How To Implement A Content Upgrade System

A Content Upgrade is a lead magnet that is paired with a specific blog post.

In this webinar we teach you how to make your own content upgrades so you can maximize conversion rates.

Transcript

00:00 oK we've got more and more people
00:02 joining so we're just were slightly
00:05 after the time so I think I'm conscious
00:08 of your guys time everyone that's here
00:10 already I don't want to waste too much
00:13 of your time so I'm just gonna get
00:14 started actually and so we've confirmed
00:18 that you guys can see in the screen so
00:20 I'm just gonna jump in so today I'm
00:24 gonna be talking about how to implement
00:25 a Content upgrade strategy I'm also
00:28 going to throw in some advanced beacon
00:30 tips and tricks along the way but
00:33 generally the purpose of today's webinar
00:35 is to help you guys to generate more
00:38 leads for your business with a content
00:40 upgrade strategy so it's gonna take is
00:44 round about in a heart today so I've
00:46 scheduled out an hour some of that time
00:50 will be spent on the more theoretical
00:51 side of content upgrades but most of the
00:55 session today will be more practical
00:56 tips and tricks to help you guys to
00:59 implement the strategy more effectively
01:02 I'm gonna leave some time for questions
01:04 at the end of the session but that being
01:07 said if you do have any questions as we
01:09 progress through the webinar feel free
01:12 to just ping me in the chat
01:13 I'll stop what I'm doing if I see the
01:15 questions and answer them right away if
01:18 I don't see them at the time don't worry
01:19 I will definitely circle back on all of
01:22 them at the end of the session and I'm
01:25 speaking at the end of the session we
01:26 have some exclusive bonuses that we've
01:29 prepared for you guys and my big fear of
01:32 putting on these webinars is that nobody
01:34 will turn up so the fact that you guys
01:36 are here you're participating and we're
01:39 already off to a good start so thank you
01:42 for participating I've put together some
01:44 exclusive bonuses that are only
01:46 available to you guys and that are
01:47 attending the webinar and I'll give you
01:49 some details about those at the end of
01:51 the session and if you can't stick
01:54 around for the entirety of this session
01:56 and don't worry the webinar is being
01:58 recorded so if you've registered from
02:00 the webinar I will be sending out a link
02:02 to the recording and probably tomorrow
02:04 and but of course if you have any
02:06 questions is probably best to
02:08 participate in the live session so I can
02:11 interact with you and
02:12 life rather than fighting email but yeah
02:15 enough of the host keep and stuff I
02:16 should probably actually give you a
02:18 little bit of background about me my
02:20 name is Kevin McGraw I'm not sure if I
02:22 mentioned that and I'm one of the
02:24 co-founders here at beacon and I'm also
02:26 the CEO so my background is it's in
02:30 design I studied design at university
02:33 and I ran web design and web development
02:37 agency for about six years and so we ran
02:40 that we had a lot of fun and then we
02:42 decided to focus more of our attention
02:43 on beacon so after we launched speaking
02:47 much more of my role has become focused
02:49 on marketing and growing the business so
02:53 I know most of you guys are either
02:54 marketers or you're working at a small
02:57 business where marketing is part of your
03:00 responsibility probably amongst many
03:03 other things and so I know if you're
03:05 anything like me and we all share the
03:08 same goal when it comes to marketing and
03:10 that goal is lead generation we want to
03:13 generate more leads for our business
03:15 that's you know the main purpose of
03:18 marketing sort of to boil at the end its
03:20 simplest it we want to generate more
03:22 leads for our business and the reason
03:24 that we want to do that is because most
03:26 people don't buy from a business on
03:28 their first interaction with them
03:30 especially these days and the internet
03:33 aids that we're living in people like to
03:35 do research before they make a purchase
03:37 now this is true for small consumer
03:40 purchases like a pair of shoes people do
03:43 the research and they might could have
03:45 lots of different websites to compare
03:46 prices to compared and shipping rates
03:49 things like that if they're buying a
03:50 pair of shoes but this is even more true
03:53 if you're buying making big purchases
03:55 for your business so if you're spending
03:58 thousands or tens of thousands of
03:59 dollars on a purchase for your business
04:02 you want to make sure that you get it
04:03 right so that's why you do your research
04:05 and when you're doing your research
04:07 you're trying to find out things like
04:08 has this company worked with another
04:10 business like mine can this company
04:13 offer a solution to the problem that I'm
04:15 facing these are all the questions that
04:17 you're trying to answer as you go about
04:19 doing your research but from a
04:22 marketer's point of view from our point
04:23 of view what we really want to do is we
04:26 want to help
04:26 with that research but we also want to
04:28 be able to stay in touch with you
04:29 through the course of that research
04:31 because of course that research isn't
04:33 going to take place in a single day it's
04:35 probably going to take place over weeks
04:36 or months depending on the size of the
04:38 purchase so from a marketers point of
04:41 view we want your email address so that
04:43 we can stay in touch with you throughout
04:45 that buying journey and so we want lots
04:49 of email addresses right we want lots of
04:51 leads we want more and more leads but at
04:53 the same time we want good leads we want
04:56 leads and email addresses of people who
04:58 are likely to buy from us in the future
05:01 so there's no point in saying that I
