If you want to grow your email list (FAST) there’s one thing you need to know:

Traditional bribes like free reports and email courses don’t have nearly the same juice that they used to.

So…

What CAN you offer that gets people to fork over their email address?

The Content Upgrade.

It’s a simple strategy that instantly increased my conversion rate from .54%. to 4.82%.

And in today’s case study I’m going to show you the exact step-by-step process that I used.

No One Wants Your Free Report (And What They Want Instead)

A while back I told you about The Social Squeeze Page, a simple page you can add to your site that converts like a champ:

While there’s nothing wrong with a page that converts at 21.7%…

…a single page — even one that converts at 21.7% — isn’t enough to build a thriving email list.

After all, as you can see from my Crazy Egg data, only 2% of my visitors click on the sidebar banner that takes them to the Social Squeeze Page:

Which got me thinking:

“How can I convert the 98% of people that DON’T go to my Social Squeeze Page?”

That’s when I noticed this weird thing Kim Roach was doing on her blog.

Instead of offering readers something vague — like free updates — she gave away a resource that was unique to each blog post.

Let me show you what I mean…

A few months ago, Kim’s published a post of the top 10 Fiverr gigs for small business owners.

“But wait, there’s more.”

When you scroll down to the bottom of the post you’ll notice that she has a link where you can download the top 20 Fiverr gigs:

If you click on that link, a box appears that asks you to opt-in to her email list:

A few days after reading Kim’s post, I noticed Bryan Harris doing the exact same thing on his blog.

For example, Bryan recently published a post that teaches people a productivity technique called “The Zero Based Calendar“.

At the end of that post Bryan offers access to a “bonus lesson” on productivity.

Like Kim’s post, you need to subscribe to get your hands on Bryan’s free resource.

That’s when I said to myself:

“Brian, building your email list is a top priority. You NEED to try this at Backlinko.”

(Yes, I talk to myself. Doesn’t everybody? 🙂 )

What happened next made my jaw practically hit the floor…

One Day. Two Links. 785% Increase in Conversions.

I decided to see if giving away a post-specific resource would increase conversions on my blog post: Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List.

(I’ll show you why I chose that post a bit later)

Before implementing the Content Upgrade, that page was converting at .54%.

Not horrible for a blog post…but not great either.

On June 1st I created a checklist and added LeadPages links to the top…

…and bottom of that post.

The result? A 785% increase in conversions (compared to the previous month).

Keep in mind that this isn’t a flukey conversion increase like you might see with an A/B test that only lasts a few days.

I’ve had over 4700 unique visitors and 370 conversions on that page since implementing the Content Upgrade. The sample size is more than enough to conclude that this data has legs to stand on.

Plus, as I’ll show you at the very end of this post, I’ve tested The Content Upgrade on three other posts…

…and it’s significantly boosted conversions on those posts too.

Here’s The Craziest Part…

If you count all of the opt-in forms that I have on the Backlinko blog, like in my sidebar:

On my homepage:

And at the bottom of every blog post:

I have a grand total of 54 opt-in forms on my blog.

The two little LeadPages links that I added to my Google Ranking Factors post now account for 30% of all new subscribers.

Think about that for a second.

Those two links bring in more subscribers than SIXTEEN opt-in forms.

Crazy, right?

How to Get More Subscribers Using The Content Upgrade

At this point you’re probably wondering:

“OK, I’m ready to try the The Content Upgrade. How do I start?”

Here’s a breakdown of the 5-step process:

Step 1: Find a high-traffic page on your site

Step 2: Identify a resource that would make the content better

Step 3: Create that resource

Step 4: Add the resource to your site

Step 5: Get more email subscribers

Now let’s dive into how you can add this list building machine to your site.

Step #1: Find a Page on Your Site That Gets a Lot of Traffic

This may sound simple, but stay with me.

If you want to maximize the number of subscribers that you get from The Content Upgrade, you need to start with a page that has the most potential for generating email subscribers.

In other words, blog posts on your site that bring in the most traffic.

Make sense?

You can easily find your most popular pages by going to Behavior –> Site Content –> Landing Pages in Google Analytics:

As you can see from that screenshot, my Google Ranking Factors blog post was the most popular page on my site.

So I started with that.

Once you’ve identified your site’s most popular page, it’s time for step #2…

Step #2: Identify a Resource That Will Make Your Content Even Better

This may not be easy to hear, but here it goes:

No one wants your free report.

Well, maybe that’s not 100% true.

If you give away something for free on your site, SOMEONE will sign up to get it.

But 99% of people won’t.

Why not?

Because your report has nothing to do with what that person wants at that moment.

It’s like if you walked into H&M for a new belt and the salesperson said: “Would you like to see our new dress shirts that just came in?”. No, you wouldn’t.

The bottom line?

When you offer your visitors something that’s a perfect fit for what they came to your site for, they’re MUCH more likely to opt-in.

