Should PDF files, videos, or link collections only be displayed as a „thank you“ or „consideration“ after contact details have been entered? WordPress offers various plugins and functions for so-called gated content, i.e., protected content, without password protection. In this article, we show the best solutions for a Gated Content Locker with Opt-In as a social and lead variant. This is not about password protection!
Lead Generation with WordPress Gated Content = Protected Content with Opt-In Content Locker
WordPress plugins for implementing a Content Locker with Opt-In can be a very effective tool to make your WordPress website successful. With these plugins, you can hide part of your content and make it available when your users support you with pre-set actions.
You can also drastically increase your social engagement, which will bring your website a good amount of traffic and a high ranking in search results, OR you may simply want to collect names and email addresses for lead generation.
If you create high-quality and valuable content on your website, users will become curious and won’t be able to resist helping you get another social share or a subscription to your email list (depending on the type of action you set).
There are some high-quality WordPress plugins for content lockers (Gated Content), but you need to choose the best one to make it look professional and user-friendly. In this post, we have compiled some of the best plugins for Social & Gated Content Locker that can help you get tons of traffic from social media websites.
Attention: All plugins do not create a user account or similar and are not membership plugins! This has a huge advantage!
Note: Please observe the coupling prohibition of the GDPR.
There are countless plugin solutions, but we have selected the best ones and tested them as a WordPress agency with over 10 years of experience in online marketing.
The best Gated Unlock Opt In Content Locker WordPress Plugin*
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The easiest way to organically convert your visitors, prospects, and potential customers into subscribers & leads by locking (protecting) certain content on your website without a password but requesting something in return by entering contact details.
As the name suggests, Subscribe to Unlock is a premium WordPress plugin that allows prospects to be quickly and easily captured as leads (subscribers) directly from your WordPress site by simply locking certain content on your site until users subscribe to your site. You can even lock the entire page with a popup or give users a countdown until they can view the content without subscribing.
You can create unlimited locker forms, choose an impressive layout from our 10 beautifully pre-made templates, connect the forms directly with popular third-party subscription services like Mailchimp and Constant Contact,export subscribers, and much more. With this plugin, you are only a few seconds away from collecting subscribers from your WordPress site, as creating and integrating a subscription form into any site is so easy with our plugin.
There is also a simple export function to send and import the data to ALL email marketing services.
Visually, the Content Locker Plugin for lead generation is an absolute highlight!
A data protection compliant and secure double opt-in is also possible!
And this is how easy it is to protect content with the Content Locker for WordPress:
Unlocking to access the content is just as easy:
All features as a list:
- Unlimited Locker Forms – Create as many lockers with different restrictions and different locker content on each form
- 10 Pre-Built Locker Form Templates – Choose from pre-built beautiful templates without the need to design the forms
- Initiative Lock Mechanism – Lock your content directly with the built-in lock icon available in the editor
- Popup Page Locker – Displays the locker form as a popup that locks the entire page
- Popup Page Locker with Countdown – Display a countdown timer in your popup content locker to make the locker more interesting
- Two Locker Modes – Hard and Soft Lock – Display content either blurred or completely hidden. The choice is yours!
- Two Available Email Verification Methods – Link or Unlock Code – You can activate either link verification or unlock code verification, which immediately unlocks the content
- Mailchimp and Constant Contact Integrated – If you want to store your subscribers directly in your Mailchimp or Constant Contact account, you can do so!
- Built-in Form Style Customizer – If you want to give the form your own styling, we have an interactive built-in form styler
- Email Configurations – You can customize the email sent directly from the backend to users
- Activate/Deactivate all form components – If you want to activate or deactivate some form components, you can do it!
- Ajax form submission – All our forms are Ajax- driven, so submission is very fast and the page does not reload with every form submission
- Subscribers CSV Export – If you want to export your subscribers, it's just a few clicks away.
