I know, I know: "notification manager" doesn't sound very exciting.
But when you see what we built this for, you may just end up doing a happy dance after all.
For example, what if you need to notify someone by email whenever a new lead signs up on your website? Or what if you want to be notified whenever one of the automated A/B tests in Thrive Leads or Thrive Headline Optimizer has come to a conclusion, without having to remember to check manually?
With our latest feature upgrade, you can take care of these as well as many other notification scenarios. Check out the video to see how it works.
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Triggers, Actions & Future Plans
The notification manager, like many products and features in the Thrive Themes suite, is built to be more than just a basic feature. It's very flexible, which means it can be used for many businesses in many situations.
The basis is the structure of triggers and actions:
As of this writing, you will find only a small number of triggers and actions available, but they already cover many possible use cases.
As we add more products and features to the Thrive Themes family, you will also see more choices appear in the notification manager.
The end goal is that you have a site where many things are happening, most of them automated with Thrive Themes tools and the notification manager is what you can use to ensure that you (or people on your team) stay informed about the most important events.
We'd love to know from you:
- How are you going to use the notification manager?
- What kinds of notifications would you like to be able to create? What should we add in future updates?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one!
P.S.: If you're a developer, you'll love the webhook feature in the notification manager. You can learn more about it here.
I’m floored! This is great.
Why not take it a step further and create some more automation features like Mautic ? If “this” then do “send “that” somewhat like campaign manager in Mautic.
Overall you folks really over deliver on your products. Like I’ve said before, whenever I get an email from you I STOP whatever I’m doing and read it like a child on Christmas morning 🙂
Thank you Shane!
Juan M. Colome
Thank you for your comment, Juan!
We’re not trying to solve marketing automation problems with this feature. Our intent here is really to keep it focused on notifications or keeping the user informed about events happening on the site. So, it’s about your site communicating with you rather than your site communicating with users.
Although having said that, we’re open to developing other functionality if there’s demand for it. 🙂
Come on Shane! 🙂 There are so many of us that want the marketing automation……TT version 2.0…..hint…hint. 😉
Hi Andre,
I don’t think a marketing automation suite belongs inside WordPress. It’s too data intensive the average hosting service. Plus, I don’t think there’s a real need for new marketing automation software. Since the rise in success of ActiveCampaign, every other email marketing provider has started getting on the marketing automation bandwagon. I’m not really keen to create a me-too product in this space.
An other great product, with a lot of possibilities – thumbs up!
Thank you, Svein!
Hi Shane,
So this new ‘Triggers’ & ‘Actions’ feature seems to be similar to what we can find in the visual journey builders of AutopilotHQ, Infusionsoft etc…
If that’s the case then I can see this being extremely useful!
If you add more triggers and actions like:-
– Send postcard when someone submits mailing address
– wait 3 days then re-send email etc..
…this would then be the beginnings of an automated Thrive CRM!
Is this what you guys a looking to do?
(Smart move if you are)
Raj
Thanks for your comment, Raj!
I don’t think we’ll be taking it that far. I don’t know if it would be wise to cram that level of functionality into your average WordPress installation, for starters…
But we’ll see how it develops in the future.
You guys are always awesome and your rate of feature improvements is staggering.
The notification feature is a nice to have at this point simply because Aweber and most mail vendors do that today once leads sign up.
I’m sure that future use cases and triggers will add more value to our lives.
You guys rock!
Thank you, Onuora!
Thanks Shane for this feature.
I have tested with Zapier and it makes sending data possible to services outside of what’s included in the Thrive API list (or when HTML forms have javascript).
For the rest of the community, I made a quick guide here on how to setup with Zapier: https://www.denisethier.com/thrive-leads-integration-zapier-webhooks/
That’s really awesome. Thank you for creating this tutorial, Denis!
Hi Shane. Great feature addition right there. Question: Do you plan to add smtp capability to this feature such that we can use our existing email services such as Google Apps (Gmail)?