05:03 have an email list with twenty or thirty
05:06 thousand people on it if those people
05:08 are never gonna buy from you then
05:10 they're not good leads it's a waste of
05:12 your time and energy to market to these
05:14 people
05:14 so yes we want more leads but of course
05:17 we want better leads at the same time so
05:22 in order to get email addresses
05:24 marketers have been doing this for
05:26 decades if you give somebody something
05:29 of value in exchange for their email
05:31 address they're more likely to give it
05:33 to you so if you think about it if you
05:35 walk up to a stranger and say hey can I
05:38 have your email address they're gonna
05:39 say no get away from me absolute weirdo
05:42 and because that's generally because
05:45 people that when you're given ID or your
05:48 email address is precious to you you're
05:50 not just gonna give it away if there's
05:51 nothing in it for you
05:52 so what marketers have been doing and
05:55 because we're smart phones is we give
05:57 them something like an e-book in
06:00 exchange for their email address now
06:02 this this is a landing page of like any
06:06 other landing page on you see on the
06:10 internet the landing page offers an
06:12 e-book you can see in the center of the
06:14 screen and then it asks for the readers
06:17 contact information to the right and the
06:21 theory here is good and this ebook
06:24 probably contains lots of good
06:25 information and it's 92 pages long it's
06:28 gonna take you an hour to read it so it
06:30 better include good information and so
06:33 if you want this information give us
06:35 your name give us your email address now
06:37 that's that's pretty good in theory that
06:39 you know that
06:40 absolute sense and this is a strategy
06:42 that does work and so when people offer
06:45 ebooks they typically do it on a landing
06:49 page so they have a dedicated landing
06:51 page and they're offering the prospect a
06:53 lead magnet I'm not sure if everyone's
06:56 familiar with the phrase lead magnet but
06:59 it essentially means a downloadable
07:01 piece of content like an e-book or a
07:03 white paper and something that's
07:07 basically information based that you're
07:09 giving your prospects to help nurture
07:11 their journey to becoming a customer now
07:14 there's two parts of this strategy the
07:17 landing page and the lead magnet itself
07:20 now I have a bit of a problem with this
07:23 strategy and I want to tell you why the
07:26 lead magnet strategy is flawed I'm not
07:29 saying that it's it's a disaster and it
07:31 will never work but I do believe that
07:33 the lead magnet strategy at the moment
07:35 is flawed basically if you're putting a
07:39 lead magnet up on a landing page you're
07:41 going to have to spend a lot of time
07:43 preparing the content for that lead
07:45 magnet if you're putting together a
07:47 dedicated landing page the lead magnet
07:49 is gonna have to be pretty impressive so
07:52 if you think in terms of ebooks or white
07:54 papers it's gonna have to be quite long
07:56 we saw in the previous example the
07:58 e-book was a hundred pages so you're
08:00 gonna have to put together an e-book
08:02 it's a hundred pages long can you just
08:05 think of it the time spent creating that
08:07 content editing that content packaging
08:10 the content up into the eBook format
08:12 that's a lot of work for you to do on
08:15 top of that if you're presenting this
08:17 lead magnet on a dedicated landing page
08:20 that's a new pedes on your website but
08:22 you're going to have to start driving
08:23 traffic towards so you're not having the
08:26 benefit of say like a blog post which is
08:28 already getting organic traffic you're
08:31 gonna have to come up with a new traffic
08:32 acquisition strategy in order to drive
08:35 customers to the page once you get them
08:38 to the page you're gonna have to start
08:40 warming them up to this idea of an ebook
08:42 why should they download an e-book
08:44 what's the benefit of it to them so once
08:47 they the prospect comes to your page
08:49 you're essentially starting from scratch
08:52 another problem that we find with these
08:54 large lead magnets is that you try to
08:56 appeal to everyone I'm sure you guys are
08:59 all familiar with various different
09:03 customer personas in various different
09:05 stages of the buying lifecycle so say if
09:08 you have three or four different
09:09 customer personas all with their own
09:11 individual needs and problems that they
09:13 want you to solve and each one of these
09:16 prospects and personas might be at a
09:19 different stage in the bang's process
09:21 some may have never heard of your
09:23 company others may be very familiar with
09:25 what you do just need a general gentle
09:27 nudge so how can you possibly put
09:30 together a single lead magnet that
09:32 appeals to everybody that you could
09:35 potentially sail to I think it's
09:38 impossible to be almost it can't be done
09:40 on top of that and ebooks aren't the new
09:44 kid on the block anymore
09:45 they've been around for a while now and
09:47 as we do as marketers we tend to overdo
09:51 these strategies once we see a bit of
09:53 success for them a little bit that I can
09:55 go sort of to different web pages
09:57 without seeing another free ebook that's
10:00 being downloaded and to be honest people
10:02 have become jaded by the whole ebook
10:05 strategy whenever I see any book my
10:07 general reaction is another ebook that
10:11 I'm gonna download I'm probably not
10:13 gonna read it because you know it's 92
10:16 pages long it's gonna take me an artery
10:18 and it's ultimately just gonna sit
10:20 gathering dust and another folder on my
10:22 computer I actually have a folder it was
10:25 just a books that I haven't read every
10:27 time I brought his past that folder in
10:29 my computer finder I just feel really
10:31 guilty I feel guilty that I haven't
10:33 liked taking the time to read these
