the "enable asset delivery" box
- Select the asset group
Asset delivery flow in the new editor
Content Upgrades & More
As mentioned above, Asset Delivery in Thrive Leads is especially useful for creating content upgrades. And it's only one in a series of feature additions we're working on, all aimed to make content upgrades even easier and more effective for you.
What are your thoughts on this new feature? What else would you like us to add?
Leave a comment below to let us know!
great feature! i’m very impressed by all the new functionality you add.
i would like to see two more features:
1/ the ability to do multistep lead generation pages like frank kern. this one has an optin, then 3 additional pages with extra data added to each lead: http://convertbook.frankkern.com/homepage/
2/ the ability to have leads saved to a CSV file as backup in case something goes wrong with the remote mail server communication
Hello Adrien,
The second point is already covered with our Leads Export feature. 🙂
There is an plugin named surveyfunnel plugin available which do the same thing which you mentioned in your point one with more feature. I am using it from many years. Although I am not satisfied with it yet because of lack of proper response but it is the best available in the market place. I also requested to Shane about it and I am hoping that shane understand that this is a great idea for thrive themes and add too much value in their memebrship site.
Awesome new feature and thanks (as always) for explaining it with a video. I’m impressed with the quick turn around and the speed at which you guys ship improvements. ThriveThemes rocks! And love the random question at the end – made me LOL 😀
Thank you, Sean! Glad you enjoyed this update. 🙂
Would this work for selling ebooks?
This can’t be used to sell downloadable products, no.
I liked it a lot and see the potential, but i don’t see how you can use it to segment your list!
Hello Diogo,
It doesn’t segment your list for you, that’s still up to the email marketing system you use. But it makes list segmentation a lot easier because you no longer have to create a whole funnel and follow-up for each opt-in offer you create.
great piece, but in Germany we have a very strict privacy system, without double optin process works nothing.
That’s something we can’t cover with this feature, of course. But in this case, you have to create a separate follow-up for each offer anyway, so I don’t think there’s anything we can do to make it easier.
Why not make a new update that after the double confirmation, you can download all the resources direct to your email as they do with the simple confirmation?
Can not check on the list?
If a user is already registered (after going through the double confirmation process), they will be sent the eBook direct to their inbox.
This is something that would require a much more complicated API integration with the email marketing system you use. And I’m pretty sure that most systems wouldn’t even have this as an option in their API.
If you want a setup like this, I think the better approach is to handle the asset delivery within your email marketing system.
Love the updates and additions. As a web consultant I own a lot of CMS systems. Many are stale, one was ruined by a massive re-code, however Thrive is rocking. I do have trouble keeping up with all the new upgrades and features, but that’s a great problem to have. This asset delivery feature is going to be great on two of my sites and one of my client’s sites immediately. Besides easy delivery, I see everything in one spot. Now I have to hunt around in my or my client’s mail server.
Thank you, Pete! Glad you’re liking the frequent updates as well. 🙂
What if your assets are WordPress pages? Is it possible to set those up as assets?
Hello Rhonda,
Yes, you can link to pages as well. 🙂
This is brilliant, there is one thing I would like to ask, can you specify download Url’s other than from your WordPress host? I couldn’t see a edit button for the URL.
Yes, you can either add a file from the WordPress media library, or you can create a manually specified link to your file(s)
Thanks Paul that is fantastic, really great stuff.
In the WordPress media manager (what we use for selecting and uploading files) there’s a custom URL option as well.
Thank you, Shane, for another great feature. Can I just ask that you make sure it’s added back into the Knowledgebase. I’ve just been bitching on the forum about the absence of other great stuff that I’ve lost track of in these blog updates and when I come to use something and need a refresher there is nothing in the Knowledgebase. Constructive feedback! 🙂 I can’t really complain about a service that keeps delivering as Thrive does.
Hello Bruce,
Here’s the knowledge base entry for the Asset Delivery feature.
Fantastic. You amaze me. I was just looking for something like this. So glad I joined the community!
Thank you! Glad we could deliver. 🙂
Sounds like a great feature! Is it similar to Lead Magnets? And is this also easy to integrate with Aweber? I don’t quite understand it completely yet.
1/ Imagine I have a new downloadable offer, and someone subscribes to this offer, he will immediately receive the download – but when this person is already in my email list, will he receive also an automated message (from aweber) “you are already subscribed to my email list”?
2/ And does this new feature cancel the double optin process? Does the subscriber still need to confirm the subscription by clicking a confirmation link in his email? Or does he simply gets a download directly, without having to confirm subscription (if he is not already subscribed in the first place).
Thanks!
