Content Upgrade Archives

How to Use Content Upgrades to Grow Your Email List Exponentially

September 30, 2025 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

This blog post was originally published on October, 12th, 2016. It has been updated with new information about content upgrades. However the original information is still acurate and much of it was left intact or slightly changed to reflect the length of time since it was originally published.

One of the best ways to grow your business is to grow your email list. That way you can advertise to a reliable source of potential customers who have already expressed an interest in your product or service.

But growing your email list can be a slow and painful process. Many business owners feel like it’s a waste of time and they don’t get enough ROI for the effort they put in. So they give up and either buy lists (which can be just as expensive and worse for your business), or they don’t bother.

I’m going to tell you about a secret tool that’s incredibly easy to use and will help you grow your email list exponentially. This is a secret that thousands of bloggers, businesses, and marketers use every day to grow their lists. These folks make millions of dollars selling their products and services, and promoting other people’s products.

This secret tool is so powerful, it can easily boost your opt-in rate by up to 34%, especially compared to standard lead magnets.

According to LeadCapture.io’s case studies in 2024 and 2025, using this amazing secret tool can double your lead capture rates, possibly more.

In 2016, Bryan Harris (then of Videofruit fame, now running Growth Tools) used this tool all the time, and he had a 20-30% opt-in rate on his blog posts.

Brian Dean of Backlinko used the same tool and it improved his site-wide conversion rate 185%.

I still see opt-in rates of between 15% and 33% whenever I use this amazing tool on my blog, even after 9 years!

You can get the same results if you use it.

What is this incredible tool that will boost your opt-in rate and help you grow your bottom line?

It’s called a content upgrade. You can add them to any blog post. And because you’re grabbing your reader’s attention with something they’re actually interested in (because they’re reading your blog post), your reader is more likely to opt-in to get one.

What is a Content Upgrade?

First of all, credit where credit is due. I learned about content upgrades when I worked at Leadpages. They learned about content upgrades from all the bloggers who were using their service. People like Bryan Harris, Brian Dean and Pat Flynn. But Leadpages helped popularize this tool in 2014.

A content upgrade is a different sort of lead magnet. If you’ve read my blog before, you’ve probably heard me talk about lead magnets and how to use them. If you want to see one in action, click on the “Get Your Free Report” button on the right side of this page.

A lead magnet is typically something anyone in your audience would want to download. It should have a general appeal. It’s usually a chapter of a book or a resource guide (like mine.)

A content upgrade is specific to the blog post it’s attached to. It’s designed to complement or “upgrade” the blog post so you’re giving your reader something extra, something of value, in exchange for their email addresses.

I use content upgrades all the time in my blog posts. Some of you have probably downloaded them, which is how you ended up getting weekly notifications every time I publish a blog post. In fact, I’ve created a content upgrade for this post. Keep reading to find out how to get your copy.

How Do You Make a Content Upgrade?

A content upgrade should take no more than an hour to create. It should be a digital file of some sort that site visitors can download and receive immediately. I usually use a PDF or Word .doc file, depending on how I want people to use the content upgrade.

Most importantly, your content upgrade should offer extra value. It should give your reader something they don’t necessarily get from the blog post. Or it should present the information in the blog post in a different form.

Content Upgrades can be as simple or complex as you want them to be, both in value and in design.

Personally, I usually use Canva to design mine because they’re fairly simple. However, I have also used ebook layout platforms like Designrr.io for longer documents and ebooks.

I’ve also just uploaded a Word doc or linked to a Google doc, depending on what I’m offering and whether I want new subscribers to be able to add information to the content upgrade easily.

Here are some ideas for content upgrades:

Checklists – A basic checklist that breaks down all of the steps in a complex process or all of the components someone would need to include in a project. (I use this one a lot.)
Idea Lists – A list of ideas related to the blog post topic. (This blog post has one of these, which you can download.)
Topic Guides: A list of instructions on how to use the technique you described in your blog post.
Buyers’ Guides: All the information on a product, including available options, that a potential customer would need to make the decision to buy your product.
Spreadsheets: This is especially effective if your blog post is about some sort of statistics or calculations.
FAQ Sheets: Answers to common questions about the post topic

If you want more ideas, just click on the button in the next section to download the Content Upgrade Ideas List.

How Do You Get People to Download Your Content Upgrade?

First, you tell them about it in your blog post. Just like I did in the last sentence of the last section, and a few other places. You can also link to it several times throughout the post.

Always add a button at least once in your post. Make it big and obvious. And tell them what they’re getting when they click on the button. Use a strong call to action on the button itself.

DOWNLOAD THE CONTENT UPGRADE IDEAS LIST NOW

See, wasn’t that effective? (Did you click on the button? You should click on the button, just like I told you to earlier in this post.)

Yes, I’m being silly. But your goal is to get more email addresses, so you do want to make your content upgrade easily available.

How Do I Deliver My Content Upgrade?

