6 Content Upgrade Ideas that Boost Subscribers

Are you providing stellar content on your blog but you’re still not getting any subscribers? Wouldn’t you love it if you could grow your email list lightning fast? Well you can with content upgrades!

A content upgrade is essentially a freebie that you offer to visitors in exchange for their email address that is specific to the blog post or content that your viewers are already reading. If your readers are coming to your blog for advice or searching for an answer to a burning question, you can create a targeted content upgrade you know they want and won’t be able to resist.

Bloggers and businesses everywhere have discovered the high-converting power of content upgrades and if you want to join them and get more subscribers to your blog, you should start offering content upgrades ASAP.

But what kind of content upgrade can you offer your visitors? Check out these six content upgrade ideas that boost subscribers.

1. PDF Guide

A PDF guide is one of the easiest content upgrades you can offer. You can draft your guide on Google Docs, create a beautiful cover for free with a tool like Canva, convert it into a PDF and voila, you have a professional looking guide your viewers will be excited to read.

Here’s an example of a PDF guide from Creative Revolt offering tips for Youtube SEO:

Try expanding on the topic of one of your blog posts and create a more in-depth guide you can offer within the blog post to those who want more info. If you offer valuable content to your viewers, they’ll definitely want a detailed PDF guide of your tips and advice that they can refer back to anytime they want.

2. Video or Audio

Everyone has a preference on how they like to consume content. Some people love reading blog posts or ebooks but others prefer watching videos or listening to podcasts. So offering video or audio content upgrades will give your audience more options to enjoy.

You can easily transform your blog posts into videos using a tool like Lumen5. Or you can use a free app like Anchor to record mini-podcast episodes so your followers can download and listen to your advice on the go.

3. Email Course

One of the best ways to attract and convert subscribers is to educate them. And if you want to be considered an expert in your field, a free email course is the perfect content upgrade option for you. Offering a course by email is convenient for your subscribers and you can easily set up a marketing automation workflow in Sendinblue to take care of this.

An example of a free email course is this one by Oh She Blogs that teaches readers how to make money blogging:

A free email course is also a good tactic to give your subscribers a taste of what you can offer them, making it easier to sell your paid course or product to them in the future.

4. Mini eBook or Workbook

Now you probably don’t want to spend too much time creating a full-size book to give away for free, so it might be best to offer a mini ebook instead.

If you wrote a series of blog posts on your site about the same topic, you can piece those posts together and fill in the gaps by adding some extra information in order to create a mini eBook that your viewers can download after submitting their email address.

Workbooks are a popular option as well, and they are often much more engaging for readers. So consider offering a workbook that allows readers to interact and participate in different exercises rather than just passively consuming content.

5. Checklists

If you really don’t have a ton of time to create a content upgrade, the best option for you is a checklist. People love checklists, they’re easy to read, easy to use, and can be created in minutes.

Checklists are a great content upgrade for long-form blog posts that include a lot of detailed steps. For example, say you wrote an article about how to write the perfect blog post, you can create a checklist that includes those steps for your audience to follow along with when they write their own blog posts.

If you want to save even more time, you can use tools like Forgett or Checkli to help you create an awesome checklist.

6. Resource Library

If you really want to wow your visitors, you can offer them access to a free resource library. This offer is super tempting for your audience and will get you a ton of email subscribers who want to take advantage of your expertise.

Here’s how Melyssa Griffin entices her readers with access to her library of resources:

Pull together all of your content upgrade PDFs and documents that you can offer to readers including checklists, templates, spreadsheets and guides.

You can create a private page on your website for your resource library and when someone signs up with their email address, you can send them an email with the link and password to the page.

Your Turn

Now that you’ve decided what awesome content upgrade you’re going to offer your readers, you need to add it to your blog. The great thing is you don’t have to start from scratch. You can use a tool like OptinMonster to create stunning popups to promote your content upgrades without knowing how to code. With strategic placement of your email capture forms, you will be able to double, even triple your email list in no time.