For example, I noticed people leaving comments on my Google Ranking Factors post like this…

…and this:

These people were basically telling me in black and white:

“Brian, this is a great post. But it’s an overwhelming amount of information. How can I actually put this stuff into practice?”

That’s when I realized that a checklist that listed the 10 most important factors — along with practical tips for implementing them — would add a lot of value to that post.

Another example:

James at SuperFastBusiness.com gives away text transcripts of his podcasts:

What do you think happens when you click on that purple box?

You’re taken to a squeeze page where you can download the PDF:

Other things you can give away as a Content Upgrade:

A set of bonus tips

Downloadable PDF version of the article

A video tutorial that dives deeper into one section from your post

A visual guide to your post (for example, a mind map or infographic)

An interview with an expert on your post’s topic

A free product guide or hands-on review (this is PERFECT for ecommerce sites)

The possibilities are endless.

Now that you’ve decided on what you’re going to give away, it’s time to get this party started.

Step #3: Create Your Content Upgrade Resource

Here’s the deal:

When someone first signs up for your email list they’re actively looking for reasons to opt out…

…and if you give them one, they’ll take it.

On the other hand, if you wow new subscribers with a GREAT first email, they’re much more likely to stick with you for life.

(You know what they say about first impressions…)

That’s why I decided to set aside 5-hours to outline and write my Google Ranking Factors checklist.

But I took things one step further.

After I finished writing the checklist, I sent it to a professional graphic designer on Elance.

She turned my checklist from this…

to this:

Needless to say, this professional design makes a HUGE difference in how people perceive the value of my checklist.

When someone receives a high-quality resource in their inbox (like this checklist), they think to themselves:

“Hey, this was pretty cool. I’ll make sure to keep an eye out for their next email.”

And because your list loves what you’re sending them, you’re going to increase your conversion rate over the long-term.

In fact, you’ll actually get messages from people that say they’re looking forward to future emails from you.

For example, this is an email I recently received from a subscriber that just finished reading my Google Ranking Factors Checklist:

Having a high-value resource in hand is great…

…but it’s not nearly as important as the next step in the Content Upgrade process.

Step #4: Give Your Resource Away

Like anything in conversion rate optimization, HOW you present your Content Upgrade is key. In fact, your pitch is 10x more important than the resource itself.

Here’s what I mean…

As I’m sure you’ve seen yourself, lame pitches like “sign up for our newsletter” and “download our whitepaper” aren’t effective anymore.

To put it another way, you really need to sell your Content Upgrade.



Here’s the approach that worked best for me.

First, I added a yellow box at the end my blog post introduction:

My old blog post conclusion asked people to leave a comment. I swapped that conclusion out with a pitch to download the checklist:

When someone clicks on the link in the yellow box or the download image at the end of the post, a LeadPages box appears that asks them to opt-in:

According to my Analytics, 65% of people that see that box enter their email and opt-in:

Because it converts so well, I recommend using LeadPages to giveaway your Content Upgrade resource.

If you’d prefer not use LeadPages, you can create a normal opt-in form in Aweber or MailChimp.

For example, you can embed a normal opt-in box like this into your blog posts:

(You’d just want to replace the generic “Free Updates” with a description of your Content Upgrade resource)

Pro Tip: The Power of The Yellow Box

Here’s one of the most surprising things I learned from this campaign:

The simple yellow box I added to my blog post grabbed A LOT of attention.

Just look at how many people clicked on the little yellow box vs. the massive download image.

Yellow Box:

Huge download image:

As you can see, people’s eyes (and cursors) naturally gravitate to the yellow box.

I highly recommend using a yellow box on your site so that you maximize the number of clicks and opt-ins that you generate from your Content Upgrade.

Here’s the code you can add to your theme’s “functions.php” file (or “custom_functions.php” on Thesis) to create a yellow box:

function make_yellowbox($atts, $content = null) { return '<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0 0 #ff9; clear: both; margin-bottom: 18px; overflow: hidden; border: 1px solid #e5e597; padding: 13px;">' . do_shortcode($content) . '</p>'; } add_shortcode('yellowbox', 'make_yellowbox');

Once the code it added, any text wrapped inside of this shortcode will appear in a yellow box.

[yellowbox]Here is the text in the yellow box[/yellowbox]

Step #5: Get More Email Subscribers

Now that you have the Content Upgrade set up, you should notice a massive increase in subscribers coming from that page.

But don’t stop there.

I’ve since added The Content Upgrade to three additional posts at Backlinko. Like with my Google Ranking Factors post, conversions on those other page have shot through the roof.

In fact, The Content Upgrade has brought in an EXTRA 655 subscribers in only 18 days:

Because it works so well, The Content Upgrade is going to be the focus of my list building from now on.

So I recommend repeating The Content Upgrade process on other high-traffic pages on your site.

The more you scale this process, the more you’ll increase conversions on your website.