Hello Steven,
1) That depends on your email marketing service. What we do is send the download link whenever someone fills out a Thrive Leads form. And we do that, even if it’s the same person signing up multiple times. What your autoresponder does with the lead is outside of our control.
2) Again, this is outside of our control. We don’t require an opt-in confirmation for the download link to be sent. If your autoresponder is set to confirmed opt-in, the new subscriber will receive the Asset Delivery email with the download link (from us) and the confirmation request email from your autoresponder.
Thanks, ok! Will test it out myself then, when I have installed it, to see how it behaves itself. Aweber is adding also the campain feature, it is in beta testing now, also giving the option to send automatically emails in different languages, depending, as I believe, from the ip address.
Great stuff !
Thank you, Thomas!
Brilliant move. Thanks for making this part so simple…and for the random question at the end. That was both funny, and a good lesson for all busy entrepreneurs who are surrounded by distractions.
Thank you, Mark!
Hi Shane,
Thanks for introducing this feature.
Just to clarify, when someone opts-in for the lead magnet, will they receive the link to download as soon as they click to submit their email?
In other words, will they get the lead magnet bonus before they have to confirm subscription that’s sent from from my email provider (double opt-in emails)?
Hello Joe,
What your autoresponder or email marketing system does with the new lead is outside of our control. We don’t require an opt-in confirmation for the download link to be sent. If your autoresponder is set to confirmed opt-in, the new subscriber will receive the Asset Delivery email with the download link (from us) and the confirmation request email from your autoresponder.
Love the ease with this can be implemented. My only concern is that the download links don’t seem to be protectable if the email gets passed around
That’s correct, yes. The same is true for emails you send via your autoresponder, though.
Personally, I don’t mind people getting access to my free stuff without opting in, if they find a way around it or get it from a friend. My free stuff is amazing and more people seeing it is generally good for business.
Fantastic! I’m in the process of migrating from another plugin to Thrive Leads, and this one feature was the only thing missing. Now, I have a lot of questions/ideas.
The plugin I’m using sends an encrypted download link, you can set an expiration date for the link, and it can be configured to act as the opt-in part before sending the details to the mailing list provider (in my case, I use Mailpoet with Sendgrid).
I’m not sure if I would be able to replicate all this functionality with Thrive Leads in the future.
Hello Jorge,
We don’t have expiry and delayed signup features, no. It’s just a simple download link in an email. 🙂
I’d go for the horse sized duck any time. Imagine if you’d be able to tame it..
Flying, yes please.
Reminds me of this show I used to watch, lol: http://www.mantiburi.com/files/6013/7319/2464/wunderbare-reise.jpg
Great update btw – lots of potential and makes the process a lot less painful 🙂
Although this doesn’t work with double opt-in, or am I missing something?
Keep rockin’ !
Hello Nick,
This does not require an opt-in confirmation. That part is still up to the email marketing system that you use.
Good point about taming the horse sized duck, by the way. With the way the question was phrased, I assumed it would be a battle to the death, so I didn’t consider that option.
The God of Marketing has sent us a new messi 🙂
I was trying to figue out how to “simply” setup a lead magnet. And I got it.
Thanks !
Hey Shane, it seems, that christmas is more the once a year! I am really impressed – if «Speed of implementation» had an URL it would be thrivethemes.com .
Hi Shane…this is a great feature. Can you add the option to use an Amazon S3 link instead of only uploading the file to the server? It could be cheaper in the long-term since having the file uploaded to the server consumes the bandwidth and also adds more workload to the server.
I’m loving this updates and I open each and every email. This is definitely the best platform for any marketer online.
You can set any file location of your choice so this is already supported.
Would an a/b split test option be possible? I like the idea of not having to create a thank you page. Is there a way to drop a pixel on the download link to keep track of funnel?
Great feature Shane! Love how innovative and fast you guys are to introduce new features. Was wondering if you guys are working on any NEW plugins? Specifically, a scheduler- something like accuityscheduling or birchpress? I know Thrive would do a much better job than what’s out there.
If I want to share your blog post, how do I add my affiliate link to it so I can use Buffer to Tweet it?
This. is. wonderful.
The only downside is I have to rework the current setups to implement this better strategy.
Keep up the solid work. This plugin is fantastic and keeps getting better each update.
Thanks for your comment, Matt! Always good to see people take action on new features right away. 🙂
OMG!
You guys keep raising the bar! LOVE it!
I love this feature because I inevitably forget to create the Thank You page until I get to that part of the opt-in page setup, then have to stop what I’m doing and go create the page.
I am in awe of the features & functionality that you guys keep adding. I think I’m probably going to be able to get rid of all other 3rd party tools I use and stick with just Thrive.