Thanks in advance. You guys do great things!!
Felix Nyilu
Hello Felix,
Thanks for your comment! I had not considered the option of using Google Apps for email delivery. Not sure if that’s a possibility, but we’ll check it out.
Great job, and great attitude you have of adding these functionalities without charging extra. Nice one.
Glad you like the new addition, Sjur!
I have to agree with Raj Sidhu,
A little while ago when you asked what we wanted to really help us, I had reflexively answered (to myself) that what I wanted was the power of some sort of “Infusionsoft-lite” within (and with the smart design of) Thrive Themes and your related tools.
Why infusionsoft-lite? 80/20 rule – give me the little bit I *really need* to automate and then let me worry about how to handle the resulting “excessive growth”…
(nice problem to have, right 🙂 )
Anyway, I thought I was being presumptuous in “dictating” your long-term development path.
Maybe not….
Hi Trevor,
I don’t think we’ll be taking it that far, to be honest. On the technical side, I’m also not sure if it’s a good idea to try and cram Infusionsoft-like functionality into a WordPress installation.
However, I can’t predict how features like this will develop in the future either, since it’s mostly a matter of how people react to the features we build, how they use them and what kind of feedback we get. Our aim is always to create the tools and features that bring the most value to the greatest number of people.
So just to clarify…..
If someone signs up to my website via thrive leads, setting this it can give me a notification via my gmail account?
Yes, exactly. 🙂
Shane,
How is the Notification Manager different or better than what I have access through Aweber?
Richard
If you’re getting notified of new leads through Aweber, then adding a notification through our notification manager will not add anything new. Not all email marketing system have the same notification capabilities, though.
Great Feature!
I would like to see an Integration to Zapier!
Perhaps it’s possible with Customs Scripts, but I’m not a developer.
Thanks, Tom
Hi Tom,
One of our users wrote a tutorial about how to create a Zapier integration. You can find it here.
Looks like this will be quite useful, especially if collecting phone numbers for a quick call back. Perhaps even integrating with Jotform and other form systems that make it easy to create custom forms to collect more information from the visitor.
Thanks for the suggestion, Mike!
Shane which software did you use to make this video? I am a thrive member and would also like to get start making video’s like these
Hi Alan,
Tools used to create our videos include Camtasia, Premiere and After Effects. We have a video guy on our team who does all the editing, animations and so on.
Yeah, I just can’t believe the number of updates with Thrive. And I love the notification inside WP…that was very clever!
Thank you very much, Susan!
Love the concept, but was surprised to see it ONLY works with thrive leads or thrive headline optimizer. Would like to see it also work with things like posts pages, etc.
Hello Joe,
Thanks for your comment!
Can you elaborate on that? What kind of notifications would you like to create, relating to posts and pages?
Not sure if it is possible but a few thoughts of other triggers that I would like to be notified of would be:
Broken Links
404 Pages
I am sure I will think of other things soon.
Thanks for the great update
Hi Michael,
Not sure about 404 pages, but broken links might be an option, if we can combine it with some crawler plugin or crawling service.
Question: How does this interact with say Mailchimp? Where I am using a Mailchimp API and getting a notification from Mailchimp already. I am assuming that I could use this instead?
If you’re already getting notified via your email marketing system, then this doesn’t add anything. Not every system has such notification features though, that’s why it’s a feature we made available through our plugins.
Excellent.
Not sure if this is possible, but to have the ability to add an Attachment (.docx, .xlsx, .pdf, etc)
Hi James,
We don’t have a feature for that yet, but it’s something we can look into.
True – here’s a support conversation I had last year with Freshmail:
Me: Where can I set a notification email when someone subscribes?
(one that I receive)
FM: …it is not possible. FreshMail does not have that technical capabilities.
Glad we can solve that problem for you now. 🙂
I’m really a fresh newbie, but you guys are incredible. I’ve got about twelve sites out there with Thrive and I’ll do more. Please forgive this sophomoric question: Can I replace Contact Form 7 with this new feature? (I need to be able to capture the lead’s information |not just that an email was captureed|and send that to two other parties).