- Preview of the Backend Form – Check how the form looks before implementing it directly from the backend on your site
- All device friendliness and browser compatibility – Our forms work on all devices and in all browsers
- Developer Documentation Available – If you are a developer and want to extend features for the plugin, you can use the available filters and actions
- Dedicated Support – We value our customers more than our products, so our qualified support team is always there for you.
- Translation Ready – If you want to translate our plugin into your language, you can do so!
Bestselling Social Locker for WordPress*
Do you continue to place social buttons on every page of your website, but visitors don’t like/share your content as often as you’d like?
You should give people a reason why they need to click on social buttons on your website. Even if people really like your content, your website, or your fan page, they don't click on the buttons because they don't care about you, your benefits, or your traffic.
People need something special to pique their interest and motivate them to act.
Ask people to „pay“ with a like/tweet/+1 to get access to your content, get a discount, download something, read the end of your article, watch a video, or view a funny image. And social buttons will start working as they should!
Social Locker is a WP plugin that locks your most valuable website content behind a set of social buttons until the visitor likes, shares, +1s, or tweets your page. It helps to improve your website’s social performance, get more likes/shares, build high-quality followers, and attract more traffic from social networks.
How does the Social Locker work with the WordPress Plugin?
All you have to do is select the part of your content you want to lock, click a button, and you’re done.
This way, you can use articles, videos, audio, images, download links, coupon codes, or anything else you can think of as an incentive for others to give you likes or shares.
1. Promote Social Traffic: Social Locker systematically adds viral traffic to your website, opt-in funnel, or sales page. When users share or tweet your page to get access to the content you’ve locked, their friends see it, and some of them visit your website. This will repeat again and again.
2. Build High-Quality Fans and Followers: Every blogger and internet entrepreneur knows how difficult it is to find fans and followers, especially for new websites with a small budget.
Let every visitor to your website follow you. Stay in touch with your audience and build loyalty. Simply lock some valuable content and tell visitors that the locked content is only available to your fans and followers.
3. Improve SEO Ranking: Google’s search algorithm considers over 200 factors when determining which results to display for a search query and in what order. Social media is one of the most important factors in their algorithm and has a significant impact on how a website is ranked in a search.
Results in the top positions of organic search results show a high number of likes, shares, +1s, and tweets. The better your social media performance, the better your SEO results.
Use all common social networks
The plugin offers 8 social buttons for all major social networks in the same interface: Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, YouTube (Pinterest, Instagram coming soon). You can use them together or separately for custom results. Each button has individual settings.
Example: You can set up the locker to use three social buttons (Like, Tweet, +1) to get tweets for your promo page, likes for your Facebook page, and +1 for a homepage of your website.
Sign-in buttons: Convert visitors into leads, gain more customers
Collect emails from visitors, grow your subscription lists, automatically register users on your website, and do even more with the powerful new sign-in buttons.
These buttons have been available in Social Locker alongside the classic „Like“ and „Share“ buttons since version 4.
Instead of liking/sharing, they ask the user to sign in via social networks to access your locked content.
Collect emails and names of visitors who have unlocked your website’s content (including the link to their social profiles).
Export collected emails in CSV format to your preferred mailing service (MailChimp, Aweber, GetResponse, MyMail, and others).
Perform multiple actions per clickandautomatically create accounts for logged-in users on your website.
For example, the user simultaneously tweets, follows you, provides their email address, and creates an account on your website with just a few clicks to unlock the content.
Blur, make transparent, or completely hide content
Create interest in your content through overlay effects. With the plugin, you can choose how the locked content should be displayed: completely hidden or partially visible (transparent or blurred).
When we tested this feature on some of our clients‘ websites, we were thrilled with how it captures the attention of a large number of visitors. When people see and understand what they get after unlocking, the plugin works more effectively.
Track your results with integrated advanced analytics
The Social Locker plugin includes integrated, advanced analytics tools that allow you to track how users interact with the lockers. Easily identify which lockers on which pages outperform others, how to optimize your lockers, and what you can do differently to improve your results.
Google Analytics (new!): The Social Locker plugin supports integration with Google Analytics. You can view the Social Locker data directly in your Google Analytics account and compare it with other metrics.