10:36 ebooks and it's not that I don't want to
10:38 read them it's just that I just don't
10:41 have the time I know I work hard during
10:43 the day I spend time with my family in
10:46 the evening I don't want to spend my
10:47 evenings reading and ebooks from other
10:50 marketers it's it's just the way it is
10:52 and I think a lot of people feel like
10:54 that as well at the minute but don't
10:58 worry there is a solution to the jaded
11:00 lead magnet strategy and that's
11:02 basically what I want to go over with
11:04 you guys today
11:05 so the solution that we've seen around
11:07 the internet and that's been having
11:08 really great results it's the content
11:11 upgrade strategy now content upgrade up
11:14 if I could even say it the content
11:17 upgrade is a targeted resource for
11:19 individual blog posts so instead of
11:22 having a dedicated landing page for a
11:24 big ebook type resource it's just a
11:27 bonus offered as part of a blog post so
11:31 let's see that in action let's take a
11:34 quick drink of water so this is a
11:40 website called backlinko 11:41
if you're not familiar with the site
11:44 it's run by a guy called brian dean my
11:46 brian is a super smart search engine
11:49 optimization expert he writes about
11:51 everything to do with SEO and he's built
11:55 this blog up over the years you can see
11:56 this article itself is twelve thousand
11:59 shares um you know this guy knows how to
12:01 produce good content but you see if you
12:04 scrolled I'm about halfway down the page
12:06 and there's this yellow box so this
12:10 yellow box is embedded just in the
12:12 center of the blog post well actually
12:15 it's just after the introduction so it's
12:16 near the start of the blog post and if
12:19 you can't read that text it says free
12:21 bonus click here to get access to a free
12:24 PDF checklist which usually hard to
12:26 execute all of the 17 techniques from
12:29 this post and the checklist also
12:31 includes two bonus strategies now if you
12:36 were to click on that box you would get
12:38 a pop-up like this that's asking for
12:40 your email address and if you enter your
12:43 email address you could send a PDF that
12:46 looks like this and if essentially am a
12:49 short checklist
12:50 I think this checklist is about two or
12:52 three pages long and it contains these
12:54 17 SEO copywriting copywriting secrets
12:58 now when Brian added this little yellow
13:02 box so it's just this small yellow box
13:04 when he added that to his this blog post
13:07 he saw eight times more leads than when
13:10 before he implemented this strategy so
13:14 if you think about it the article was
13:16 already there was already performing
13:18 well
13:19 he added this one technique and it
13:21 generated him eight times more leads and
13:23 if he had done nothing at all
13:25 so like when you see results like that
13:28 it just makes me think like what other
13:30 opportunities are we missing out on by
13:32 not implementing something small so
13:36 that's what a Content upgrade is really
13:38 a Content upgrade is a short actionable
13:41 download so it's not your hundred page
13:44 ebook it's a one-page checklist or a two
13:46 page resource guide more than that a
13:49 Content upgrade builds on the subject of
13:52 a blog post so if we go back to Brian's
13:55 blog post you can see that the title of
13:57 the blog post is SEO copywriting 17
14:00 powerful secrets and the free bonus that
14:03 is given away it's a checklist that
14:05 shows you how to execute all the
14:07 techniques from the post so the blog
14:09 post is the theory and the free bonus is
14:12 the practical application of that theory
14:15 so it's like a 2 + 1 prospect nurturing
14:19 dream you're educating people with your
14:22 blog posts they're already interested in
14:24 the blog post they're reading it then
14:25 you're helping them to implement the
14:27 advice from the blog post with your
14:28 download it's it's such a simple
14:31 strategy and that's why it's so
14:32 effective um so as we saw in Brian's
14:36 example his blog is already getting
14:37 traffic what he's doing is he's just
14:39 capitalizing on that existing traffic
14:42 also because he knows that a certain
14:45 type of people will read that blog post
14:47 that he wrote know after all the blog
14:49 post is typically targeted towards a
14:52 specific persona at a specific stage in
14:55 the buying cycle so he can be very
14:57 targeted about anyone who downloaded
14:59 that content upgrade he knows right
15:02 I can segment them as a copywriter
15:05 that's interested in SEO so when he has
15:07 that extra information he's more likely
15:10 to sale and market to them more
15:12 appropriately in the future so they're
15:14 more likely to purchase his premium
15:15 products from him and most importantly I
15:19 think this content upgrade strategy
15:21 results in a high conversion rates so
15:24 your conversion rate is essentially the
15:27 percentage of people that come to your
15:29 blog post give you their email address
15:32 so if you have a hundred people come to
15:34 your blog post and can of them give you
15:36 their email address your conversion rate
15:38 is 10 percent the higher your conversion
15:42 rate the more efficiently you're using
15:44 your traffic and the more efficiently
15:46 you use your traffic it means that the
15:48 less resources time and money you have
15:51 to spend on driving more traffic to your
15:54 blog posts so optimizing for conversion
15:56 rates is the simplest thing that you can
15:59 do to generate more leads without
16:01 spending more money so that's how Brian
16:04 did it but I want to show you a few
16:05 other examples too this example is from
16:09 a software company called wish bond and
16:12 wisp on did something really similar to
16:15 Brian
16:15 they wrote a blog post with great
16:17 educational content in it and then about
16:20 half way down the page they included
16:22 this call to action the yellow box says
