How To Create 2-Step Opt-ins In Your Blog Posts Using Thrive Leads
I recently set up a 2-step optin on one of my blog posts which is converting at 11%. Here’s exactly how to set it up.
In one of my recent posts where I talked about The Redwood Strategy, I included a content upgrade that people can opt-in for. But, I set it up as a two-step opt-in.
The result after only a few days is that the post is getting a 11.07% conversion rate.
These kinds of opt-in forms usually convert better because it is more intent-driven. When people see an email opt-in upfront, it feels like more of a “take”. People don’t tend to act as readily on them. But, if all they see there is a button, it is seen more as a “get” than a “take”. But, by the time they’ve clicked on it, they’ve decided they do actually want it. Therefore the actual conversion rate on the opt-in will be higher.
Now, the day after I published that post, I had one of my Lab members inside the Lab Community Forums ask me how I built that. She has a copy of Thrive Leads, but was still wondering if I had custom coded that opt-in form.
The answer is…. nope. No custom coding required.
It is super easy to do using the Thrive Leads plug-in, but perhaps it isn’t super clear the capability is there.
Here’s a quick rundown on how to do it…
Thrive Leads has what is called “states”.

These states reflect different versions of the same form. The Default State is the version of the form people will see when the page first loads up. Then, you can pull up the other states based on actions the person takes.
So, let’s look at my Default State…

State one then looks like this…

Now, on that button in the default state, you pull up the “Event Manager”. You’re going to create an event which triggers when they click the button. The action performed will be to switch state to state 1.

That’s about all there is to it.
By using States inside of Thrive Leads, you can create multi-step forms anyplace you like on your site. You can even create forms where the person can choose what they’re most interested in, then pull up a different state depending on their choice. One form can then offer different lead magnets. That’s email segmentation on steroids!
I am a HUGE fan of the Thrive Themes suite of tools. I think it is the biggest “bang for your buck” toolset available for any online business which uses Wordpress.
I highly recommend the Thrive Suite to access all of their tools, but what I’ve shown you here is just a section of Thrive Leads. For this – and many other reasons – this is why Thrive Leads is most definitely the opt-in plug-in I recommend for all of my readers using Wordpress.
I’ve tried the major contenders out there and just don’t like them as much.
The event manager is gone now in my version…Thrive has changed so many things 🙁
I’ve always wondered how to do that! This was great. I just set one up and am adding it to several blog posts. Thanks!
Hey, David. What happens after the visitor fills in their email address and clicks the send button? What email service is it integrated with, and how does Thrive Leads (1) add them to a list you specify and (2) send out the email with the resource they requested?
Perhaps I should make another video?
Thrive Leads can integrate with most email services. I happen to use Drip, but you can use anything else. When you set up the form, you just tell Thrive where to send it. And then the lead magnet is sent to them via email.
how do we enter raw html into your comment box?
Not sure if you can, actually. Just paste it? No need for shortcode.
Hi David – I don’t have Thrive leads 🙂 I work with aweber forms. I code them myself. I don’t use aweber’s form creator. You mention:
> You can even create forms where the person can choose what they’re most interested in, then pull up a different state depending on their choice. One form can then offer different lead magnets.
Is this radio buttons? Or different submit buttons? Do you know if the state they pull up can be tagged with aweber’s new tag feature for campaigns, where the tag tells aweber which autoresponse to send for that form. You add this to the form, below the submit button:
[code][/code]
For it to work, each state would need its own unique subscribe form — each one tagged differently — and then all forms can link to the same list or to different lists, because that’s a different input in aweber’s form:
[code][/code]
The nice thing about campaigns is that you don’t need multiple lists any more, when you want to send different autoresponses for different lead magnets that were subscribed to.
You seriously need to get Thrive Leads, then. You’re doing things the dinosaur way at the moment. 🙂
And, no, no radio buttons involved. It is all about button events, as shown in this post. Your default state would have 2 or 3 buttons, for different interests. Each button is assigned to switch to a different state when clicked. Each state then has it’s own opt-in code, which puts them into whatever list segment you want.