Product Updates

Use a Content Lock to Get More Email Subscribers

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Shane Melaugh   258

The recently released API Connections feature in Thrive Leads opens up some new possibilities for you to grow your mailing list... and the content locking short code is one of them!

Check out the video to see how the new feature works.

More...

Content Locking Example

Below, you'll find an example of a portion of the content being locked, using this new feature:

This is an example of locked content on the page. Only once you opt-in is this content revealed. However, if you reload the page or visit at a later time, you won't have to opt-in again - the content will remain unlocked for you.

Hide Multi-Media

The content lock works for all kinds of content, even with the "blur" preview mode used here. You can hide text, images, video and whatever else you want, using this feature.

The blur mode has the advantage of giving your visitors an idea of what they are missing out of. The blurred effect brings the content closer, but still keeps it out of reach. This can be an extra incentive for readers to opt in.

As you can see in the video, the content lock is easy to set up and it adds a powerful new tool for lead generation to your arsenal. While this is something that would typically be sold as a separate plugin or as a paid add-on, the content locking feature is a completely free upgrade for all Thrive Leads users and Thrive Suite customers.

It's available for you to use immediately and all you need to do is update Thrive Leads to the latest version.

API Connection Necessary

This content locking feature only works when you connect to an autoresponder via the API feature. For technical reasons, it's not possible to do the content locking with the HTML form integration.

That means that at the time of this writing, the feature works with Aweber, GetResponse, iContact, MailChimp, MailPoet, ActiveCampaign, Ontraport, Infusionsoft, GoToWebinar and the WordPress user registration.

In our previous post, we've already received a few requests for integrations with other services. If your favorite marketing system isn't supported yet, please let us know by leaving a comment below! New integrations are considered depending on demand, so the more people ask for a specific integration, the more likely it will be added in a future update to the plugin.

Update: We've since added more API connections to the plugin.  Here is the full list of API connections that we support:-

ActiveCampaign Amazon SES AWeber Campaign Monitor Constant Contact ConvertKit Drip Dropbox Everwebinar Facebook FluentCRM GetResponse Google Google Drive GoToWebinar HubSpot iContact Keap (Infusionsoft) KlickTipp MadMimi Mailchimp MailerLite MailGun MailPoet MailRelay Mandrill Ontraport Postmark reCaptcha SendFox SendGrid SendinBlue SendLane SendOwl Sendy SG Autorépondeur Slack SparkPost Twitter WebinarJam Studio WordPress Users Zapier Zoho Campaigns
Shane
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by Shane Melaugh  May 21, 2015

258

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Leave a Comment

  • Nice!

    I take it that the visitor gets cookied as soon as they opt in so they don’t have to opt in again on their next visit.

    If it is a cookie based system… I’m not sure if my next request/suggestion is even possible… but it would be great to build something where the form is smart enough to know if the person is already on your list, so that these people don’t have to re opt-in every time we use this content lock feature on other posts. Is the API integration and/or the cookie smart enough to accomplish this?

    Reply

    • I’d love for this feature to have the ability work out if someone’s already on a list and then instead of displaying an email form (as they’re already on the list) display a social lock instead (to gain more traffic)

      That would be next level stuff, and I don’t know if it’s possible at all, but just a thought 🙂

      Reply

      • You want to force someone who already IS on your email list, to engage a second time on a social channel? Sorry, I think that is annoying!

      • When it comes to content upgrades what I suggested was actually smart (and is similar to what Shane did recently – as he already has Thrive users email addresses)

      • Some readers will think that it’s annoying, yes. In fact, they will think any kind of lock or any kind of barrier (such as an opt-in) is annoying. From my testing, a share lock will annoy about 2% of visitors and it will increase social shares by about 40x. Decent trade-off, I think. 🙂

      • We are working on a feature set that will make this possible. In fact, that was the plan all along. You’ll see this taking shape with some of our upcoming releases.

    • As long as you use the same shortcode for all the posts, these people don’t have to re-optin. But if a visitor deletes the cookies in his browser, he has to re-optin.

      Reply

    • We are working on a feature set that will enable something along these lines, yes. 🙂

      Reply

  • Hi, Shane
    This is a great feature. I was scratching my head about it, well looking around, and Boom you did it. The yearly membership is very valuable. I have a question; may be I miss it, but how can I offer similar option with the share option(unlocking by clicking Tweeter or FB), like you do in few of your articles? I very like it.

