Today, we are introducing the most important new feature addition to Thrive Leads since we first launched the plugin. In fact, the feature we're presenting today will change the way you approach list-building and open up new ways for you to interact with your audience and monetize your website.
Watch the video to see this new SmartLinks feature in action.​
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How You Can Profit from Building a "Smarter" Website
The SmartLinks feature is simple to use, but it opens up more possibilities than we can cover in a short video. We want to show you how you can get the most out of this feature, whether you're a blogger, and affiliate marketer, a vendor or running any other kind of online business.
Because of that, held a live training webinar where we uncovered everything about SmartLinks, including step-by-step examples you can apply to your own site. You can access the recording of this training webinar below:
Get Access to the SmartLinks Training:
Get More Leads, Make More Sales & Treat Your Loyal Fans Like Royalty!
Click the button below to see the training, including 5 copy-ready examples for your online business:
Is your head spinning with ideas for how you can use this amazing feature? Do you have any questions about it? Let us know by leaving a comment!​
This is a really amazing upgrade lads – nothing short of epic!
Can’t wait to het this implemented 🙂
Thank you, Nick!
This is great. It would be great if you can make it not only based on email clicks but also cookie users, just like retargeting does and be able to show content based on previous actions.
It does cookie users. 🙂
You can simple use the smartlink to go to your thank you page for the double optin procedure. Then they are taged and profit from this feature 🙂
It looks stunning! A question that comes to mind though is: will Google pick up such ‘subscribers-links’? So, when people stumble on my site through Google, could that accidentally be a ‘subscribers-link’?
No, that won’t happen.
Interesting concept but I don’t know how well it works in practice without clearly identifying the visitor – if I visit your website the next time maybe from a different device I don’t have access to the special link you’re sending out I will still see the default opt-in stuff
Your website will remember which visitors have been marked as subscribers. If you send emails regularly and always use SmartLinks, over time, your subscribers will be recognized as subscribers on all the browsers and devices they use.
Also, keep in mind that the worst-case-scenario of using SmartLinks is the default scenario on pretty much every website, at the moment. 😉
Denis P
“You can simple use the smartlink to go to your thank you page for the double optin procedure. Then they are taged and profit from this feature :)”
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I would like to confirm this from Shane. Can I do like Denis P and place the smartlink in the douple opt in button and then all new subscribers would be identified as subscrubers no matter where they entered my website from in the future?
Technically that is possible, yes. You have to check with your autoresponder, if it lets you add a custom link in the opt-in confirmation message and if it lets you add personalization tags. You need to be able to insert the subscriber’s email address in the link.
Ok Thanks!
Maby folks at ActiveCampaign could help me if I use it?
This feature shows lots of promise…very exciting! One thing I’m curious about, though– what happens when a subscriber shares the SmartLink on social media? Will the new visitors simply not see the alternate content because they’ll be uncookied?
Yes, that could happen. It would require that the subscriber copies the link from the URL bar and shares it manually, though. If they use social sharing buttons on your site, this won’t be an issue.
That Is very very cool, you keep coming up with great idea’s and products, its very impressive. thanks Shane.
Thank you, Rico!
Also…what happens when someone unsubscribes and they’re still cookied to receive alternate optin forms? They’ll presumably be able to take advantage of any subscriber bonuses/discounts, which isn’t such a great thing. But then again, I suppose a discounted sale is better than no sale, right? 🙂
An unsubscribed visitor will not be recognized as such if they are still cookied from a previous click on an email link.
This is a case where you have to ask yourself what your business goals are: is it more important for you to provide your active and engaged subscribers with more relevant offers and a better experience on your website or is it more important to ensure that people who subscribed and later unsubscribed DON’T see the offers you want to present to your subscribers.
You also have to keep in mind that not using SmartLinks isn’t a solution to this problem either. If you create an offer for your subscribers and put it on a landing page, it’s also possible for someone to unsubscribe and then go to the page and get the offer…
This has great possibilities, Shane! I’ve always been aggravated at website that continue to throw optin forms in my face, long after I’ve already signed up. What happens, though, if a subscriber forwards an email to a non-subscriber friend, who then clicks on the link? (admittedly, not a huge issue)
P.S. I don’t get anywhere when I try clicking on the link for the webinar.
Hello Debra,
The SmartLinks can be shared such as through forwarded emails, yes. There’s no way of recognizing that the wrong person clicked on the link, but it’s a rare case for that to happen.
Hi Shane,
You could create two conditional rules:
#1 – STRAYS: If an IP is only logged once in X days, remove it.
#2 – BLITZ: If Y IPs access a link within a Z time period, remove any that are new.
Love this update BTW. Freakin’ fantastic as always!
I believe we’re overthinking it at this stage. If you set up rules like that, how often would they apply? And how often would it not be a false positive?
We’re talking about an extreme edge case, here. From my perspective, pouring development time into this is not nearly as useful as investing that same time into the other products we have on our roadmap.
I love it. Please keep it up. I doubt there is a better product anywhere on the internet in pure ROI value than thrivethemes.
Jesse Gilbert
Thank you very much, Jesse!
Genius! A ton of ideas rolling to utilize this feature. Keep up the good work (Y).
Glad you like the feature, Karim!
This is crazy man, awesome feature! Thanks for continuing to push the envelope!!
Thanks, Colin! Glad you see the value in this. 🙂
Quite impressive Shane (as always!) I’m curious as to why you’re not using two-step opt ins for your example. Your training, features and generosity rock! Blessings. MamaRed
Thank you!
