You’re ready to start collecting emails and start growing your email list. You’ve signed up for Convertkit and have created your opt-in (aka freebie or lead magnet), but now you’re wondering how in the world to actually get the form onto your site so your readers can sign-up when they visit your site.
In this article, I’m going to walk you through how to put your Convertkit opt-in form onto your site. 
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Overall Process
Through talking with my clients and the women in my Facebook group, I’ve realized how important it is as your starting your business to explain the overall process of each concept first so you can understand what you’re aiming for when you’re completing each step. It just makes it easier to get a good birds eye view of what you’re creating.
Overall, you want visitors to your site to be able to sign up and receive your freebie/opt-in so they are now on your email list. That’s the overall goal.
To make that happen, you have to first create the opt-in (Canva for PDFs), provide a way for them to sign up on your site (Convertkit opt-in form embedded on your site), and then make sure they actually receive it (attached to the form in Convertkit OR send via email).
Now, let’s walk through how to actually set it up.
What you need
Before you can offer an opt-in freebie to your readers, you need a few things in place first:
- A freebie that’s ready to go (this is usually in a PDF but it can also be in the form of an email course, mini-course, etc)
- A paid Convertkit account (While they technically have a free plan, the free plan doesn’t allow you to send automated emails which is really important. This means you will have to manually email new subscribers. Since your time is important, paying for Convertkit is recommended but not required.)
- Optional: a mockup version of your freebie (This means something like a flat-lay of your PDF on a desk or on a notebook, etc. You can do this for free using Canva)
Setting up your opt-in freebie on your site
1. Create the opt-in form
In Convertkit, you will select “Landing Pages & Forms” from the top of your screen (See image below). Then select “Form” and choose the style you would like and format it however you’d like with various colors and images. The “inline” form is the one that will be in the post like an image is in between paragraphs. The “modal” option is a pop-up. If it doesn’t already include both the “name” and “email” boxes, add “name” to the form.
Here’s where the mockup comes in. If you want a miniversion of your freebie on your opt-in form (i.e. a mockup), you can create a small picture of it in Canva and then add it to the form you’re creating where the image goes. This can convert at a much better rate than simply having an opt-in box with just words. (see image below)
2. Place your opt-in form in your blog post or on your page
Once you’ve got your form created, you’ll need to put it in your blog post or page so people can sign up there.
Right after you create the form in Convertkit, save it and then select “embed”.
There are going to be a few options. The first option is to grab the HTML code. To do that, you would select “HTML” and copy that code. Then embed it onto your page or in your post (see below).
If you’ve got Wordpress, they make it pretty easy. You can actually download the Convertkit wordpress plugin so then you can simply choose the “wordpress” option from the “embed” screen and put that code right into your post wherever you want the form to show up.
To be able to place the code into your blog post, you’ll need to switch over to the HTML version first using the 3 little dots to toggle back and forth between the text version and HTML version.
3. Ensure the freebie is delivered upon sign up
When someone signs up with your opt-in form, you want to make sure they’ll actually receive whatever freebie you promised them.
You have a couple of options here: you can have it automatically download or you can have it be delivered with an email sequence.
It’s easiest to start with having it delivered via an email sequence. Plus, doing it this way will encourage your readers to get used to opening emails from you, and they also won’t lose it if it’s in their inbox.
To do this, you’ll need to connect your opt-in form to an email sequence that delivers the freebie.
First, create the email sequence in Convertkit. In the first email, you’d say something like “Here’s your freebie!” and then you would attach it as a file in the email.
Once that sequence is created, you would need to connect it to your opt-in form through an automation.
At the top in Convertkit, select “automations”. The easiest option to get started is to select “Rule” and then Add Rule.
On the left, you’ll select the trigger for the rule as “subscribes to a form” and then select your form from the drop-down menu.
Then choose the “action” as subscribe to sequence and choose the sequence you want to send the freebie.
Hit Save.
If you aren’t ready to do the whole email sequence thing, then you can actually attach the PDF straight to the opt-in form.
There you have it. Now you’ve set up your first freebie opt-in box on your new blog and start collecting emails ASAP.