16:25 free checklist download a free five step
16:28 checklist to optimize your sales funnel
16:31 using conversion psychology plus two
16:33 bonus factors not included in this post
16:36 it's the same thing that Brian did
16:38 you're taking a post that was performing
16:41 well and giving their readers a reason
16:44 to download an actionable piece of
16:48 content that can help them implement the
16:50 strategy so the readers happy they're
16:52 getting something that helps them and
16:54 the wishbone guys are happy because
16:56 they're getting an email address they're
16:57 getting more leads
16:58 when wishpond did made this change they
17:01 generated sixteen times more leads than
17:05 before they added a content upgrade to
17:07 this article now I just want to stop a
17:10 wee minute
17:10 and let that sink in they had a blog
17:13 post they made one simple change and it
17:16 resulted in sixteen times more leads for
17:19 their business and these are leads that
17:21 will keep common because a blog post
17:23 keeps generating traffic and people will
17:29 keep reading the content and people
17:31 people will keep being attracted to the
17:34 free bonus that people are offering
17:35 people will keep opting into it it's a
17:38 lifelong evergreen strategy and so
17:41 here's another example this one is from
17:44 another software a company called
17:46 groove groove may help desk software
17:49 this article has got some content
17:52 marketing email scripts so they're
17:54 telling people how to write emails that
17:57 help them with their content marketing
17:58 and you'll see instead of the yellow box
18:01 the groove guys did this blue box at the
18:04 bottom of the screen and it says join
18:06 our newsletter and get all 17 scripts
18:09 free in PDF format so it's the exact
18:12 same strategy educate people with the
18:14 article help them to execute on the
18:17 education with the free download so this
18:22 strategy as well I know for groove that
18:24 resulted in I think a five times
18:26 increase in leads when they when they
18:30 use the content upgrade strategy so
18:32 again a simple change and five times
18:35 more leads so why are these guys seeing
18:38 such big results from what's effectively
18:41 a very simple strategy like why is this
18:43 working and we thought about it a lot
18:46 and we've done in some research and
18:47 basically it comes down to three things
18:49 they're offering something that's really
18:51 short to people and I'm sure I'm not the
18:55 only one here today that has a short
18:58 attention span and I know I definitely
19:00 have a short attention span so if I can
19:02 download something it's short I'm more
19:04 likely to do it then another 100 page
19:06 ebook that I'm just gonna ignore
19:09 guiltily let gather dust on my hard
19:11 drive the other reason why this works is
19:14 that it's useful you know these aren't
19:16 just some generic downloads that people
19:18 are offering they're directly related to
19:20 the blog post and it's helping them to
19:23 implement tactical practical advice so
19:26 you're helping me to get a little bit
19:27 further in the goals that I'm trying to
19:29 achieve and because the content upgrades
19:32 are being offered as part of a blog post
19:35 the readers are already engaged you know
19:37 if someone's reading your blog posts
19:39 they're engaged that's half the battle
19:41 is wrong the next part of the battle is
19:43 just convincing them that you can help
19:45 them further and thrown out with a
19:47 content upgrade and really does work
19:50 people are more likely to opt in when
19:52 they're already engaged
19:55 and so before we go to the next session
19:57 I just want to check in on the questions
20:01 okay so with a question from Fred our
20:04 results better with a box like that
20:06 versus an opt-in form from an
20:07 autoresponder you use convertkit okay so
20:12 a box like this I presume you're
20:15 referring to our results better with a
20:18 box like that versus an opt-in form
20:20 yeah auto auto responders are good and
20:29 you know that's I'm trying to think of
20:32 the yellow box that Brian used yes
20:35 definitely the results from a box like
20:39 this is much better if you'll notice
20:41 that the box and sits within the main
20:44 flow of the blog post it's um you're not
20:48 asking people to divert their attention
20:49 from the post
20:50 you think it's part of the actual post
20:53 so they're more likely to just continue
20:55 reading whereas if you have a pop-up
20:57 down in the bottom right hand corner
20:59 people have almost trained themselves to
21:01 ignore anything that sort of pops up as
21:04 they scroll and so if you can include
21:06 your call to action within the main flow
21:09 of the blog post you're gonna see better
21:11 results so yeah that that's a good
21:13 question and definitely I would say to
21:16 use the inline forms so just a quick
21:23 clarification from Fred on the question
21:25 he says that his forms are inline in the
21:27 content like this just not a linked box
21:30 okay so what Fred is saying is that the
21:33 opt-in form with asking for the email
21:35 address appears right here um where is
21:39 in Brian's strategy you need to click to
21:41 see the opt-in form so actually
21:44 leadpages did some research into this
21:46 and they say that the two-stage up to
21:49 the two-stage call-to-action is more
21:51 effective than the single stage one so
21:54 Fred you're offering a single stage
21:56 opt-in box
21:58 um and what you'll find is that people
22:00 if people see that you're asking for
22:03 their details and that'll be signaled
22:05 with an email box like an imp
22:08 form people will ignore it they'll just
22:10 go over it so I'll try and dig out the
22:14 research but leadpages did a lot of
22:15 research into this and they were very
22:17 conclusive in saying a two-stage opt-in
22:20 forms convert better so that helps
22:25 all right so let's jump back down and so
