If you are producing online content, you should always deliver plenty of value to your customers. Whether offering a free opt-in incentive, or selling a product or service, your clients should feel like they receive many times more value than they are expecting. This is true with list building content upgrades, just as it is with everything else you do.
The very name implies that you are upgrading the content that someone has just read. Your reader has just consumed your blog post which discusses building a “bug out bag” to prepare for the impending zombie apocalypse (okay, I don't really know anything about this topic, so if “bug out bag” sounds weird to you, it's because I just used the first thing I could find on Google). If that web surfer has hung around and read your entire post, that means they are very inclined to receiving more information on that same topic.
Offering a Zombie Apocalypse Preparation Checklist would make sense as a content upgrade in this scenario. Improve on the information you offered in your blog post, “upgrading” the knowledge, information and/or resources on that topic in exchange for that reader joining your email list. A checklist is a simple, 1 or 2 page resource your reader can benefit from quickly, without investing a lot of time.
While bigger is sometimes better, in this case, you are aiming for short and actionable content.
Checklists and other lists make great content upgrades. Your reader can digest the information quickly. Web surfers these days are highly distracted, and have short attention spans. They don't want to commit a lot of time towards consuming content, even if that content provides value. So make your content upgrade short and sweet.
You should also make your content actionable. Describe a “simple win” scenario where your reader can notice some real improvement in his or her life because of the information contained in your upgrade. In the above example, a short checklist that offers life-saving zombie apocalypse tips is considered a high value resource by anyone who was reading your zombie-related blog post.
The quicker someone can experience and benefit from your content the better. That is why content upgrades for building email lists seem to work the best when they are short pieces of easily digested content. On your side of the equation, this means you can make multiple content upgrades in a shorter period of time than if you were making each one a 20 page e-book.
Your reader gets a quick win. They don't have to spend all day reading a lengthy piece of content. They can realize value very quickly. You don't have to spend as much time in the production process as creating traditional opt-in bribes, your conversion rates soar, and you add one more happy follower to your email list.
See a real live content upgrade in action
Are you are starting to see how powerful content upgrades can be? Then maybe it's time to dig a bit deeper. Let's take a look at a real live content upgrade in action. Now this example isn't gonna be the short and sweet kind, but it will help you create plenty of those types of content upgrades for yourself. Download a FREE copy of my Ultimate Guide To Content Upgrades: The Powerful Method for Ultra-Targeted List Building to Grow Your List FAST!
