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Master Playbook: Email Opt In Funnel

An opt-in funnel is how you grow your list by offering something free — a recipe book, a guide, a checklist — in exchange for someone's name and email.

It's made up of three parts: a form, a funnel page, and an automation that delivers your freebie and nurtures the new subscriber afterwards.

Step 1: Create Your Opt-In Form

Head to Websites and Funnels. You'll find a set of template forms already created for you.

  1. Find the opt-in form template and click the three dots, then Duplicate. Always duplicate rather than edit the original — this keeps a clean master copy for every new opt-in you create.

  2. Move your new form out of the templates folder. Click the three dots again, choose Move to Folder, and send it to the root folder so it's easy to find later.

  3. Open your new form to start customising it:

    1. To remove the drop shadow, go to Styles and Options > Advanced, turn off the border, and zero out the shadow.

    2. Edit any of the field labels, or remove fields you don't need (for example, if you don't want to collect a last name).

    3. Add extra fields if your opt-in needs them.

    4. Link your privacy policy, and remove the Terms of Service field if it doesn't apply to you.

    5. Click Save.

      💡 Tip: This form has a transparent background, which means you can place it on a funnel page (what this guide covers) or embed it on an externally hosted website. To embed it elsewhere, come back into the form, choose Integrate > Inline, then Get Embed Code, and paste that code into an HTML block on your site.

      💡 Tip: You can turn on notifications to be told every time someone downloads your opt-in. If you're expecting a lot of sign-ups, skip this — it'll just clutter your inbox.

Step 2: Build Your Funnel Page.

Head back to Websites and Funnels and this time you'll be creating the funnel itself.

  1. Find a funnel template that matches your brand's style — there are a few layout options to choose from, including ones aligned with existing website templates.

  2. Duplicate (labelled Clone) the opt-in funnel template, then rename it to match your funnel.

  3. Move it back to the main folder to keep things tidy.
    ​
    💡 Tip: Don't worry if the template's colours and fonts don't match your brand yet — that's easy to change. Focus on choosing the layout you like; the styling comes next.

    Your funnel will already have two pages set up for you: the opt-in page and the confirmation page.

    Editing the opt-in page

    1. Open the opt-in page and scroll to the form section.

    2. Choose the form you just created in Step 1 from the dropdown — it should appear as an option once selected.

    3. Go through the page and update the copy. The placeholder text is written as swipe copy, so you can either replace the bracketed sections with your own details or rewrite the copy entirely. It's laid out in the order we recommend strategically for an opt-in page.

    4. As you edit:

      1. Hovering over a section and seeing it turn green means you can delete that whole section.

      2. A photo block showing orange means you can click in to swap the image.

      3. Some images are set as a background of a column (they'll resize with the column width), while others are set as a standalone image block (they'll size to match the image file itself, so a portrait image will run the full height of the block). Keep this in mind when swapping photos.

      4. Check your buttons — they should already be set to scroll up to the sign-up form, but it's worth confirming.

      5. Margins and padding have already been set up for you throughout the template, so you shouldn't need to adjust those.

Step 3: Set Up the Delivery & Nurture Automation

This is the workflow that actually sends your freebie and follows up afterwards.

  1. Head to Automation > Workflows.

  2. Find the Nurture Email Workflow template and duplicate it — again, this keeps a clean master version.

  3. Rename it, then click the title to open it.

Set the trigger to Form Submitted, and filter it to your specific opt-in form (for example: Form is [Your Opt-In Form Name]). This means the workflow only fires when someone fills in that particular form.

💡 Tip: If your opt-in is on a specific topic, add a tag related to it at this trigger step (or several tags). This lets you run focused, targeted email campaigns to just that group later on.

The delivery email

This is the first email in the sequence — the one that actually delivers your freebie.

Swipe copy is already written for you, but feel free to replace all of it

Click the three dots on the email step and choose Edit Design

Customise the colours, copywriting, and images — you could even include a mock-up image of your opt-in file.

Add the link to your freebie as a button.

⚠️ Warning: Host your freebie on Google Drive (or similar cloud storage) and link to it — don't attach the file directly to the email. Attachments can get your email marked as spam, and a linked file loads faster for your subscriber. Set the file's sharing permission to view-only so people can access and download it from the link.

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