22:30 be on before we move on to the next
22:32 stage um I just want to recap so what's
22:36 the difference between a content upgrade
22:38 and a lead magnet so basically a content
22:42 upgrade is embedded within a blog post
22:44 where as a lead magnet has a dedicated
22:47 landing page a Content upgrade builds on
22:50 the content of a blog post a lead magnet
22:53 and relies on standalone content content
22:57 upgrades are short lead magnets are
22:59 usually much longer content upgrades
23:03 contain actionable content lead magnets
23:05 are generally more educational
23:07 especially if you think of things like
23:09 ebooks and white papers it's educational
23:11 content there's not much that the reader
23:13 can actually do with it and so content
23:17 upgrades use existing traffic lead
23:19 magnets require you to drive new traffic
23:22 to the page with content upgrades your
23:25 prospect is nurtured by a blog post but
23:27 with a lead magnet your prospect
23:29 effectively needs convinced by the
23:31 landing page on the land there so
23:34 content upgrades have high conversion
23:36 rates typically lead magnets have lower
23:39 conversion rates and that's basically
23:41 because of all these different factors
23:43 and the prospect being nurtured by the
23:45 blog post fact that you're getting more
23:47 traffic more qualified traffic that all
23:49 leads to high conversion rates so with
23:54 all that in mind what I am saying to you
23:57 is that content upgrades should become
23:59 part of your blogging routine so every
24:03 time that you create a content upgrade
24:05 or every time that you write a blog post
24:07 you should be creating a content upgrade
24:10 to go along with it
24:12 so your blogging strategy probably looks
24:16 something like this when you're putting
24:18 together a blog post you do some
24:19 research you write the blog post you
24:22 probably optimize the post for search
24:24 engines and then you hit the publish
24:26 button what I'm proposing is that you
24:28 add an extra step into that process so
24:32 you'll still do your research you'll
24:34 obviously still write the blog post
24:35 optimize it for search
24:37 but before you click publish you should
24:40 create a Content upgrade and offer it in
24:42 line with the blog post no I know what
24:46 you're thinking
24:49 you've got me onto this webinar just the
24:52 townie that I need to do more work here
24:56 yeah but bear with me it is slightly
24:59 more work but the results I think speak
25:02 for themselves were seeing 16 times more
25:04 leads it times more leads five times
25:05 more leads it's slightly more work but
25:08 the whole purpose of this webinar is I
25:11 want to show you how we can create these
25:14 content upgrades without having to spend
25:19 a lot of your time and Michael says that
25:22 he loves the coffee mug I know I just
25:23 googled this image and I got it I have
25:25 to get this coffee mug though I get this
25:27 it sums up my mood in the morning before
25:29 I get the coffee um but yes sorry so big
25:32 and can help to speed up the content
25:34 upgrade strategy for you and that's what
25:36 I want to show you today I want to show
25:38 you these time-saving tips so that you
25:41 can implement content upgrades into your
25:43 blog posts quickly so you can start
25:46 seeing 16 X mornings it X more leads
25:49 without having to spend lots of time and
25:53 lots of money to do that so I've got a
25:56 few tricks that I'm going to show you
25:57 the first one is I'm going to show you
25:58 how to set up brand colors I think this
26:01 is the quickest probably the most
26:03 overlooked feature within beacon that I
26:05 think people can really benefit from I
26:07 also want to show you how you can create
26:09 a reusable content library so that you
26:12 can drop in pieces of content into any
26:14 content upgrade that you create in the
26:16 future and I also want to show you how
26:19 we can create a reusable template so
26:21 that people can are so that you guys can
26:24 create your branding and just keep
26:28 reusing it instead of having to work
26:30 from scratch every time alright so let
26:34 me see I'm just gonna switch into my
26:38 browser bear with me
26:41 so okay can everyone see that we're in
26:46 Beacon trying to locate my mice okay yes
26:54 can you see that we are in Beacon now if
26:58 you could just confirm in the chat that
26:59 you're seeing what I'm seeing that would
27:01 be great and actually while I'm working
27:05 through this feel free to have your own
27:09 Beacon account open and so you can
27:11 follow along with me all right so we've
27:14 got confirmation people can see the
27:15 screen perfect all right so this is the
27:18 normal beacon interface and what I've
27:22 done is I've created a workbook from one
27:24 of our standard templates so this
27:26 probably looks familiar to you and so
27:29 this is the laptop template if we go
27:31 through it we have a cover page we have
27:33 a short introduction and we have a
27:36 worksheet with some questions that
27:39 people can answer and if you're not
27:41 familiar with workbooks they're a really
27:43 great content upgrade because they are
27:46 really actionable content if you can
27:48 create a workbook that asks your users
27:50 questions and then prompts them to
27:52 answer the questions in their own time
27:54 it's almost like a like a school
27:56 exercise you're helping people to think
27:59 about strategic things and by working
28:01 through the process on their own so
28:03 worksheets and workbooks are great so
28:05 that's one worksheet page another
28:07 worksheet page a third worksheet and a
28:11 fourth worksheet and then the content
28:14 upgrade finishes with a call to action
28:18 so as you can see this whole workbook
28:22 kimmy contains sort of generic content
28:24 generic imagery and it's a generic color
28:27 scheme it's just sort of purple
28:29 throughout and so if you choose this
