Gated download lead capture with form and file delivery
How to set up a gated download with lead-capture form and thank-you email
Build a lead-capture gate in SGEN: a landing page that describes the download, a form that collects the visitor's details before revealing the file, and an automated thank-you email that delivers the download link.
This playbook is the standard pattern for gated content on an SGEN site. It uses three existing admin features — Pages, Forms, and Email — combined into one ordered sequence.
No external marketing automation tool required.
Total time: approximately 75 minutes to build the full gate, plus 15 minutes to create each additional gated asset using the same form and email template.
What is this for?
A download gate is the exchange: a visitor gives you their name and email address, and in return they receive access to a resource — a PDF guide, a checklist, a template, or a report.
The gate has three components:
- A landing page that describes the resource and presents the form — enough detail to make the exchange feel worth it, but not so much that the visitor does not need the download at all.
- A form that captures the minimum information you need to follow up: first name, last name, and email address. Every additional field you add reduces the form completion rate.
- A thank-you email that delivers the download link immediately on submission. The download link must be in the email, not on the page, so you have an email address attached to every download.
Running these pieces in the right order matters. Upload the file to Media first so you have a download URL to put in the email. Create the form second so you have a form ID to embed on the landing page. Build the landing page third. Configure the thank-you email fourth, pointing it at the form. Test last.
Good use cases
Acme Coffee Roasters brewing guide PDF. Acme creates a 12-page PDF guide to filter coffee brewing ratios. It is gated behind a short form: name and email only. The thank-you email delivers the PDF download link and ends with a soft offer to subscribe to the monthly coffee newsletter. The form submissions list grows into a targeted list of people who already care about coffee brewing — a high-quality segment for future email campaigns.
Acme Bakery seasonal recipe booklet. Acme Bakery releases a digital recipe booklet each season. The winter edition is gated. The form asks for name, email, and "Are you a home baker or a professional?". This single segmentation question lets the team send different follow-up emails to home bakers (focused on products available in their online shop) and professionals (focused on wholesale or bulk orders).
Acme Wine Studio food and wine pairing guide. A curated PDF pairing guide gated behind a name and email form. The thank-you email delivers the guide and invites the registrant to the Wine Studio's next tasting session, combining file delivery with event promotion in one email.
Acme Coffee Roasters wholesale pricing sheet. The wholesale pricing sheet is not publicly listed. Interested buyers fill in a short form (name, business name, email, monthly volume estimate) and the thank-you email delivers the pricing sheet PDF. The team uses the form submissions to prioritise outbound follow-up calls by monthly volume estimate.
Acme Studio equipment comparison checklist. A two-page checklist for buyers choosing between espresso machines. The form is name and email only — minimal friction for a short asset. The checklist is linked in the thank-you email, and the same email includes a calendar booking link to schedule a free consultation with the Acme Studio team.
What NOT to use this for
If the resource does not require lead capture — a support guide, an FAQ, a product manual — upload it to Media and link it directly from the relevant page. Gating content that visitors expect to be free creates friction and reduces trust.
SGEN Media is optimised for documents and images, not video streaming. Host video assets on a video platform and embed the player on the page or in the thank-you email. Use the gate to collect the lead before revealing the embed.
The thank-you email contains a static file URL. If the PDF is updated, the old download URL in previous thank-you emails still points to the old version. For living documents, host them as pages on your SGEN site and gate access to the page, not to a static file.
Each additional required field beyond name and email reduces form completion significantly. If you need richer prospect data, collect it in a follow-up email sequence after the download, not at the gate.
Email attachments are blocked by many corporate email filters and inflate message size. Always deliver the file as a hyperlinked URL hosted in SGEN Media.
How this connects to other features
— the file hosting layer. PDF, DOCX, and image files uploaded to Media receive a permanent URL that you paste into the thank-you email body as the download link. Confirm the file URL is publicly accessible before testing the gate.
— the lead-capture mechanism. Each submission creates a row in Forms → Submissions. The submissions list is your lead database for this asset.
— the gate landing page that hosts the form embed and the asset description. A well-crafted landing page increases form completions by giving visitors enough context to decide the resource is worth the exchange.
— the thank-you email fires automatically on form submission and delivers the file download link to the visitor's inbox. This is also the first email in any nurture sequence you build on this lead.
— after the gate is live, use Analytics to review traffic to the gate landing page URL. The ratio of page views to form submissions is the gate conversion rate. A conversion rate below 20% usually indicates the form is too long or the landing page description is not compelling enough.
Before you start
- You are signed in to SGEN as an Administrator.
- The downloadable file is finalized and ready to upload. Do not create the gate before the asset is ready — the thank-you email must contain a real, working download link from day one.
- The file is in a widely-accessible format: PDF is the most common choice. Avoid proprietary formats that require specific software to open.
- Decide the minimum information you need from each lead before opening the form builder. Name and email address are the baseline. Add a segmentation field only if you will actively use the answer to personalize follow-up.
- You have a download link URL only after uploading the file to Media. Upload the file first, copy the URL from the Media detail panel, and paste it into a text document before building the thank-you email.
Where to go
The recipe touches three admin areas in this order:
- Media → Upload — upload the file and copy the permanent URL (5 minutes)
- Forms → Add New — create the lead-capture form (10 minutes)
- Pages → Add New — create the gate landing page (20 minutes)
- Email → Add New — create the automated thank-you email with download link (15 minutes)
Steps — Build the gated download lead-capture workflow
1. Upload the file to Media and copy the URL
Open Media → Upload. Before uploading, confirm WebP conversion is off (it applies only to images) and compression is set appropriately for your file type. For PDF files, compression settings do not apply — the file uploads as-is.
