Get Clever with a Content Upgrade
Episode #3 of the course How to rapidly grow your email list by Jessica Festa
Okay, by this point, you should be attracting and wowing readers with juicy blog content. Now, you want to further help them by offering a Content Upgrade.
A Content Upgrade is a free gift the reader gets once they opt into your email list. It should be something related to your blog content so those reading your posts will be the same people who will actually be interested in your Content Upgrade.
Types of Content Upgrades That Work
Typically, the best Content Upgrades are those that help your audience solve a problem quickly. Some ideas:
• checklist
• cheat sheet
• email course
• printables
• video or audio recording
• challenge
• swipe sheets
• a free trial
• worksheet/workbook
Let’s say you help budding photographers take better portraits. Here, your Content Upgrade might be a camera settings cheat sheet or an email course on how to effectively utilize different lighting situations when taking portraits.
Keep in mind that your goal of getting somebody on your email list is to grow your relationship with this person and eventually sell them your product, so the Content Upgrade should offer a nice segue to your product pitch.
Making Resource Libraries Work
Another option is creating one resource library and continuously adding your new PDFs, worksheets, etc. to it. So, if you write a blog post on “5 Tips for Taking Great Portraits in Low Light,” you might promote a cheat sheet listing low-light camera settings. On the other hand, within a post titled, “How to Take Portraits That Tell Stories,” your Content Upgrade might be an adjoining worksheet.
You can place all your Content Upgrades into one big portrait photography resource library. This allows you to create different worksheets and cheat sheets to complement different posts but still save them to the same master email list.
Crafting Multiple Content Upgrades
But what if you have categories that don’t seamlessly allow for all Content Upgrades to go into one resource library?
Use category-specific opt-in forms. These can be created through tools like ConvertPlug and OptinMonster. Essentially, you create one Content Upgrade for each of the categories you determined in yesterday’s class. Then, you craft a unique email list opt-in form for each Content Upgrade. Which form the reader sees will depend on the topic of the blog post they’re reading.
For instance, say your mission is to help newbie solo travelers explore more of the world, and you sell travel planning services and a travel blogging course. Your Content Upgrades might be a solo travel email course and a resource library of travel blogging worksheets. You can use, say, ConvertPlug to create one popup for people reading posts under your solo travel category and one popup for people reading posts under the blogging category. This helps tailor your efforts for maximum email list signups.
Your Turn
Create a Content Upgrade to entice readers to opt in and become subscribers. You can use a tool like Canva.com to create beautiful PDFs, even if you’re not a designer.
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