28:32 template for your content upgrade you go
28:34 through each page and you look at each
28:36 page and decide what you need to
28:38 customize for your business so the first
28:40 thing right you're gonna have to change
28:42 that logo and this the color of this
28:45 font isn't our brand color and so bacon
28:49 uses a green brand color so we'd have to
28:51 change that on the introduction page
28:54 again
28:55 I'm gonna have to change this purple
28:57 title this purple text again there's
29:02 what the titles in purple all these
29:04 boxes are in purple you know as you go
29:06 through the document there's 20 or 30
29:09 things that I'm gonna have to change in
29:11 here just to get the color scheme in
29:13
line with my brand so already that
29:17 that's probably like 120 minutes work
29:19 just to get the colors set up and the
29:21 way that you need to for your company
29:23 and so obviously that's that's not ideal
29:26 so 20 minutes is too long for basic
29:28 setup so I want to show you this trick
29:30 and it's buried a little bit under the
29:33 document settings so if you can see in
29:35 the fourth icon down in the left hand
29:37 side is document settings and once you
29:41 open that up you'll see this default
29:42 Styles panel
29:43 so if I click default Styles you'll
29:47 notice that every template within beacon
29:50 all of our standard templates have these
29:52 document template colors set up for you
29:55 and basically what that means is that if
29:58 you set up your template colors you can
30:00 then reuse them throughout the document
30:03 so for example if we go let's go back to
30:07 the cover page open up the default
30:11 styles so I know that this purple title
30:15 is a is one of our template colors that
30:19 were set up here so if I make the change
30:22 to our beacon green and I'll do that
30:25 here you'll notice that the color of the
30:30 text has been changed on the cover page
30:32 but not only that it's been changed on
30:36 every page throughout the document so
30:39 see that title text has changed every
30:42 time so previously I know what a lot of
30:44 people do is they go through and they
30:46 want to manually change the colors of
30:48 every piece of content within the
30:51 content up grid and but that's just
30:54 gonna take forever so if you do it once
30:55 with the default styles it'll update
30:58 throughout the whole document and I've
31:01 probably also noticed that the this
31:02 background didn't change
31:04 that's because the background there is
31:06 using template color too so again I'm
31:09 just going to change that to be our
31:14 brand green color I'm going to take the
31:16 opacity down so that we can we can see
31:21 the image behind it and the background
31:24 color of this button hasn't changed yet
31:26 and that's because that's using template
31:29 color one and so we can see template
31:32 color one is still purple so in order to
31:35 change that we're gonna have to go back
31:36 into our default Styles change template
31:40 color one and I'm gonna put in the
31:42 beacon brand color and that's it updated
31:45 nine so you can see that instead of sort
31:49 of taking 20 minutes to change all the
31:50 colors in the books in the workbook
31:53 we've pretty much just spent about 30
31:57 seconds a minute
31:58 and already we're off to a good start
32:00 our content upgrade is already starting
32:02 to look more and more like our own brand
32:06 so that is my first time saving trick
32:09 and that is how to set up template
32:11 colors in your own publications we've
32:19 got a
32:20 from Raquel Raquel says is there a color
32:24 that should be avoided when branding
32:26 typically not like it's really hard to
32:29 give a definitive answer on this and
32:31 should you avoid a specific color when
32:34 branding honestly no like I don't think
32:37 so like you've seen some gray plant
32:39 friends that are just black and white
32:41 and like apples brand is essentially
32:43 just gray and white um I guess I
32:46 generally try not to go for anything
32:48 that's too garish like so I don't really
32:51 like like really hot pinks and just
32:55 because I think they contrast with other
32:57 pieces of marketing information so I try
32:59 to go for something more subtle and so
33:02 like I didn't go for like a bright green
33:04 here we go for like a more sort of
33:05 subtle version of the green and see I
33:08 don't worry too much about about
33:10 avoiding specific colors when branding
33:12 and does anybody have any other
33:14 questions about the template colors and
33:17 before we move on okay no more questions
33:27 about the template colors so the next
33:29 time saving tip that I want to show you
33:31 guys is how to set up your own reusable
33:34 content library now what you'll probably
33:38 find when you start creating lots of
33:40 content upgrades is that you're going to
33:44 be reusing certain types of content in
33:46 every single content upgrade that you
33:48 make a one example of that would be an
33:51 about the author page I would generally
33:54 recommend whenever you create an upgrade
33:56 a content upgrade includes some
33:59 information about the author to give the
34:02 reader context about who prepared the
34:05 content upgrade you know why should they
34:07 trust you at the end of the day content
34:10 upgrades are designed to nurture
34:11 prospects into becoming qualified reads
34:14 qualified leads as you'd say so the more
34:18 that you can nurture them the more you
34:19 trust them but the more they trust you
34:20 and the more likely they will be to buy
34:22 from you so let's let's create and about
34:26 the author page for this book so I'm
34:28 going to do that yeah underneath the
34:30 pages tab the first tab I'm gonna click
34:32 the yellow and
34:34 you pH button and as you can see there's
34:37 absolutely dozens of types of pH here
34:39 but I'm specifically looking for a one
34:41 that's text focused so I'm just gonna
