How to Tie a Download to Your Opt-In Form

Inbox Ideas | Email Marketing Tips by AWeber

Posted by Justin Premick

One of the questions we get a lot is about how to offer a bonus or download to people who sign up to a list.

Here’s an example from a recent support ticket:

“I have your opt-in on my page, but how do I offer a download e.g. a PDF, and then only make it available AFTER they give me their 1st name & email address in the opt-in form?”

So what’s the best way to do this?

A Common Mistake

A lot of people still put the download on their thank-you page, so that after visitors fill out the web form, they can get the file directly on that page.

One justification I hear for this is that it makes things easier on the subscriber, by immediately giving them the file, rather than them having to go check their inbox. And that’s true, it is the fastest way to get it in their hands.

But here’s the catch: if all I have to do is fill something in the form to get to the download, what’s stopping me from putting a fake address, like asdf@asdf.com?

Nothing at all. And while it may not seem like something that people do, the truth of the matter is that we see thousands of such bogus web form submissions every day.

Secure Your Download

So, you need to make sure that the people who are getting that download are actually subscribers.

On your thank-you page, instruct them to check their email and confirm their address (by clicking on the link that appears in the confirmation message).
You may want to refer to our pointers on helping subscribers verify.
Put the download on another page of your site, and redirect people there after confirming.

Include a link to that download page in your autoresponder message also, for subscribers who may have accidentally closed the download page after confirming.

Now, not only are you providing that download/bonus to subscribers, you’re ensuring that you collect a valid email address for each of them.

And you’re giving them two chances to get the download — immediately upon confirming, or from your autoresponder message. This will minimize the support time you need to spend on people who contact you asking where their download is.

Other Ideas?

How do you approach giving away bonuses or downloads to subscribers? What tactics have you found to work well?

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24 Responses

adib
January 25th, 2007 at 11:04 am

Thanks for the new feature and tip. It is much easier for visitors to download immediately after confirming rather than have to check back message sent to their e-mail.

Some of my subscribers ask where is the download even it has been sent to their inbox.
Graham
January 25th, 2007 at 1:06 pm

I’m using this strategy on my site. Once the subscriber clicks the email link to double confirm they get taken straight to the download page. I then also include the download page as a link in the first message in my autoresponder series. So the user gets two bites at the cherry.
Brian Dolezal
January 25th, 2007 at 2:35 pm

We have dozens of different attachments that we send to our newsletter subscribers, based on which page they sign up to our newsletter from.

We have an autoresponder email that is sent out to the subscriber’s email address immediately upon registration. The free attachment is included in that email. We’re currently getting 30+ new subscribers a day to our website, and have never had any questions from subscribers asking where their attachment is - so it seems to be working well. Also, this ensures the subscriber gives a valid email address if they want the freebie. The Thank-You page directs them to check their inbox for the welcome message and attachment.
Gary
January 25th, 2007 at 6:31 pm

Hi

We use verified opt-in for visitors to be able to download a trial version of our software.

We clearly state below the submission button that email verification will be required as well as having a link to our "Privacy Policy".

After filling in the opt-in they get re-directed to page explaining the verification process. This page also shows them a sample of the verification email that is being sent to them as well as who the email will be from and the subject of the email they should look out for.

Once they verify they then get re-directed to another page that thanks them for confirming their details and explains that an email with their download instructions has been sent to their email address. Again we give the subject of the email and who it is from so that they can recognise it easily.

We also follow up with an auto-responder 5 days later, just to check in that they are getting on ok with their trial.
We use this auto-responder as a second chance for them to download the free trail again by including the link for them again, incase they either didn’t receive the first email, or just hadn’t got round to downloading it.

We were a little worried about using verified opt-in to begin with, thinking that people may not bother to take such steps, but, so far, well over 95% have verified. Most of those that are not verified we can see our bogus details that people have put in any way, ie. gfgfgf@gfgf.com
Bob Tyndall
January 25th, 2007 at 8:00 pm

I’ve used this method and it works very well. Infact as soon as a subscriber uses the confiration link the download starts. It’s actually set up that way in the verified opt-in set up. There is a space there to put the download. If you use the pdf or .exe URL it will automatically start. Of course I suppose you could send them to a further advertising apage and put the link there. I like to put my ads in the thank you page.

Good ideas here.

Thanks
Scot McKay
January 26th, 2007 at 10:57 am

Interestingly enough, I find that my customer sat is higher when I offer the download immediately upon submitting the form. In my mind it all goes back to the concept of quality listbuilding vs. quantity. Those who want the information in my newsletter will be the ones who will enter a valid email.

At the present, the percentage of unverifiable emails is actually quite low. That said, I am considering adding a mini-course to add value to the autoresponder messages. Improvement is always an excellent idea.

Cheers,

Scot McKay
Bob Tyndall
January 26th, 2007 at 12:33 pm

I suppose there is no hard and fast rule. I found that if I had the download link after the sign up I was getting about 60% unverified or bad emails. Always some one wanting something for nothing:)
However, when I moved my download to after verification I have about 80% success.

Maybe it depends on what you are offering.

Bob
Dale Mercer
January 26th, 2007 at 4:43 pm

We have a couple of different sites. One being an online beauty magazine in which we put a dollar value of $87.00 per year. This adds value to what they are subscribing to. We also use free MP3 courses for download since they don’t really cost anything to produce and enable us to connect with the subscriber more than an email that they read.

Thanks Aweber for the blog and everyones great ideas,
Colin Joss
January 27th, 2007 at 9:53 am

It’s a great idea but is it acceptable to require people to give their email address after they’ve purchased your product? Do you need to make it clear before they buy that they’ll be required to provide their email address?