You can do it the old-fashioned way and send it manually every time you get a new email address added your ESP. I know people who do this, but it’s very time-consuming and can be a real hassle, especially if you get behind in your deliveries. It also puts you in violation of the CAN SPAM ACT (yes, a real government acronym) and may result in your emails geting caught in the spam filters.

There are lots of automatic delivery systems out there.

Most email service providers (ESP) and content relationship management (CRM) software systems include file hosting so you can link to your content upgrade.

Many all-in-one marketing systems like GoHighLevel, Ontraport, and Simplero also include file hosting as part of their services.

If your system doesn’t offer this option, you can just upload your content upgrade to a Google Drive and set the permissions to “Anyone with the link” so your subscribers can download it easily. (I’ll explain how that works in the next section.)

What Happens Once My Content Upgrade is Delivered?

As soon as someone receives your content upgrade, they should also receive an automated email, delivered by your ESP or CRM, thanking them for downloading your content upgrade and letting them know what will happen next.

In my case, you get an email that includes the link to download the Content Upgrade Ideas List. It also tells you that you’re now subscribed to my blog.

I strongly recommend that you send this email from your ESP or CRM, instead of letting people download your content upgrade from a Thank You page after they opt in.

There are two reasons for this:

You want your new subscribers to open and read that first email, so it tells their ISP (internet service provider i.e. Gmail, Outlook, etc.) that this new subscriber wants to receive your emails, so please put them in the Primary inbox.
This trains your new subscribers to look for and open your emails, going forward.

You can also send a follow-up email welcome sequence to guide your new subscriber towards a specific goal, like making a purchase or signing up for a course. (You’ll see my email welcome sequence when you click on the button below to get your Content Upgrade Ideas List.)

Congratulations! You’re In On the Secret of Content Upgrades

Now go create some of your own to go with blog posts, articles, or whatever else you may want to attach them to.

(Oh yeah, don’t forget to click on the button below to download my Content Upgrade Ideas List, so you see this process in action.)

DOWNLOAD THE CONTENT UPGRADE IDEAS LIST NOW

Grow Your Email List with the Help of Your Current Audience using GoViral

May 2, 2018 by Tanya Brody Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago, I learned about a new tool called GoViral. It’s put out by Growth Tools, which is run by Bryan Harris of Videofruit. The best part? It’s free! Don’t worry, there’s a link to get your own account at the end of this post. Or, if you’re absolutely desperate to see how it works right now, click on the button below.

The idea behind this tool is you give away a lead magnet in trade for having people give you exposure to their friends, social media followers, etc.

Yes, this is a really standard method of growing your audience. But Bryan Harris and his team have made this ridiculously easy to use, and to track.

More importantly, they’ve made it ridiculously easy for people to share your lead magnets with their networks. It’s awesome.

I decided to experiment with GoViral to see how it works and what results I got from it.

Please note: My experiments are far from scientific, or thorough. But even this little foray into playing with this tool will show you how well this tool works.

Here’s what I did…

Experiment #1: Asking My Email Subscribers to Share a Blog Post

I have a very modest email list, which I email every weekday. (Even copywriters should get time off.)

GoViral gives the option to share on several social media and blogging platforms. So, I asked my email subscribers to share one of my old blog posts on their Facebook walls.

If you’re on my email list, you’ll recognize the email I sent below. If not, you really should be. Sign up here, or subscribe via the popup box at the bottom, right corner of this window.

Subject line: Would you share this for me please?

Hi there,

I’m testing out a new tool to grow your email list. I want to see how it works for me, then I’ll report back here next week.

The best thing about this particular tool? It’s free!

The best thing about this test? I’ll give you an awesome cheat sheet to build a better relationship with your potential customers.

Here’s what I need you to do:

Click on this link and follow the instructions to share one of my blog posts with your friends on Facebook.

Collect your Customer Relationship Cheat Sheet after you’ve shared the blog post.

Tune in next Wednesday when I tell you the results of this experiment.

Thanks very much!

Tanya

https://tanyabrodycopywriter.com/

To be fair, I really wasn’t done playing around with this tool yet, so I didn’t report in the next Wednesday. Instead, I’m reporting in the following Wednesday, via this blog post.

Of the 39 people who read my email, 6 of them shared the blog post.

That may not seem like a lot, and I did mention, my email list is small.

The results were noticeable.

My Facebook post reached 298 people. (I don’t know why Facebook registers this post as having been shared 5 times instead of 6, but there you are.)

Now, compare that to my last blog post, which only reached 80 people, and wasn’t shared at all.

Or this one from last year, which only reached 22 people, with no shares.

This is why GoViral is so effective. You get more exposure by sharing with your current audience, and asking them to share with their audience, and so on and so on and so on. (Which is why it’s called GoViral.)

Personally, I’m thrilled with the results, even though they’re small so far.

