Do you get lackluster conversions from your blog? Try adding some content upgrades! Here’s how these simple lead magnets can help you achieve conversion rates of 25%-54%.
Your email list is your most powerful marketing asset.
According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing generates a $38 return for every $1 invested.
Meanwhile, Monetate found that email marketing drives more conversions than any other channel, including search and social media.
With results like these, it’s not surprising that B2B marketers are always looking for new ways to get customers on their lists.
One of my top ways to build my list is with content upgrades.
What Are Content Upgrades and How Are They Different from My Other Lead Magnets?
Content upgrades are resources that readers opt in for after they read your blog posts. The resources aren’t general, such as the white paper that you’re promoting across your website. Instead, content upgrades relate directly to your blog post’s topic.
For example, if you write a blog post about improving your HR processes, your content upgrade might be a scorecard that lets readers grade how efficient their processes are.
Content upgrades also show B2B buyers how to take the information from your blog post and apply it to their business. Since buyers can use an upgrade to take immediate action, they are more likely to trade their email addresses for one.
What if every person who read your blog opted in for your premium content? How many more people could you get on your list? How many of those people would eventually turn into customers?
Download the Content Upgrade Checklist that walks you through all of the steps of creating a content upgrade that boosts your conversions.
What Type of Conversion Rates Can I Expect?
Your conversion rates will vary, depending on how compelling readers find your offer. However, my content upgrades typically convert at rates between 25% and 54%.
My best content upgrade converted at a rate of 54% and brought me 1,345 new subscribers.
19 Easy Content Upgrades that Attract B2B Buyers
Including a content upgrade with all of your blog posts will give you a big boost in your conversion rates. However, if you have a small marketing team, you might not have the time to create a custom resource for every post.
But you don’t need to put tons of effort into developing resources to get results.
Content upgrades don’t need to be as in-depth as a white paper or lengthy ebook. In fact, short, useful tools can perform better than something that would take visitors a long time to read.The trick is to make your upgrade actionable.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Checklists
- Cheat sheets
- Worksheets
- Templates
- Tutorials
- Guides
- Step-by-step plans
- Toolkits
- Scorecards
- Calendars or planners
- Case studies
- SlideShares
- Webinar replays
- An exclusive article
- Data from your research
- Training videos
- Software trial
- Bonus tips that you didn’t mention in the blog post
- A PDF of the blog post
You might think that creating a PDF of your blog post and offering it as a content upgrade is lazy. But, if your post provides value, your readers may want to save it or email it to their colleagues.
Loz James of The Content Champion has achieved 7%-46% conversion rates with this technique. However, he stresses that “you have to offer extremely actionable, step-by-step strategies in the post, so it’s worth downloading to refer to later.”
Getting Started
Look at your editorial calendar and decide if you have any upcoming blog posts that would benefit from a content upgrade. If you have the time to create an upgrade for every post, great. If not, pick at least one post in the next month to turbocharge with a content upgrade.
You can also look at your past blog posts and create content upgrades for the ones that get the most views. This will help you get more bang from your previous content investments.
And finally, I’ve created a checklist that walks you through all of the steps of creating a content upgrade that boosts your conversions. Click here to download it now.
