How to Add Content Upgrades to Your WordPress Site Posts

The way we build email list is dynamic, older practices that once worked has started to see a decline, prompting the need for more innovation. Every time there is a new email list-building strategy that is rightly implemented, it brings in desired result.

At one point, internet marketers saw a spike in list growth by using pop-ups to collect mailing details of visitors. While this method still works if you implement it correctly using the Exit Intent technology, you can get a lot more conversion combining pop-us with “Content Upgrades”,  an email list building strategy that brings tremendous growth to your email list.

Content Upgrades involves you creating a optin form with the intent of allowing visitors get access to upgrades. In other for them to get access to your offer, they will need to provide their mailing details to receive the download link.

Bear in mind that the contents to be downloaded must not necessarily be an extension of your original article on your site, it could be a free bonus download closely related to your article or a bit of highly informative content that can richly compliment for what already exists on your site.

Examples of Content Upgrades include the following:

Cheat Sheet: This includes a list of actionable things one can do in other to get results. Cheat Sheet articles basically goes straight to the point, either showing guides to get a task done or releasing a new dimension of information previously unknown.

Transcripts: Have podcasts or videos? Rather than releasing the transcripts freely why not ask users to get the transcript by downloading it on their inbox? A lot of people will love this without even thinking about your intention, which of course is to grow your list.

Why will anyone need a transcript? Obviously, people can miss a line or words because of different factors like accent, a transcript makes everything fit in properly.

Bonus Content: You rarely see people turn down free things. If you have high quality stuff you can give out for free, visitors will definitely be interested and you will get a lot of conversions. Bonus contents could be a cheat sheet that we have already talked about, free game, checklists or an e-book. A lot of things qualify for a bonus; you just have to figure out what you are willing to give in other to gain more conversions.

Read-Later Content: If you have a very resourceful content, you can make each of them have a PDF format and offer it to readers who might want to own it. That is, they want to have access to it anytime without the need to be online. This is a big task, but the reward will be exponential if you can get this strategy to work.

How Does Content Upgrade Work?

You already have an idea of how content upgrade works, but for an extended knowledge of how to make this work effectively, you need to be determined to offer contents for free with great value. No one is going to download an offer with little or no value.

Therefore, you must first pay attention to what your readers are going to get directly on your site, which will go a long way in prompting to download what you have to offer as a gift. Remember that every download is an addition to your email list, so if you have what your visitors want, you will get the email list growth rate that you deserve.

Everything about content upgrade can be summed as thus:

1. Create an opt-in form to display your offer
2. Visitors provide their mailing details
3. Link to download the offer is sent to their inbox
4. Email details of visitors who download the offer is stored in your backend
5. Exponential growth of your email list becomes visible

Now, before we get too carried away but what content upgrades can do for you; let us find out how to offer and deliver content upgrades in WordPress using the MailOptin plugin.

Adding Content Upgrades to WordPress Posts

To make this email list building strategy work on WordPress, you need to install and activate MailOptin. Once you have all the basic settings done, (read the documentation to learn how to set up MailOptin), you should be able to get Content Upgrade working on your site using the its “Click Launch Trigger”.

Activating Click Launch Trigger

Firstly, create a new opt-in campaign using any of the opt-in theme of your choice. A lightbox or pop-up is preferred.

In the form builder, go to  “Display Rules” >> “Click Launch” and activate Rule.

Copy any of the shortcodes or HTML codes and paste it on the page you intend to offer content upgrade.

Here is the deal, once you save the shortcode in your post or page, there is going to be a clickable link right where the shortcode or HTML code is inserted. When a visitor clicks on the link, an opt-in form will be triggered. The visitor will  prompted to provide his mailing details to receive the content you have offered.

More information on click launch trigger and the various shortcodes and HTML codes is available in the documentation.

Don’t forget to connect your email service provider or email marketing software at the “integration” panel to store all leads such as MailChimp, Drip, AWeber, Campaign Monitor, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign etc.

Delivering Content Upgrades

Let’s now take a look at how to deliver the content upgrade we promised the user after they opt-in to our email list.

Display Download Link as Success Message

You can show a download link as a success message inside your pop-up opt-in form immediately users successfully subscribe to your list.

To do this, edit the opt-in form in MailOptin form builder and add a link to download the upgrade in the success message.

This is how users will see the success message after subscribing to your list.

Redirect to Thank You or Download Page

You can also choose to redirect users to a thank you or download page that will contain a link or button to get the upgrade.

Welcome Email to New Subscribers

Most email service providers and email marketing softwares offer autoresponder features where you can send welcome emails to new users. You can use it to send the download link to the user.

Check with your provider or software maker to see if they offer this feature or you can use MailOptin’s autoresponder.

Wrapping Up

Content upgrade is a gold mine for internet marketers in that it involves a low-effort process to get a lot of conversions. Content upgrade can only work and produce best results when you have high quality contents on your site and can equally offer valued contents for your visitors.

When you have these two things in place, then you need the right email list building tools to collect the mailing details of your visitors who have decided to accept your offer, and that’s where MailOptin comes into place. The plugin brings a simple, yet holistic solution to getting the job done using its built-in Click Launch Trigger feature.

Work with this, and watch your email list grow tremendously. The results are going to really add momentum to your email list building journey.