Drag and drop the file or click Upload Files and select it. After the upload completes, click the file in the Media grid to open its detail panel.
In the detail panel, find the File URL field. This is the permanent, publicly-accessible URL for the file. Copy this URL and paste it into a text document. You will use it as the download link in the thank-you email body.
Do not assume the URL will be easy to retrieve later. Copy it now, before closing the Media panel.
2. Create the lead-capture form
Open Forms → Add New. Name the form to identify the asset and the lead type, for example "Brewing Guide — Lead Capture".
Add the following fields:
- First Name — Text, required.
- Last Name — Text, required.
- Email Address — Email, required.
- (Optional) How did you hear about us? — Select or Short Text.
In the Confirmation Message field, write what appears on the page immediately after submission. Keep it brief and clear: "Thank you — check your inbox for your download link." Do not include the download URL in the confirmation message — the URL belongs in the email so you have an email address attached to every download.
Set form Status to Publish and note the form ID from the browser URL bar.
3. Create the gate landing page
Open Pages → Add New. Set the page title to the name of the resource, for example "Free Brewing Guide — Filter Coffee Ratios Explained". Set the Slug in the settings sidebar to a clean path: brewing-guide.
Write the page body in three sections:
Asset description. One paragraph (three to five sentences) describing what the visitor will get. Specificity builds confidence: "This 12-page guide covers the four most common filter methods, including V60, Aeropress, Chemex, and cold brew — with exact water-to-coffee ratios, temperature ranges, and grind size recommendations for each." Vague descriptions ("a comprehensive guide to coffee") do not give the visitor enough reason to complete the form.
Who it is for. Two or three bullet points describing the intended audience. "For home brewers who want consistent results. For café staff building a brewing reference. For anyone who has ever wondered why the same beans taste different from one day to the next."
Form embed. Insert [form id=7] (replace 7 with your actual form ID) directly below the audience section. No heading over the form — the page context makes it clear what happens when they submit.
Set page Status to Publish when the content is ready.
4. Create the automated thank-you email with download link
Open Email → Add New. This email fires automatically on every form submission and delivers the download link.
Set the Subject Line to something that gets opened immediately: "Your brewing guide is ready to download". Avoid vague subjects like "Thank you for your interest". Specificity drives open rates.
In the Send to field, select the form you created in step 2. SGEN fires this email to the visitor's submitted email address on every submission.
Write the body in three sections:
- A short greeting with
[first_name]and a one-sentence confirmation. - The download link as a prominent button or bold hyperlink. Use the file URL you copied from Media in step 1.
- An optional next step — a newsletter subscribe link, an event invite, or a soft product mention. Keep this brief; the primary goal of this email is file delivery.
Set Status to Active.
5. Test the full gate in private-browsing
Open a fresh private-browsing window and navigate to the gate landing page URL.
Work through this sequence:
- Confirm the page content renders correctly — title, description, and audience bullets.
- Confirm the form renders with all fields visible and the Submit button present.
- Fill in the form with your test name and a test email address you can access. Click Submit.
- Confirm the success confirmation message appears on the page.
- Check the test inbox within two minutes. The thank-you email should arrive with the correct subject line and a working download link.
- Click the download link in the email and confirm the file downloads successfully.
- Confirm the file opens correctly after download — a corrupted or password-protected file delivers a broken experience even with a working URL.
- Open Forms → Submissions in the admin and confirm the test submission row appears.
- Delete the test submission so it does not count as a real lead.
6. Review lead capture over time
The leads from the gate accumulate in Forms → Submissions under the lead-capture form. Review this list periodically to:
- Count the total leads captured against your traffic to the gate page. The ratio (form submissions / page views from Analytics → Reports) is the gate conversion rate. A rate below 20% suggests the form is too long or the page description is not compelling enough.
- Export the submissions list as CSV for import into email marketing or sales tools.
- Identify the "How did you hear about us?" distribution if you added that field. The answers reveal which channels are driving the highest-quality leads.
When you create a second gated asset, reuse the same form structure. Add a hidden field to the form identifying the asset name. The submissions list will then include which asset each lead downloaded, giving you a cleaner picture of which content type drives the most lead capture.
What success looks like
Specific checks before going live:
- Navigate to the gate URL in a private-browsing window and submit the form with a test email.
- Confirm the thank-you email arrives within two minutes with a working download link.
- Confirm the file downloads and opens without errors.
- Confirm the test submission appears in Forms → Submissions and then delete it.
What to do if it does not work
Open Email and confirm Status is Active and Send to targets the correct form ID. Check the spam folder of the test inbox before concluding the email failed.
Open Media and confirm the file still exists. Files deleted from Media after the thank-you email was configured will break all existing download links. Re-upload the file and update the URL in the thank-you email body.
The email field was set to optional in the form builder rather than required. Edit the form, set the Email Address field to Required, and save. Submissions without an email address cannot receive the thank-you email.
Confirm the shortcode uses the correct form ID ([form id=7]) and that the form Status is Publish. A Draft form does not render on the public page even when the shortcode is present.
Once a file is in SGEN Media, its URL is publicly accessible to anyone who has it. If a lead shares the URL, there is no built-in block on that direct access. If preventing direct URL sharing is important, use a page with a login gate instead.
Change the field type from Short Text (free entry) to Select (predefined options). Edit the form, delete the Short Text field, and add a Select field with a fixed list of channel options: Newsletter, Social Media, Search, Referral, Other.