Thank you, Lynn!
You can possibly replace Contact Form 7 with this, but it depends on your specific use. Are the leads signed up to anything after they submit your current form? Or does it only generate a notification?
this is great and i can imagine whats improvements will come in the future. great tool. thanks.
Thank you, Erez!
Awesome Again!! It would be nice if it could integrate with some social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
Thanks for your comment, Joe! Can you elaborate on what you’d like this integration to be able to do?
I just did my happy dance
Haha, happy to hear that, Sarge!
Thrive Themes are the epitome of good old-fashioned service gone ballistic. Thrive is a brilliant role model for the rest of us. Thanks, Shane and team for everything you’re doing, you guys rock!
Thank you very much, Joan!
AWESOME! Just what I needed.
Glad you like the new feature, Cole!
You could trigger a sign up to a webinar on WebinarJam.
Hi Ed,
Can you do this via custom scripts in WebinarJam?
We might have to create an API integration with them first, to make this kind of thing possible.
The feature to invoke a custom script via url will allow us to post content to third party platforms. Such as FB with “We just signed up [NAME] as a new member to [WEBSITE]! Come see what the excitement is all about!”
This feature reminds me of the popular code recipe site called “IFTTT.” It’s a great feature! Also adding a WP notification in the dashboard is almost like a Push Notification for Website Owners and Staff. This is really useful, to let us know when an action event has taken place on the site. This is a great backup when emails may not be working properly.
Also, the feature to continuously add new notifications, is like adding more IFTTT’s to the mix. I’m not sure you realize the potential for this, but it allows a website manager to create many exciting actions to take place using custom scripts in every single notification. And stack them up.
One glaring example would be for lost or abandon shopping carts. We could get instant notification via the WP Notification Feature, while sending a new email to the customer to call us right away so we can help them with what issue arises. Or ask them, “What can we do for you to move this sale forward?”
Or add a custom script when they are on the payment page and they don’t click the order button within say, two minutes. Then initiate a fade-in popup box, saying, “Enter this promo code now to receive an instant 10% off your order! Hurry, because this offer expires in the next three minutes.”
All things are possible using custom scripts when an event is triggered. So many ways to manage sales performance now! Like sending us a notice to our smart phones when sales drop below a certain level, so that Customer Service can also be notified and get into action. Or if sales surpass expectations, an automatic increase in commissions sales will occur for the entire sales team! So much we can do with this new notification feature, now that you added custom scripts to it! Very cool!
Thanks for your comment, Robert! You’ve indeed listed many ideas that I hadn’t even considered yet. We’ll have to look at what new triggers we can create, to make some of these scenarios possible. But you’re right: on the action side, having the custom script function means there’s almost no limit to what you can do.
Feature Request: SMS text notification, Phone call notification
Thanks for the suggestion, Alvin!
Another great addition from the TT Team 🙂
Head buzzing with what we could do with the custom script calls.
Now I just need to find a good coder to build them
Thanks again Thrive! You Rock!
Thank you, Martin!
Christmas!
Like Juan said, I always stop everything I’m doing to see what thrive is up to. Good job!
This may not be the right place to ask, but after seeing IglooApp (page builder), I’m curious if you are cooking up anything In TCB to enhance the animations. The animations on IglooApp blew my mind.
I’ll have a look.
I can’t say anything about animations yet, but there are big things coming to TCB in the near future…
I do not understand. Doesnt the email notification thing happen anyway with your autoresponder do this by sending a notification of new sign ups to your email address?
That depends on the service you’re using. Not every email marketing service comes with such a feature (see some of the other comments here).
I dig this a lot! Our current email program does not send notifications with each signup, but its something our clients would find very useful. One thing that would be important would be to include not only the email address, but the other details that were on the opt-in form. For some of our opt-ins, they are high value leads and I recommend our clients reach out via phone to follow-up in addition to the automated email that goes out. If their name and phone number is included in this notification from Thrive, they can get on the phone as soon as someone signs up.