I’m not using 2-step opt-ins in the examples because it’s a myth that they always work better and by using 1-step forms in some videos, maybe I can at least get some people to question the myth. 😉
As always a great new addition to the Thrive arsenal… 🙂 This has so many uses it has my head spinning. No wonder Thrive Themes is my weapon of choice for site cretion thes days. Thanks Shane. – BTW, the webinar register button is not working (maybe it’s a Firefox error) but It won’t let me sign up…
Thank you, Steve! I feel the same way about SmartLinks… so many ways in which I’ll use this!
Great new feature! Would love to register for the training, but the button doesn’t appear to go anywhere but back to this page… 😉
Sorry about the button issue, Lisa. I can’t reproduce the problem, but I’m working on fixing it.
Addendum to first post: If people have subscribed from/to different offers (whether a sidebar one or a content upgrade), what about this who didn’t “see” a specific offer before. Make sense?
You can use SmartLinks to apply to all your forms or only forms of a specific lead group, so you can tailor it very precisely.
Shane,
You guys rock. It is a treat to see you unfold more features and benefits to your products on a weekly basis. Gives me the impression you are interested in helping us succeed.
Thanks
Thank you, Ron!
The webinar link is not working…
Other than that…looks like a great addition and
smart too…!!
Thanks Shane
Thanks, Tom! The link has been fixed, btw.
I was hoping you would do something along these lines but I didn’t think it would be this good. An exciting new addition.
By the way, I tried to sign up for the webinar but when I clicked the button, nothing happened.
Regards,
Carthage
Thanks for your comment! We aim to over-deliver. 🙂
Sorry about the webinar issue. We’re working on fixing that.
KICK ASS
Word!
I saw this earlier today when looking for a welcome mat option…. which Thrive Leads does…. then your email arrived highlighting the video! Awesome and soooo powerful. No blog should be without it!
I am letting everyone know….
Thanks, Mark!
I am so grateful I became a member recently. The value you provide is so rich… Not to mention, the level of “out of the box” thinking that is purpose-driven just can’t be beat!
Great feature. Looking forward to learning more and tearing it up. Looks so simple to utilize . Thanks team!
Tera Greene
Thank you very much, Tera!
Hi Shane,
Brilliant new feature we have here, as Master Yoda would say :). Thank you for not stopping offering us more and more value, day after day.
I tried to sign up for the webinar, but it didn’t work for me in Firefox. It worked in Chrome, though.
Thank you, Emil!
Good stuff Shane! You disrupt the opt-in scene like a legend!
Thank you, Jake! That’s a slogan-worthy comment. 🙂
Looks great! One question springs to mind though – how does this handle duplicate content issues?
Hello Alasdair,
Well, this is exactly the thing: you don’t need multiple copies of the same piece of content. In other words, when you use this there is no duplicate content to deal with. You have people all looking at the same page, same URL, but depending on whether they are a subscriber or not, certain elements on the page will be different.
Wow, Guys, this really is brilliant! Not only is it ultra smart it is so easy to implement. Every time you add a new feature I’m amazed at the real world value it adds to an already outstanding product range. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mark!
I love how you guys think and this is a brilliant innovation. Now we can separate the two functions of list building and content delivery, and the special subscriber content is brilliant for building community and stepping people through a sequence. Unfortunately right now the orange button seems to go to this same page, not a webinar sign-up page.
Thank you very much for your comment, Daimon! Sorry about the link issue, we’ve fixed that now.
Shane, you are great ! Thanks for your focus on constantly adding value to your products.
That’s what we do. :
Thanks for your comment!
Great feature 🙂
Will submitting a form also cookie an “already subscribed” state?
Yep. 🙂
Absolutely marvellous Shane ! Please could you send me a link to register for the webinar because the link does not seem to be working. Thank you.
Thank you, Alex! We’ve fixed the issue there was with the button. Sorry about that.
Awesome feature Shane. I’d love to see some live examples though hopefully in the webinar. Is it me or the register button doesn’t work? 🙂
Thank you, Pascal! Please try again, the button should be working now.
Awesome idea. I can see how this could turn a subscriber into a customer pretty quickly. But will this require the creation of a new (duplicate) web page, stripped of the old opt-in elements?
Hello Moe,
That’s the thing: you don’t have to create anything duplicate. All you do is create a new “already subscribed” state for your opt-in forms and send the SmartLink to your list. It’s all on the same post or page, just that different visitors will see different things.
Shane, this is brilliant!!!!!!!!!
Yes, I’m happy you agree. 😀
Love it! Another slice of Thrive awesome-ness…
One question – can you stick it in the UTM builder and it still works..?
And if that smart-UTM link then goes into InfusionSoft… adding more tracking… will that have a significant ‘time-lag’…? OK, that’s 2 questions… :/
Hi Joel,
Yes, you can use this with UTM tracking links (that’s how I use it) and no, it doesn’t add any delay to the loading time.
In one word: “Brilliant”
This really opens possibilities to optimise the “real-estate” and value on the pages. Happy to be a member Shane.
Thank you, David!
This is an awesome feature and I’m so happy you’ve integrated it into Thrive Leads. 🙂
Is it possible that the “already subscribed” state could be used to ask a subscriber to provide further information about themselves? (ie. Enter your mailing address for an additional free gift)?
Hello Paul,
Yes, this is possible, but it depends on your autoresponder or CRM setup. And you’d have to ask for the email address again to identify the new information with the existing subscriber. With SmartLinks, your website can recognize that a visitor is a subscriber, but not which specific subscriber it is.
great stuff as always!
Thank you, Matthias!
Awesome features, nice work Shane.
Thank you, Barry!
You guy’s ARE sticking your heads above the crowds – and it’s really making a difference.
Nice One – Keep Going
Thanks for your comment, Tony!
This is indeed a game changer. Just in time too – I am building a Udemy type website and this will come in very handy. Awesome work!
Thank you, Juan!