Creating a Content Upgrade and Using Them to Grow Your Email List

Creating a Content Upgrade and Using Them to Grow Your Email List

Content upgrades can be likened to Thanos becoming an all-powerful being after he gathered all the Infinity Stones. While there might be limitations to what content upgrades can do to your marketing campaign, there’s no denying the benefits they have when you utilize them.

You have heard of marketers talking about how content upgrades grew their email list 10X faster than before, and you wonder whether they are exaggerating the numbers.

The truth? They are not joking.

A lot of big-name marketers like Brian Dean and Devesh Khanai have utilized the power of content upgrades with amazing results.

Brian, who has made a name for himself with his Skyscraper technique, said he was able to grow his email conversion rate from 0.54% to 4.82%.

Khanai, on the other hand, was able to boost the conversion rate of one Growth Everywhere blog post by 492% using content upgrade.

How did they do it? Let’s look at some ideas on how to utilize the power of a content upgrade to increase your email conversion rate.

Get the Content Upgrade Started

Consider content upgrades as bribes or lead magnets. They come in different forms, and they are easy to make. They are in-depth versions of a piece of content that your readers are already interested in.

For example, you have read the recipe of your favorite dessert on a website. While you were reading, there’s a pop-up that says you can have a full step-by-step video of that recipe. All you have to do is enter your email address, and they will send the video link straight to your inbox.

What did you do? You did it right away without any hesitation.

Aside from the video, below are some other examples of a content upgrade:

1. Report

If you specialize in a particular topic and conducted in-depth research about it, you can use this as a content upgrade to educate your audience.

Take for example this report created by Social Media Examiner. The report shows their visitors how marketers are using social media nowadays. Then, it highlights the important phrases and sentences, such as “70+ charts” and “join 450,000 of your peers.”

Who can resist those chart-rich reports? And surely, you don’t want to be the only one who hasn’t have this inside information.

How can you get this report? By simply giving them your email.

2. Blog Post PDF version

This is the easiest content upgrade to make. Write a blog post and save your final draft as a PDF version. If the information you gave is truly valuable, your readers would want that. Download this post in PDF

3. Podcast Transcript

You might have a podcast that generated a lot of attention. Double the interest as well as your mailing list by providing a transcript of that podcast.

4. Cheat Sheet

A cheat sheet is a type of content upgrade where you put together all the vital information from a related piece of content.

A great example of this is Neil Patel’s new SEO strategy where he talked about his new tool that boosts his traffic furthermore. Then there’s a popup that suggests people can have the cheat sheet to know more about the tool.

Those are content upgrades, now what?

Knowing what a content upgrade is one thing but implementing them is another. So what do you do? How do you start?

First, find out the best-performing pages on your website with the help of Google Analytics. Another method of identifying the most popular is through the number of social shares each of your posts has.

Next, find out what type of content upgrade complements your post. Aside from the examples given above, there are other types of content upgrades you can utilize. Once you have those two figured out, create the resource you will use and place it on your site.

Related: Essential Components of a Lead-generating Website

The Making of a Powerful Content Upgrade

Content upgrades are powerful and here are some strategies to further boost its efficacy.

Headlines

Your headline is the first thing your readers see; thus, it only makes sense to create one that catches their attention. No, we’re not talking about those clickbait types of headlines, but one that communicates the value readers can get from your piece of content.

Discover how to optimize your email with SEO.

Quality

There’s a lot of emphasis on long forms and large content these days. However, if you can convey your message in just two pages of content, don’t stretch it to ten pages. Quality is more important than the size, and the value your readers can get is your primary goal. Lastly, don’t forget to make your content evergreen, always relevant to what they need.

Related: How To Utilize A High-quality Blog As A Springboard To Success

Location

You have to place your opt-in button in several strategic locations, not just in one place. The best place is to put your bonus content on top, at the bottom, and in the middle of the content.

Button

Aside from creating an eye-catching button for your opt-in, make sure that it blends or complements your website theme.

Share

Make sure that you share your content upgrade on your different social media channels. Another strategy to reach a new audience is to write a guest post to other blogs or sites and link it to the page where your content upgrade is.

Related: How To Write Content That Gets Read And Shared

Conclusion

Just like all other marketing strategies, creating a content upgrade takes a lot of work. However, all the hard work is worth it because the results are exponential.

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