    Reply

    • Hello Frederic,

      Thanks for your comment! For unlocking via social sharing, please sit tight. We’re working on something new that will be added to the Thrive Themes brand in the near future. 🙂

      Reply

      • Hi Shane,
        a Thrive Leads user here.
        Have you implemented a social locker (with the ability to share the post over fb, twitter, g+ and so on) so far?
        Thank you so much
        Matteo

      • Hi Shane,
        a Thrive Leads user here.
        Have you implemented a social locker (with the ability to share the post over fb, twitter, g+ and so on) so far?
        Thank you so much
        Matteo

  • Hey Shane,

    Will it be possible to have the two step optins work with class names soon too?

    Right now we’re limited to class names on lightboxes but what if we have more than one pop up (like lead boxes) on one page

    Reply

    • Hi Dean,

      I’m not sure I understand this request. It’s already possible to add more than one lightbox to a page, but I’m not sure how it relates to class names.

      Reply

  • I like this content locker. It would be great if it were integrated with Happy Grasshopper – a favorite system of thousands of real estate agents in the USA.

    To the other guy below, there are other FB, Twitter, etc…content locker plugins available out there.

    I just discovered ThriveThemes and routinely look at hundreds of sites and them designs. I’m very impressed at the integration of the websites, lead pages, and leads system. Nice job.

    Reply

  • Amazing, the value of the membership keeps getting better with each enhancement – thank you!

    Would love to see integration with SendReach and arpReach which both have API integration capabilities.

    Reply

  • Great Shane – just great

    I’ve been waiting for this for my podcast transcripts 🙂

    In case I missed it – is the hidden content still indexable by the search engines?

    BTW – if you guys introduced a simple gated system to charge for content in a straightforward members’ area – we wouldn’t ever need to go anywhere else 🙂

    Cheers!

    Loz

    PS – Have a look at the superb new homepage I’ve built with Thrive.

    Reply

    • Hi Loz,

      Thanks for your comment! Yes, the locked content is still indexable.

      As for the membership system: we might do that in the future, but it’s probably not going to be simple…

      Reply

  • Great Job Shane!
    That’s the benefit of being a member of thrive themes, you just keep adding value without nickel and diming us although all the enhancement are worth any thing you would charge. But I appreciate you don’t.

    Adding a smart social media share option to this would be great.

    Thanks.

    Eddy

    Reply

  • That would be great to set a cookie when the visitor opt-in so he no longer has to opt-in over and over again. I asked a very similar feature in the forum – still waiting for an answer BTW.

    I’m using a french autoresponder called SG-autorepondeur.com and I’d love to see integration with that system too.

    Reply

    • Hello Olivier,

      We’re working on a more involved “already subscribed” feature set. There’s no ETA yet, but you’ll see this feature growing in future releases of Thrive Leads.

      Reply

  • This is a very powerful audition Guys and the design wise it really unique with the transparency feature and one feature I will soon be using for sure, thanks

    Reply

  • It would be great if in order to unlock the content people would have to share it on Facebook and the post on Facebook would then send people to a landing page where they would opt in. That could grow our list even faster.

    Reply

  • Overall I like this. But there is nothing to prevent someone to enter a bogus email address. I have been looking for a solution where I offer bonus content on a per blog basis and this comes close.

    Keep up the great work

    Reply

    • Hello Cesar,

      Yes, that’s correct. This is a trade-off that there isn’t really any way around. Either you make people confirm their address, meaning you need to send them away from the page they’re looking at, or you keep them on the page but risk getting bogus emails…

      Reply

  • Hi Shane,
    Your stuff is amazing.
    I noticed there are some places where you are asking people to unlock some articles by sharing your page in FB.
    Is this feature a thrives content unlocking thing or?
    How can I get that too?
    Thanks for what you bring for the world.

    Reply

    • Hello Ioan,

      The unlocking via social sharing is something that will be coming soon to Thrive as well. 🙂

      Reply

    • I’ve noted this request for the integration. If we get enough requests for it, we’ll check it out.

      Reply

  • Keep it up–Loving the recent upgrades/updates
    Image size/mail API/ content lock–
    3 very nice and usable features all in a row.

    Reply