How about CAN-SPAM? Once I have their email address, save for keeping them up to date on any news about the product - corrections, etc. can I market to them for other products, include them in my newsletter, etc?

Colin
Gary
January 27th, 2007 at 5:35 pm

Hi Bob

You put in your post:

"It’s actually set up that way in the verified opt-in set up. There is a space there to put the download. If you use the pdf or .exe URL it will automatically start."

I take it you mean using the customized conformation page and putting the URL for the .exe or .pdf download there rather than just a "thanks-for-confirming.html"?

Not a bad idea and one that we hadn’t thought of before.

Cheers
Bob Tyndall
January 27th, 2007 at 6:16 pm

Exactly.
Where it says confirmation success page(optional) You can put a URL there to any where you want.
My pdf ebook starts to download automaticaly. They still receive the first message and the link could go in there also. In case of pop up blockers which can stop a download.

Bob
Dave Franzwa
January 29th, 2007 at 4:23 am

Bob T -

That tip comes under the "why didn’t I think of that" catagory for me too. Great tip!

And I do agree, whatever you’re offering will assuredly have an affect on your verification rate.

To all your successes,

Dave
Justin Premick
January 29th, 2007 at 10:08 am

Colin,

When selling an item and delivering it as a download, you may or may not want to employ this method. If you do employ it, I recommend explaining to the buyer what is going to happen ("in addition to this product, we’re giving you a free subscription to our newsletter!").

I’d originally written this post thinking about free downloads, such as free reports/ebooks/whitepapers, but it has practical application for paid digital products as well. Thank you for reminding us.

With respect to CAN-SPAM, I’m not an attorney. You should refer to your legal counsel regarding that.
Hairstyles Watch
February 13th, 2007 at 2:29 pm

We simply put our promised article in the autoresponder itself, so that when someone signs up, the article is immediately sent to them.
Tom Aulenbach
June 13th, 2007 at 4:22 pm

Now I have the opposite problem! When I asked the question, I had no idea what do do, much less how to do it. NOW, I have three or four. I don’t know which is worse. I guess I’m just going to have to do some testing. What do ya think? I appreciate the help. You guys are awesome.
Alan Chatting
July 28th, 2007 at 5:23 am

I’m new to email marketing and learning every day.

I’m starting to sell information products, eg reports, articles and ebooks, via an ebay shop and paypal. How can I use Aweber to deliver my goods automatically?
Jeanette Szwec
July 31st, 2007 at 8:40 am

I am new to building a website. Everyone says "I have a link and the item starts downloading immediately."
My question is HOW??
I have a pdf file and a web page. What do I need to put on that webpage that would permit a download or start an automatic download?
Thanks for any and all help.
Mark
November 13th, 2007 at 8:45 pm

Hi, regarding the article, "How to Tie a Download to Your Opt-In Form", I want to be able to do this but I don’t know how to do that.

I don’t know PHP or Javascript. But I know enough to create the files with some snippets of code and some instructions. I would also need to know where to place these files.

Thank you!
Justin Premick
November 14th, 2007 at 9:46 am

Hi Mark,

You don’t need to know PHP or JavaScript to put a signup form on your site and offer a download by email.

To do this, you would:

* create a signup form using our web form tool
* send subscribers to a page of your site with instructions on confirming their address
* send them the download link automatically upon confirming

As long as you can copy/paste the form HTML onto your page, and create a thank-you page with instructions for confirming, you can tie your downloads to your form.
Mark
November 14th, 2007 at 12:40 pm

Justin, How would I do this if I have multiple files.

my site has a external javascript file that creates a popup window that uses whateve plugin is on you computer to embed a player to play the mp3 sermon. Right now there is a link to right-click and download the mp3 for FREE.

However, I want it to create a link that they click on that takes them to a form to fill out first, then a results page (as you were saying) that will instruct them to confirm their address by going to their email address they provided on the form and after confirming it the "appropriate" download link would be provided for the original mp3 file they clicked on. I would also create a separate page to download these files also that would run the same thing. See what I’m saying? I hope I’m being clear.

My question would be since they could click on any number of files to download how does the form know which file they clicked on before sending them a confirmation email and a resulting download link??

Mark
Mark
November 14th, 2007 at 12:40 pm

Justin, How would I do this if I have multiple files.

my site has a external javascript file that creates a popup window that uses whateve plugin is on you computer to embed a player to play the mp3 sermon. Right now there is a link to right-click and download the mp3 for FREE.

However, I want it to create a link that they click on that takes them to a form to fill out first, then a results page (as you were saying) that will instruct them to confirm their address by going to their email address they provided on the form and after confirming it the "appropriate" download link would be provided for the original mp3 file they clicked on. I would also create a separate page to download these files also that would run the same thing. See what I’m saying? I hope I’m being clear.

My question would be since they could click on any number of files to download how does the form know which file they clicked on before sending them a confirmation email and a resulting download link??

Mark
Mark
November 14th, 2007 at 12:41 pm

btw, the "send them the download link automatically upon confirming" link is not working.
Want Subscribers to Confirm? Get Creative! - Email Marketing Tips on the AWeber Blog
April 21st, 2008 at 10:24 am

[…] his list with an offer of sample videos, and he requires people to confirm to get the videos (a great idea, by the way). Still, he was wondering why his confirm rate wasn’t […]
Cenay Nailor
April 24th, 2008 at 3:58 pm

This might not be the place for this question but here goes…

I would like to "attach" a PDF to the first autoresponder message I send for one of my lists, however, the size of the PDF exceeds 1 meg. Is there a way to increase the limit?

To get around this now, I have setup the confirmation URL (optional) that sends them directly to the online version of the PDF, however, I would LIKE to use that page for a one time offer and send the PDF via email.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks to any who respond.