34:43 filter that and I'm gonna choose this
34:46 two column layout for our about the
34:51 author page so you can see that as soon
34:54 as I added that am page it took on the
34:59 brand color remember the green colors
35:01 that we already set up so I don't have
35:03 to redo that that's already done for
35:05 every new page that I add so again let's
35:07 see if it more time let's start to
35:09 customize this page 9 so that we can
35:13 include some information about the
35:16 author so let's change this text just
35:29 some generic information I also want to
35:32 include just an image it's always good
35:35 to show an image of the person who's
35:39 writing the content so we'll drag that
35:41 over I'm gonna change that image
35:45 I'm gonna upload it from my computer ok
35:53 so we have about the author I've got a
35:56 quick introduction there and then
35:59 typically you would use this space to
36:06 convince the reader but you know what
36:11 you're talking about
36:13 so obviously this should be much longer
36:16 than it is but I don't want to bore you
36:17 with me tonight so we're just gonna add
36:19 some dummy paragraphs and I think I also
36:23 want to add and some information about
36:26 like my social media like my I am
36:29 Twitter Facebook things like that so I'm
36:32 gonna drag on this strip
36:35 and within that strip I'm gonna add to
36:39 some text I'm gonna pull in a headline
36:42 as well so just move that headline above
36:46 it so in order to see that strip I'm
36:49 just going to hover over it you can see
36:51 this pink dotted line for the strip I'm
36:53 gonna click it and I'm going to change
36:55 the background color and you'll see
36:58 whenever I go to change the color of an
37:00 element my brand colors all appear at
37:02 the bottom so don't need to worry about
37:04 adding in the color code just gonna
37:07 select my default brand color now tweak
37:10 this slightly and then customize the
37:14 content of this I'm going quite fast
37:15 here because I don't want to I want to
37:18 show you the actual and the tricks here
37:20 rather than the sort of bare minimum so
37:22 put in Twitter link this book link I
37:28 don't know Instagram link so this is a
37:34 it's a fairly rough and ready example of
37:38 a typical about the author page so every
37:41 time I make a content upgrade I want to
37:43 include and about the author pH like
37:45 this but I don't want to have to go
37:46 through all those steps of you know
37:48 customizing the pH so instead what I'm
37:51 gonna do is I'm going to go to the pages
37:54 tab down on the left hand side so it's
37:56 the third button dine page settings
37:59 you'll see this option where it says
38:01 convert this page into a template I'm
38:04 just gonna click this button to convert
38:07 and I'm gonna call it am new you offer
38:10 with Kevin and I'm gonna see if that
38:14 template so you can see the template has
38:17 now been created
38:18 I'm gonna close this I just want to save
38:21 my progress and I'm gonna refresh the
38:26 page
38:32 and you'll see that when I next go to
38:35 add a new page from the pages tab if I
38:40 scroll right down to the very bottom
38:41 you'll see I have the option to insert
38:44 the peds the template that I just
38:46 created 38:47 now this template will be available on
38:49 every publication that I created from
38:52 now on so I can choose to add this
38:54 author page about me in every single one
38:58 so it's it's a really quick way of
39:02 including content that that needs to be
39:06 included on more than one content
39:07 upgrade so if you have say I can about
39:11 the company page about the author I
39:13 would strongly encourage you to create
39:15 page templates for these so that you can
39:18 build up a Content library that you can
39:20 reuse across multiple different content
39:23 upgrades so that is my second and
39:27 time-saving tip does anyone have any
39:30 questions about converting content into
39:33 converting pages into templates
39:40 all right no questions that's good to
39:44 know I'm not going through fast then
39:45 you're all able to keep up um so the
39:48 next actually yeah so the next piece
39:51 that I want to show you is how we can
39:52 convert an entire publication into a
39:56 reusable template so I showed you how
39:59 you can convert a appears into a
40:03 template and now I want to show you how
40:04 you can convert a document into a
40:06 template so if you look at this document
40:09 you know it has the cover page at the
40:11 start the call to action towards the end
40:15 and the abite the author actually I'll
40:18 just rename this so we can say believe
40:23 that extra one so yea this content
40:27 upgrade includes you know a cover page
40:30 like every lead magnet is gonna have a
40:32 cover page every lead magnet is gonna
40:33 have an introduction and every lead
40:36 magnet is gonna have an appoint the
40:37 author and it's going to finish up with
40:40 a Content upgrade so this is essentially
40:42 it's the foundation of every content
40:44 upgrade that we're gonna make from now
40:46 on so instead of having to go through
40:48 the process of setting up or brand
40:50 colors and things like that
40:51 every time let's just create a reusable
40:54 template that we can use as a starting
40:56 point um so we're not gonna have a
40:59 worksheet in Africa content upgrade so
41:02 let's just delete them and relax
41:11 the bones of a Content upgrade and I
41:15 like she'll just swap like this little
41:17 go with our actual logo I want to make
41:23 that just a little bit bigger so it's
41:26 already it's looking a lot more like our
41:27 own content upgrade now I'll do the same
41:30 here just change this image or our own
41:37 totally that one okay so that's the
41:42 bones of our content upgrade that we're
41:45 going to be using from now on and
41:48 actually before we jump on to that I've
41:50 just got a question in from Maureen
41:51 Maureen is asking in addition to the
41:53 content content library is it possible
