What is it?
Content upgrades are highly specific opt-in offers embedded on your website or shared on social media.
They’re designed to provide readers with a bonus that directly relates to what they are already reading, in exchange for their email address.
Rather than offering the same generic freebie on every post, a content upgrade strategy is more deliberate and targeted.
The aim is to help the reader go deeper into the exact topic, hopefully improving your opt-in rate in the process.
The Good and the Bad
Examples of how to crush it
HubSpot (Trends newsletter)
HubSpot's blog post, "5 Steps to Create an Outstanding Marketing Plan," includes a specific content upgrade: a "Free Marketing Plan Template."
This template is directly related to the blog post topic, and offers them a route to go deeper with a practical tool they can use, in exchange for opting-in to become a newsletter subscriber.
Noah Kagan
Noah hosts a lot of entrepreneurial blog content that steps through strategies for starting and growing a business.
On these posts, he offers a free chapter of his eBook, "Million Dollar Weekend," which teaches his strategies for launching a successful business in 48 hours.
It’s an actionable remedy for the pain point that the reader has self-qualified for by being on the page in the first place!