Experiment #2: Sharing Facebook Live Posts

Again, if you’re on my email list, you know that I performed this past weekend at the Carleton Artist Lofts Spring St. Paul Art Crawl.

All week long, one post a day, I posted Facebook Lives of some of the songs I’d be performing at this show and asked folks to share them with GoViral to get more exposure for my performance and for the Art Crawl itself. I offered 2 different free songs as lead magnets for 4 posts during the week. (Okay, I missed a day because of unexpected scheduling conflicts.)

The first Facebook live post I shared got 3 shares via GoViral. (Looks like some folks shared without clicking on the GoViral link, which is fine by me.) This post was shared a total of 8 times (according to Facebook), reached 568 people and got 243 views.

My second Facebook Live post was only shared once by GoViral (which was probably me) but according to Facebook, it got 4 shares, which netted 107 views and reached 319 people.

The third Facebook Live post got 3 GoViral shares, 5 total on Facebook, and reached 310 people. It was viewed 96 times.

My fourth and final Facebook Live post that was shared via GoViral only once (again, probably me) but got a total of 5 shares on Facebook, had 93 views and reached 239 people.

Now, compare this to the Facebook Live I did at the show itself, which I didn’t offer a GoViral download for. That one reached 142 people and was only viewed 57 times. And I know I’m the only person who shared it.

Now granted, the longer a post is out in circulation, the more it will be viewed and shared. The first post had a full week from the day this blog post was written to get more views, shares and reach more people, compared to the last post, which I apparently forgot to share myself until today.

By the way, if you want to hear any of these, visit my music Facebook page.

There are a lot of things that will affect how much exposure any given Facebook post will get, including how many people know you and/or like what you’re doing, so they view or share your post for those reasons, versus just sharing a post because they thought it was cool.

But the fact remains that the posts that were shared via GoViral did much better than the one that wasn’t, for this test.

Again, I do not claim that this test was scientific, accurate or precise. It is me playing around with a new tool. But it’s a really fun new tool!

What Can You Share with GoViral and Where?

So, here’s the cool thing. You can share pretty much any digital lead magnet, including:

Checklists
Coupons
Infographics
Buyer’s Guides
Spreadsheets
Resource Guides
MP3s

You do need a place to store your downloads online, GoViral doesn’t store them for you. But that’s pretty easy to set up. To be candid, I’ve got mine in a Google Drive folder. You can also use your website or other online storage like Dropbox.

Here is the list of places you can share lead magnets with GoViral.

You’ll notice at the bottom you can have someone email a friend or send them to a specific URL, which is a great way to share sales announcements, landing pages, your website and more.

Personally, I can see dozens of uses for this tool, for my clients’ businesses and for my own.

How to Set Up a GoViral Campaign

Once you’ve signed up for your free account, you do have to add a tracking script to your website. That way you can see how many people share a lead magnet or landing page on your site. Instructions for doing that are on the GoViral website.

Next, you click on the bright orange button on the main page that says Create Campaign.

Now, choose your goal for this campaign from the list.

You customize the landing page for your visitors and add the name of the bonus (or bonuses) they’ll receive for sharing.

Click on “more options” to add your own background image and change the overlay color to your preference. You can also create a “No Thanks” message and link to another page to give people a way to decline to share and still get another message, if you want to take them to a final Thank You page or another page on your website.

Next, you’ll choose the call to action you want to use, as per the dropdown menu above. You’ll link to the page or post you want to share and (depending on your CTA) choose the advanced settings to verify that someone has shared your post.

Finally, you’ll customize your download page by adding the link to your downloadable item(s). You can even add a special “Ghost Item” as an extra bonus.

Once you click “Next,” you’ll have the link to your GoViral campaign. You get the option of a standard link, which you can hide behind text or a button, or a “pretty link” which you can leave exposed. FYI, I used the “pretty link” option for all of my Facebook Live posts.

Add that link wherever you need to, including:

In an email asking your subscribers to share your post, landing page, etc.
As a Thank You page (or just before a Thank You page) after someone subscribes to your email list.
On another social media post.
On your homepage.

You can create multiple campaigns, depending on what you want to share and how you want to share it. You can duplicate a campaign, which makes it easy if you want to share the same lead magnet with different CTAs (so you can share it on different social media platforms, for example.)

By the way, the customer support folks at Growth Tools are fantastic and will help you get up and running ASAP.

Download Your GoViral Setup Checklist and Get Started Now

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t give you a content upgrade for this post. So I’ll give you a checklist of steps and marketing collateral you’ll need to set up a GoViral campaign.

After you opt-in for this content upgrade, you will be asked to share this post with your audience to get another lead magnet, my Lead Magnet Idea List. So, you’ll see how this works in the real world.

Finally, you’ll be taken to the GoViral website, so you can sign up for your own free account.

Click on the button below to get your free setup checklist and see GoViral in action.

Share the results from your GoViral campaigns in the comments below.