Also wanted to say thanks for the great content you guys create. Your videos & posts are fantastic.
LOVE the random question at the end too.
Thanks for creating, supporting and updating such awesome products!
Thank you very much, Kim!
Hi Shane-
I guess I’m confused. Can’t you achieve the same exact thing with a confirmation page? As it is right now in Thrive- I can insert the URL of a thank you/confirmation page for each form. Can’t I just put the link/info right there on the same page? This would also serve as a reminder for them to confirm their email… what am I missing?
Thanks!
Hello Brian,
Yes, that’s correct. It’s a different way to accomplish the same thing. Depending on your setup, using Asset Delivery might be more useful or easier than creating separate confirmation pages for each opt-in offer.
Hello
There is a feature very interesting, you just saw in the Plugin “OptinLinks”, this is the following:
Once the Sucriptor filled their data, the plug immediately and without leaving the page, showing another Poppup, prompting you to confirm your data, keeping Waiting …
Once the Subscriber proceeded Confirmation another PopUp Plugin thanks him for the subscription and recently redirected to a previously selected page.
All this; without leaving the page where the Registration Form, until the confirmation.
Feature; which can be replicated in Treve Leads to send the download link once the Subscriber confirm your data.
Thanks for the tip, Juarey. I’ll have a look at the plugin you mentioned.
Great job Shane. That is a very good feature.
Thank you, Vish!
God is not as smart as you ! It is exactly what i’m looking for because i have à lot of list in my autoresponder. So, Thank you so much !
Haha, thank you, Richard! I have to say, it’s a bit difficult to live up to that kind of praise…
You read my mind!
That’s what we do. 🙂
I’ve been asking this to GetResponse forever (being able to deliver different freebies while subscribing on the same list), and they always ignored me. Big surprise there..
But along comes Thrive, and voilà, makes the others look like idiots, as usual. Well done guys, Thrive is by far the product where I feel I get the most value for my money, even though I don’t often often get the chance yet to use all these great additions. Keep it up, and you’ll keep my subscription until they make hotels on the moon.
Oh and every time you pop out another little piece of awesome, I feel a shiver of anticipation for what Thrive 2.0 is going to be…”2.0” carries a lot of weight, I am counting on you guys, don’t disappoint!
No pressure, eh? 🙂
Glad we could fill that gap for you, Lorenzo. 🙂
I am so glad I didn’t purchase Lead Pages because The Thrive Suite is a Lead Pages killer. Keep up all the great work you guys!
Thank you very much, Preston. 🙂
Nice feature. Though i have to ask….
If i am using mailchimp and the flow of my site goes like this
Optin>emailconfirmation>mailchimpsendsoutconfirmemail>theyconfirm and are sent to my thank you page ( where the download link usually is ) ( they also get a welcome email from mailchimp at this point )
Are you saying they would get this link with the download in the WECLOME email??
im trying to understand how this integrates with an existing autoresponder. As mailchimp will only send out emails that have been customized inside your account. So unless we take a LINK from somewhere and insert it into say… welcome email. No one will get a link.
Please clarify as right now this doesn’t make sense.
Hello Jon,
This feature doesn’t interfere in any way with the setup you have in MailChimp. Meaning: they will get the Asset Deliver email as well as whatever emails you set up in MailChimp. The advantage here is that you can send different download links from different opt-in offers (e.g. content upgrades in multiple posts), without having to set up a separate list and follow-up email sequence for each one in MailChimp.
The issue I have with this is that the user is send the link before he confirms his email address (double opt in). I’d prefer a way to have the download link sent to the user after they’d confirmed their email address, to stop users just signing up to get the content, then not confirming.
That’s correct, yes.
The way to accomplish what you have in mind is to do it all through the autoresponder service and link to your download page from the confirmation email.
Wow Shane! You guys are right on time. I was just thinking that I would like to add content upgrades to my site and boy is this right on the money. Excited to try it out
Thank you, Kim!
Hi Shane, I really like you behind the scenes Q&A: genius!! And the way you answer these questions is even more genius! Thanks so ever for all your video’s!!
Thank you very much, Harry. 🙂
Gee…
I’m promoting training products through multiple landing pages. I have to work with “groups” and segment lists, depending on the incentive offered. Basically, a mini autoresponder for each landing page…
And duplicate emails for each funnel.
No more of that.
1 niche=1 sequence, regardless of the landing page/incentive that’s used to join.
And I can go back to my dear Wysija (mailpoet) plugin. It lacked features to do what I wanted and I had to use another service.
But I missed its simplicity.
In other words: ThriveThemes, you made my day.
Again.