Hello Zach – I agree with your point and I’ve logged a task for our developers to build shortly.
Hello, what is the WordPress notification function? What does it do? Thanks!
It literally just pops a notification bar for you IF you’re logged in to wordpress at the time the notification comes in.
It shows a default notification message within your WordPress admin dashboard. We’re working on extending and improving this notification function as well. 😉
Cool. I seem to have trouble delivering custom downloads with blog posts. The readers download them but don’t confirm my Aweber signup. Is it possible to have a trigger that will deliver a custom attachment after a reader confirms?
Hello John,
Yes, this is possible. The way to do this is to use the confirmed opt-in (or ‘double opt-in’) feature in your email marketing system. In this case, Aweber. You want to make sure that after signup, you send people to a page that explains that they need to confirm their email address. Then, you can set the confirmation email to link people to the download page of your product, after someone clicks on it.
This way, only people who click the confirmation link will receive your downloadable.
I think it would be awesome to have this integrated with the Apprentice side of things. If a user completes a course for example, sending an email to them with a certificate, or congratulation, or even a ‘what next’ type of email would be awesome.
Another trigger could be they haven’t been back for so many days, and send a reminder email.
Thanks for your suggestions, Michael!
What a great new feature. There are so many possibilities and will make it much easier to engage with new subscribers.
thanks for thinking outside the box.
David
Thank you, David! Happy to know you like this new feature. 🙂
So it doesn’t pass any lead details by default? I have to hire a developer to write a script so that the notification manager can send the information the user gave me in the form? That seems like a pretty easy set of details to include in a notification manager right? I mean otherwise you’re just notifying someone that a lead is present, as-is they still have to log in and find the details?
Hello Joe,
You can insert the
[lead_details]shortcode into the email template to pass on all the details about the lead who signed up.I tried that and this was what came through,
source: tve_lead_shortcode
source_name: Pricing Request
source_id: 805
source_form_name: Pricing Request
source_form_id: 805
It’s missing the data from the fields in the actual form. Like the persons name, email and phone number.
Hi Joe,
I see what you mean. We will be adding a feature for more field input details in the next update.
In the mean time we’d need to hire a developer to write the custom script to pull out the available fields and add them to our send grid based notification. Any idea on a timeline for implementing this feature? I’d rather not spend a few hundred bucks if the feature is already on a pending release schedule.
Thanks!
Is there a short code for name and phone number? Right now the confirmation is only delivering the email.
Fantastic! Any chance we can turn this thing into a Social Proof Monster? Like realtime notifications posted for all website visitors as leads and sales come through. And of course woocommerce support would be amazing
Hi Ralph,
Interestingly, this same question came up in the marketing team just the other day.
I agree that this is a really cool form of social proof, but I have some concerns as well. Primarily, I think it requires a very strong flow of conversions for this to work. In other words, if you aren’t getting several conversions per minute, on average, it could actually backfire. Because if you’re on a site and you almost never see one of these notifications (keep in mind that most visitors won’t stick around for more than a few minutes), it creates the impression that very few people buy or sign up, instead of the social proof effect that we’re going for.
It could also be a resource problem, but I think the main issue is: how many of our users actually have the conversion volume for this to be a useful feature?
And to put it into perspective: I wouldn’t use such a feature on the Thrive Themes website, because our conversion volume is not high enough…
Could this be used to trigger client-side scripts?
e.g. to identify the new email address to Amplitude, or to push a conversion event to Google Analytics, or fire a FB pixel?
Hi Stephen,
The notification manager is built for the admin and backend rather than the visitors and frontend. The features you suggest sound interesting, but I think they’d be in the scope of a different plugin.
This is an amazing feature!!! Definitely gonna be using it for follow ups.
Glad you like this feature!
Great
Thank you! I have done according to the instructions on the article.