41:56 to see images in an image library
41:58 Maureen I have some good news that is a
42:00 feature that we're going to get ready to
42:02 release next week so it's a minute it's
42:04 not possible to store images in an image
42:07 library but from next week onwards yes
42:10 you will be able to do that so I'm glad
42:12 you asked that question it's almost like
42:14 a plan that you'd ask that question but
42:16 that's that's perfect timing
42:17 so yes from next week onwards you will
42:19 be able to add an image library and so
42:23 sorry just to jump back in and so this
42:26 is the shell of our future content
42:29 upgrades so if I want to convert that
42:31 into your reusable template I'm going to
42:34 click on the document settings tab on
42:36 the left hand side and we're going to
42:38 see this link here to convert this
42:39 document into a template so I'm going to
42:42 click convert again I'm going to have to
42:47 give this um template a name so we're
42:51 just gonna call it like custom content
42:57 upgrade template I'm gonna hit see if
43:02 there I'm gonna close this screen I'm
43:05 just gonna see if that as well just so
43:07 we don't lose it and I'm gonna go right
43:09 back to the start I'm going to leave the
43:11 editor go back to the dashboard
43:14 and once that loads you'll see that when
43:18 we go to create a new content upgrade
43:23 once we get to the choose template
43:26 screen so let's say if we're creating a
43:28 checklist I don't want to import content
43:31 you'll see that once we get to the
43:33 bottom we have all the standard baking
43:36 templates but we also have our custom
43:38 content upgrade template so if I choose
43:41 that we can see that our content upgrade
43:46 template is sitting waiting ready for me
43:48 to drop in some more content and whether
43:51 if that's a checklist for example say
43:53 this content upgrades a checklist let's
43:55 just go to add new page I'm gonna filter
43:58 by checklists and I'm gonna add this guy
44:02 so we added a checklist in their
44:05 existing template it's already using the
44:08 brand colors that we set up ages ago
44:10 it's using them in a title it's using
44:12 them on the checklist box all I have to
44:14 do is to customize the content 9 so
44:17 that's my final and time-saving tip for
44:20 creating content of grids quickly
44:22 creating content upgrades efficiently
44:25 all really with the goal of helping you
44:27 guys to can convert more of your blog
44:30 readers into leads we want to convince
44:33 more people who read our blog posts to
44:36 download our resources so that we can
44:38 collect their email addresses and send
44:40 them better information as they go
44:42 through the buying lifecycle so that's
44:45 pretty much the end of the demonstration
44:47 section and if anybody has any questions
44:51 before I jump back into the slides now's
44:53 a good time so let's take a quick pause
45:05 all right I don't think we've got any
45:07 more questions on the practical side of
45:09 things and so I'm gonna jump back into
45:13 my slides okay we're back okay so just
45:29 to recap the time-saving tips where we
45:32 set up the brand colors at the start we
45:35 created a reusable content library with
45:38 pages like about the author you could
45:41 also do it for calls to action or about
45:43 the company your copyright pages
45:45 whatever it might be and we also showed
45:48 you how to create a reusable template so
45:50 once you create one of your own
45:52 templates you don't have to keep using
45:54 and beacon standard templates you can
45:56 start just working from your own and
45:59 customizing it and some of those
46:03 features that I did show you are premium
46:05 features so the part where I showed you
46:08 how to convert appears into a template
46:11 and you need a paid account to use that
46:14 feature and the same for the other
46:16 feature of converting documents into
46:19 templates again that's a paid feature as
46:22 well and so the brand brand colors
46:25 template colors that's available on all
46:27 free accounts but these two features are
46:29 only available on our paid accounts so
46:34 if just got a question in from Sarah
46:36 Sarah is wondering if your color choices
46:38 are specific Pantone numbers were just
46:41 general colors and yes when you're
46:45 setting up your brand colors definitely
46:47 put in your company specific colors so
46:51 let me I'll just actually go back in
46:54 when you're setting up your brand colors
46:56 here like this is your opportunity to be
46:58 really specific like I'm sure your
47:01 company has like like really stringent
47:03 brand guidelines you have to use certain
47:05 colors you know this is your opportunity
47:07 to make sure it's precise and the
47:10 benefit of this is you set this up one
47:13 you converted into a template and then
47:15 you can be sure that your content
47:18 upgrades will always be using your brand
47:20 colors so this is great obviously for
47:23 saving your time like you're not gonna
47:24 have to remember you know brand colors
47:26 every time you do it they're
47:28 automatically saved in the template but
47:30 also if you have different team members
47:32 that are perhaps using beacon that
47:33 aren't is the sidious with using the
47:36 correct brand colors and and if you set
47:39 up the template then you can guarantee
47:41 that they will they'll only be using and
47:43 the brand colors that you've pre
47:45 approved so you have it that's that's a
47:47 great point Sarah definitely add your
47:50 specific brand colors here and that'll
47:52 keep you on point for all future lead
47:54 magnets so just to go back into the
47:58 slides and yes so as I was saying some
48:02 of those features are only available on
48:05 our paid accounts they're not available
48:06 on our free accounts um but what one of
48:11 the things that actually if you find
48:13 that you need those features and you
48:15 will need a paid account.