Eye-catching styles and effects
The plugin includes a range of impressive, polished styles that generate interest and attract attention. They are beautifully animated and do not appear intrusive.
Furthermore, we constantly receive feedback from our customers that the Social Locker placed on a page actually reduces the bounce rate of that page.
What this means: With Social Locker, people stay on your page longer. Social Locker captures visitors‘ attention, and they spend more time learning about the content you have locked.
Fantastic Customizability
Of course, every website has its own audience. We know that a good business is an agile business. The Social Locker offers 8 additional options that allow you to flexibly adapt the lockers to your needs.
And even more powerful features…
- SEO friendly. Your locked content remains visible to search bots by default for better search engine optimization. Of course, you can disable this feature.
- 4 types of locks. Lock content manually via shortcodes or set up batch locking using one of three powerful modes („Skip and Lock“, „More Tag“, „CSS Selector“).
- Optimized for mobile devices. We have adapted the plugin for mobile devices. Mobile users can access your locked content just like desktop users.
- Intelligent Targeting. Set your lockers to appear on specific high-traffic pages of your website. Show the locker only to unregistered visitors or PC users.
- Professional Themes. Need to get started quickly? Just choose one of 5 themes and customize it, it’s simple and straightforward!
- GDPR-ready. Social Locker is fully GDPR-ready. Simply enable the Consent Checkbox option in your locker settings (required if you are using a sign-up locker).
- Zapier Integration. Send data collected with your lockers to Zapier and then automatically forward it to thousands of web apps supported by Zapier.
- Delayed Content. Load your locked content via Ajax (dynamically) only when the user has liked or shared your page. Perfect for loading promo codes.
- Fast Loading. The plugin is well optimized and does not add any additional load to your website. Confirmed with tests from the P3 plugin and New Relic.
- Developer friendly. Use the plugin events (Unlock, Lock, Ready) and hooks to customize and create your own extensions.
Below is an alternative with integration into the Wp Bakery Visual Composer:
WordPress Social Locker & Share Pro Plugin*
Social Share & Locker Pro is by far the best social sharing plugin for WordPress. It was built to cover all needs and bring more shares to your website.
With an integrated Social Locker module, the Social Network brings greater visibility and viral visitors.
There is no other sharing plugin that offers the depth of options you get from this one. Multiple sharing buttons, different showcases, follower buttons, social content locker. If you need help, the support team is ready to answer all your questions.
Social Networks for Sharing
Social Share & Locker is the only plugin on the market where the share buttons actually work very well. There are 60 sharing options: Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Vkontakte, DiggDigg, Stumbleupon, Tumblr, Reddit, Delicious, Weibo, Xing, Print Friendly, Email Sharing, Odnoklassniki, WhatsApp, Bufferapp, Mail.ru, Meneame, Evernote, GetPocket, Flattr, ManageWP, MySpace, Yahoo Mail, GMail, HackerNews, Blogger, Amazon, Newsvine, Viadeo, DOUBAN, Baidu, Identi.ca, Yammer, SMS, Viber, Telegram, Comments, Love This, AOL, Flipboard, Send Email
You can control how your share buttons are displayed by using a specific template in a horizontal/vertical position with or without network names or social count.
Do you want to convert your visitors into leads?
Simply set the Smart Targeting Locker Options
- Registered Users – Based on user status (logged in or not logged in) the social locker can be shown/hidden
- User has Commented – If the current user is logged in, the locker can be shown or hidden based on their comments (whether they have commented or not).
- User Roles – Show/hide the locker based on user WP roles
- Visits only from specific Refs – such as Google, Yahoo, Big or even custom Refs
- Mobile Devices – The social locker can be hidden if your page is visited from a smartphone or tablet.
SOCIAL SHARE & LOCKER
Social Share & Locker Pro The WordPress plugin is the ultimate social plugin to help all customers gain better visibility on social networks. It is not just a simple social plugin, but the plugin that covers all needs and wishes. With just a few clicks, you can place your social icons exactly where you want them or lock your content to request a share on one of the available social networks.