Glad we could help with your business setup, Vincent. 🙂
Great feature and best for content marketing. It will help to build emails list more smoothly.
Awesome Move… 🙂
Thank you, Muhammad.
Great feature, Shane. Fantastic updates you guys are releasing.
A few posters above have raised the issue of double opt-in. I appreciate what you’re saying about this being out of your control, but isn’t it that case that if you give them the download they want then they have no incentive to immediate confirm subscription to your list?
I suspect that if I changed from giving them the download on confirmation of email address, and gave it to them immediately they clicked submit instead, I’ll see my subscription rates fall through the floor!
Hello Lee,
I would not recommend using the Asset Delivery feature with a confirmed opt-in process. This is really only useful if you use single opt-in.
Really cool, can’t wait to implement 🙂
Thank you, Bjarne!
ONE WORD. BRILLIANT.
Thank you, Paul!
Once again, you guys prove why you’re the best of the best! I’m loving all of these updates. Thrive Leads is changing the list-building game and I’m so glad to be on board with all the new functions you keep adding weekly! 🙂
Thank you, Daniel!
More options – me like! Hey, here’s a quick feature request: how about making it so we can save our customized buttons (and possibly other created elements) in an “asset library” not unlike the templating options, so we can quickly select, add them to pages/posts/popups and edit them, without having to start from scratch? Due to the immense “tweakability” your stuff offers, not having to manually adjust all those settings from button to button (for example) would be a major time saver. Thanks, I’m very satisfied with ThriveThemes!
Hello Russ,
I have good news for you: the feature you’re requesting already exists! 🙂
We call them content templates and you can read about them here.
ThriveThemes philosophy catapults you away from the competition. Glad to be part of it.
Nice addition, thanks again!
Thank you very much, Brayan!
This is amazing. I was just working through making smaller, easier to consume lead magnets, and having to look at doing all of these special thank you pages, and figure out what list to add to even though I’m using ActiveCampaign, like you. Thrive Themes is one of the best business decisions I have made in all of 2015. Thank you!
Thank you, Eric!
How would I go about using a thank you page without confirmed optins? Can this be done? Other than the stock message we send out can we set up a page that they go to that they receive their link on.
This really would make it perfect because thank you pages make a huge part of the way offers are made and obviously are a huge part of what people see just after they sign up.
Hello Johnathon,
If you use a single opt-in process, the thank you page is simply the page you show the visitor immediately after they sign up. If you use Asset Delivery, you can create one “catch all” thank you page that tells your new subscriber to go to their inbox to get their download link.
Excellent addition Shane, any chances we can customize the e-mail message?
Hello Karim,
Yes, you can fully customize the email template for each downloadable asset you create.
Thank you Shane! Now I can put the Lead Pages question to rest!! Keep it up man!
Thank you for your comment, Brandon.
Hi Shane, love this new feature. 1 thing though, instead of sending the asset through emails (which is not exactly free) how about redirecting them to a landing page?
So it’s like this: if a user opted in for the first time, he’ll be redirected to a custom URL normally be a confirmation page telling them to verify their email. But if a user is already a subscriber, and he opted in again, he’ll then be redirected to another custom URL which is the asset page.
This is a flowchart for better explanation: http://i.imgur.com/kKCahbf.jpg
This way, we don’t have to spend money for additional email service. This will also makes it more effective if I have more than one content upgrades and my visitors opted in more than one.
That sounds like an interesting setup. I’m not sure we can do this with all the various email services we integrate with, unfortunately.
Concerning the cost, I don’t think that’s something you need to worry about. If I’ve ever seen an example of negligible cost, this is it. For example, if you get 5,000 new subscribers every month, that will cost you $7.50/month on Postmark. Using Mandrill, if you grow your list to 300,000 subscribers (all using the Asset Delivery feature) in the next year, it will cost you just under $10 per month…
What I’m trying to say is: by the time you have to start paying for Postmark, the few dollars it costs you will no longer affect your business in any perceptible way.
Awesome feature and I’m REALLY glad I opted for the whole thrive theme suite last week. I haven’t got around to playing with it all yet – but certainly digging the fact that everyone can go on the same list regardless of their specific option choice.
Top Banana!
That’s awesome to hear, thanks Tony!
This is great! I was getting a little crazy with my different lists for different content upgrade.. (and especially to send my newsletter only once to those who signed up for several freebies).
QUESTION : what about double optin procedure? I am using mailchimp, and I think only those who click on the welcome email are added to the list. What if that email arrives initially in spam (or promotion in gmail), and those who have the freebie in hand never get to also receive my email sequence + newsletters ?
Thanks in advance for the clarification !!