In this tutorial we are going to see how to show blocked content to those who subscribe to your newsletter, bulletin, or mailing list.
don’t do it
First of all, I want to advise that if possible, do not do it. I write this tutorial because a lot of people have asked me about it, and I think it might be of interest, but I don’t consider it a good practice.
I personally believe that a mailing list should not be earned by “hiding content”. Ideally, those who subscribe do so at will, because they have genuine interest to be a part of it, and to read what you have to say.
Anything that is using contests or “lockers” like the one we will see below, may be relatively effective, but in the long term it is better to have a list of subscribers who have signed up because they like what you have, than a list of people who have signed up because it was the “procedure” to be able to see blocked content, or win a prize. The former will have much more interest, engagement and will be more sensitive to what you can tell them or offer, without a doubt.
And with that said, let’s move on to the technicalities…
Unlock content in exchange for subscribing
The concept is very simple. Have certain content restricted or blocked for everyone, and show it only to those who subscribe to your newsletter. We can do this with several plugins, but I recommend you, because it is quite light, I have tried it for some clients, and it has never given me any problems.
In addition, the operation is very simple, and it is compatible with all these mailing tools: MailChimp, Aweber, SendGrid, SendinBlue, MyMail, MailPoet, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, Acumbamail, Sendy, FreshMail, K,-news, SmartEmailing, and SG Autorepondeur . In other words, it is most likely yours.
Step 1: Configure your email service
The operation is very simple. You just have to install and activate it. Then you go to the new “Opt-in Panda” menu that will appear, and you go to “Global settings”. There you can choose your mailing tool.
In this case we have chosen Mailchimp, but you can select the one you want. Each tool has its own identification method, but they are usually credentials or an API Key, as in this case. Besides, we can also establish the following settings:
- Send “Welcome” Email: To send a welcome email
- Sender Email: The sender’s email
- Sender Name: The sender’s name
Then we click on “publish”, and we will have it ready. Our mailing service will already be configured. I personally am a huge fan of MailPoet, .
Step 2: Create a new “locker”
Surely you will only need to create one type of “locker”, but this plugin allows you to create several, in case you want to use them for several lists, several mailing services, or for any other type of commercial action.
In any case, in this tutorial we will create one. To do that, we are going to “New Locker”., and there simply fill in the basic data, it is not lost:
As you can see, they are basically certain texts that we will show to the users:
- Locker header: Header of the message that we will display
- locker message: Message telling you to subscribe
- Button text: The button to subscribe
- Afterbutton: Text that goes after the button
Below we see a preview of how our texts will look and how they correspond to those entered in the previous form.
You will have already seen that by default the form only asks for the mail. But next we have a couple more tweaks, which can tweak that. Here we have them:
In this case, the first allows us to select the type of Opt-in:
- Single: Unlock the content instantly, without confirming the email.
- Full Double Opt-In: Unlocks the content when the user confirms his email from his account by clicking on a link.
- Lazu Double Opt-In: Unlock the content instantly, and also send the confirmation email.
Regarding the “Form Fields” option, we can choose if we only ask for the email, or the email and the name. In the case that we do, our form will be like this:
And now yes, we already have everything prepared, we just have to go to our post editor and write our content. Let’s go there.
Step 3: Block the content
We can block content from anywhere: From a post, from a page, from a product… It doesn’t matter. Anywhere there is a visual editor, we can use our shortcode.
Let’s do the example in a post:
As you can see, it is very simple. The shortcode is “emaillocker”, followed by the ID of the locker we just created. To make it simpler, you just have to click on the panda symbol to display a list of lockers, and put the shortcode automatically.
If you want to use the shortcode in a widget, I recommend the del class, since by default they are not executed.
In any case, we place our restricted content between those two shortcodes and voila, we have it. If we visit the entrance, we will see the following:
Obviously, as you can imagine, the moment someone fills in their information and clicks “Subscribe”, they will have access to the desired content. Here we see it:
This access will be immediate or will require email confirmation depending on the settings you have configured in step 2. And that’s it, you already have a new subscriber.
Summary and conclusion
Opt-in lockers, or content unlockers in exchange for a subscription, are a method that allows you to release restricted content to those users who subscribe to your newsletter.
It is not a practice that I personally recommend, since I believe that users should sign up out of interest in what they can receive from your newsletter in a genuine way, but in many cases it is used.
By the way, if you want to know more about email marketing, remember that you have it at your disposal. If you subscribe you will have access to this and the rest of .
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