The WordPress plugin for Social Share & Locker Pro is very easy to use, and the numbers provided are the actual number of shares. The social plugin checks with the social networks included in the plugin to get the exact number of shares for your page, no less, no more.
Social Network Included
We have focused on the most important social networks used worldwide. 38 social networks are available:
- Google Plus
- Vkontakte
- DiggDigg
- StumbleUpon
- Tumblr
- Delicious
- Print Friendly
- Email Sharing
- Odnoklassniki
- Bufferapp
- Mail.ru
- Meneame
- Evernote
- GetPocket
- Flattr
- ManageWP
- My Place
- Yahoo Mail
- GMail
- HackerNews
- Blogger
- Amazon
- Newsvine
- Viadeo
- DOUBAN
- Baidu
- Identi.ca
- Yammer
- SMS
- Viber
- Telegram
- Remarks
- I love this
- AOL
- Send email
Social Share Themes
It includes 10 predefined themes that should cover the most common needs. All social themes are Retina-ready and built with CSS3 and the best fonts in the world.
Social Share Full Name
With the Social Share & Locker plugin, you can display the full name of the social networks or just the social icon. Depending on your design, available space, or preferences, you can enable/disable the full social share name with just one click.
Social Share Counters
You decide whether to display the counters or not. The social plugin updates the counters as needed when someone tries to share the page and updates the number of shares with each page refresh to ensure whether the page has been shared or not. Even if the user has shared the page and then deleted the share post, the plugin no longer counts it. All share counters are realistic.
Social Locker
This special section is the „cherry on top“ of the plugin. In addition to the Sharing Showcase, the Social Share & Locker plugin also allows you to increase your social visibility by blocking important content. Users must share your page to receive this new content. The locked content can be a download button, a paragraph of text, a video, or an image gallery.
Email Sharing
For your visitors who do not want to or cannot share on a social network, they can now still share your page with friends using the email sharing feature. The Social Share & Locker includes a predefined sharing popup where visitors can send emails with custom content to their friends. All predefined content of this popup can be easily changed via the plugin dashboard.
Compatibility
We have developed this great plugin to be compatible with multiple platforms in WordPress. The most common ones have been tested and Social Share & Locker is ready to use.
- WooCommerce
- JigoShop
- BuddyPress
Wp Bakery Visual Composer Integration
The Visual Composer plugin is the most powerful and widely used page builder for WordPress. We have developed a special module for Social Share & Locker that can be integrated directly into Visual Composer.
You can add your custom social icons to your page content in seconds using the page builder. With just a few clicks, your social icons will be integrated.
Social Locker has a special module that allows any row to become locked content. Therefore, any content set in the Visual Composer row (text, video, images, tabs, prices, buttons) can now be locked very easily, and you can request a share action to display it. All Social Locker features can also be found in the „Row“ settings of Visual Composer.
Social Share Display
You can display the „Social Networks“ field in multiple places and in different ways:
- Website Display – The social icons can be displayed and positioned relative to the entire website window. Can be set without restriction at the top or bottom, left or right based on specific pixels or percentages. The Social Box can float with the entire content window.
- Content Display – The „Social Icons“ field can be linked to the content area. Can be set in many ways and aligned vertically or horizontally. Top Content Bottom Content Custom Position Top / Bottom or Absolute Position Left / Right
- ShortCode Display – You can create your own ShortCode with a few clicks and place it anywhere on the website. All functions and options are also available.
Other Features
- Fast loading of social buttons
- Responsive social themes
- CSS3 Hover Effects
- Custom Box Position
- Display Based on Page Type
- 2 Social Buttons Type Align (Horizontal / Vertical)
- Social Share ShortCode Generator
- Social Locker ShortCode Generator
- Realistic Share Counts
- Visual Composer Integration
- Passion and Soul
- Great Support
Fragen oder Hilfe für den WordPress Social- oder Gated Content Locker?
E-Mail: fi@vastcob.com
Florian Ibe
DE
