Content upgrades are a great way to grow your email list.

A content upgrade is a bonus piece of content that you offer on your blog/website as a bonus to the reader. It's more than giving away free content, the reader must enter their email address to receive that extra content.

Once they complete the form, this unlocks the rest of the content. People can justify handing over an email as opposed to their money at first. Once they learn they can trust you and know your content is valuable, people will start buying.

A great content upgrade is offering free worksheets, checklists, software tools or templates. This reiterates to people that you can be the one to help them solve whatever problem they have.

If you’re thinking that content upgrades sound a lot like a lead magnet, you're not wrong.

There is one difference between the two, content upgrades are more specific. They cater to a specific blog post on a particular topic.

Lead magnets are broad with their content like ebooks, special offers, etc.

Remember that your content upgrades need three components:

• A Call to Action
• Email Opt-in
• The bonus content you promised

Adding these three things to blog posts will help you provide more value and grow your email list.

Now that we know what they are, why are they so beneficial to marketing your business?

Content upgrades allow you to capitalize on each blog post. Gaining email subscribers allows you to nurture a relationship with your audience.

When you provide value to those subscribers, they begin to know, like and trust you. This increases the likelihood of those people buying your product/service.

Most people aren't going to buy on their first interaction with you. Now that they are on your email list, you show to share your brand story, provide more value, and call them to action.

The formula for making a content upgrade and a lead magnet is exactly the same. Download our guide and use it as a checklist each time you're creating a content upgrade or a new lead magnet